While it seems many music educators share an enthusiasm for music festivals, others do not. Discrepancies seem to be rooted in the perceived educational outcomes in terms of musical knowledge gained, motivation, competition, psychological impact and social considerations. Advocates believe competitive festivals provide a "superlative" motivational…

This paper explores the convergence of technology and the arts within the context of aurality in the twenty-first century. Jenkins argued this is taking place within a cultural convergence, whereby a vernacular culture focused upon participation, creation, performance, and migratory behaviour of media audiences has emerged. The developing changes…

In a workshop setting, two pieces of recorded music were presented to a group of adult non-specialists; a key feature was to set up structured discussion within which the respondents considered each piece of music as a whole and not in its constituent parts. There were two areas of interest, namely to explore whether the respondents were likely to…

The purpose of this article is to show how the rappers' talk about hip-hop and its connection to pedagogy and social activism parallel the Scandinavian tradition of folkbildning. Scandinavian folkbildning can be seen as a movement to provide voluntary education for the general population. It can also be the name of the process of learning in which…

The present article considers the narratives told in piano lessons, studied as both a teacher's "way of knowing" and as echoes of "masters' voices" in classical music. The main character is a well known Finnish music pedagogue and artist, Matti Raekallio, and the study focuses on his knowledge of teaching practice; that is, his practical…

This study aimed to assess the perceived impact of young people's active engagement in ensemble music making. Sixty-two non-music university students were asked to report on the impact that their participation in music making had on their lives. The data were analysed using Atlas.ti software. There was a reported positive impact on social, musical…

Dealing with traditions is a central issue in music education. I investigate different perspectives on tradition by engaging in a local hermeneutic study surrounding an interpretive event from a viola studio. To understand the function of tradition in this event, I construct a theoretical perspective with roots in hermeneutics and educational…

In this paper, we report on two studies carried out to further explore the level of listening and discriminatory abilities present in very young children through the development of an age appropriate methodology. Working with children aged between 3 and 4 years of age, our first study explored the level of performance achieved on a matching task…

From the work of sociocultural theorists like Rogoff (1990), Vygotsky (1978) and Wenger (1998), it is widely understood that learning is an act of the individual resulting from experience in a sociocultural context. Within this context, following Dewey (1998), learners need to take an active role, engaging and constructing their own understanding.…

To address the question of musical identity, the research the author mainly draws on takes the form of qualitative, in-depth interviews with people about how music fits into their everyday lives and musical biographies. In this the author adopts a largely biographical and social constructionist perspective, asking people to reflect on important…

Having previously been employed to investigate science and English classrooms and listening in the music classroom, theories of multimodality would appear to have much to contribute to an examination of group composing using Information and Communications Technology (ICT), owing to the multimodal nature of music software and group discourse. This…

Our aim is to identify the challenges of teaching music composition to today's students of composition at a tertiary or professional level. We undertake this by two different approaches: on one level, by establishing a context through reviewing literature on the teaching practices of three renowned teachers from the twentieth century; on a second…

The preparation of a short Brazilian piano piece by graduate and undergraduate students (N = 15) was monitored to verify the following dimensions of self-regulation in the learning process: method, time, behaviour and social/cultural factors. Because preparation occurred without help from teachers, participants were encouraged to reveal the…

The journey from playful musical exploration in childhood to an adult identity as a skilled musician is likely to be problematic for people with hearing impairments. Although a number of subjective accounts have been published, there is a lack of empirical research in the area. In this study, twelve musicians with hearing impairments were…

This qualitative case study explores how students' perceptions of sexual identity affect how they participate in popular music processes used in school. Seventeen high school students were invited to form five single-gendered and mixed-gendered rock bands. The data collected included fieldnotes and audio recordings of observed rehearsals and…