This article reviews and analyzes selected past and current research approaches in the study of music teacher effectiveness. Early "teacher characteristic studies" are discussed along with the role of these first-generation studies in attempting to identify personal qualities and characteristics of apparently effective or ineffective teachers. These historical studies are contrasted with selected examples of contemporary research in music teacher effectiveness. Newer studies employ a broad range of methodologies and improved research techniques including the use of narrative descriptions of effective music teachers to account for and emphasize context and focus on the individual teacher and class as the unit of analysis. Two recent studies in music teacher effectiveness utilizing this narrative research approach are presented. Music teacher effectiveness research offers our profession a profile of the effective music teacher. Such a profile, of course, needs to be understood, interpreted, and applied so that our vision of the effective music teacher is based on our profession's best collective research and wisdom.