Richard Addison initiated this research to evaluate the effects of his approach to the teaching and learning of music in the early school years. The project is designed to look for changes not only in music lessons but also in the general, non-musical learning and behaviour of children aged 4–8.

A team from Newcastle University is associated with Gateshead Education Authority in this research.

A description of the method is included, together with initial findings of the first year's work. These indicate significant improvements in children's musical skills, together with increased signs of confidence and co-operation in music lessons. Little evidence of change in other lessons was found.

The author outlines the philosophy and practice of the Instrumental Teaching Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. An obligatory requirement for all undergraduate students, this course was from September 1987, co-ordinated from the ILEA Music Centre by Christopher Morgan. The demise of the ILEA had, of course, been foreseen, and the various changes made to the structure of the Instrumental Teaching Course over the last two years, and the adjustment of its place in the overall curriculum, paved the way for its adoption as an in-house operation. From September 1990 the course becomes a direct responsibility of the Department of Performance and Communication skills headed by Peter Renshaw.

This article presents some arguments in favour of a student-centred learning and teaching approach for higher music education (HME), with specific reference to conservatoire settings in the United Kingdom. In support of student-centred pedagogy, theoretical modelling is undertaken to offer a model of motivation accounting for both individual and group learning environments, thus drawing together diverse pedagogical research into learner “self-efficacy,” “distributive” classroom agency and partnership models of learning and teaching. Based on the author’s own teaching practice with MA Music students at Leeds Conservatoire, two student-centred classroom strategies are outlined: Critical Response Process (CRP) and practice as research. These strategies are evaluated via theoretical and, in the case of CRP, primary research data from a questionnaire presented to MA Music students reflecting on their experience. Finally, an overarching student-centred framework for HME course design is proposed, cross-mapping different learning activities, knowledge paradigms and forms of motivation based on the previous discussion.

During the Whitlam years, tertiary education burgeoned in Australia. Colleges of Advanced Education, most of them transformed Teachers' Colleges and unconvinced that their coaches would not turn out to be pumpkins after all, sprang up and/or expanded in city and country districts in all states. A national study carried out in 1977 showed that tertiary music and music education was everywhere healthy and in some places flourishing. In 1980 the Razor Gang went on a surgical rampage, perpetrating amalgamations in the name of economy on the GAEs, and forcing many of them into alliances as unwieldy as they were unholy. In 1987 a national review involving universities as well as GAEs was launched.

Elizabeth Silsbury's article traces those changes, describes their effect on music and takes a punt on what might happen when the dust settles for the third time in less than 20 years.

So far, the ever-increasing popularity of music technology has had little effect on the way we conduct performance studies. However, with the appearance of Computer Controlled Player Pianos, such as the Yamaha Disklavier and Bosendorfer SE, the technology is just waiting to be used. In this article, the authors examine various ways in which this technology can be used to enhance traditional methods of piano teaching.

The Gulbenkian Report (1982) highlighted the need for bridges to be built between performing artists, arts organisations, teachers and pupils. The London Sinfonietta Education Programme can be seen as an exemplar in this respect; it is not perceived as merely an arm of marketing, but seeks to be an educational resource in itself providing children with a rich rewarding experience that fosters not only musical skills but also transferable social and life skills.

The GCSE was greeted by many teachers and educationists as a major reform in music education. A survey of students who proceeded to advanced musical study since taking the examination has revealed less enthusiasm. Whilst appreciating its practical and creative character, the majority perceived the GCSE as an inadequate preparation for the demands of subsequent courses, particularly A-level. The survey also reveals a mismatch between the broad and balanced view of music which the GCSE seeks to promote and the somewhat narrower view of the subject held by many students.

The work of American music educator Satis Coleman is little known. In the first half of this century she devised a music education programme that led children through music instrument making and playing, singing, moving and creating to develop a ‘seeking attitude’ to music and to life. Many of her ideas are pertinent today and her work seems, in many respects, far ahead of its time.

In 1910, Victoria established an elite form of state secondary education that remained essentially unchanged until the introduction of a progressive curriculum during the late 1960s. This radical and voluntary curriculum introduced child-centred learning and personal development skills to state secondary schools. Many state secondary music teachers took advantage of the reform and introduced the English creative music movement (Rainbow, 1989). As music teachers were unfamiliar with progressive education they would require extensive retraining. Continual disruption to state secondary education during the 1970s, together with the lack of expertise in progressive music education in the Victorian Education Department led to music teachers being given little assistance in developing strategies for teaching creative music. No rationale was developed for creative music education until the late 1980s. As research in music education was in its infancy in Australia during the late 1960s, teachers had little understanding of the difficulties faced by many creative music teachers in England in regard to students developing traditional skills, for example music notation and performance-based skills. Dissatisfaction with progressive education led to the introduction of standards-based education in 1995. Progressive educational theories were no longer considered an important goal. Similar to the late 1960s Victorian education reforms, music teachers received little assistance from the Victorian Education Department. The introduction of standards-based Arts education has seriously reduced the teaching of classroom music throughout the state, leaving many classroom music programmes in a perilous position that is analogous to state music education before the introduction of progressive education in the late 1960s.

Drawing on the work of the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend, this paper argues that the popular yet mistaken notion of scientific method has had a deleterious effect on music education by discouraging us from embracing conflict or pursuing counterinductive ways of thinking about music. Feyerabend argues that knowledge advances not according to principles traditionally associated with scientific method, but rather as a result of ad hoc hypotheses, counterinduction, and contradictions that are recognised between partly overlapping theories that are mutually inconsistent. Ignoring this truth results in the erasure of all but abstract forms of knowledge acquired through methodical investigation, which occurs when educators put all of their faith in method and ignore musical knowledge that escapes articulation or measurement. Yet tacit or informal musical knowledge can be seen as the artistic equivalent of the ad hoc propositions that are required, ultimately, to advance knowledge.

In 1942 the McNair Committee was appointed to consider the ‘supply, recruitment and training of teachers and youth leaders and to report what principles should guide the Board in these matters in the future’. Special attention was given to the needs of music teachers, and the proposals put forward by the Committee provided the framework for the pattern of training for the next 30 years. This article considers the reactions of the Ministry of Education, the Royal Schools of Music and the Incorporated Society of Musicians, making extensive use of archive material. Comparisons are drawn with the training received by music teachers today, with a call for further discussion of the essential skills necessary for effective music teaching.

Fifteen-sixteen years old Fenno–Swedish compulsory school pupils' written descriptions of ‘strong’ experiences were used for comparing (a) the frequency of experiences related to music and to other aesthetic areas (literature, drama etc.) and (b) the frequencies of music experiences related to different basic modes of confronting music: receptively (listening to live or technically reproduced music) or by productive activities (performing etc). In at least moderately urbanised regions, music was the art area most frequently evoking experiences. The ‘non-art’ area of nature was also important especially in some female and rural subgroups. Most music experiences related to listening, but a fifth involved performance activities. Among other things, attention was directed to the role of the school in preparing its pupils for music experiences, to the importance of productive activities, and to some problems regarding the efficiency of audiovisual media to evoke music experiences.

In the present case study, we used observation and interviews to investigate the musical experience of a group of children of 3–4 years old. We look into the uniqueness of music in the child’s environment which belongs to the media, family and school contexts. The present study allows us to understand some implications of musical experiences for building social identity and the need to link formal music learning processes with those taking place in non-formal and informal spaces. Through this paper, we provide a vicarious experience that will enable the reader to understand our findings and raise new questions and interpretations.