Thirty vocal improviser-educators from Australia (n = 15) and the United States (n = 15) were surveyed for musical background, influences and pedagogical views, and assessed for personality type using the "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator" ("MBTI"). The purpose was to both combine and compare the two groups to identify overall…

Although early childhood caregivers in South African townships integrate singing into their teaching on a daily basis, they are often unaware of how to facilitate other musical interactions through movement, playing instruments or body percussion. The 'Bejazzled' action research project was initiated to facilitate these interactions through…

This article reports a quasi-experimental study of the effects of improvisation on the development of children's creative thinking in music. The study was conducted in a primary school classroom with two matched groups of 6-year-old children over a period of six months. The music lessons for the experimental group were enriched with a variety of…

Much like an effective speaker, a flexible musician is competent across multiple settings. The sociolinguistic theory of code-switching can be a useful tool to better understand how musicians acquire a set of skills and knowledge to support music-making in a range of activities in and outside of school and throughout society. In this article,…

The purpose of this study is to explore the life and work of Pierre Sancan (1916-2008), an exemplary piano teacher who, like many masters in the apprenticeship tradition, is chiefly remembered today by his pupils alone. An all-round musician, Sancan had early success as a composer when he won the Prix de Rome in 1943, and enjoyed a flourishing…

This essay represents my attempt to develop an expanded voice-as-researcher. My intent is to create a space for an improvisatory and playful process of self-discovery through writing aimed at extracting deeply-held, even concealed, possibilities rarely invoked in my practices as researcher. To facilitate this process of self-discovery, I use a…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the effect of ear playing instruction on adult amateur wind instrumentalists' musical self-efficacy. Ten volunteer members of a community band in a small town in Ohio completed the "Ear Playing Profile" both prior to and following an eight-week period of instruction in playing by ear…

In schools, band is often seen as a class where students and teachers can be creative. But is this true? Many schools use a traditional band model, which may not allow space for creative activities. This article, inspired by the "Music Educators Journal" March 2017 special focus on teaching for musical creativity, examines and critiques…

Instrumental music practice has been conceived and investigated from the perspective of self-regulated learning (SRL), i.e. how students acquire the tools necessary to take control of their own learning. SRL processes depend on variables such as ways of studying (method), time invested in practice and behavioural and social/cultural factors. Thus,…

Ubiquitous music is a relatively new research area which seeks ways to involve novices in music learning, playing and improvisation. Despite the ambitious goals, ubiquitous music is still unknown territory in schools. In this study, we have tried to identify whether ubiquitous music environments can enable novice music students to participate in…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the role aural imitation ability, jazz theory knowledge, and personal background variables play in the development of jazz improvisation achievement. Participants (N = 70) included 26 high school and 44 college instrumentalists with varying degrees of jazz improvisation experience. Data were…

Music technology is a term commonly used to refer to electronic form of the musical arts, particularly devices and computer software that enable the facilitation, playback, recording, composition, storage, and performance of various musical compositions. There has been a growing awareness of the importance of aesthetics in early childhood…

Music institutions predominantly utilize the one-to-one lesson in developing and supporting music students' learning of skill and knowledge. This article explores the effect that interpersonal interaction plays in shaping pedagogical applications between teacher and student. Observing the learning of improvisation within this individualized social…

Improvisation--the act of spontaneously creating music, as opposed to playing music that is strictly pre-composed--is a practice that has most often been taught only in the context of jazz in the classroom. But it has actually been part of many more musical traditions, cultures, and periods. Classical icons like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven,…

Embodied mind theories underline the role of the body in the act of knowing. According to the enactive approach, we learn to perceive and to know through our bodily interactions with the world (Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1991). However, such an approach remains incomplete as long as sociality is not taken into account (Froese & Di Paolo,…