School Music Research Articles

“I’ve Sat in Your Seat Before”: A Study of the Experiences of Three Black Women Music Educators

This descriptive collective case study explored the experiences of three Black women music educators through the framework of community cultural wealth. Analysis of data collected through Seidman’s three-stage phenomenological interview model revealed three themes. The first, “path to teaching,” represented the formative experiences that shaped participants’ development, including a deep level of embodied musical knowledge in multiple genres and the development of resilience. The second, “navigating the academy,” represented the experiences of participants during their collegiate programs, including mentorship and support they had received, perseverance through difficult challenges, and intersections of their experience with existing and often problematic structures in music schools. The final theme, “pedagogical approach,” represented the ways that participants wove aspects of their individual capital and experience into their pedagogical approach, including knowledge of families and community, ethnoracial representation for their students, culturally responsive approaches to pedagogy, and passing along tools for navigational success to their students. Alignment of the data with the framework of community cultural wealth is discussed, emphasizing participants’ prominent uses of both navigational and resistant capital and the development of “Black musical capital.” Implications for music education are discussed.

From Musical Writings To Writing Music: Book-Writing Leading to Music School in Nineteenth-Century Calcutta

Print created the urge to innovate new modalities of musical knowledge production and dissemination in nineteenth-century Bengal. Publication of music books made the bifurcation between music theory and practice clearer, but only as a textual category. As the literature suggests, these were two categories for organizing musical knowledge, intimately entwined, where one produces the other and also doesn't exist without each other. The technology of ‘swaralipi’ (musical notation) used in the modern printed books materialized the project of disseminating music to the reader who could now ‘read’ the music from the book. For some book writers, music books were meant to be a replacement for the oral tutelage, published as ‘self-instructors’. But, on the contrary, the most prolific book-writers of the time used their books as the basis of oral tutelage in the music school. In the modern setting of the music school, the person of the ‘guru’ or ‘ustad’ was replaced by the formalized, systematic teaching of the ‘professors’ of music. Music books, as the medium of modern music pedagogy, thus changed not only the way students learned – making it possible to learn from the book with no instructor – but also the role of teachers, whose teaching was validated by the book. The music books came to function as the ‘modern shastras’ – to exercise regulatory authority over music practice, and how music is learned and taught. The ‘orality’ of music emerges as a liminal space in the gap between the writings on music and the writing of music. What emerges is an unlikely milieu where a new form of musical education is devised, the possibility of an education without a guru is conceived, and the schema of musical notation brings the entire process to life.

An acoustical environment survey of student music practice.

Chronic exposure to loud sound leads to noise-induced hearing loss. This is especially common in collegiate-level musicians. Existing methods for estimating exposure typically do not consider genre- or instrument-specific variability in soundscape/spectral characteristics. We measured sound exposure levels (SELs) across instruments, bands, and genres at a university music school. We found (1) considerable variability in SELs across instruments and bands, (2) that Jazz musicians are consistently exposed to the highest sound levels, and (3) that spectral features of music differ between instrument type and genre, and based on room size. These findings highlight the need for tailored guidelines that moderate the implementation of hearing conservation initiatives for collegiate musicians.

“Leonardo dreams of his flying machine” - stylistic aspects. Inside Eric Whitacre’s fascinating musical world

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is among today’s most popular musicians. Born in Nevada in 1970, Eric is a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music (New York). Charles Alan Sylvestri’s poem “Leonardo dreams of his flying machine” is a dramatic story of hope and optimism that takes the listener on a great adventure into the great unknown. Leonardo functions as the agonist of the poem who is “tormented” by his need to fly and touch the sky. Leonardo da Vinci was certainly the definition of a true "Renaissance man". Da Vinci is also regarded as one of the greatest inventors to have ever lived; his notebooks are filled with sketches and notes for inventions that were far ahead of his time. What must have been going through his mind when he was coming up with these revolutionary ideas? That is the question that composer Eric Whitacre and poet Charles Anthony Silvestri attempt to answer in this piece, “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine”.

Distance Learning and Teaching in Group Settings at Primary Music Schools in Slovenia

During the Covid-19 pandemic, all stakeholders in education, including music teachers, had to respond to new challenges, including the adjustment of the learning process to the requirements of distance learning and teaching. The main goal of the present research was to determine music teachers’ self-assessment of ICT competences and their use of teaching methods, strategies, techniques and assessment methods. A survey questionnaire was designed and the collected data were processed using the Friedman test and the Kruskal-Wallis test. The sample consisted of teachers of subjects that are taught in groups (i.e., Music Preparatory, Music Theory and Solfeggio) at public primary music schools in Slovenia. The participants reported no problems using most ICT tools and resources during the pandemic. In general, they were most confident with videoconferencing tools and least confident when recording explanatory videos unaccompanied by oral explanation. In the planning and implementation of the teaching process, they least frequently used activities of music creation and playing Orff instruments. More specifically, lessons in Music Preparatory most frequently included listening activities, while classes in Music Theory and Solfeggio focused on the transmission of theoretical musical and formal knowledge. Overall, the teachers mainly resorted to synchronous and frontal instruction. In terms of evaluation and assessment of musical abilities, skills and knowledge, they most frequently employed oral consolidation, testing and assessment, as well as student-produced recordings of rhythmic and melodic exercises.

The Music Education Legacy of William Frederick Cardin, or Pejawah: ‘A Language All America Should Know’

William Frederick (“Fred”) Cardin served as a director of instrumental music in the Reading, Pennsylvania, School District from 1930 until his retirement in June 1960. An accomplished performer and composer, Cardin studied at the Curtis School of Music and the Conservatoire Américaine in Paris, France. He is remembered as an outstanding educator and conductor both in the public schools and with community organizations. Cardin was also known as Pejawah, his Native American name. To gain further insight regarding Cardin’s musical legacy and how it reflects his heritage, interviews were conducted with former students and colleagues. Additional artifacts were collected pertaining to his education, influences, and accomplishments. Cardin pursued a focused mission through compositions and performances to promote Native American music and culture while also demonstrating aptitude in music composition, performance, and conducting. Cardin is one individual who pursued a successful career in music and music education while navigating the issues of racial discrimination.

Music Psychology and its Integration in Middle School Music Education in China

This study provides insight into the importance of music psychology in music education. First, it emphasizes the key role that music psychology plays in improving students' musical literacy and skills, treating it as an indispensable component of music education. Secondly, the article points out that short-duration music videos have a significant impact on adolescents’ learning attention, highlighting the urgency of integrating music psychology into teaching. In addition, the article deeply discusses the close relationship between music and psychology, which is crucial for improving the quality of music teaching and deeply understanding the psychological process of music learning. Through an in-depth analysis of the role of musical emotion-inducing mechanisms in cognition and emotion, the article particularly emphasizes the impact of musical expectations on emotional responses. Finally, this article once again emphasizes the key role of music psychology in music education, which helps to improve students' musical literacy, deeply understand the psychological process of music learning, and improve the overall quality of music teaching.

Teaching the Chinese: A lived experience account of a multi-cultural voice studio

This study looks at multicultural education as a transformational pedagogical paradigm in the particular setting of teaching PhD students in music performance at the Philippine Women's University - School of Music. Using a multimodal approach, the study incorporates purposeful educational tactics based on psychological theories and metacognitive practices with a variety of musical traditions. With a variety of in-depth interviews and document analysis, this study sheds light on the complex effects of this kind of approach on students' creative and intellectual paths. The results illustrate the various facets of the educational revolution by connecting with a diverse range of experiences among the students who took part. The development of a strong sense of community, varied musical abilities, and enhanced cultural awareness are all major themes. Using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs thoughtfully and incorporating metacognitive techniques is essential to creating a welcoming and encouraging learning environment. Apart from providing valuable perspectives on the direct effects on pupils, this study makes a significant contribution to the wider discussion on multicultural music education. The program's integration of many musical traditions broadens students' auditory horizons and acts as a microcosm for developing a global perspective, readying them for the ever-changing and interconnected world of the music industry. A transformative pedagogical technique that encourages a deeper knowledge of the cultural nuances buried in musical experiences and produces a conducive atmosphere for learning is the intentional use of psychological theories and metacognitive activities. Beyond the current teaching practices, this research has important implications for future curriculum creation, instructional tactics, and field research project. This study sets the stage for future conversations, interventions, and innovations in the field of music performance by emphasizing multicultural education as a vital component of holistic student development. This will help to move the sector in the direction of greater inclusivity and cultural enrichment.

Synergistic Coupling Mechanism of Digital Media Art and Vocal Talent Cultivation

Abstract In the field of higher education in today’s era, cultivating vocal talents is crucial. This paper focuses on an innovative mechanism in vocal talent cultivation, i.e., enhancing vocal education by constructing a music recognition model based on Fourier algorithm. The Model is further applied to design a teaching aid system incorporating reinforcement learning to realize the synergistic development of digital media art and vocal talent cultivation. After rigorous testing, we found that the music recognition model has an accuracy rate of over 90% and is highly resistant to noise. In addition, by analyzing the practices of several colleges and universities’ music schools, it is observed that there are significant differences among different institutions in the four comparative items, with standard deviations exceeding 0.6. In particular, the average scores using this study’s teaching system for vocal talent cultivation are 4.312, 4.335, 4.267, and 4.354, respectively, generally higher than those of the other colleges. The mean values of these four different vocal music majors were all above 4 points. Therefore, the teaching system for vocal talent training proposed in this paper effectively improves the quality of vocal talent training and provides a new path for the practical reform and optimization of said education.

Pressure Pain Threshold on the Finger Digit Pads in Stringed Musicians

Background Musicians put a lot of practice time into becoming experts in their instruments. One instrument with the highest rate of playing-related injuries is the guitar. An area that needs more research to better understand and treat orthopaedicneuromuscular abnormalities and injuries in musicians is how musical training affects the body. Overuse injury caused by pressing the finger pad on stretched guitar strings can lead to changes in the anatomical and functional organization of the somatosensory system which may alter the pain threshold.Aim The objective of this study was to determine the pressure-pain threshold in guitar and non-guitar players using a dolorimeter and compare the pressure-pain threshold changes between guitar and non-guitar players.Methods This observational study was conducted in music schools. A total of 82 participants which including 41 guitarists and 41 non-guitarists were enrolled in the study. A dolorimeter was used to quantify the pressure-pain threshold after which data analysis was performed.Results The pressure-pain threshold was higher in the fretting hands of guitarists than in non-guitarists.Conclusions Guitarists need to train adequately and follow proper fretting techniques to reduce overuse injuries and repetitive micro-trauma to the fingers. This may lead to other sensory problems or conditions in guitarists and thus may affect their careers as musicians.

Загадка Елены Гнесиной

The article is timed to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Elena Gnesina, the founder of several educational institutions (three music schools, three colleges and Gnesin Russian Academy of Music), embodying the system of effective training of musicians. Considering the circumstances of her life and times it’s not easy to imagine how the offspring of a big Jewish family could grow into such an influential personality: her ideas are still alive and lie in the basis of professional music education. The paper is a short summary of Elena Gnesin’s special talent that had been a combination of musical, pedagogical and organizational gift next to none. The author is giving an answer to obvious enigma of Elena Gnesin’s biography: how could she be at the same time an outstanding pianist, an innovative teacher and impressively great top manager who made impossible things possible. Her educational company under her personal guidance lived through almost a century of historical turbulence in Russia from the last tsar to 1970-s and could remain an authoritative institution near the renowned Moscow Conservatory.

The Social Organization of Post-Secondary Music Students’ Work and Health: An Institutional Ethnography Protocol

Researchers have found that many post-secondary music students suffer from physical and mental health issues. However, researchers have mainly studied these problems at the individual level, with little investigation of how music students’ work is shaped by the coordinating effects of policies, texts, and discourses at and beyond their local site. This paper describes a protocol for an international project that will explore the health of music students in the context of their daily work. Using an institutional ethnography approach, we will examine the social organization of music students’ work at three universities: two in Canada and one in Australia. This will be the first set of studies that use institutional ethnography specifically for the purpose of understanding how the social organization of music students’ work shapes their health. Data will be collected using several methods common to institutional ethnography: interviews, focus groups, observations, and collecting texts. Data analysis will begin during the data collection process and proceed in two fluid stages. The first stage will involve a detailed investigation of the pertinent work activities at each music school. The second will involve linking that work to specific social relations within and beyond the institution. After data analysis has been completed at all three sites, findings will be compared to one another to identify commonalities and differences in how students’ work is organized. Findings of the entire project may inform policy-making and lead to positive change at the institutions studied, as well as others where similar social organization may occur. The novel approach described here will provide opportunities to expand current knowledge about music students’ work and health beyond what has been learned through approaches that focus on students’ individual behaviours and attributes.

ФОРМИРОВАНИЕ КАДРОВОГО ПОТЕНЦИАЛА В БУРЯТ-МОНГОЛЬСКОЙ АССР В СФЕРЕ МУЗЫКАЛЬНОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ И ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ В 1920–1930-е ГОДЫ

One of the tasks of the state cultural policy in the 1920s and 1930s was to create the necessary conditions for the development of musical culture and education in the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR. To solve the problem of personnel training in this sphere, a number of activities were carried out: organization of training courses for cultural and educational work, amateur art instructors, attraction of specialists from the main cities of the country, development of the material base, search for various forms of financing. The most important events in that period were the opening of a children’s music school in Verkhneudinsk (since 1934 — the city of Ulan- Ude) and the first institution of secondary specialised music education — the Technical School of Arts, transformed in 1936 into a Theatre and Music College. The opening of the Technical School allowed the creation of theatres, orchestras, philharmonic society, and contributed to the further development of musical culture and art in the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR. To provide highly qualified personnel, the most talented musicians were sent for internships and studies to the leading universities in the country. As a result, the first decade of Buryat-Mongolian art, held in Moscow in 1940, showed a high level of achievement of creative and professional potential of its participants. Thus, in the 1920s and 1930s, the formation of human resources in the field of musical culture and education in the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR took place.

The Creation of Guideline for Development Private Music School Business

A very serious epidemic broke out in China at the beginning of 2020, and the market's economic environment was greatly affected. As a branch of the education and training industry, private music schools have also been hit hard. After all, the education and training industry supports operations through advanced collections, but the epidemic has led to a serious increase in class consumption data for many important indicators. On the one hand, it is worsening due to the inability to recruit new students. On the other hand, the overall data on class consumption is no longer growing. At the same time, when the rent and labor costs remain unchanged, most institutions in the education and training industry are in varying degrees. Losses, the main research of this article is from what angle can the private education industry make breakthroughs in the three years since the establishment of the epidemic and the implementation of the double reduction policy? Can some problems in operation and management during the epidemic be solved through bleaching, combined with the implementation of national policies that have once again passed reforms to better adapt to future industry development?

Autonomous Support and Achievement Motivation of Students in Private Music Schools: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs

Autonomous Support and Achievement Motivation of Students in Private Music Schools: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs

Practical Study on the Integration of Taiyuan Lianhualuo into Middle School Music Classroom under the Background of Art Education

Practical Study on the Integration of Taiyuan Lianhualuo into Middle School Music Classroom under the Background of Art Education

Analysis of Corresponding Strategies for Junior Middle School Music Teaching under the Background of Quality Education

Analysis of Corresponding Strategies for Junior Middle School Music Teaching under the Background of Quality Education

Efficient Application of Musical Instruments in Primary School Music Class under the Background of New Curriculum Standard—Taking Organ Performance as an Example

Efficient Application of Musical Instruments in Primary School Music Class under the Background of New Curriculum Standard—Taking Organ Performance as an Example

Exploration and Practice of Lvliang Lishi's “Playing and Singing” in Primary and Secondary School Music Education

Exploration and Practice of Lvliang Lishi's “Playing and Singing” in Primary and Secondary School Music Education

From Keyboard to Classroom: Integration of Piano in Junior High School Music Education and Analysis of Teaching Effectiveness

From Keyboard to Classroom: Integration of Piano in Junior High School Music Education and Analysis of Teaching Effectiveness