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…

The purpose of the study was to describe the participation perceptions of church choir musicians. Twenty-two choral musicians in 3 churches were interviewed. The results align with past research on community music ensembles in terms of musical and social perceptions of the participants, including concepts of recruitment, attendance, and diverse…

A call-and-response drumming activity was carried out to determine the rhythmic characteristics of improvised patterns created by preschool children. Specific goals of the study were to: (1) determine the durations, start and stop times, and rhythmic patterns of improvised responses to a simple given call using drums; (2) determine the presence or…

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of preservice elementary education classroom teachers toward teaching music and the importance of music in the school curriculum as they prepare to enter the field in an era of high stakes testing, state standards, and accountability. More specifically, responses to twenty-nine statements…

Semester assessment of college wind band members is an issue that conductors would probably agree falls within their academic freedom. Institutions may award as little as no credit or even a percentage of a credit for ensemble participation, although the time and effort required of the students and their conductor is undoubtedly equivalent to, or…

The Suzuki Method represents a significant contribution by a Japanese, Suzuki Shin'ichi (1898-1998), to the teaching of musical instruments worldwide. Western observers often represent the method as "Japanese," although it could be called "Western" with equal justification. Suzuki left no detailed description of his method. Consequently, it is…

Educational research strongly suggests that parental involvement is beneficial for academic achievement and scholarly studies have pointed to parents' seminal role in the education of young children as well as the need for continued nurture. Researchers indicate that parental involvement, however, tends to diminish over time and in many cases…

Building on an apposition of the theories of neurobiologist Antonio Damasio and music theorist Heinrich Schenker, we posit a new model for developing composition instruction based upon the organic connections between humans and music. Parallels are drawn between Damasio's theory of consciousness in which meaning arises from the relationships…

The ambiguity in the first half of the paper's title--"Engaging music and media"--is intentional. Music is engaging in the sense that it implicates our hearts and minds. Music can also be engaged by and with media. And, of course, engagement is core to effective learning. The role of music education is always in flux. Aesthetic aims sometimes take…

This study explored the responsibilities and experiences of three collegiate drum majors as student leaders of a marching band at a major university. Marching band continues to be a prevalent and highly visible aspect of music education in the United States. The preparation and utilization of student leaders in music remains common, but little…

The purpose of this article is to extend the published knowledge and practices of distance learning in music to include constructivism. Dan Keast describes his techniques for the implementation of constructivism to an online two-course series of Music History. The courses' structure, activities, assessments, and other key functionality components…

This essay on graduate music education is in response to an article by David Hebert on challenges and solutions in online music teacher education that appeared in the online journal, "Research and Issues in Music Education," 5(1). The author found the article stimulating because so little has been written on the topic of music teacher education at…

Music education organizations achieved a huge success in Texas several years ago when legislation declared music as a part of the core curriculum. Similarly, more recent national education legislation like No Child Left Behind has recognized music as a core curricular subject. Since that time, little has been done to assess music students to…

The purpose of this study was to elicit information through a survey from non-tenured and tenured music performance teachers and their music supervisors concerning their perceived needs and concerns at work. An instrument created for evaluation and assessment was constructed to yield twelve scale areas of needs and concerns. Comparison of…

The purpose of this research was to make observations and comparisons between original music composed by Mexican children, and traditional Mexican songs. Data were obtained through notated music compositions created by the children, and through videotaped interviews during which the children performed their compositions, talked about both their…