There has been little published pedagogical research on popular music group rehearsing. This study explores the perceptions of tutors and student pop/rock bands about the rehearsals in which they were involved as a part of their university music course. The participants were 10 tutors and 16 bands from eight British tertiary institutions. Analysis…

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect body movement would have on listeners' (N = 90) perceptions of a professional chamber ensemble performance. Specifically, an audio/video recording of a trombone quartet performance was used for the music stimulus. Listeners were asked to rate each performance on the basis of perceived…

The ability to read music fluently is fundamental for undergraduate music study yet the training of sight-reading is often neglected. This study compares approaches to sight-reading and accompanying by students with extensive sight-reading experience to those with limited experience, and evaluates the importance of this skill to advanced pianists…

This article outlines the approach used to develop a scheme to characterize the nature and quality of specific practices of one-to-one teaching, selected on the basis of their potential significance to the development of student performance. Although the value of one-to-one teaching remains largely unchallenged at the conservatoire level, music…

The learning of jazz improvisation is often treated as the incorporation of stylistic vocabulary and development of technical dexterity. Although this methodology is effective, considering other aspects of jazz improvisation can make the learning process a more holistic and less technical endeavour. My experience teaching improvisation has led me…

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…

Research in music education asserts that video review by performers facilitates self-directed learning and transforms performing. Yet, certain videos may be traumatic for musicians to view; those who perceive themselves as failing or experience performance-related failures are prone to feelings of distress and sadness that can negatively affect…

The aim of this article is to assess the relative merits of two approaches to teaching musical improvisation: a music-theoretical approach, focusing on chords and scales, and a "dramaturgical" one, emphasizing questions of balance, variation and tension. Adult students of music pedagogy, with limited previous experience in improvisation, took part…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of cognitive chunking techniques among first-semester group-piano music majors. The ability to group discrete pieces of information into larger, more meaningful chunks is essential for efficient cognitive processing. Since reading keyboard music and playing the piano is a cognitively complex…

In academic education, undergraduate students develop musical knowledge through the preparation of a repertoire within the western classical music tradition during a certain period of formal music practice. During the practice, the student makes choices and deals with personal strategies that assume forms of thinking and, therefore, differentiated…

The Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music (CQCM) has maintained a partnership with Hamilton Island Enterprises (HIE) since 2002. As a part of this partnership, the Bachelor of Music (jazz & popular) students visit Hamilton Island (HI), an island resort located off the Australian east coast, four to six times annually to engage in 3 to 10 days…

This article reports on the feasibility of using the assessment criteria for solfege proposed by Davidson, Scripp, and Meyaard as a way to assess a group of Brazilian undergraduate students. The experiment was carried out in 2003, with 16 first-year students in a variety of majors, each with different levels of previous music experience. The…

The purpose of this study was to examine the status of undergraduate string teacher education curriculum in Turkish universities in both eastern and western regions. To accomplish this task, the relative strengths and weaknesses of Turkish string teacher education were investigated through an intensive literature review and a survey. Seventy-one…

This study aims to investigate and identify the criteria and parameters for assessing compositions, and how assessment can help students' learning. Participants in the study include three composer-assessors and six undergraduate music students. An assessment framework for music composition based on both the macro and micro philosophies of…

"Earthsongs" was the third in a series of courses designed and facilitated by Dr. Lorna Williams, Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Education at the University of Victoria. Subtitled "Learning and teaching in an Indigenous world," these courses offer undergraduate and graduate students from the Faculty of Education and across the university,…