Motivation plays a role in nearly all human decision-making processes. Regardless of the situation, little may be achieved without the appropriate harnessing of motivation. The same is true in the music classroom. Research appears to indicate that motivation plays a crucial role in human development and achievement. The achievement motivation…

The purpose of this study was to explore the motivations of adults in choosing to participate in community orchestras. This paper identifies many of those motivations and examines the reasons and implications of why the adults in the study chose to continue to play in community orchestras. The investigation was conducted in 2007 via a case study…

In an effort to further the understanding of gender traits or sexual bias that high school-aged choral music students might be exposed to in their curricular materials, two choral textbooks Choral Connections Beginning Level 1 Treble Voices and Choral Connections Beginning Level 1 Tenor-Bass Voices published by Glencoe MacGraw-Hill in 1999 were…

The purpose of this study was to compare technology-based practice (Radio Baton and Digital Conducting System) to self-practice (recorded music) on the skill achievement of beginning conductors. Participants (N = 33) were undergraduate music majors--education and performance--from two beginning conducting classes randomly assigned to either the…

The Genesis Project is a multi-phase research project designed for the purpose of developing an in-depth understanding of the nature of musical creativity by investigating how composers compose. In this first phase of the project, an understanding of the four dimensions of musical creativity: (1) the "person", (2) the compositional "process", (3)…

This essay examines how jazz educators construct methods for teaching the art of improvisation in institutionalized jazz studies programs. Unlike previous studies of the processes and philosophies of jazz instruction, I examine such processes from a cultural standpoint, to identify why certain methods might be favored over others. Specifically,…

This essay examines historical research in music education in connection with historiography and the writing of history, using the works of three exemplary writers recently reviewed in book-length studies. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) representing classic, enlightenment philosophy as it pertains to historiography was primarily a philosopher who wrote…

Despite gender affirmative employment practices, women constitute little more than 5% of all U.S. college band directors. Researchers have investigated this situation in terms of historical precedent, traditional socialization, discrimination, segregation, professional identity, and lack of role models. They have not, however, addressed the…