The Hong Kong Government has advocated teaching Cantonese opera in the school music curriculum to promote Chinese culture education. This longitudinal study aims to examine how and why teachers transform within 3 years in learning and teaching Cantonese opera with a teacher-artist partnership approach in schools. Five primary and two secondary…

During this heuristic phenomenological inquiry, we examined our lived experiences as five women (three doctoral students, two early career faculty) in the process of becoming music teacher educators participating in a year-long, online, group-facilitated professional development community (PDC). Data included recorded meetings via Skype, journal…

This study was designed to investigate the impact that choral singing has on instrumental students' development as musicians. Instrumental music students (N = 23) enrolled in a choral elective module at a tertiary music conservatory completed an eight-item questionnaire. Descriptive answers were collated and interpreted revealing six…

Identity development is a continuous process framed within changing social contexts, and is particularly problematic for musicians and other artists whose work contradicts the mythologized image of the artist. The purpose of this article is to examine the professional growth of music students in relation to developing teacher identities. The…

This article reports on a study of 21 Australian and United States (US) tertiary/university students involved in training to become professional music therapists. The study aimed to identify the learning outcomes--musical, professional, and personal--that occurred when students participated in collaborative peer songwriting experiences. Student…

In an exploratory study lasting more than 16 weeks, 15 undergraduate and graduate piano students prepared a short piece by the Brazilian composer Guarnieri, "Ponteio" no. 22, without guidance from their piano teachers. The data that were collected included their performances, interviews pertaining to their practice and stimulated recall…

While there is a great deal of scholarly inquiry focusing on student teaching experiences in the field of classroom education, there are few resources devoted to student teaching in the context of the applied music lesson. In this article, a teacher educator in the field of piano pedagogy uses self-study to combine reflection on personal…

The aim of this study is to analyze and describe how musicians who are also music therapy students separate music as artistic performance from music as a therapeutic tool. The data consist of 18 written reflections from music therapy students that were analyzed according to a phenomenographic method. The findings are presented as four…

The question of competence in providing music therapy has rarely been the focus of interest in empirical research, as most music therapy research aims at measuring outcomes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse and describe musicians' learning processes when they study music therapy as a caring intervention. An initial presumption is…

This article considers the issues that are involved in effective choral conducting from an aesthetic dimension. Drawing upon research, theories and practice, it provides some insight into the nature of communication and the significance of gesture on vocal outcome as well as qualities of leadership concomitant with such musical activity. The…

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…

This study investigated the viability of learning to play an improvised 12-bar blues on keyboard with both hands together in an asynchronous e-learning environment. The study also sought to reveal participant approaches to and reflections on this learning experience. Participants were video-taped as they engaged with six "Blues Activities",…

The focus of this article is on the analysis of reflection and peer learning in the pedagogical environment. The research draws on findings from a three-year Australian study, which aimed to develop and critically evaluate a model of vocal pedagogy influenced by sociocultural theories. The model sought to position Vygotsky's theories in the…

This article reports on a study carried out in a secondary school in the Island of Jamaica. One grade 7 class (n = 20) and one grade 9 class (n = 23) were taught a six-week unit of lessons aimed at facilitating student listening, performing and composing. Rap and Jamaican dance hall music were used as the stimulus for students' rhythmic…

The present study was designed to examine the reflections of college music performance majors (N = 12) who were teaching private music lessons. Students were instructed to keep a journal during one private lesson of their choice per week. Results indicated initial expectations of lessons that were consistently lower than lesson evaluations after…