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…

This study investigated infant listening preferences for two versions of an unfamiliar Chinese children's song: unaccompanied (i.e., voice only) and accompanied (i.e., voice and instrumental accompaniment). Three groups of 5-, 8- and 11-month-old infants were tested using the Headturn Preference Procedure. A general linear model analysis of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate three primary variables concerning the starting grade level of beginning string instruction in public schools: (a) initial enrollment, (b) retention data for both the end of the first year and at the seventh-grade year of instruction, and (c) music performance level in the seventh grade. Secondary…

Vocal demands of teaching are significant, and this challenge is compounded for choral directors who depend on the voice for communicating information or demonstrating music concepts. The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency and intensity of middle and high school choral directors' voices and to compare choral directors' voices with…

Retiree recruitment is a burgeoning economic development strategy among rural communities despite uncertainty over whether later-life migrants will bring with them "Gray Gold" in the form of economic development or "Gray Peril" in the form of a reduced willingness to support the provision of local public services such as education. The results of…

Attention to subtle changes in music, whether inadvertent or purposeful, occupies a great deal of practice and rehearsal time for the performer. Regardless of the extremely subtle acoustic changes that have been found to be perceptible within almost all studies, it is the total overall effect that most occupies the individual listener. This study…

Recent policy initiatives instituted by major accrediting bodies require the implementation of specific assessment tools to provide evidence of student achievement in a number of areas, including applied music study. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of a multidimensional assessment rubric, which was administered to…

The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of music sight-reading ability. The authors hypothesized that speed and accuracy of music sight-reading would be predicted by a combination of aural pattern discrimination, spatial-temporal reasoning, and technical proficiency. Participants (N = 70) were wind players in concert bands at a…

In this study, the authors examined whether a conductor's use of high-expressivity or low-expressivity techniques affected evaluations of ensemble performances that were identical across conducting conditions. Two conductors each conducted two 1-minute parallel excerpts from Percy Grainger's "Walking Tune." Each directed one excerpt using high-…

The purpose of this study was to document the history of the National High School Orchestra (NHSO), a select ensemble organized by Joseph E. Maddy under the auspices of the Music Supervisors' National Conference during the 1920s and 1930s. Research questions examined the orchestra's (1) origin, performances, and operation; (2) instrumentation and…

A common way of discussing generalisation is to search for one conception--a monist view. Another approach is to create a dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research, each having a single definition--a dualist perspective. A pluralist view is argued for here, i.e. the existence of several lines of reasoning, each of which can be…

The capacity of Bayesian methods in estimating complex statistical models is undeniable. Bayesian data analysis is seen as having a range of advantages, such as an intuitive probabilistic interpretation of the parameters of interest, the efficient incorporation of prior information to empirical data analysis, model averaging and model selection.…

Often, when an evaluation is needed, there is always a tendency to jump into data collection without first considering what might be already available. This paper demonstrates how an existing student database from a large school district could be used to provide some rigorous evidence regarding the impact of a supplementary teacher professional…

Graphic elicitation, i.e. asking participants to draw, is an interview technique used to focus the interviewee on the given topic or gain extra meaning not covered verbally as part of the interview. This study analyses two interview contexts which included visual elicitation. It describes a successful example in which the researcher maintained…

In education, standards have to be interpreted, for planning of teaching, for development of assessments and for alignment analysis. In most cases, it is important that there is an agreement between individuals and organizations about how to interpret standards. However, there is a lack of studies of how consistent different group of judges are…