The purpose of this study was to describe students' perceptions of their high school choral experience. The participants in the study were 57 choral musicians attending a north Texas high school. Each participant was asked to complete a broad writing task: to write a letter to the incoming varsity choir members in order to help the musicians to…

Educational research strongly suggests that parental involvement is beneficial for academic achievement and scholarly studies have pointed to parents' seminal role in the education of young children as well as the need for continued nurture. Researchers indicate that parental involvement, however, tends to diminish over time and in many cases…

This paper analyses a collection of musical life histories, drawn from 71 British respondents who have maintained a lifelong interest in music as regular concert-goers, amateur performers and/or music educators. These respondents reflect on the influences and opportunities which have contributed to their lifelong engagement in music, and in doing…

Music is vital to the development of language and listening skills. Both music and language arts consist of symbols and ideas; when the two content areas are used in combination, abstract concepts become more concrete. This article provides information that shows the role of music in helping children meet early learning standards, including those…

According to the National Centers for Disease Control, 1 out of 150 children in the United States is diagnosed with autism. Diagnosis rates are rising by 10 to 17 percent per year. Due to this increase, more children with autism have been included in music classrooms. As a music educator and a music therapist, respectively, the authors have…

As a specialist in ritual theory and performance, with some professional experience of community music, I have always been struck by the robust resistance to clear-cut definitions or identities, by both "ritual" and "community music". This article takes as its point of departure the proposal of ritual scholar Catherine Bell,…

Today, school districts are faced with perpetually shrinking budgets, and all too often, music programs suffer the most. As a result, fundraising, once considered a supplemental effort, is now an integral part of the budgetary process for school trips and other extras. To make the most of their fundraising endeavors, music departments and…

Previous research has supported the theory that acquisition of expertise in any domain is possible for healthy individuals with sufficient deliberate practice, but such an extreme environmental position brings the existence of innate talent into question. The present study investigates the effects of both environmental factors and talent on expert…

This article investigates the way future teachers can be encouraged to frame their pedagogy for music teaching through reflection. During student teachers' first experience of teaching music to children in preschool settings, data were gathered through questionnaires, real time and video observations of teaching, discussions and reflective…

An important part of the process that enables us to improve ourselves as musicians in group music making involves developing an awareness of our personal attributes as they are displayed in the rehearsal. In order to help students become more aware of themselves and of their band members' personal attributes as they rehearse, a peer assessment…

The many connections between music and mathematics are well known. The length of a plucked string determines its tone, the time signature of a piece of music is a ratio, and note durations are measured in fractions. One connection commonly overlooked is that between music and geometry--specifically, geometric transformations, including…

As music making and technology grow more entwined, it is important for teachers to become familiar with available hardware, software, Web apps, yMIDI, sequencing, sampling and other emerging products. If music students in today's digital world wish to make a career out of doing what they love--whether as performers or conductors, composers or…

William Horsley (1775-1858) was active in London from the late 1790s. A founder member of the Philharmonic Society, Horsley was at the heart of the musical establishment, working as a composer, organist, commentator and teacher. His teaching career spanned over 50 years, during which time he took private pupils, trained choristers and organists…

In the nearly two decades since the 1990 Music Educators National Conference (MENC) preconference symposium on Multicultural Approaches to Music Education in Washington, D.C., music educators have come to recognize the need to include a variety of world musics in music curricula at all levels, from elementary classrooms to advanced performing…

The purpose of this study was to examine how I Am A Dreamer Musician Program (IDMP) affected academic self-concept and self-esteem of middle school students in low-income communities. During the seven weeks of the weekly music workshops, students participated in different musical activities including playing percussion instruments, singing,…