Every year on the pre-service teacher education course with which I am associated in England, we have something we have come to refer to as ‘the notation argument’. When this happens varies, but it normally occurs fairly near the beginning of the course. In essence, what happens is that a divide opens up between those pre-service teachers who believe they need to teach western classical stave notation in isolation from other aspects of music, and that this needs to be done in advance of other musical activities, as preparation for them. The other group of pre-service trainee teachers counter this with the case that there should be some sort of a need for this knowledge, and that acquiring it in isolation is unlikely to happen anyway. This notation argument can rage, on and off, for a good proportion of the first term, depending on how the issues are dealt with, and how passionate the various advocates are.

One of the fascinating things about the articles in the BJME is that they come from many different countries, with many different music education systems in place in them. Each country has its own way of doing things, and its own way of thinking about what music education means in its own circumstance. One of the issues we face today is that with increasing globalisation unique ways of musicking can be under threat from non-indigenous commercial interests. For music education this can have implications. One of the questions that it raises is about the purposes of music education. Is music education about passing on a historic culture whose existence is threatened? Is it about learning to play western classical instruments? Is it about learning to play pop and rock music? These are not simple questions, and they do not have simple answers.

One of the common questions asked of music educators is some sort of variation on ‘music education – why bother?’

Pupil voice research has been recognised in the last 15 years for its potential to re-shape the conditions of learning and help raise child engagement and standards of achievement. In music education, however, there still seems to exist a misalignment between the content of the curriculum and pupils’ learning expectations and interests. The aim of this study was to explore pupils’ views about school music during the transition to secondary school and identify which components of their music lessons contribute to them feeling happier about music at school. The analysis of interview and questionnaire data revealed some pupils’ disillusionment about music at the beginning of secondary school when their initial high expectations about opportunities for practical musical involvement were not met.

The aim of this research was to explore the impact of the adoption of the Musical Futures approach on the musical progression of students in Musical Futures’ Champion schools. The research took place over three years in three phases with 733 students and 28 music teachers completing questionnaires. Data from the interviews with 39 staff and focus groups of 325 students provided greater insights into the questionnaire responses. Overall, teachers reported that Musical Futures had enhanced the musical progression of their students and increased take up at Key Stage 4. In some cases this had led to changes in the qualifications on offer with an emphasis on those which were vocational rather than academic. This created some tensions in catering for the needs of different groups of students who had a range of different musical skills.

Developing emotional skills is one of the challenges that concern teachers and researchers in education, since these skills promote well-being and enhance cognitive performance. Music is an excellent tool with which to express emotions and for this reason music education should play a role in individuals’ emotional development.

This paper reviews the results of previous studies that explore the connections between active engagement with music and the development of emotional skills, specifically in the field of music education. A sample of 21 investigations was analysed.

The results from the selected studies show that music has multiple benefits for the development of certain aspects of emotional skills and positive implications for education. Suggestions for music educators gathered from the previous research are presented and potential areas of interest for further exploration in the field are identified.

The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of how one classically trained musician adapted his pedagogical practices to accommodate the needs and interests of his students. A case-study methodology was employed to explore the perceptions and practices of this teacher, and data were collected over a two-year period through interviews and observations. Findings indicated that students were engaged in music-making throughout the lesson, and that many of the lesson characteristics aligned with Lucy Green's (2002, 2008) descriptions of an informal pedagogical orientation. The overarching aim of the teacher's instruction was to support students’ development of musical knowledge and skills that would enhance their learning, and to expand their understanding of musical genres and performance practices.

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 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.

This study investigates how a class of university music students who engaged in a ‘lived’ experience of informal learning adopted methods and strategies to complete a self-learning ‘aural copying’ performance assignment in a musicianship class in Hong Kong. Data were collected from observations of the performances and the students’ written reflections. The findings showed that they used the methods of intensive listening, using technology, and collaborative learning, as well as the strategies of putting their knowledge of music theory into practice, substitution of instruments, and learning a new instrument in order to emulate the sounds of various instruments. They found this an interesting task that gave them opportunities to improve their musicianship, and they became more sensitive to different voice parts.

This work aimed to analyse factors related to conceptions and beliefs about expressivity in music among students and teachers. A questionnaire with 11 Likert-type items was developed covering the main factors included in the literature of teaching-learning of expressivity and emotion in music. Through exploratory factor analysis three factors were identified: expressive technique (ET), emotional expression (EE), and self-learning of expressivity (SLE). Comparisons between teachers and students showed that teachers had significant higher scores in EE with no differences in ET or SLE, although the effect size for SLE was high. The three factors are proposed as a tool for the assessment of conceptions of expressivity and its learning in both teachers and advanced students of music for teaching and research objectives.

This paper reports on the findings related to the possible selves of males who participate in choir. It focuses on the perceptions of participants’ past, present and future identities and the way these interact to influence decisions about choir. The paper is derived from a larger study, set in Australia, which investigated the perceptions of success, notions of masculinity and the impact of possible selves on male choral participation. Four choirs of different age groups were involved: junior school, secondary school, university and community. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, surveys and observational video analysis. Findings demonstrated that the strength of possible selves was influenced by past experience and present self-perception, which impacted future projections of self and subsequent decisions about choir. The research points to the importance of providing positive and fulfilling experiences of choir in school because of its positive impact on individual well being and the active pursuit of desired goals.

This article explores how group playing by ear (GEP) through imitation of recorded material and opportunities for inventive work during peer interaction was used to support first year undergraduate western classical music students’ aural, group creativity and improvisation skills. The framework that emerged from the analysis of the data describes two routes taken by the students, whilst progressing from GEP to group improvisation and it is compared to Priest's (1989) model on playing by ear through imitation and invention. The article concludes with suggestion on how these two routes could be used to scaffold the development of western classical musicians’ improvisation skills.

Recent research on practice-based doctorates in Australia has revealed an institutional preference for ‘theorised’ research approaches aimed at situating studies of practice within established academic paradigms. In this article we examine how the aim of communicating with artistic peers steers the research design and the production of text-based artefacts for a group of practice-based doctoral students working on jazz topics (n = 11) away from theorised approaches and towards what is commonly referred to as a ‘commentary’ approach. This finding reveals the extent to which the values of an artistic community can influence the scope of what is discussed within practice-based doctorates and highlights the need for ongoing discussion related to how such values might best interface with what institutions view as best-practice research frameworks.

While studio-based instrumental and vocal learning is widely regarded as both important and effective in higher education music, research to date has offered little concrete information about studio practices that students have regarded as ineffective. Two recent case studies investigated what appear to be exceptional instances in which students expressed dissatisfaction with the approaches taken by their current teachers. In this paper, data from these studies is mined again, focusing particularly on verbal behaviour from semi-structured interviews. The two studies are compared with each other and with data from a broader study from which they had been drawn, asking how the ‘dissonant’ cases are distinct, and how student interviews might cast fresh light on the complexities of studio practices.

This article examines a unique music curriculum and assessment environment through the findings of a practical action research project carried out in secondary schools. I address two current international educational issues: the relationship between formal and informal learning in music, and how individuals’ contributions in collaborative groups might be summatively assessed. Following this I present a model of group composing and explain how it was used as a pedagogical tool in secondary music classrooms. The purpose of this was to help students and their teacher to conceptualise collaborative composing, thereby leading to a clearer understanding and more valid assessment of the processes in which they were engaged.

In the last few years expressions like European convergence, European Higher Education Area, European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System and others have become more and more usual not only in academic circles but also even in the mass media. But to what extent are these expressions valid for all knowledge areas in all EU countries? After analysing the curricula for Music Teaching Training in Spain (through the lens of J. Butler and J. Derrida) I will show the situation of precarity of this knowledge area under a postmodern perspective and how the expressions above have become non-neutral expressions sous rature that manage to preserve the rights of the already consolidated knowledge areas to the detriment of the non-consolidated ones.

Motivation is a key word in the arts and, especially, in music since it conveys collective, as well as individual, feelings. The beginning of musical instrument learning should be based on the student's musical interest but, due to the casual and improvised nature of everyday situations in which the choice of a musical instrument takes place, tend to underestimate the attention that such interest deserves. This research paper seeks to expound on the lack of knowledge by students as regards musical instruments and on the powerful influence over them by instrumentalists in their environment.

This article examines research on the specific training of musicians before they begin work as players in professional orchestras. Most of the research is in the area of education. The present article suggests that little research exists that is specific to the development of a traditional orchestra musician from an early age through the music education system, although considerable research exists on the development and broadening of the actual role of the professional musician in a changing world (portfolio careers).

The positive role of metacognition in music learning and practice is well assessed, but the role of musicians’ metacognitive skills in such a context is not yet clear. Teachers often state that they apply a metacognitive approach during their lessons, but students fail to acknowledge it and report that they become metacognitive learners thanks to their own practice. In this multiple case observational study the spontaneous metacognitive behaviour of a teacher during four piano lessons with expert and novice students was analysed. Data supported the notion that teachers use metacognitive strategies during their teaching practice, but students are not aware of this because a metacognitive focus on strategies, as well as a strong emphasis on monitoring, appears to be lacking. Teachers are also able to differentiate their teaching behaviour between expert and novice students. Students’ age, however, affects teachers’ behaviour more deeply than expertise. Implications for music education are discussed, highlighting the main issues that can be derived from the results and how they can be effectively used to enhance professional development and improve practice in music education.