In this article, I visualize the relationship between tonewood exploitation and the import of musical instruments for Venezuela's El Sistema, with the participation of the Venezuelan State, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and manufacturing companies from China and the Global North. My basis…

Musical independence has always been an essential aim of musical instruction. But this objective can refer to everything from high levels of musical expertise to more student choice in the classroom. While most conceptualizations of musical independence emphasize the demonstration of knowledge and skills within particular music traditions, this…

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…

One of the most distinctive musical genres that originated in Cuba over the past century is "cha-cha-chá," which is attributed to Enrique Jorrín during the 1950s. The popularity of this music has grown considerably since its genesis, as evidenced by the vast array of repertoire, the multitude of bands performing it, and its prevalence in…

Earlier research has stated that there is a risk that traditional gender roles are conserved in non-formal popular music education, which might challenge teachers when it comes to offering equal learning opportunities. This article presents results from an interview study regarding the situation of female electric guitarists in popular music…

The article is devoted to the reflection on the problem of the "immersion" in the artistic world of a composer's creative work in a piano class in the beginning of the 21st century. The wealth and diversity of the music material for piano players determine the new quality of understanding music and set high goals and objectives for a…

Gender in music has been explored over recent decades with growing recognition of the challenges that are faced by women in the field. There has been substantial work exploring the Western music canon but little that addresses the music of Australian women, and more specifically, repertoire written for the wind band genre. With thousands of…

The overlapping of pragmatic philosophy and the Aristotelian concept of praxis is explored with application to music and music education. John Dewey's philosophy of "Art as Experience" is contrasted with tacit aesthetic assumptions about music that music teachers often hold as a result of the aesthetic meme inherited from their…

This layered autoethnography comprises momentary scenes connected to musical pieces for cello that are engraved in my memory and on the calluses of my fingertips by significant physical, emotional, and motivational experiences that have accompanied me since my youth. My artful methodology invokes truthful memory through sound to compose a…

Community bands play an important role in Brazilian music education. Often the only point of musical access, they provide free instrumental teaching for thousands of people who cannot afford to pay. One challenge that needs to be continually addressed is the issue of attrition, especially during the first stages of instruction. Considering this…

Why do musicians specialize in the specific instruments that they do? Research has shown effects of such factors as the perceived masculinity/femininity of instruments and musician's personality but there are little background data on other factors. The present study had two major aims. The first aim was to gather some useful background data on…

This paper is a reflection on a teaching program located in a Government primary school in Melbourne and initiated by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). The school was selected by a coincidence. Volunteers, MSO personnel, community and corporate funding, employed classroom and specialist music teachers came together to provide teaching of…

This study, a replication and extension of work by Norris (2004), examined sight-reading requirements at middle and high school large-group band festivals across the United States. As in the earlier investigation, answers to the following questions were solicited from all 50 states: (1) Are there ratings-based large-group band festivals? (2) Is…

Various researchers over the past decades have established that verbal behaviour constitutes a substantial portion of total instruction time in music. The use of metaphor in these educational practices and the supporting music literature is rich and frequent. Numerous scholars support the view that metaphor in learning and teaching music touches…

This article examines the special relationship between students and their instrumental teachers in UK conservatoires. Conservatoires in the UK provide a higher education for aspiring performers and composers and the students' choice of conservatoire will often be guided by their desire to study with a particular "professor" who will…