Ensemble work is a key part of any performance-based popular music course and involves students replicating existing music or playing "covers". The creative process in popular music is a collaborative one and the ensemble workshop can be utilised to facilitate active learning and develop musical creativity within a group setting. This is…

The use of music technology in the enhancement of young pianists' musical improvisations has been scarcely explored in instrumental music teaching and learning research. In the present study, 19 piano pupils aged 6-10 from the UK and Greece used an interactive improvisation system called Musical Interaction Relying On Reflexion (MIROR)-Impro…

Music is increasingly recognised as important in facilitating healthy ageing, yet little is known of what musicians themselves learn when they teach older adults. This article reports the practices of the "Rhythm for Life" project at the Royal College of Music in the UK, in which conservatoire students taught 10-week programmes of group…

This article describes a didactic experience concerning the interaction between young children and the Continuator, an Interactive Reflexive Musical System (IRMS) elaborated at SONY- Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. The general aim was to analyse whether and how the Continuator can be used in the kindergartner during the daily school…

This article explores the relationship between ideas about the role and purpose of music introduced in the major publications of Charles Darwin, and the fields of child development, music education and pedagogy. It also considers the significant influence on Darwin's work of his own biography and family life. In the global village of…

This article presents a selected view of a research project developed in Brazil. The focus of the project was to investigate the modus operandi of 18 NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and their relationship to the development of educational curricula and practices in music. Further, it provides an analysis of NGOs as an opportunity to learn…

This research explored essential elements to be considered when teaching US students to develop and define creativity in the general elementary (students aged 5-11 years) music classroom. This case study focused on answering the following research questions: 1) What are students' perceptions of creativity? 2) How can music educators…

Research regarding music teaching in primary school reveals generalist teachers' and student teachers' low musical abilities and low confidence in teaching Music, and even more, in including creative activities in music teaching. This article reports on a study which sought to create a fruitful and supportive environment that would allow 64…

While there have been many efforts to define community music, definitions have tended to be either too specific or too general to be of great use to practitioners. Much of the published research on the topic seems to be based on single projects, often conducted by the facilitators involved. While this has led to valuable contributions to…

This paper addresses the complex relationship between Confucian values and music education in East Asia, particularly its history in China. How does one account for the present "cultural fever" of Western classical music that has infected more than 100 million Chinese practitioners? It is proposed that Western classical music finds transcultural…

One-to-one music lessons are a common and effective way of learning a musical instrument. This investigation into one-to-one music teaching at the secondary school level explores the teaching of musical expression by two instrumental music teachers of brass and strings. The lessons of the two teachers with two students each were video recorded…

Despite national initiatives in the UK such as Creative Partnerships, an organization formed in 2002 for exploring creative approaches to learning in the classroom, there is still a gap between aspiration and practice. This is especially evident in the teaching of musical composition in primary schools, partly because there seems to be a profound…

The 2006 ISME Commission for the Education of the Professional Musician (CEPROM) provided a unique forum for a number of important debates surrounding the preparation of young musicians for a professional career in the performing arts. One such debate considered the imperative of ensuring young professional musicians graduated from tertiary music…

In this article, I explore musical creativity through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This article aims to show that secondary school pupils can compose freely using ICT in the classroom, easing and "democratizing" the creative process, enabling a high standard for all, regardless of formal musical training. The fieldwork project…

In 1994, the Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) initiated two related projects supporting and acknowledging composition in schools and offering the opportunity for secondary school-aged students to work with prominent Australian composers. These were the Young Composers' Project and the Composer-in-Residence Project. Both projects were…