Global colonialism and continuing post-colonial influences caused widespread cultural change at the interface of different cultures. Musical acculturation can be observed in most colonised countries. Some pro-colonialists apologetically allege that through colonisation the colonised territories would receive developmental aid and economical…

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how amateur choral singers experience collective group support as a method of learning "art music" choral work. Findings are derived from a grounded-theory based, socio-musical case study of an amateur "art music" Bach Choir, in the process of rehearsing and performing the Mass in B…

Singing is an important part of teaching for early childhood teachers. However, some teachers find this difficult and may even identify themselves as "tone-deaf". We invited a group of early childhood teachers who self-identified as "tone-deaf" to participate in a study to investigate their beliefs and behaviours about singing…

The purpose of this study was to explore why highly trained musicians choose to teach in higher education. An international population from nine countries of music instrument teachers was sampled via online survey, to determine their reasons for teaching in higher education. Motivational constructs from the expectancy-value framework were used,…

The importance of personal practice for instrumentalists and vocalists is well established among researchers, and axiomatic for practitioners. This paper reports on a phase of an action research project, investigating student approaches to personal practice. Following a preliminary questionnaire study, a residential clinic was conducted by…

Work such as that of John Cooksey on boys' changing voices has influenced choral practice in the USA and in certain UK youth choirs, but has hitherto had little impact in UK schools where many teachers continue to believe that boys' voices "break". Different practices are found across the independent and maintained sectors of…

This paper explores the relationship between school music and community music in Australia. While many Australian schools and community music activities tend to exist in relative isolation from one another, a range of unique school-community collaborations can be found throughout the country. Drawing on insights from "Sound Links," one of…

This article discusses the use of action research cycles on a course involving groupwork rehearsing and performance. The aim was to explore various pedagogic aspects of the activities and improve tutor practice. This account of four action research spirals, taking place over a 10-year period of rehearsing and performing, considers their management…

The music industry in the 21st century uses digital technology in a wide range of applications including performance, composition and in recording and publishing. Much of this digital technology is freely available via downloads from the internet, as part of software included with computers when they are purchased and via applications that are…

"Rivers of Musical Experience" were used as a research tool to explore the wide range of musical experiences and concomitant identity construction that six amateur keyboard players over the age of 55 brought to their learning as mature adults. It appears that significant changes in their lives acted as triggers for them to engage in musical…

Singing individually is both a necessary activity within the music class and an essential part of the cultural activity of improvising verses through singing. In this article we show how the introduction of this activity in the educational system of Catalonia has made it possible to obtain positive results with regard to participation in singing,…

This work derives from a doctoral research study which looked at the differences in students' attitudes towards learning music in a Brazilian music higher education institution, while taking into account their different music learning backgrounds. The students' backgrounds (which consist of their set of musical experiences and music-learning…

This paper explores firstly the sense in which improvisation might be conceived of as an informal music education process and, secondly, the effects of a course in free improvisation on student teachers' perceptions in relation to themselves as musicians, music as a school subject and children as musicians. The results of a study conducted in two…

In this ethnographic study, the musical behaviours of 28 primary school children in Singapore were examined for their meaning and diversity as they engaged in the school day. A large part of these children's musical behaviours stemmed from their exposure to the mass media. Children's musical inventions emerged in the context of play, occasionally…

A survey of final-year music students at the University of York for the Investigating Musical Performance research project found that 45% (23 of the 51 students in the year group) regularly gave instrumental or vocal lessons. Semi-structured interviews with 16 students revealed a range of teaching activities including workshop leading, one-to-one…