Relaxation clearly plays an important role in music practice and performance. However complete relaxation is neither possible nor musically appropriate. A certain degree of tension is always necessary to enable a suitable level of concentration and musical expression.

Concentration inevitably produces muscular reactions in different parts of the body. These cause problems when they occur in mutually opposing combinations. Common locations for such tension knots or blocks in music practice are the back of the neck, the wrists, and the hands (grasping reflex). Causes include overconcentration, emotional involvement in the music, fear of making mistakes in difficult passages, and insufficiently practised playing movements. The described effects are illustrated by reference to the practice and performance of a piece of piano music.

The article is based on two lectures given in 1987, one at an ESTA conference in Germany, and the other at an EPTA conference in Yugoslavia.

Back in 2013, in the BJME editorial for issue 30(2), we considered the place of knowledge in the curriculum (Fautley & Murphy, 2013). Things have not stood still since that date, certainly in England, and other parts of the world too. What we have now is a situation where the idea of knowledge as assuming supremacy over skills is on the increase. For those of us concerned with music education, many aspects of this increasingly fractious debate are to be viewed with concern. Allied to this, we have neoliberal-leaning governments in many parts of the world, Britain included, who seem to find it difficult to understand the important role that music education has – or should have – in the education of our children and young people. Indeed, in the UK, the education secretary is on record as making this observation:

The article suggests that ‘Composing / Performing / Listening’ may be an inadequate way to categorise musical activities, particularly because any musical activity is a sort of listening. There is a discussion of the educationally crucial difference between ‘audience-listening’ on the one hand, and ‘composition-listening’ and ‘performance-listening’ on the other. It is suggested that musical experience is itself thinking embodied in sound, and that explicit ‘analysis-of-listening’ plays a supportive role.

In this light, the article proposes an alternative way to categorise musical activities, and indicates some possible conclusions for the curriculum and for assessment.

This paper gives the first insight into the establishment and development of the Strathclyde Consortium for Action Research in Learning Approaches and Teaching Techniques in Inventing (SCARLATTI) Project, and reflects on the changes to the music curriculum in Scottish secondary schools over the last twenty years. There is evidence to support the view that Inventing is an area of the curriculum which is causing music teachers some anxiety (Sheridan, 1992) and this paper examines the teaching and learning of the skills required of both teachers and pupils for the Inventing element of Standard Grade music (Byrne, 1996). The authors have launched an action research music project (Bresler, 1995; Adelman & Kemp, 1992; Treacher, 1989) which it is hoped will refocus the thinking of music teachers in schools by creating a dynamic network to provide a forum for the discussion of ideas and a means whereby experiences and materials can be shared, and new approaches and methods considered and implemented. A feature of the SCARLATTI project is a World Wide Web discussion group that will provide a communication link for schools involved in the project as well as a platform for teachers to air issues, ideas and views.

This article reports the results of research into teachers’ practices concerning the assessment of composing at Key Stage 3 in the National Curriculum for Music in England. It finds that many teachers are using NC levels for assessing individual pieces of work, a process for which they were never intended. It also finds that teachers find it difficult to show progress using NC levels, and that many teachers have rewritten the levels into child-friendly language, thus causing further difficulties.

The structure, implementation and operation of music education at the primary level differs depending on the legislation of the education system within which the school operates. An inquiry-based project was completed over a 10-week period, with the overall aim of gaining an understanding of current teacher practice within music education in both Ireland and the United States. This article examines the Irish generalist and the American specialist models of music education from the teacher’s perspective. The overarching question guiding this research was ‘How is music education realised in Irish and American schools at the primary/elementary level?’. The project sought to investigate the specific challenges of both the generalist and specialist models to ascertain if one educational context might inform the other. Teacher surveys, teacher interviews, curriculum artefacts, expert interviews and contemporary literature around the topic were utilised as data sources to assimilate music educators’ perceived experiences of implementing their respective music curricula. Drawing from the data gathered, coded and quantitively and qualitatively analysed, two contrasting vignette-style stories are presented. A brief discussion follows that compares both models, highlighting some of their relative advantages and drawbacks.

This article reports the second stage of a project investigating the impact of IT, generally stereotyped as a masculine area of competence, in music education. The project examined differences between boys' and girls' use of music technology and their attitudes towards it. The second stage focused, in particular, upon the effects of school type, since previous research had suggested that girls in single sex schools are more likely to fare better than their counterparts in coeducational schools in areas of the curriculum stereotyped as masculine. The results of a study of 1115 pupils (661 11–12 year olds and 454 15–16 year olds) from eleven secondary schools (four girls', three boys' and four coeducational) in Leicestershire, Birmingham and Coventry are reported here. The most noteworthy findings came from pupils' ratings of their own abilities in relation to same-sex and opposite-sex peers. These ratings were lower in older girls from co-educational schools, indicating a particular lack of confidence within that group. Qualitative data from pupil and teacher interviews is used to examine explanations for this finding and its educational implications.

Primary music education programme development and implementation is founded on philosophical beliefs about the purpose of music education.

Primary classroom teachers who ultimately have responsibility for development and implementation of the music education programme formulate their philosophical beliefs about the purpose of music education based on a multitude of variables. Whilst their own past music experiences and education assume significance in the formation of a music education philosophy, the primary music curriculum documents provided by education authorities constitute an important source for teachers' current philosophical opinion about the purpose of music education.

Two philosophical arguments have thus far formed the basis of the purpose of music education in the history of the western world, namely, the intrinsic and extrinsic arguments. Primary music curriculum documents have also been based on one (or perhaps both), of these philosophical views about the purpose of music education.

In this article a discussion of the philosophical foundations of music education, with special reference to primary music education in Australia, is presented. Five primary music curriculum documents will be looked at, and commentary given about the current philosophical status of Australian primary music education and the implications for programme development and implementation.

I undertook this project as a 12-year-old student while studying research methods at the Children's Research Centre at the Open University. It has already been shown that doing music improves children's Mathematics and English scores. The aim of this study was to find out if it also raises the aspirations of the children taking part. A questionnaire was given out to 80 Year 7 children at two schools in Milton Keynes. Questions investigated the children's musical participation and future aspirations as well as their parents' attitudes and education.

The most important findings are that the musical participation of the children is positively correlated with their future aspirations. Musical participation is most closely linked with parental enthusiasm for it. Parental pressure and education were found to have no link with musical participation, but families with low incomes may find affording musical activities hard to maintain.

It is recommended that more money be put into music education so children of low socio-economic backgrounds can have more of a chance to play musical instruments.

The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between music preference and music education, informal influences (attending classical music concerts and musical theatre productions) and familiarity of music. The research included students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split (N=341)1. The results showed that participants usually listen to popular music in their leisure time and that popular music is their most preferred music style. A positive relationship between familiarity and preferences was found but this effect was not unambiguous. A relationship between music preferences and secondary school music education was not found, but those participants who attended music school preferred some music styles more than did those participants who did not attend music school. There was a significant correlation found between the frequency of attending classical music concerts and preferences for classical music, jazz and world music. Finally, the results indicated that people who frequently attend musical theatre productions have significantly higher preferences for jazz and world music. The authors pointed to the problem of unattractiveness of music lessons in secondary schools and suggest possible solutions to the problem.

This article argues that changes of gendered attitudes towards IT among students may be related to recent educational reforms focusing on incorporating computers into the classroom. Data are drawn from an interview survey with 430 students attending 26 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. The results reveal no significant differences between females and males in three aspects: (1) their belief in the effectiveness of using technological facilities; (2) their confidence in handling technology when learning about music; and (3) their motivation towards learning about music with the help of information technology (IT). Primary boys and girls in this study reported obtaining a higher degree of motivation for learning about music with the help of IT than secondary students of both sexes. The potential implications of these findings for educational policy in Hong Kong are to find out how to motivate students' musical learning with the help of IT, and to make technology relevant to the content of the music programmes of primary and secondary schools.

In this qualitative case study, we used participant observation and interviews to examine Violet, a Flemish string youth orchestra. In doing so, we identify the qualities that constitute an ‘eclectic’ ensemble space, herein defined as a musical environment that uses a blend of informal and formal learning practices. Moreover, we emphasize how members benefit musically, socially, and personally from such spaces. Our findings suggest that a blend of eclectic practices create a music space that promotes social engagement, social interaction, and peer learning among members. Additionally, eclectic music spaces allow for personal development and nurture self-appreciation. An eclectic ensemble space thus provides a rich alternative to more traditional forms of music ensemble instruction.

The application of objectives to the teaching of music can be easy enough when the results expected are clearly understood in advance. However, when some of the responsibility for the outcome is placed in the hands of pupils, the formulation of objectives becomes more difficult. This article explores the problem and makes suggestions for the framing of objectives in relation to children's compositional work. In support of the argument, the findings of a short course in composing undertaken with two pupils are described with scores and taped examples serving as evidence. The article ends with suggestions for the assessment of pupils' compositions.

The purpose of this study was to document the lived experiences of flow during an optimal music performance. Fifteen undergraduate musicians (Mage = 19, 53% male) participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews, where they were asked to describe an optimal performance experience. Results from an inductive qualitative analysis revealed three main themes: environmental context, emotional connectedness and interpersonal relationships, which synthesised the optimal performance experience. The results also suggest that flow among musicians appears to be a common emotional state and similar to that conceptualised in sport. The ways a musician experiences flow are important, as these can help music educators gain a better understanding of the conceptualisation of flow within music performance. However, given the nuanced differences in the sociocultural environment of a flow experience typical in a sport or music performance, additional research into the divergences of domains may be warranted.

There has long been concern about the confidence and performance of the so-called non-specialist teacher of Music in the primary school. Although much research has focused on the long-term solution of educating student teachers, it is important that practising teachers are not forgotten. Many forms of training are available which attempt to help these teachers develop their current practice. This article looks at the effectiveness of this provision by examining a survey of teacher opinion, and suggests ways in which this may inform future practice in this vital area of teacher development.

Music is unique in its power to involve the whole person, intellectually as well as emotionally and kinaesthetically. Our ultimate aim in music education, therefore, should be to develop musical imagination and understanding. We can achieve this by making composition and improvisation the central focus of the music curriculum, with listening activities carefully related to children's work. Musical experiences in the classroom should be adventurous, challenging, joyful yet serious, taking place in an atmosphere of warm, sympathetic, tolerant, and respectful relationships. In this environment, children are more likely to value music, and to develop sensitivity not only to music, but to other people. Schools too often underestimate children's potential. In music we can help all children to experience a sense of achievement, leading to greater self-respect.

Studies in the history of music education reveal much about the place and purpose of music in the changing curriculum. In this article, the ideas of some significant British music educators of the twentieth century are considered, in an evaluation of the apparent goals of music teaching that have been articulated over the decades. The connections between rationale and practice are discussed, with published ideas placed alongside the views of contemporary teachers in a small-scale questionnaire survey. The conclusion is proposed that school music, as a small part of the child's musical identity, must be modest in its intentions but ambitious in its provision.

This study examines the change of Hong Kong's sovereignty from one particular perspective – its effect on musical education. Our purpose is to analyse how the change of sovereignty and the idea of ‘one country, two systems’ are reflected in current practices, including published materials used in Hong Kong's secondary schools. Sources of data include selected textbooks, government documents concerning educational policies and curriculum, school syllabi and relevant studies.

Schmidt (1975) postulates that motor skills are learned as schemas, which should be better learned if built up from experiencing a wide variety of actions. This variable practice hypothesis is tested in teaching string pupils selected skills, namely the ability to control loudness, tempo and intonation. Results suggest a positive conclusion in the first two instances, but are more ambivalent in the third. There is some discussion of the implications for developing effective practising skills, to help learning become more productive and interesting, and in the application of such skills to the goal of musical and expressive performance.

This study aims to provide new insights on the nature of the embodied and collaborative processes related to the emergence of new musical ideas that occur when children are composing in groups.

Data was obtained by participant observation of the teacher/researcher and by ten videotaped one-hour musical sessions dedicated to the development of a music composition by two groups of children, all of whom were eight years old.

It was found that when composing in groups a) children use embodied processes to transform what they experience on diverse realms of their existence into musical ideas, and that b) while creating music, children engage in several improvisatory moments where new ideas emerge through the diverse ways they enact the surroundings where the activity is occurring. Findings suggest a conception of music composing as a multidimensional phenomenon that entails cognitive processes that are distributed across and beyond the physical body. Findings also suggest that composing music in collaboration with others nurtures a set of creative possibilities that would otherwise, not occur. Considerations for music education theory and practice are addressed in the last section of the article.