Instrumental Music Education Research Articles

No one is going to rock up and tell you! How a hidden blend of family capitals facilitates access to and success in structured instrumental music education in Ireland

ABSTRACT While the dominant orthodoxy within the field of educational research tends to document educational inequalities, it often fails to name the key drivers of advantage. By reflecting on core concepts of Bourdieu this article seeks to name the complex blend of parental capitals that enable access to and success in structured, extra-curricular activities (ECA) such as instrumental and vocal music education (IME). Besides the intrinsic benefits of IME, the article points to a particular extrinsic benefit that is unique to Ireland, in that performance is one of the essential activities on the Leaving Certificate (LC) music syllabus. This is important as it has implications for universal equality of access and opportunity. The research draws data from selected interviews conducted with mothers whose children were engaged in structured IME. In highlighting the often hidden and taken for granted capitals needed for IME access, the research also raises the issue of intra-class differences which can and do impact on outcome when navigating the structured IME market in Ireland. It also seeks to operate as a springboard for a set of broader theoretical arguments and highlights the role of institutional demands and material forces when considering the power of family capitals in this context.

Challenges, Perspectives, and Recommendations for Online Instrumental Music Education among College Students in Shanxi, China

Challenges, Perspectives, and Recommendations for Online Instrumental Music Education among College Students in Shanxi, China

Uncovering children’s experiences of emergent learning difficulties in the instrumental music studio

When children commence instrumental music tuition, learning difficulties can emerge to disrupt predictable learning processes and impact musical development. However, children’s experiences of learning difficulties, including how they present, are managed and can be supported, are rarely examined in music research. This longitudinal, qualitative study used Participatory Action Research and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodologies to examine the lived experience of fourteen 7-year-old beginner cellists. It focussed on how children’s learning difficulties emerged in the music studio and affected their continued engagement, and how the instrumental music teacher supported children with difficulties. Unexpectedly, half ( N = 7) of the young learners encountered challenges, including memory and processing difficulties, impulse, attention and focus issues, intrusive synaesthesia, fine motor skill difficulty, dyslexia and persistent anxiety. Children’s highly individualised experiences of their learning difficulties were impacted by their motivations, self-perception and ratio of skill acquisition. A reflexive pedagogical approach by the teacher, together with pragmatic support and emotional guidance from parents, influenced the children’s learning behaviour and continued investment, contributing to their longer-term musical engagement. This study offers a unique contribution to the literature by providing a rare investigation of children’s emergent learning difficulties, as revealed in the instrumental music studio.

‘The barrier has to be jumped out with this music’: Collaborative creation in an after-school community music programme

Contemporary research into community music programmes highlights diverse contexts for collaborative music making. This article contributes a case of the collaboration in music making to a growing literature on creative practice in community music initiatives led by major orchestras. The authors reflect on field research involving an after-school programme that provides free, classical instrumental music instruction to primary school-age students who would not normally have an opportunity due to their socio-economic circumstances. The Pizzicato Effect, run by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) in the City of Hume, Australia has operated in the northern suburbs of Melbourne since 2009. Through focus group interviews with students, family members and teaching artists, the researchers examined community experiences of accruing cultural capital in conditions of social inequality and multicultural practice. Using qualitative methods, the case study aimed to position respondents as experts in their own lives, who own their knowledge of their worlds. Collaboration was central to a model of improvisation developed locally by teaching artists and applied on site. Furthermore, improvisation took the programme in different directions to the El Sistema model of youth orchestra training in Venezuela, which had been the original source of inspiration for the programme.

Exploring Spanish studio music teachers’ views on topics related to creativity

While creativity is a primary focus in music education, its exploration within the realm of music studio teaching is considerably less extensive compared with other educational contexts. Moreover, the related research is predominantly focused on creativity in developing music skills. In the present study, we explore how Spanish instrumental music teachers ( n = 10) perceive creativity and its development among students in the music studio, in the absence of predefined limitations (i.e., with respect to various forms and definitions of creativity inherent in the music studio as perceived from their viewpoint). By means of a case study methodology, we gathered data over a one-year period through a questionnaire, in-depth interviews, participants’ written essays, and researchers’ journal entries following observations of the participants’ teaching practices. Subsequently, qualitative analysis was conducted using thematic analysis. Among our main results, we found tensions between our participants’ theories and their practices, evidence for an underlying individual-centered theory of creativity, both positive and negative attitudes toward the development of creativity among their students, and ignorance of creativity in music listening. Our study implications emphasize the urgency of implementing strategies to enhance teacher self-awareness and underscore the need for further investigation into music studio teaching with a specific focus on creativity.

Diversified Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Instrumental Music Courses in Colleges and Universities in the Information Age

Abstract The information age is an era of innovation. Instructional design and development tools make it easier and faster for teachers to organize teaching content; instructional evaluation tools make it more scientific and objective for teachers to evaluate teaching effects; and student management tools pay attention to individual differences of students and realize diversified evaluation perspectives for students. On the basis of the MIDI dataset, signal separation information filtering and other related operations are used to preprocess ethnic instrumental music signals, followed by the construction of an automatic composition model using deep learning technology. Based on the diversified teaching needs of ethnic instrumental music courses in colleges and universities, an instrumental music teaching system was designed by using the automatic composition model and computer programming language, and an empirical analysis of the informatization teaching of ethnic instrumental music courses in colleges and universities was carried out by using experimental comparative analysis. The results show that the overall level of ethnic music in the experimental group improved significantly P<0.05, indicating that the students in the experimental group made significant progress in ethnic music literacy. In contrast, the students in the control group improved but did not highlight, indicating that the proposed teaching system has a facilitating effect on the enhancement of the teaching performance of ethnic instrumental music courses. This study improves the teaching quality of ethnic instrumental music courses in colleges and universities and is of great significance in enhancing students’ music literacy and skills.

The Contribution of Ethnic Instrumental Art Education in Colleges and Universities to the Promotion of Multicultural Exchange

Abstract As a carrier of art and culture, the inheritance and development of ethnic instrumental music is of great significance to multicultural communication. This paper proposes a framework for teaching ethnic instrumental music in colleges and universities and selects evaluation criteria for teaching the art of ethnic instrumental music. On this basis, combined with the IPA model and related data, it analyzes the importance of the dimensions of ethnic instrumental music art teaching in colleges and universities and student satisfaction and thus obtains the strategic improvement path of the IPA model of ethnic instrumental music teaching. The dimensions of ethnic instrumental music teaching are taken as latent variables, and their contribution to multicultural communication is studied by constructing structural equations. It was concluded that students were most content with how teaching content was organized (3.775) and most minor content with how teaching evaluation was implemented (3.428) in teaching ethnic instrumental music. All dimensions of teaching ethnic instrumental art positively affect multicultural communication, with the highest contribution being teaching content organization (0.503). Colleges and universities need to maintain the strengths of teaching ethnic instrumental music in terms of teaching goals, content understanding, content selection, and thematic content representation strategies, and improve methods for conducting teaching activities to promote multicultural communication.

A Survey into Piano Teachers’ Perceptions of Music Memorization in One-to-one Piano Lessons: A Preliminary Study

Despite more than a century of research on music memorization and practicing strategies, there is a lack of comprehensive evidence on how instrumental music teachers teach memorization to children and adolescents in one-to-one lessons. The present qualitative study investigated the diversity of ways in which music memorization is taught in one-to-one piano lessons. Piano teachers (N = 37) completed an online survey collecting qualitative responses regarding music memorization. Participants were asked to give a brief description of music memorization, how they memorize as performers and how they teach music memorization to their students, amongst other questions. Results indicate that music memorization is perceived by most teachers as a skill that develops through practice rather than a natural talent. Reported strategies for teaching memorization fell into four categories: aural, visual, kinesthetic, and analytical, which align with previous theoretical conceptualizations of musical memorization. Recurring mentions of muscle memory practice and music theory knowledge suggest that kinesthetic and analytical methods are qualitatively dominant in the way teachers 1) define music memorization, 2) memorize as performers, and 3) teach music memorization. This suggests that aural and visual memorization methods might be less explored by piano teachers of children and adolescents and future research could be conducted in this area.

A History of Chinese Musical Instrument Education in Toronto

AbstractWhereas students in China can take Chinese instrument training in a variety of settings, Canada has no systematized structure of Chinese music education. Indeed, little scholarly attention has been paid to the development of Chinese instrumental music education in the Chinese diaspora within North America. Based on extensive fieldwork in Toronto, I address the following questions in this article: How do Chinese immigrants pass down their music? How and where do students take Chinese instrument training? How have the methods of transmission evolved? And how do Chinese instrument pedagogical techniques bridge Chinese and Canadian contexts?

Interpreting 7-year-old beginner cellists’ experiences of practice

Practice is essential to the acquisition and development of musical skills, requiring musicians’ time, investment, application, motivation, metacognitive strategies, and ability to self-regulate. Research in children’s music practice indicates the type, quality, and duration of practice, along with adult support, contributes to fluency in musical development; and when progress occurs, children invest in further practice. However, nuances in children’s lived experiences of musical practice that influence these critical factors are largely unknown. To understand the complex issues in children’s practice, this study employed a unique pairing of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Participatory Action Research to investigate 14 seven-year-old beginner cellists’ practice during early learning and explored how their thoughts and experiences evolved over the first 18 months of lessons. Providing rare insight into children’s perceptions of musical development and the vital role of parents and teachers in nurturing engagement, three superordinate themes emerged: (a) four approaches to practice, characterized by practice structure, learner behavior, and family support, (b) a three-phase practice process, and (c) perfection ideation. Positive experiences, including creative activities, within these thematic contexts fostered children’s enjoyment in early musical development, supported productive learning interactions, and sustained engagement. Together, the findings have meaningful pedagogical implications for instrumental music teaching practice.

Perceived preparedness to teach over time: A longitudinal case study of instrumental music teachers

Music teacher education programs are an integral part of preparing novice music teachers for a successful start to their careers. Despite that, many studies show that music educators often feel unprepared by their education. This three-and-a-half year longitudinal case study examined instrumental music educators’ perceptions of the preparation provided by their education as they completed university coursework and entered the profession. Participants were four instrumental music education majors who were in their upper-level courses at the beginning of the study and participants completed five focus group discussions. Participants were four instrumental music education majors who were in their upper-level courses at the beginning and participants completed five focus group discussions starting at the end of their third year, continuing through both semesters of their final year, and at the end of their first 2 years in the classroom. I identified three emergent themes from the data: the importance of authenticity and contextualization; the core practices of classroom management, secondary instrument knowledge/skills, and rehearsing ensembles were central to feelings of preparedness; and a shifting focus over time. Findings indicated various perceptions of preparedness and their connection to music teacher education experiences, including implications for future research.

Application of multimodal perception scenario construction based on IoT technology in university music teaching

In the contemporary landscape of diversified talent cultivation, enhancing education through intelligent means and expediting the process of talent development stand as paramount pursuits. Within the domain of instrumental music education, beyond merely listening to student performances, it becomes imperative to assess their movements, thus furnishing additional insights to fuel their subsequent growth. This article introduces a novel multimodal information fusion evaluation approach, combining sound information and movement data to address the challenge of evaluating students’ learning status in college music instruction. The proposed framework leverages Internet of Things (IoT) technology, utilizing strategically positioned microphones and cameras within the local area network to accomplish data acquisition. Sound feature extraction is accomplished through the employment of Mel-scale frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), while the OpenPose framework in deep learning and convolutional neural networks (CNN) is harnessed to extract action features during students’ performances. Subsequently, the fusion of feature layers is achieved through CNN, culminating in the evaluation of students’ academic efficacy, facilitated by a fully connected network (FCN) and an activation function. In comparison to evaluations conducted by the teacher in the class, this approach achieves an impressive accuracy of 95.7% across the three categories of Excellent, Good, and Failed students’ evaluation processes. This breakthrough offers novel insights for the future of music teaching and interactive class evaluations while expanding the horizons of multimodal information fusion methods’ applications.

Synchronous online instrumental music teaching in cross-cultural learning contexts

This scoping review addresses two questions: (1) How can previous research inform approaches to synchronous online instrumental music teaching for cross-cultural learning in the field of Western classical music? and (2) What does the corpus of existing studies suggest about Chinese student experiences with western instrumental pedagogy and synchronous online teaching? Based on a systematic examination of 100+ articles from refereed journals in English across the past two decades, the review reveals cultural differences in autonomy and student-centeredness in classical instrument pedagogy traditions. In China, new pragmatic concepts appear as Confucian-Dewey fusion approaches and a distinctive music pedagogy tradition influenced by Russian and Germanic traditions and Chinese philosophy. The review also found that synchronous online instrumental music teaching can be efficient despite technical issues and latency, and the format may enhance forms of dialogue between students and teachers. The review shows little research on intercultural aspects of synchronous online musical instrument teaching, particularly addressing interaction and communication between students and teachers. Moreover, there is a widespread need for competence development for effectively approaching the diversity of music teaching and learning cultures worldwide in the online learning environment.

Ghanaian collegiate music students who play brass instruments’ music education experiences at the pre-tertiary level

In this qualitative study, we share the musical experiences of seven Ghanaian university music students who primarily play a brass instrument in a university band. The purpose of this study is to illuminate these students’ musical experiences during their pre-tertiary years to better understand what those experiences were and how they impacted their current musical abilities and understandings. The research questions for this study are: What were the formal musical experiences of Ghanaian university music majors who play Western-style brass instruments before entering university? What music teaching and learning methods did they experience prior to entering university? Who were the people who taught them music prior to entering university? Findings indicate that musical spaces were mostly outside of the regular school curriculum, including extra-curricular school regimental bands, church brigades, and town bands. Music learning was non-sequential throughout students’ pre-tertiary experiences. Lack of access to instruments outside of rehearsals was a barrier to individual practice. Participants showed a lack of clarity about their music teachers’ credentials, experience, and backgrounds but their answers suggest that professional development and training programs for teachers would be beneficial. It is recommended that Ghanaian brass band music education is restructured in places where it already exists and where pre-tertiary students choose to play, to include more comprehensive and sequential instrumental music education.

Creativity Is Instrumental: Instrument-Specific Strategies and Suggestions for Assisting Learners with Physical Disabilities and Differences in General and Instrumental Music

Playing musical instruments represents an engaging and important feature of music-making for children. Music teachers can support students with physical differences and disabilities using inclusive mindsets and practices, such as making adaptations to the instruments or the playing style. If teachers are aware of the variety of options available, they will be better able help all players achieve their fullest potential. This article draws on relevant research and literature to describe who faces limitations in instrumental settings, conceptualize disability, outline music-specific options for accommodating learners’ physical differences, and offer instrument-specific strategies that may be useful to both general and instrumental music teachers. Focusing on students’ strengths, increasing teacher knowledge and awareness, and using instrument-specific adaptations can improve educational opportunities for all.

Facilitating collaborative professional development among instrumental and vocal teachers: A qualitative study with an Austrian Music School.

This case study provides an in-depth investigation in a professional development project about facilitating collaborative reflection. This was led by a research team from the university with 13 instrumental music teachers from one music school in Styria (Austria) during 2019-2021 (including the initial COVID-19 pandemic). Research questions considered (1) the participants' descriptions of the collaborative professional development, (2) participants' uses of reflection tools and indications of their identification with workshop interventions, as well as factors responsible for the outcomes from the reflection tools; and (3) ways participants' thinking and attitudes may have developed through the workshops, how they defined themselves as a group (if they did), and how they might have gained trust in one another. Inspired by the design-based research approach, practitioners and researchers worked closely together to enhance teaching and learning implementing interventions with collaborative reflections tools. While the first phase (11 workshops) was primarily led by the project-team, the second phase (7 workshops) was participant-led. Data included focus groups and discussion transcriptions from 18 workshops. The impetus of the study included the role of the director and the participants dealing with the interventions, and finally the participants' descriptions of their experiences in the professionalization process. Literature included collaborative professional development, community of practice, learning communities, self-determined learning, reflective practice, and ethical considerations. Data were analyzed based on thematic analysis and gave rise to five following themes: forming group cohesion, inspiring and appreciating collaboration, bridging theory and practice, identifying deeper thinking and teachers as learners, addressing challenges and potentials during the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally finding the music school's own identity and sense of importance. Findings highlight the importance of establishing meaningful collaborative reflection through appreciative communication and an atmosphere of trust and respect. To be able to make change in and with an institution, leadership members must be engaged as collaborative stakeholders on an eye-level; collaborative professional development can be used as a resource toward rethinking and reworking the identity of one's music school and of teaching and learning. Institutions should provide space and continuity for such development. Finally, the study highlights that a collaborative reflective approach can contribute to professional and social growth.

Merging Conducting and Pedagogy Instruction for Undergraduate Instrumental Music Education Majors

The purpose of this Self-Study of Teacher Education Practice (S-STEP) was to examine faculty and student perceptions of co-curricular experiences between an undergraduate instrumental conducting and a junior-level music education course. To help students develop their conducting and pedagogical skills simultaneously, music education and conducting faculty co-taught their courses and developed and implemented co-curricular assignments for 14 co-enrolled participants. Data were collected from faculty journals, meeting transcriptions, participant surveys, and interviews. Findings indicate that the collaboration and co-curricular experiences promoted student and faculty growth. Increased podium time and peer teaching opportunities during which students are given feedback greatly improved students’ perceived level of comfort and confidence in front of an ensemble. In addition, the co-teaching and co-curricular assignments between conducting and music education courses promoted substantial growth in students’ conducting and pedagogical skills and their ability to connect the two. Implications for music teacher education, future research, and further revision of these collaborative practices are discussed.

Instrumental Music Education in Rural Mississippi: A Descriptive Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary instrumental music education in rural Mississippi. This descriptive study investigated the experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions that rural instrumental music educators ( N = 58) held about their schools, students, and communities. Furthermore, we examined how participants defined success for their programs, what challenges and rewards they experienced in their positions, and what skills they considered most important for rural music educators. Results indicated that while rural music educators find the musical aspects of their positions rewarding, such as fostering a love of music in their students, they believe that non-musical skills related to teaching were more important than their own musical skills. The three greatest challenges named by participants were limited funding, lack of resources, and little support. Conversely, the most frequently reported reward was student personal growth. Implications for music teacher education are discussed.

Conservatoire students’ perspectives on instrumental music teacher education: ‘Developing Pedagogical Knowledge’ (DPK) for the future music education workforce

ABSTRACT Conservatoires train musicians to high levels of proficiency in performance and other ‘principal study’ disciplines, but often, teaching is perceived as a second-class profession, and little is known about how music students learn to facilitate music making in others. Yet, conservatoires have a responsibility to contribute to the development of the music education workforce. Building on Shulman’s Pedagogical Content Knowledge model (PCK), two new constructs are created from data gathered through textual narratives and semi-structured interviews from over 100 music undergraduates who reflect on their instrumental teacher education in a UK conservatoire. Transferable Content Knowledge (TCK) encapsulates the transferable skills that students develop in a conservatoire setting, enabling them to become confident communicators and collaborators. Values-Based Knowledge (VBK) nurtures a sense of social responsibility, raising students’ awareness of the professional qualities and behaviours necessary to forge positive relationships and create stimulating learning environments. The emergent ‘Developing Pedagogical Knowledge’ (DPK) framework offers scope to explore the transition from student to teacher across other phases of education and in other disciplines.

Conservatoire alumni as mentors in instrumental music teacher education: a preliminary study

ABSTRACT It has been argued that conservatoires in England have a responsibility to train music educators. This article proposes that alumni could have an important role to play in contributing to their former institution’s instrumental music teacher education provision and explores how two UK conservatoire graduates with at least three years teaching experience mentored students on placements in professional teaching contexts. Through online semi-structured interviews, the two alumni reflected on their own mentoring styles, the benefits and challenges of mentoring, their prior experience of being mentored on placement as former students, and the perceived benefits of reciprocal learning through mentorship. Findings suggest that alumni believe they can offer valuable insights into early instrumental teaching careers. Though long-established teachers are often chosen to be mentors, arguably, alumni are more relatable as workplace role models for current students. Furthermore, it is proposed that mentor schemes offered in conjunction with employers enable conservatoires to continue to support instrumental teacher development long after their students have graduated, since reciprocal learning processes lead mentors to reflect on their own practice, deepening their pedagogical knowledge and metacognitive awareness.