Many universities focus on improving pedagogy through training sessions related to technology and assessment. However, what is missing is an emphasis on the humanistic side of teaching, specifically emphasizing empathy in the classroom. This essay makes an argument for faculty to employ empathy in their teaching. Empathy is a learned behavior that…

The second half of jazz's history has been defined by its expansion from more informal spaces into academies and concert halls. Integral to this cultural transformation has been the advent and standardization of collegiate jazz education. This paper explores the pedagogical and institutional responsibilities of institutional jazz education through…

In this article I explore the construct of the 'natural' voice within the context of the natural voice movement, before invoking perspectives on voice from the posthumanities and D/deaf studies in discussion of "The Walk," a performance between a puppet, a natural voice choir, a refugee choir and a large audience that occurred in London…

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model of contextual influences on musical engagement in a person's life. I developed this domain-specific conceptual model based on Bronfenbrenner's (2001) bioecological theory of human development. The model accounts for multiple, interacting contexts that may influence an adolescent's musical…

'The Sequence of Musical Development' by Swanwick and Tillman was published in the British Journal of Music Education (BJME) in 1986. This year marks its 35th anniversary and provides an occasion to look back on the article's content and legacy. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the antecedents for the article's underlying concepts, as well…

Teaching for musical meaning can be a multifaceted topic, since a universally accepted definition of musical meaning is elusive; yet musical meaning remains at the heart of music literacy. Music literacy is equally complex, as changes in technology constantly reorganize how musical sounds are produced, recorded, and transmitted. Today, musical…

Part-work is a skill through which an individual performs and maintains one musical part while another part is performed at the same time. Rich and varied part-work experiences feature prominently in the musical lives of children. Despite this, elementary general music teachers often frame part-work as a skill needed in the short term to perform…

This article presents a close ethnographic reading of an intercultural community choir's experience recording lullabies in a professional studio setting. Bringing together Chadwick's (2020, 2021) posthuman voice analytics with interdisciplinary voice studies, I turn ethnographic ears to the voice-as-vocalised by attuning to its materialities and…

This paper presents an autoethnographic account of how a drummer found meaningfulness through engagement in asynchronous, collaborative music making with friends in a period of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The author learned how to record drum kit in his garage using a rudimentary studio setup, and how to edit the recordings in a…

This paper offers an invitation to higher music education communities to think differently about the significance of the connections between music and play. We highlight the many texts that articulate these connections and draw together a speculative ontological claim that all musicking is an enactment of play. In other words, we ask how…

Works of art have value not only as entertainment and aesthetic expression -- they also externalize features of human cognition that would often otherwise remain hidden. A musical example from the 19th century is a striking case in point. In 1819, Austrian music publisher, editor, and composer Anton Diabelli invited fifty-one of Austria's most…

The issue of parenting children and adolescents who demonstrate an aptitude or potential for music has not been extensively investigated or written about. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the relevant issues in this domain and offer some guidance and suggestions for parents who may have a child who demonstrates a proclivity for…

Music education holds an ambiguous relationship to social justice and social change; it is both complicit in perpetuating relations of inequality and a potential force for positive change. There is a need to turn the ambiguity of music's social function--the simultaneous production of transformative and reproductive social processes--into the…

Music is ever expanding and growing. It feels as if there is a new artist, genre, technology, or something happening in the broad world of music on a daily basis. Our ability to access all sorts of music and musical information has never been easier. Running parallel to this ever-changing landscape of music and music-making is a similar pattern of…

Many music educators view activism through the gaze and experience of the U.S. civil rights movement and the protests of the 1960s. This article examines how two Brooklyn, New York-based music educators engage in activism in their school communities by centering student identity and cultivating joyful musical experiences. The authors share their…