The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of internal and external focus of attention on novices' rehearsal evaluations. Thirty-two undergraduate instrumental music education students led bands in a series of three 6-minute rehearsals on their assigned excerpt. Prior to these rehearsals, participants were led in score study and…

The purpose of this collective instrumental case study was to examine the experiences of six undergraduate students from traditionally marginalized populations with regard to their preparation for, admission to, and retention within a music education degree program. Analyzed and reported through the lens of critical theory, data sources included…

This collective case study examined the experiences of four African American gay band students attending historically Black colleges or universities (HCBUs) in the southern United States. This study explored influences that shaped the participants' identities as they negotiated numerous complex sociocultural discourses pervasive and challenging to…

Listener perception of musical expression in collaborative performance was explored in this study. Performances of two duos (a violinist and pianist, and a vocalist and pianist) were recorded. The level of expressivity of the violinist and vocalist remained stylistically appropriate during pieces; however, the pianist alternated between very…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether any of the six motivational constructs in the expectancy-value model of motivation (i.e., expectancy, ability perceptions, intrinsic interest value, attainment value, social utility value, and cost) would predict whether students intended to have a career teaching classroom music or…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of differentiated performance attire and stage deportment on adjudicators' ratings of high school solo vocal performances. High school choral students (n = 153) and undergraduate (n = 97) and graduate music majors (n = 32) served as adjudicators (N = 282). Adjudicators rated recorded solo vocal…

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree withdrawal patterns of undergraduate music education majors, with a specific focus on the individual experiences of students withdrawing from the major. Data from recently withdrawn students (N = 14) were assembled using a qualitative methodology that included semistructured interviews,…

This study was designed with three main purposes: (a) to investigate the effects of two listening conditions on error detection accuracy, (b) to compare error detection responses for rhythm errors and pitch errors, and (c) to examine the influences of texture on error detection accuracy. Undergraduate music education students (N = 18) listened to…

This study explored the differences in ear-playing ability between formal "classical" musicians and those with vernacular music experience (N = 24). Participants heard melodies and performed them back, either by singing or playing on their instruments. The authors tracked the number of times through the listen-then-perform cycle that each…

The primary focus of the present study was to investigate the effect participants' (N = 100) knowledge of a text translation may have on their perceived musical tension while listening to a piece of choral music sung in another language. When examining the graphs that show the group mean responses of the participants, control (without text…

In response to recent concern regarding music education major retention and as an effort to contribute to the "lives of teachers" scholarship in music education, the primary research question for this study was: How do undergraduate students describe their lived experiences within the instrumental music education community? Data included a…

We observed 17 graduate and advanced-undergraduate piano majors practicing a difficult, three-measure keyboard passage from a Shostakovich concerto. Participants' instructions were to practice until they were confident they could play the passage accurately at a prescribed tempo in a retention test session the following day. We analyzed the…

The author investigates relationships between instructor, peer, and self-evaluations. Undergraduate music education students each taught three micro-teaching segments. Immediately after teaching, they filled out an evaluation for themselves indicating four things they did well, one suggestion for improvement, and an effectiveness score from 1 to…

This study is an examination of motivation orientations (mastery, intrinsic, cooperative, individual, competition, ego, approach success, avoid failure, hypercompetition, personal development competition) and musical self-concept in relation to measures of academic achievement and career goals of preservice music teachers. The research questions…

This study addressed the cognitive processes of musicians using imagery to improve expressive performance. Specifically, it was an examination of the extent to which musicians translate imagery into explicit plans for the sound properties of music. Eighty-four undergraduate and graduate music majors completed a research packet during individual…