Popular music is valuable in music teacher education because it can allow the considering of divergent and unique perspectives. However, viewing popular music making as a static process can constrain its values. Drawing on the work of Roland Barthes (1977), the purpose of this philosophical inquiry is to examine the limitations of current ways of…

This review provides a summary and discussion of the 'Music Literacy' strand (day 1) of the Society for Music Analysis's OxMAC conference (University of Oxford, July 2023). The review highlights how the ever-expanding range of musics currently studied in higher education calls for an increasingly multifaceted understanding of the term 'music…

Despite the evidence of the benefits of improvisation in instrumental teaching, research indicates that many piano teachers do not include it in their lessons. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences on piano teachers' pedagogy to determine what factors impacted the teaching of improvisation. A total of 117 UK-based piano…

Power relations operate in any educational setting, and there may be particular vulnerabilities in a tradition conducted in the relative isolation of the music teaching studio. These vulnerabilities have been highlighted dramatically in recent years through high-profile cases of power abuse, but power is implicated in a wide range of contexts…

The purpose of this study was to examine instrumental music lessons taught for schoolchildren over the radio by Joseph Maddy in the 1930s and early 1950s. Research questions addressed (a) conditions, circumstances, and details surrounding the lessons and (b) pedagogical principles, strategies, methods, and didactic materials utilized in these…

This study aims to investigate leadership in orchestra conducting and interrogate educational principles to improve conducting pedagogy. Effective leadership implies a set of interpersonal, communicational, and emotional skills combined with a high level of expertise, which may enable the leader to not only achieve excellent outcomes but also…

Popular songs are ubiquitous in the lives of school-age children, but the construction of traditional school music curricula does not always provide an adequate framework for studying them. In particular, the salience of words qua lyrics is an inescapable feature of popular songs, and recognizing the musical properties of those lyrics opens for…

In a report commissioned by the Society for Music Analysis to address a gap in music literacy, McQueen (2020) identified instrumental teachers as an important part of music education both within schools and in the community. This article takes as a starting point McQueen's (2020) proposal that 'it is through instrumental tuition that music…

Collaborative composition is an established method within music education, but it is a relatively rare phenomenon between composers of large-scale musical works. This research explores collaborative composition in a professional context and highlights the potential and value of its inclusion in specialist composition training at a tertiary level.…

As we work to connect equity to our curriculum and pedagogy, a rhizomatic approach may provide a valuable lens for reconsidering traditional conventions. Such an approach underlines interconnected multiplicity with a noncentered, nonhierarchical emphasis. Applying a rhizomatic method, I offer music teachers some practical applications to challenge…

Although music education researchers often utilize music major status as a single-item proxy variable for musician status--and with this designation presume musical competencies or abilities of research participants--there is a lack of research demonstrating links between status as a music major and those assumed competencies. In this study, we…

Songwriting pedagogy is in its infancy in music education. This article presents a new way to think about pedagogy that utilizes student workgroups that more closely align with the ways songs are written in the real world. Implications for music education's connections to the world of contemporary commercial music are provided.

Chinese Gu Shi Ci art songs are a genre that combines ancient Chinese poetry with music, reflecting profound emotional depth and cultural ethos. The primary objective is to investigate the integration of vocal techniques and musical literacy in the performance of Chinese Gu Shi Ci art songs. The study conducted at Nanchang University and the China…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine school string teachers' beliefs about and practices of teaching nontraditional music courses. We surveyed middle and high school string teachers (N = 42) about what nontraditional music courses and ensembles (NMCEs) they currently offer and would like to offer to their students. In addition, we…

This multi-authored article offers accounts of how programmes for teaching music theory within the Western-notated tradition were created in two UK higher education institutions. These accounts are followed by two more discursive reflections on the nature and purpose of music education today, advocating the importance of listening skills and…