Music students often encouter problems in reading sheet music, because of the complexity of Traditional Music Notation (TMN). Klavar is an alternative music notation system that is simple, intuitive, and easy to learn. Thousands of compositions from many composers are available in Klavar. In its original form, Klavar can be considered as tablature…

Increasing diversity and equity in secondary and college music programs is a common thread in the scholarship across disciplines in the field. While crucial work is being done to decolonize curricula broadly, students often express difficulty relating to formal music study and teachers struggle to balance desires to diversify repertoire and…

Music education majors across the United States (N = 1029) self-reported indicators of depression, anxiety, personality, and stress. According to the results, music education majors are highly busy, and report elevated levels of stress as compared to their peers. Semester enrollment averages include: 18.5 hours (including 0 credit courses) a…

Transfer students account for growing numbers in four-year music education programs. To better understand this increasing population of students, researchers employed parallel method design. One strand investigated music education faculty members' (n = 83) perceptions of transfer student preparedness, procedures, and expectations to understand…

The criteria used to admit prospective music teachers in colleges and universities across the United States has remained relatively unchanged since their inception. These criteria disenfranchise a population of potential music teachers who hold musical backgrounds outside the Western European art tradition. This autoethnography illuminates the…

The purpose of this study was to examine music education undergraduate students' expectations of and preferences for their music education faculty members' personal and professional backgrounds and compare them to the actual backgrounds of current music teacher educators. Participants (N = 293) from 55 randomly-selected NASM-accredited…

The purpose of this study was to determine what technologies are used in fourth- and fifth-grade instrumental music and to examine factors that influence the attitudes of teachers, students, and their parents toward the use of those technologies. Two researcher-designed questionnaires, the "Technology in Music Usage Questionnaire" (TMUQ)…

Teacher shortage in all subjects, including music, has been an ongoing concern in the United States since the 1980s. The shortage is especially acute in urban and rural schools that serve economically disadvantaged students. This article examines (a) music teacher shortage in relation to P-12 public schools in general, (b) the demand for music…

This paper investigates an obvious paradox in the pre-tertiary music/aesthetic education of Ghana, which defies the pedagogical principles of continuity and progression. This paradox involves the simultaneous disappearance and growth of music/aesthetic education at the foundational basic schools and high schools respectively. Growth at the high…

The primary purpose of this study was to design a reliable and valid continuous-time coding tool for measuring teacher use of space and teacher interactions based on prior research (Hesler, 1972; Martin, 2002). The tool captured teachers' use of space as they moved through 14 identified areas of the large instrumental ensemble classroom and…

Despite the existence of educators who use the third position as the home position for beginner violin training and get positive results, repertoires of violin pedagogues and current music school curricula show an overwhelming preference for the first position. I determined that studies on this preference and research related to the use of the…

The effects of learning to sing with and without Curwen hand signs on singing accuracy in kindergarten-age children were compared. Participants comprised an experimental group (Curwen signs) and a control group (without signs), each containing 33 children aged 5 to 6 years. All participants took 30 music lessons centered on learning songs. The…

In large music ensembles, directors make countless instructional decisions on a daily basis that indicate their learning priorities and guide student learning. In particular, expert music directors (i.e., those having earned a master's degree and/or National Board Certification) have advanced problem-solving strategies and effective means of…

For this study the researchers examined music teacher responses to survey items pertaining to their working conditions. Participants reported their satisfaction about factors related to music program funding, facilities, workload, professional development, and school culture. Responses were analyzed to detect possible differences in responses due…

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was to explore K-12 music educators' changes in practice one year after completing a three-week professional development experience in world music education. Results from the quantitative phase of research indicated all participants (n = 10) perceived distinct changes in practice after…