VOCAL, INSTRUMENTAL, AND

ENSEMBLE LEARNING AND TEACHING

VOCAL, INSTRUMENTAL, AND
ENSEMBLE LEARNING AND
TEACHING
AN OXFORD HANDBOOK OF MUSIC
EDUCATION

VOLUME 3

Edited by
Gary E. McPherson
and Graham F. Welch
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McPherson, Gary. | Welch, Graham (Graham F.)
Title: Vocal, instrumental, and ensemble learning and teaching : an Oxford handbook of
music education, Volume 3 / edited by Gary E. McPherson and Graham F. Welch.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018002744 | ISBN 9780190674625 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190674649
(epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Music—Instruction and study.
Classification: LCC MT1 .O933 2018 | DDC 780.71—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018002744
 CONTENTS

Contributors
Introduction to Volume 3

PART 1 VOCAL AND CHORAL MUSIC

Part Editor: John Nix
1. Commentary: Vocal and Choral music
John Nix
2. Solo Voice Pedagogy
Jean Callaghan, Shirlee Emmons, and Lisa Popeil
3. Group and Ensemble Vocal Music
Sten Ternström, Harald Jers, and John Nix
4. The Young Singer
Kenneth H. Phillips, Jenevora Williams, and Robert Edwin
5. The Older Singer
Robert T. Sataloff and Jane W. Davidson
6. Voice Health and Vocal Education
John Nix and Nelson Roy

PART 2 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Part Editor: Susan Hallam
7. Commentary: Instrumental Music
Susan Hallam
8. Processes of Instrumental Learning: The Development of
Musical Expertise
Susan Hallam and Alfredo Bautista
9. Practice
 Andreas C. Lehmann and Harald Jørgensen
10. The Changing Face of Individual Instrumental Tuition:
Value, Purpose, and Potential
Andrea Creech and Helena Gaunt
11. Building Musicianship in the Instrumental Classroom
Robert A. Duke and James L. Byo
12. Psychological and Physiological Aspects of Learning to
Perform
Ioulia Papageorgi and Reinhard Kopiez
13. Musical Instrument Learning, Music Ensembles, and
Musicianship in a Global and Digital Age
Michael Webb and Frederick A. Seddon
14. The Role of Bodily Movement in Learning and Performing
Music: Applications for Education
Jane W. Davidson

PART 3 ENSEMBLES
Part Editor: Jere T. Humphreys
15. Commentary: Ensembles
Jere T. Humphreys
16. The Sociology and Policy of Ensembles
John W. Richmond
17. North American School Ensembles
William R. Lee with Michael D. Worthy
18. Once from the Top: Reframing the Role of the Conductor in
Ensemble Teaching
Steven J. Morrison and Steven M. Demorest
19. Community Music Ensembles
Don D. Coffman and Lee Higgins
20. Youth Orchestras
Margaret Kartomi
21. Popular Music Ensembles
 Carlos Xavier Rodriguez
22. Pathways to Learning and Teaching Indigenous and World
Music Ensembles
Robert Burke and Sam Evans

Index
 CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Alfredo Bautista is a Research Scientist and Lecturer at Singapore’s

National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University.
His research focuses on teacher learning and professional development and
the analysis of exemplary instructional practices. He currently works with
kindergarten, primary, and secondary in-service teachers and his main
content areas of interest are Mathematics, Music, and the Arts. Alfredo
completed his music studies at Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de
Madrid (Spain), where he obtained two undergraduate degrees: Classical
Piano Performance (2001) and Music Theory and Improvisation (2002). He
also studied Psychology (with emphasis on Teaching and Learning) at
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he earned his undergraduate
(2004), master’s (2007), and doctoral (2009) degrees. After completing his
PhD, Alfredo worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (2009–2010) and at Tufts University,
Boston, United States (2011–2013). He joined NIE in October 2013, where
he currently run several research projects as Principal Investigator and Co-
Principal Investigator.
Robert Burke (PhD Monash University) is Coordinator of Jazz and
Popular Studies at Monash University. An improvising musician, Rob has
performed and composed on over 200 CDs and has toured extensively
throughout Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States over the last 30
years. He has also released 11 CDs under his own name and has focused on
creating research, educational, and artistic ties with institutions, researchers,
and musicians in Italy, the United States (New York), Sweden, and Brazil.
Rob has recorded with George Lewis, Dave Douglas, Enrico Rava,
Hermeto Pascoal, Kenny Werner, Mark Helias, Ben Monder, Tom Rainey,
Nasheet Waites, George Garzone, Paul Grabowsky, Tony Gould, Johannes
Weidenmueller, Debasis Chackroborty, Paulo Angeli, and Richie Barshay.
Rob’s research is mainly focused on practice-based artistic research, (jazz,
improvisation, and jazz pedagogy) having written papers, chapters, and
books and convened conferences in these areas of research.
James L. Byo is the Carl Prince Matthies Professor and Head of Music
Education at Louisiana State University, where he is a University
Distinguished Teaching Professor. His research in teacher and conductor
effectiveness appears in major research journals and texts. Dr. Byo has
served as editor of Update: Applications of Research in Music Education,
chair of the research division of the World Association of Symphonic Bands
and Ensembles, and on the editorial committee of the Journal of Research in
Music Education. Currently, he is the program evaluator for the National
String Project Consortium. A former public school band and orchestra
conductor in Wooster, Ohio, he holds music education and oboe
performance degrees. He was a student of John Mack of the Cleveland
Orchestra and for eight seasons performed professionally with the
Youngstown (OH) Symphony Orchestra.
Jean Callaghan holds an English Trinity College Fellowship and an
Australian Licentiate in singing performance and has worked
internationally as a singer. She completed undergraduate and research
master’s degrees at the University of Western Australia, and a doctorate of
philosophy at the University of Western Sydney. After many years as an
academic, she now works freelance as teacher, researcher, and consultant in
vocal performance and pedagogy. Her research interests are
interdisciplinary and concern vocal pedagogy and the relationship between
music and language. Her book, Singing & Science: Body, Brain & Voice,
explores the relationship between voice science and vocal pedagogy. She
was part of the research team that developed the Sing&SeeTM software and
author, with Pat Wilson, of the extensive teachers’ manual How to Sing &
See. She has served as president of the Australian National Association of
Teachers of Singing, the Australian Voice Association, and the Australian
Association for Research in Music Education.
Don D. Coffman, Professor of Music Education, chairs the Department of
Music Education and Music Therapy at the University of Miami’s Frost
School of Music and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa, where
he taught for 24 years. He has chaired the Community Music Activity
Commission of the International Society for Music Education and the Adult
and Community Music Education Special Research Interest Group of the
National Association for Music Education (NAfME). He has served on
NAfME’s Society for Research in Music Education Executive Committee
and two terms on the editorial board of NAfME’s Journal of Research in
Music Education. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of
Community Music and the Editor of Research Perspectives in Music
Education. His passion is making music with “chronologically gifted”
adults in wind bands. He received his PhD and B.M. degrees from the
University of Kansas, and his M.M. from Wichita State University.
Dr. Andrea Creech is Professor of Didactique Instrumentale at the Faculty
of Music, Université Laval, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in
music in community. Following an international orchestral and teaching
career, Andrea was awarded a PhD in Psychology in Education from the
Institute of Education, University of London. Andrea has presented at
international conferences and published widely on topics concerned with
musical development and lifelong learning and participation in the arts,
including the Music for Life Project, funded by the UK Research Councils
and winner of the Royal Society for Public Health’s award for research in
Arts and Health, 2014. She is Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education
Academy and Graduate Member of the British Psychological Association.
Andrea is Editor of Psychology of Music, author of Active Ageing with
Music, and coeditor of Music Education in the 21st Century in the United
Kingdom.
Professor Jane W. Davidson is Deputy Director of the Australian Research
Council’s Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and Associate
Dean Engagement and Partnerships and Professor of Creative and
Performing Arts at The University of Melbourne. Academic interests
include arts and health development across the lifespan, emotion,
expression, and historically informed performance practices, and vocal
studies. She publishes in the disciplines of music psychology and education
and history of emotions, as well as reflective practice research. She has
worked as an opera singer and director, collaborating with groups such as
Opera North UK and the West Australian Opera Company.
Steven M. Demorest received his undergraduate degree from Luther
College, a master’s degree in choral conducting from Westminster Choir
College, and a PhD in curriculum and instruction from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. He is a professor of music education at Northwestern
University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral
music methods, music cognition, research methods, and philosophy. His
research interests include the cognitive, neurological, and social
foundations of inaccurate singing, the cultural neuroscience of music, and
choral musicianship. Recent publications include Choral Music Methods
and Materials (2nd ed.) with Barbara Brinson and a chapter with Ani Patel
in Diana Deutsch’s The Psychology of Music (3rd ed.). His research has
been published in scholarly journals from the music education, music
cognition, and cognitive neuroscience fields. He serves on the editorial
boards of Music Perception and the International Journal of Research on
Choral Singing.
Robert A. Duke is the Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Professor
and Head of Music and Human Learning at The University of Texas at
Austin, where he is the University of Texas System Distinguished Teaching
Professor, Elizabeth Shatto Massey Distinguished Fellow in Teacher
Education, and Director of the Center for Music Learning. He is also a
Clinical Professor in the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas and
director of the psychology of learning program at the Colburn Conservatory
of Music in Los Angeles.
Robert Edwin studied theater, English, and speech at Montclair State
College before completing a BA in humanities at Thomas Edison State
College. A seminal authority on contemporary commercial music (CCM)
and child voice pedagogy, he preaches what he practices at his independent
studio in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, United States. His diverse performing
career is matched by an equally diverse teaching career. He has served on
the voice faculties of the University of Michigan, the New Jersey School of
the Arts, and New Jersey’s Burlington and Camden County Colleges. He is
a frequent faculty member of the Voice Foundation’s Annual Symposium:
Care of the Professional Voice, and is an active member of the distinguished
American Academy of Teachers of Singing. He continues to serve as an
Associate Editor of The Journal of Singing, shepherding the “Popular Song
and Music Theater” column.
Shirlee Emmons died on April 16, 2010, soon after completing her
contribution to the OHME. Emmons’ career began with winning the Marian
Anderson Award, followed by a national tour with Lauritz Melchior, the
United States and Canadian concert and opera appearances, engagements
with major New York City choruses, and wining an Obie for the lead in
Thomson’s The Mother of Us All. Following her performing career, she
taught for 35 years at Columbia/Barnard College, Princeton, Boston
University, and Rutgers. She also maintained a private studio in New York.
Students included Hei-Kyung Hong and Harolyn Blackwell. She authored
five books: The Art of the Song Recital; Tristanissimo: the Authorized
Biography of Heroic Tenor Lauritz Melchior; Power Performance for
Singers; Researching the Song; and Prescriptions for Choral Excellence.
She presented workshops and master classes in 34 U.S. states, Korea, and
Canada. She was a past chair of the American Academy of Teachers of
Singing.
Sam Evans studied traditional tabla drumming for a decade in India with
Pandit Anindo Chatterjee and later with Ustad Zakir Hussian in the United
States. He completed a bachelor of music with honors and a master’s in
music performance in tabla drumming at Monash University in Melbourne.
He is the founder of the Melbourne Tabla School and teaches Indian and
world music at Monash University. As a regular international performer, he
has toured throughout India performing on television, radio, and in concert.
He is renowned for his world music ensembles and his music has been
featured on CD alongside Ravi Shankar and Nitin Sawheny. His research
interests have focused on the broadening awareness of tabla in the Western
world, specifically the development and implementation of a syllabus for
the instrument at secondary and tertiary levels in Australia, with the
creation of a hybridized notation system for the instrument. In 2013, he was
awarded the prestigious Sir James McNeil Scholarship to complete a
performance based PhD focusing on the development of contemporary tabla
repertoire.
Professor Helena Gaunt is Vice Principal and Director of Guildhall
Innovation at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and a Lector in
Music, Education, and Society at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague.
She is a National Teaching Fellow and Principal Fellow of the Higher
Education Academy. Research interests include one-to-one
instrumental/vocal tuition in music, ensemble practices and collaborative
learning in the performing arts, and creative entrepreneurship. She is Chair
of the Innovative Conservatoire (ICON), an international partnership
dedicated to curriculum and leadership development in specialist music
education. She is also coeditor of Music Performance Research and a
member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Music Education.
Alongside research, she is an oboist, was a member of the Britten Sinfonia
for many years, and is a Trustee of the National Youth Orchestra of Great
Britain.
Susan Hallam MBE studied at the Royal Academy of Music before
becoming Principal Second Violin in the BBC Midland Light Orchestra and
Deputy Leader of Orchestra da Camera. Following further study in
psychology she became an academic. She is currently Emerita Professor of
Education and Music Psychology at the Institute of Education, University
of London. Her research interests are disaffection from school, behavior,
attendance, ability grouping, homework, learning and performance in
music, issues relating to music education and the wider impact of music on
other skills. She has published extensively in relation to music psychology
and music education including Instrumental Teaching: A Practical Guide to
Better Teaching and Learning (1998), The Power of Music (2001, 2014)
Music Psychology in Education (2005), and Preparing for Success: A
Practical Guide for Young Musicians (with Helena Gaunt) (2012). She is
also coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Psychology of Music (2009, 2016)
and Music Education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom.
Professor Lee Higgins is the Director of the International Centre of
Community Music based at York St John University, United Kingdom. He
has held previously positions at Boston University, United States, Liverpool
Institute for Performing Arts, United Kingdom, and the University of
Limerick, Ireland. Lee has been a visiting professor at Ludwig Maximilian
University, Munich, Germany and Westminster Choir College, Princeton,
United States. He received his PhD from the Irish Academy of Music and
Dance, Ireland, and is the President of International Society of Music
Education (2016–2018). As a community musician, he has worked across
the education sector as well as within health settings, the prison and
probation service, youth and community, adult education, and arts
organizations such as orchestras and dance. As a presenter and guest
speaker, Lee has worked on four continents in university, school, and
nongovernmental organization settings. He is the senior editor for the
International Journal of Community Music and was author of Community
Music: In Theory and in Practice (2012, Oxford University Press), coauthor
of Engagement in Community Music (2017, Routledge) and coeditor of The
Oxford Handbook of Community Music (2017).
Jere T. Humphreys holds degrees in music education and clarinet
performance from the University of Mississippi, Florida State University,
and the University of Michigan. A professor of music at Arizona State
University, he is a versatile researcher with over 175 publications and 18
keynote and other major speeches worldwide. He has advised 43
dissertations (including several award winners), worked professionally in
31 countries on six continents, sat on editorial committees of 16 scholarly
journals (editor of one), and was a member of the Senior Editorial Board
and the contributing editor for music education for the Grove Dictionary of
American Music (2nd ed.). He has received three Fulbright
Scholar/Specialist grants and three research awards, including the
prestigious MENC Senior Researcher Award from The National
Association for Music Education. He is a long-time volunteer construction
house leader and fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity and serves on the
boards of several professional and community organizations.
Harald Jers is professor for choral conducting at the University of Music
Mannheim and guest lecturer at several music academies in Germany. He
received diplomas in conducting at the Robert Schumann University of
Music, Düsseldorf, in music education/solo-singing at the Cologne
University of Music, and in physics at the RWTH Aachen University. As a
conductor of orchestras and choirs, he has made concert tours through
Europe, Asia and the United States. He teaches choral conducting and voice
training with special interdisciplinary research interest in choir and room
acoustics. Furthermore, he is a lecturer at international symposia,
respectively conferences, and is a jury member at choir competitions. With
his founded chamber choirs, chamber choir CONSONO, among others, he
called attention with TV and radio broadcasts, CD publications, and diverse
first prizes at several most respected international choir competitions and
was awarded a first prize by the Acoustical Society of America in musical
acoustics.
Harald Jørgensen is Professor Emeritus of Education at the Norwegian
Academy of Music, Oslo. He has been Rektor (Principal) of the institution
1983–1989 and 2002–2005, Head of Research and Development 1995–
2002, and Head of the PhD program 2006–2008. He has published several
books on issues of research, music education, and psychology of music in
Norway, edited books published in English, published several articles in
international journals and handbooks, given presentations at international
conferences, and been a member of and chaired national and international
committees on issues relevant for music education, especially higher music
education. His special research interests include instrumental practice and
research into higher music education. In 2009, he published the book
Research into Higher Music Education. An Overview from a Quality
Improvement Perspective.
Margaret Kartomi undertook her doctorate in musicology at Humboldt
University. She served as president of the Musicological Society of
Australia (MSA), director-at-large of the International Musicological
Society, and is professor of music at Monash University. Her publications
include over one hundred articles and books and she is on the editorial
board of numerous musicology journals. Kartomi is a Fellow of the
Australian Academy of the Humanities and a Member of the Order of
Australia. In 2012, she received the title “Beautiful Queen Jewel” from the
Governor of Lampung for her research on the music of the Indonesian
province. In 2016, she received the Cultural Award for Traditional
Indonesian Arts from the Indonesian Director-General of Culture and the
International Fumio Koizumi Prize for Ethnomusicology as well as the Don
and Joan Squires Award from the MSA and the Sir Bernhard Heinze
Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to Australian music.
Reinhard Kopiez received a degree in classical guitar from the School of
Music in Cologne, and a master’s and PhD in musicology from the
Technical University in Berlin. He is professor of music psychology at the
Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Germany and head of the
Hanover Music Lab. His latest journal publications concern psychological
research on the relationship between music performance and handedness,
historiometric analyses of Clara Schumann’s repertoire, and music and
emotion. He is coeditor of the German standard handbook on music
psychology (Handbuch Musikpsychologie, 2017, Hogrefe). From 2001–
2005, he was president of the German Society for Music Psychology
(DGM). From 2010–2012, he was president of ESCOM.
William R. Lee earned a master’s degree in composition from the
University of Georgia and a doctorate in music education from the
University of Kentucky. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga where he was professor and coordinator of music
education and taught undergraduate methods and graduate research. His
research interests are in the history of music education with emphasis on the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He has published extensively,
including multiple entries in the New Grove Dictionary of American Music
(2nd ed.). He served as national chair of the History Research Special
Interest Group of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) and
on the editorial committees of the Journal of Research in Music Education
and the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education (JHRME). He is
book review editor of the JHRME and edits a veterans’ historical journal.
His numerous awards include a DAAD fellowship in Germany, a biennial
Distinguished Service Award from the MENC History Research Special
Interest Group, and an election to the Tennessee Music Education
Association Hall of Fame.
Andreas C. Lehmann holds a master’s degree in music education and a
PhD in musicology from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover,
Germany. He conducted postdoctoral research in psychology at the Florida
State University, Tallahassee. He is currently professor of Systematic
Musicology at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, Germany. He is
associate editor of Musicae Scientiae, on the editorial board of JRME, and
vice-president of the German society for music psychology. He teaches in
the area of music psychology and related topics. His research interests
concern the structure and acquisition of high levels of instrumental music
performance skill (sight-reading, practice, generative processes), historical
studies on the development of expertise, and a broad range of topics in
music education (e.g., competency modelling, amateur music making, and
participation).
Gary E. McPherson studied music education at the Sydney
Conservatorium of Music, before completing a master of music education at
Indiana University, a doctorate of philosophy at the University of Sydney,
and a Licentiate and Fellowship in trumpet performance through Trinity
College, London. He is the Ormond Professor and Director of the
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and has served as National President
of the Australian Society for Music Education and President of the
International Society for Music Education. His research interests are broad
and his approach interdisciplinary. His most important research examines
the acquisition and development of musical competence, and motivation to
engage and participate in music from novice to expert levels. With a
particular interest in the acquisition of visual, aural, and creative
performance skills, he has attempted to understand more precisely how
music students become sufficiently motivated and self-regulated to achieve
at the highest level.
Steven J. Morrison completed his undergraduate study in music education
at Northwestern University and subsequently received a master of music
degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a doctorate of
philosophy at Louisiana State University. He is professor of music and chair
of music education at the University of Washington, director of the
Laboratory for Music Cognition, Culture, and Learning, and is director of
the university’s Symphonic Band. In addition to his teaching area of
instrumental music education, his published research addresses neurological
responses to music listening, cultural variables in music perception and
cognition, integration of aural and visual information in performance
evaluation, and use of expressive gesture and modeling in ensemble
instruction. He is editor of the Journal of Research in Music Education and
was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences
and Humanities at the University of Cambridge.
John Nix, Tenor, is Associate Professor of Voice and Vocal Pedagogy at the
University of Texas at San Antonio, United States. Mr. Nix has been a
faculty member at The University of Colorado–Denver and Eastern New
Mexico University, and worked for 4 years at the National Center for Voice
and Speech with Ingo Titze. He holds degrees in Arts Administration from
Florida State University, in Vocal Performance from the University of
Georgia and the University of Colorado–Boulder, and Certification in
Vocology from the University of Iowa. At Colorado, he studied voice and
pedagogy with the late Barbara Doscher and the Alexander Technique with
James Brody. Current and former students have sung with the Santa Fe
Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Omaha,
Arizona Opera, Nevada Opera, San Antonio Opera, The Soldiers’ Chorus,
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, and
include faculty members at universities in Montana, Texas, Wyoming, and
New York. He has won research grants from The Grammy Foundation and
NIH, and was awarded the 2006 Van Lawrence Award by NATS and The
Voice Foundation. He has published more than 25 articles and edited or
contributed to 5 books.
Ioulia Papageorgi is the Director of the University of Nicosia Teaching
and Learning Institute (UNTLI) and an Associate Professor in the
Department of Social Sciences at the University of Nicosia. She is a Fellow
of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a Chartered Psychologist
(CPsychol), and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
(AFBPsS). Ioulia has served on the board of Cyprus Psychologists’
Association (2015–2017 as Vice-President; 2013–2015 as Treasurer), on the
Board of Educational Affairs of the European Federation of Psychologists’
Associations (EFPA) (2013–), as well as the Committee of Society for
Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE) (2014–). She
previously held the position of Lecturer and Coordinating Research Officer
at UCL Institute of Education, University of London (2006–2011), and of
Associate Lecturer at the Open University, United Kingdom (2009–2011).
Her research interests focus on test anxiety, psychometric testing, the
psychology of performance, the development of expertise, and the
association between music training and cognitive development in children.
She has presented her work in many international conferences and has
several publications in a peer-reviewed journals and books. Her first book
focused on the development of advanced expertise in musical performance
(Advanced Musical Performance: Investigations in Higher Education
Learning, Ashgate, 2014).
Kenneth H. Phillips, PhD, is Professor Emeritus, The University of Iowa,
and former Director of Graduate Music Education at Gordon College. An
award-winning researcher in the area of child and adolescent vocal
pedagogy, he is the author of four books, numerous reviews, chapters, and
professional journal articles. Two of his books are now in second edition
(Teaching Kids to Sing, 1992/2014, Schirmer/Cengage, and Directing the
Choral Music Program, 2004/2016, OUP). Professor Phillips is the
recipient of numerous outstanding teaching awards from The University of
Iowa, and is recognized by NAfME as one of the nation’s most
accomplished music educators (Teaching Music, October 2000). Phillips is
the recipient of the Robert M. McCowen Memorial Award for Outstanding
Contribution to Choral Music (the highest honor given by the Iowa Choral
Directors Association), the Distinguished Music Alumni Award from Kent
State University, and serves as honorary board member of the Lowell
Mason Foundation.
Lisa Popeil has studied piano, voice, and composition, earned a Master of
Fine Arts degree in voice from California Institute of the Arts and has
taught professionally for over 40 years. Ms. Popeil is the creator of the
Voiceworks® Method for singers, the “Total Singer” DVD, the “Daily
Vocal Workout for Pop Singers” CD, and is coauthor of the book Sing
Anything—Mastering Vocal Styles. As a professional singer, Lisa has
performed and recorded with the Pasadena Symphony, Frank Zappa, and
“Weird Al” Yankovic, and her self-titled pop album was a Billboard “Top
Album Pick.” Her voice research projects have focused on belting voice
production, vibrato, vocal registers, and the comparison of classical and
commercial vocal genres. Ms. Popeil is a member of many organizations,
including the Voice Foundation (on the Advisory Board), the National
Association of Teachers of Singing, SAG/AFTRA (Screen Actors
Guild/American Federation of TV and Radio Artists), ASCAP (American
Society of Composers and Publishers), and is a voting member of NARAS
(National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences—the Grammy®
organization).
John W. Richmon dearned a bachelor’s degree in music education from
William Jewell College (MO), a master’s degree in conducting from the
University of Missouri at Kansas City, and a PhD in music education from
Northwestern University. He is a professor and dean of the College of
Music at the University of North Texas, America’s second largest public-
university music program. His published research focuses on arts education
policy and philosophy, with particular interests in education litigation,
ethics, and the convergence of aesthetic and religious experience. He served
as conference director for the 1994 World Conference of the International
Society for Music Education. He was editor of the policy/philosophy
section of the New Handbook of Research in Music Teaching and Learning
(2002) and wrote its chapter on “Law Research and Music Education.” He
has also written about composition pedagogy in Composing Our Future:
Preparing Music Educators to Teach Composition (Kaschub & Smith, eds.,
2012). Richmond served two consecutive terms on the National Association
of Schools of Music Commission on Accreditation.
Carlos Xavier Rodriguez holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance
from Pitzer College, a master’s degree in music education from UCLA, and
a doctor of philosophy degree in music education from Northwestern
University. He is currently associate professor of music education at the
University of Michigan, and has held previous appointments at the
University of South Florida, University of Iowa, and the Ohio State
University. He has published articles and presented papers nationally and
internationally on musical development, music cognition, creative thinking,
and popular music and culture. A leading authority on popular music in
music education, his work emphasizes ways to broaden conceptualizations
of musicality and support increased creative thinking in music. He has
edited collections on popular music and ethics in music education, and the
book Coming of Age: Teaching and Learning Popular Music in Academia
(2017). He is an experienced practitioner, working in local public schools
and the community as a musician and educator.
Nelson Roy received his doctorate in communication disorders in 1997
from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He completed his
undergraduate and master’s degree education in Speech-Language
Pathology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Currently, he is
Professor of Speech-Language Pathology in the Department of
Communication Sciences & Disorders at the University of Utah. His
research focuses on the assessment and management of voice disorders in
adults including: (1) epidemiology of voice and swallowing disorders,
including high-risk groups such as school teachers, the elderly, and those
with autoimmune conditions, (2) treatment outcomes research in voice and
other speech/language disorders, (3) developing an objective, acoustic
index of dysphonia severity, (4) establishing a clinical diagnostic algorithm
to improve differential diagnosis of muscle tension dysphonia and
spasmodic dysphonia, (5) assessing the phonatory and laryngoscopic effects
of acute, external superior laryngeal nerve denervation, and most recently
(6) voice-related healthcare services, practice patterns, and costs.
Robert T. Sataloff is professor and chairman at the Department of
Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and senior associate dean for
Clinical Academic Specialties at the Drexel University College of
Medicine, and on the faculty of the Academy of Vocal Arts. He is also a
professional singer and singing teacher, and conductor of the Thomas
Jefferson University Choir. He has written over 1,000 publications,
including 61 books. His medical practice is limited to care of the
professional voice and to otology, neurotology, and skull base surgery. He is
chairman of the Board of Directors of the Voice Foundation and of the
American Institute for Voice and Ear Research. He is editor-in-chief of the
Journal of Voice, editor-in-chief of Ear, Nose and Throat Journal, associate
editor of the Journal of Singing, and on the editorial boards of numerous
otolaryngology journals.
Frederick A. Seddon studied music education at the University of Keele
before completing a master’s and doctorate in music psychology also at the
University of Keele. He also gained a certificate in instrumental teaching
from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. During the past
10 years, he has completed several research contracts related to music
education and music psychology and is currently an enterprise researcher at
the University of Northampton, United Kingdom. He conducted research
into music education and psychology at the universities of Keele, Reading,
Open University, United Kingdom, and the University of Padua, Italy. His
research interests include the impact of formal musical training on musical
creativity and investigating musical communication between small groups
of jazz and classical musicians. His current research investigates the impact
of enterprise skills programs on perceived self-efficacy and attitude to
enterprise in the unemployed.
Sten Ternström received his Ms.Sc.E.E. from KTH in Stockholm, joined
the Music Acoustics group there in 1982, and became its professor in 2003.
His PhD thesis Acoustical Aspects of Choir Singing was the first major text
on this subject, on which he has continued to publish occasionally. His
research interests center on analysis and simulation of the human voice
from scientific, clinical, and pedagogical perspectives. Ternström teaches
acoustics and audio technology in the School of Computer Science and
Communication at KTH. He is an associate editor of Acta Acustica united
with Acustica, a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and serves on
several editorial boards.
Michael Webb initially qualified in music education then completed a
performance degree at the Sydney Conservatorium while studying
ethnomusicology. After gaining 6 years of cross-cultural teaching
experience in Papua New Guinea, he undertook postgraduate studies in
ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he
undertook his MA and PhD. A decade of secondary school music teaching
in western Sydney followed. He currently lectures in pre-service music
education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the University of
Sydney. His research has examined expanding concepts of musicianship as
well as multimodal literacy, and he has published on the potential of
YouTube for music education. He is a coauthor of the Oxford University
Press Global Music Series volume, Music in Pacific Island Cultures (2012)
and continues to undertake field work in Melanesia. Since 2007, he has also
written on contemporary Australian jazz.
Graham F. Welch holds the University College London (UCL) Institute of
Education Established Chair of Music Education. He is elected Chair of the
internationally based Society for Education, Music and Psychology
Research (SEMPRE), a former President of the International Society for
Music Education (ISME), and past co-chair of the Research Commission of
ISME. Current Visiting Professorships include the Universities of
Queensland (Australia), Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and
Liverpool (United Kingdom). He is an ex-member of the UK Arts and
Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Review College for music and has
been a specialist consultant for Government departments and agencies in
the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, the United States, Ukraine, the UAE,
South Africa, and Argentina. Publications number over 350 and embrace
musical development and music education, teacher education, the
psychology of music, singing and voice science, and music in special
education and disability. Publications are in English, Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian, Swedish, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese.
Dr. Jenevora Williams is a leading exponent in the field of vocal health
and singing teaching. After a successful career in Opera, Jenevora turned
her attention to investigating healthy and efficient vocal function. The
combination of academic study and practical experience has resulted in a
unique perception for understanding the human voice. She was the first
singing teacher to be awarded a PhD in voice science in the United
Kingdom, and won the 2010 BVA Van Lawrence Prize for her outstanding
contribution to voice research. Her book, Teaching Singing to Children and
Young Adults, has been enormously popular with singing teachers
throughout the world. She is well-known for her imaginative and rigorous
training courses for singing teachers in the United Kingdom and Europe. As
a teacher of singing, she works with professional singers of all ages, as well
as working in Vocal Rehabilitation for BAPAM and the NHS.
Michael D. Worthy holds a bachelor of music education degree and a
master of music degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, and
a PhD in music education from the University of Texas at Austin. He is an
associate professor of music at the University of Mississippi in Oxford,
where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in instrumental
methods, wind literature, and research methods, and directs the
Mississippians Jazz Ensemble. His interests include music education,
teacher preparation, and rehearsal techniques. His research has been
published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin of the
Council for Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher
Education, and Teaching Music, and he was a contributor to the second
edition of the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. He is an editor of
the Southern Music Education Journal and a member of MENC: The
National Association for Music Education.
 INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 3

VOCAL, INSTRUMENTAL, AND ENSEMBLE LEARNING AND TEACHING: AN

OXFORD HANDBOOK OF MUSIC EDUCATION

Since 2012, when the Oxford Handbook of Music Education (OHME) was
first published, it has offered a comprehensive overview of many facets of
musical experience in relation to behavior and development within
educational or educative contexts, broadly conceived. These contexts may
be formal (such as in schools, music studios), nonformal (such as in
structured community settings), or informal (such as making music with
friends and family), or somewhat incidental to another activity (such as
travelling in a car, walking through a shopping mall, watching a television
advert, or playing with a toy). Nevertheless, despite this contextual
diversity, they are educational in the sense that our myriad sonic
experiences accumulate from the earliest months of life to foster our facility
for making sense of the sound worlds in which we live.
Vocal, Instrumental, and Ensemble Learning and Teaching includes the
fifth, sixth, and seventh parts of Volume 1 from the original OHME.
Importantly, all chapters have been updated and refined to fit the context of
this new specialist volume title.
The three parts of Vocal, Instrumental, and Ensemble Learning and
Teaching emphasize the type of active musical attributes that are acquired
when learning an instrument or to sing, together with how these skills can
be used when engaging musically with others. Part 1 (Vocal and Choral
Music) shows how the field of voice instruction has changed dramatically in
recent decades and how physiological, acoustical, biomechanical,
neuromuscular, and psychological evidence is helping musicians and
educators to question traditional practices. As such, it serves as a resource
that can help music educators understand the variety of vocal possibilities
across all ages and stages of development.
 Part 2 (Instrumental Music) discusses research on instrumental learning,
showing that there is no “ideal” way to learn, but rather that a chosen
learning approach must be appropriate for the context and desired aims. It
also includes a timely summary of processes underlying the learning of an
instrument, factors related to efficient and effective practice, instrumental
performance in classroom contexts, global issues related to playing
instruments, and an explanation of the role of bodily movement.
The chapters in Part 3 (Ensembles) are related and focus on a wide range
of perspectives dealing with group performance of instrumental music.
Once again, many perspectives are provided, within an area that is
organized and taught in many varied ways internationally.
As Vocal, Instrumental, and Ensemble Learning and Teaching shows,
music is a characteristic of our humanity. Across the world, individuals are
enjoying music, with many striving to learn and to share the power and
uniqueness of music with others. Music education has the power to allow us
all to reach our musical potential and maximize our birthright. We therefore
encourage readers to draw on the extraordinary evidence base that
characterizes the content of this specialist volume from the original OHME.
We take this opportunity to thank the various representatives of Oxford
University Press. In particular, we are especially grateful to the OUP
Commissioning Editor, Suzanne Ryan, for her enthusiasm about updating
all chapters and publishing the OHME in five new specialist volumes.
Very special thanks should be attributed to our three Part Editors, John
Nix (Part 1), Susan Hallam (Part 2), and Jere T. Humphreys (Part 3) who
enthusiastically took responsibility for their specialist area of this volume.
We are grateful for their hard work ensuring that each chapter within their
part fits the mission of this volume, which was to help update and redefine
music education internationally.
Now that all of the authors can see their contributions in the context of
this new volume, we hope that they will agree that our journey together
continues to be worthwhile. We hope also that our readers enjoy the fruits
of our labor.
Gary E. McPherson and Graham F. Welch
Chief Editors
March 2017
 VOCAL, INSTRUMENTAL, AND
ENSEMBLE LEARNING AND TEACHING
 PART 1

VOCAL AND CHORAL

MUSIC
Part Editor
JOHN NIX
 CHAPTER 1

COMMENTARY: VOCAL AND CHORAL MUSIC

JOHN NIX

Bright is the ring of words

When the right man rings them,
Fair the fall of songs
When the singer sings them . . .
—Robert Louis Stevenson

A key distinction of vocal music is its ability to couple text with other elements, such as
melody, rhythm, articulation, and timbre. Vocal music provides musicians with the ability to
explicitly link meanings with music—meanings that may be complementary or
contradictory to the music. It is this aspect of vocal music that makes it an integral part of
theatrical productions and religious and secular celebrations, as well as general education
and therapy.
The breadth of sounds encountered in vocal music is astounding. Vocal music ranges from
one voice chanting to hundreds of voices and instruments performing Mahler’s Eighth to
thousands of fans singing with a rock band in a stadium. The pitch and intensity compass of
the singing voice is equally broad. From Tuvan singers to the highest sopranos and from the
most delicate whispers to opera singers in full cry, human vocalizing spans over six octaves
in range and over 90 dB in power. Singers and composers are constantly expanding the
boundaries of vocal technique and expression.
The field of voice instruction has experienced a dramatic shift in emphasis over the last 50
years. More than ever before, vocal music education is grounded on accurate physiological,
acoustical, biomechanical, neuromuscular, and psychological evidence rather than on
successful methods of a star teacher. While aspects of traditional approaches remain in use,
the rapid growth of vocal pedagogy programs and the dissemination of information on
motor learning, technology-enhanced instruction, arts medicine, and voice science have
internationalized best practices. Simultaneously, the overall quality of education and
performance has been raised, not only in major cultural centers but also in regions and
countries as a whole.
The chapters in this part of the volume are designed to guide educators through the full
gamut of vocal possibilities: individual adult voices and choirs, developing young singers
and aging adults. Chapter 2 by Callaghan, Emmons, and Popeil, in discussing solo vocal
music for adults, details the anatomical, physiological, acoustical, and psychological
principles governing singing and teaching singing. Current motor learning research and its
implications for vocal instruction is highlighted. Repertoire selection and performing
multiple genres are also covered in some depth. Chapter 3 by Ternström, Jers, and Nix
examines a number of complex issues facing choral musicians. Practical solutions that are
grounded in cutting-edge acoustical research are offered for frequently encountered
problems of choral ensemble, balance, and blend. Chapter 4 by Phillips, Williams, and
Edwin, concerns developing young singers, a group that includes both children and
adolescents. Consideration is given to solo and choral performance as well as classical and
popular styles. Chapter 5 by Sataloff and Davidson on the older singer, looks at one of the
fastest growing populations in the developed world. The unique physical and psychological
challenges facing older singers and those who teach them are presented. A particular
distinction is made between the issues facing the aging professional singer seeking to extend
his livelihood and the older beginner singing for enjoyment or wellness. The part of the
volume concludes with chapter 6 by Nix and Roy, on vocal health and education. This final
chapter has great relevance to all music teachers in light of the occupational voice use
hazards that music educators confront. Key concepts for maintaining vocal well-being are
presented.
On a more specific note, one topic in vocal music that is heavily discussed among
educators is the concept of vocal registers. Teachers love to debate why they exist, where
they lie, how many registers there are in a typical singer’s voice, how to distinguish one
register from another, and how to address perceived problems with registers when teaching.
Regardless of the terminology being used to label and describe each register, educators still
have an obligation to explain what the terms mean and how the terms relate to vocal
production and the sounds listeners hear. The approach taken in this part of the volume is to
put scientific explanation of voice function and acoustics with the existing register terms; by
so doing, teachers not only may better understand why current best practices are
advantageous, but also may further understand and critically evaluate practices that have
been historically advocated. Two tables are included here that link a wealth of common
terms associated with registers with physiological, acoustical, and perceptual evidence (see
tables 1.1 and 1.2).
Table 1.1 Register terminology for adult singers.
Common Gender Vocal tract Laryngeal Acoustic Perceptual descriptors Range
descriptors properties properties Properties
Vocal Fry; Both Potentially Short v. f. Standing Distinct pulses rather than Below 70 Hz
Strohbass; greater length; little waves in pitched tone. Not to be confused (approximately
Creak; velar length change vocal tract with higher pitched creaky voice C#2)
Pulse closure and with decay from the presence of sub-
Register; reduced frequency; before harmonics
Straw; nasality; low next pulse
Mechanism laryngeal activation of starts;
1 vestibule IA, PCA, CT; continuous
constriction greater TA spectrum
activation produced
than in
‘chest.’ Low
subglottal
pressure and
flow
Chest; Both Speech Long phase Rich WarmRichRingingFull From fry up to
Modal; level or of v. fold spectrum D4-G4,
Heavy slightly contact each of partials depending on
mechanism; lower cycle; vertical present; the voice
Mechanism laryngeal phase harmonics classification
2 position; difference in above H1
strap vibration; TA are
muscles not quite active stronger
as active as (>50% closed than H1.
in higher quotient on
registers EGG); v. f.
ligament and
mucosal layer
are more lax;
TA regulates
effective
tension of the
v. f. and
contact area
Belt Both Neutral to Long Strong Intense Brilliant Metallic Brassy C4-G5
elevated contacting partials Twangy Powerful Speech-like
laryngeal phase; TA above 4
position, quite active kHz; H2
especially (much > than and first
in males; 50% closed formant
active strap quotient on (F1) move
muscles; EGG); in close
some velar closing synchrony
opening pattern of
may be folds more
present parallel;
contact
occurs more
uniformly
Middle Female Larynx Reduced Close D4-F5, with
voice; height closed proximity end points
mixed lower than quotient between varying with
voice; in belt; (<50%). Less H3/F2 voice
middle more vertical phase often seen classification
register; rounded or difference in on open
voix mixte closed vib. pattern; vowels;
mouth H1/F1
 embouchure CT common
maybe seen predominates for closed
vowels
Head voice Male Laryngeal TA quite Close IntenseRingingFullBrilliantVirile Bass Eb4-
Full head height active. Closed proximity G4Baritone
register lower than quotients well between E4-Bb4Tenor
Upper in belt; above 50% H3/F2 or F4-D5
extension active strap on EGG higher
muscles; harmonics
more and the
rounded or singer’s
closed formant;
mouth shallow
embouchure spectral
seen at the slope
lower entry
point of this
register.
Head Both Laryngeal Shorter H1/F1 in Soaring Spinning Full Womanly In females,
register height may contacting close Plush Heady Flute-like Hooty Eb5-C6, with
Head increase phase; little proximity. end points
voiceLight slightly at vertical phase In males, a varying with
mechanism upper ends difference steep classification;
Mechanism of register; seen; mucosal spectral in males, F3-
3Falsetto mouth layer of folds slope may A5, with end
Loft opens wide is relatively be seen. points varying
as F1 lax, while with
increases; high classification
longitudinal
stress exists
on vocal
ligament; CT
predominates;
contacting
phase >40%;
in males, high
air flow as
compared to
other
registers
Whistle Usually Mouth CT very H1 goes Bell-like Bb5-F7, with
Flagolett female, opening active; little above the lower end
Bell although varies— contacting; maximum point varying
Mechanism some some Air flow rates F1 with
4 males singers vary– possible classification
possible exhibit sometimes
small mouth less than
openings, previous
others very register
wide. In
some, the
tongue may
be forward
and the
larynx
elevated.
IA: Interarytenoid muscles; PCA: Posterior Cricoarytenoid muscles; CT: Cricothyroid muscles; TA: Thyroarytenoid
muscles; EGG: Electroglottograph; F1, F2: First formant, second formant; H1, H2: First harmonic or fundamental, second
harmonic. See Miller (2000; 2008); Titze (1994); Orlikoff (1991); Baken & Orlikoff (2000).
Table 1.2 Developing Singer Register Terminology.
Singer Gender Physiological Acoustic or Approximate Commonly Used Descriptors
Age Characteristics Perceptual Range
Properties
3–5 M&F Relatively small, thin ‘falsetto’ not C4–C5 SpeechChestLowerModal
vocal folds (thick/thin possible; muscular G4–E5 HeadUpperLoft
transition is coordination is
less);difference relatively clumsy;
between speech/chest accurate pitching
and head/upper are and control of
less obvious; no vocal register transition
ligament is approximate
6–8 M&F General growth of Intrinsic laryngeal A3–C5 SpeechChestLowerModal
vocal folds, vocal muscular G4–G5 Head, Upper, Loft
ligament coordination
emerging;accurate developing; LTAS
pitching and control shows higher
of register transition spectral energy in
is more likely 6–10 kHz range
9–11 M&F General growth of Intrinsic laryngeal G3–C5 SpeechChestLowerModalMechanism
vocal folds; vocal muscular E4–A5 2
ligament coordination C6–G6 Head, Upper,Loft, Mechanism 3
emerging;Accurate developing; LTAS WhistleMechanism 4
pitching and control shows higher
of register transition spectral energy in
is expected 2–5 kHz range
(trained voices still
peak at 7–10 kHz
also)
12–14 F Larynx growing, v. Transition between F3–A4 Speech, Chest, Lower, Modal,
folds thicken, v. fold thick and thin D4–A5/C6 Mechanism 2
mucosa responds to vocal fold C6–G6 Head, Upper, LoftMechanism 3
pubertal hormones phonation more WhistleMechanism 4
(edema) obvious;
breathiness, pitch
instability present
15–18 F Laryngeal growth Breathiness F3–G4 Speech, Chest, Lower,
stabilizing, larynx disappearing, D4–A5/C6 Modal,Mechanism 2
functioning closer to phonation clearer D6–G6 Head, Upper, LoftMechanism 3
young adult model Whistle,Mechanism 4
12–13 M Rapid growth of Huskiness; upper E3–E4 Speech, Chest, Lower,
larynx in observable range can be clear D4–G5 Modal,Mechanism 2
growth spurts; and strong or can Upper, Head, emerging
thickening and be more breathy falsetto,Cambiata, Mechanism 3
lengthening of vocal (depends on
folds training and
experience)
13–14 M Rapid growth of Huskiness; upper C3–D4 Speech, Chest, Lower,
larynx in observable range can be clear D4–D5 Modal,Mechanism 2
growth spurts; and strong or can Upper, Head, emerging falsetto,
thickening and be more breathy Cambiata, Mechanism 3
lengthening of vocal (depends on
folds training and
experience)
14–15 M Rapid growth of Huskiness A2/C3–D/F4 Speech, Chest, Lower, Modal,
larynx in observable reducing;more E/G4–D5 Mechanism 2
growth spurts; resonant; Upper, Head, emerging
thickening and developing falsetto,Mechanism 3
baritone
 lengthening of vocal phonation; upper
folds range becoming
less accessible in
most individuals
15– M Laryngeal growth Emerging G2/B2– Speech, Chest, Lower, Modal,
16–18 stabilizing possibility of A3/B3 Mechanism 2
clearer range A3/B3– Upper extension
classification E4/F#4 Falsetto, Head, LoftMechanism 3
(tenor/bass); E4–E5
register transition
into upper thick-
fold phonation
possible in some
singers (like adult)
LTAS—Long Term Average Spectrum. For ages 6–8, see Sargeant & Welch (2008); for ages 9–11, see Howard and
Williams (2009).

The authors of this part of the volume recognize that their work and the current status of
vocal music education rests on the shoulders of giants—educators whose curiosity,
generosity, and energy have lifted the field up and carried it forward. One such giant was
Richard Miller, distinguished teacher of singing at Oberlin Conservatory in the United
States, and a prolific author. Professor Miller’s many books, articles, videos, and students
are a continuing testament to his life as an educator. He was invited to work on this part of
the volume, but was regrettably unable to join the other authors due to his health. He passed
away shortly after work commenced on this book. Another great teacher was Shirlee
Emmons, who taught primarily in New York City for many decades, and authored several
books on topics as diverse as vocal repertoire, performance preparation, and choral singing.
She was a key contributor to this part of the volume through her elegant writing in chapter 2.
She passed away on April 16, 2010, just as the chapter was completed. The authors of this
vocal part of the volume wish to dedicate their chapters to the pedagogical legacy of Richard
Miller and Shirlee Emmons in particular, and in remembrance of all the giants of the past
like them, who spent their lifetimes in the pursuit of sharing and expanding the knowledge
of that most original, unique, and distinctively human instrument, the voice.

REFERENCES

Baken, R. J., & Orlikoff, R. F. (2000). Clinical measurement of speech and voice (2nd ed.). San Diego: Singular/Thomson
Learning.
Howard, D., & Williams, J. (2009). An investigation of “ring” in the voices of highly trained child singers. Paper presented
at PEVOC 8, Dresden, Germany, August 26–29.
Miller, D. G. (2000). Registers in singing: Empirical and systematic studies in the theory of the singing voice. Doctoral
diss., University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Miller, D. G. (2008). Resonance in singing: Voice building through acoustic feedback. Princeton, NJ: Inside View.
Orlikoff, R. F. (1991). Assessment of the dynamics of vocal fold contact from the electroglottogram: Data from normal
male subjects. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 34, 1066–1072.
Sargeant, D., & Welch, G. (2008). Age-related changes in long-term average spectra of children’s voices. Journal of Voice,
22(6), 658–670.
Titze, I. R. (1994). Principles of voice production. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 CHAPTER 2

SOLO VOICE PEDAGOGY

JEAN CALLAGHAN, SHIRLEE EMMONS,

AND LISA POPEIL

This chapter concerns voice pedagogy for adult performers (over age 18)
singing a range of genres and styles. Solo voice pedagogy began in the
seventeenth century to meet the demands of the new monody. The master-
apprentice tradition of pedagogy has continued despite a breakdown in
many of the assumptions underpinning it, and despite modern educational
pressures. This continuous tradition has become fragmented, since teachers
now confront a genre and style proliferation encompassing a wide time span
and geographic spread. Teachers must be time efficient, must work with
students of all voice types, and must work with a wide repertoire. To meet
these demands requires an understanding of the physical factors that safely
and efficiently produce the appropriate sound and a teaching approach best
suited to a range of students (see Papageorgi & Kopiez, chapter 12).
In the last 50 years, much has been published on vocal physiology and
acoustics, on cognition, neurobiology, and teaching and learning. The
research literature is scattered through publications in physiology, medicine,
speech pathology, acoustics, linguistics, education, psychology, and
neurology, as well as singing and voice science, and until recently had not
reached the majority of voice teachers. However, it is now being brought
together in publications such as Thurman and Welch (2000), McCoy
(2006), Nair (2007), Dayme (2009), Callaghan (2014), and Chapman
(2016).
Expert teaching requires content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and
pedagogical-content knowledge (Shulman, 1987). The subject matter of
singing is voice, music, and language. Since most readers will have some
knowledge of music and language, the focus here is on voice pedagogy,
with the chapter structured in three parts related to content, pedagogy, and
pedagogical-content. The first section examines the voice and how it works
as a musical instrument. The second section details pedagogical knowledge
related to singing as a sensorimotor skill. The third section examines how
voice and pedagogical knowledge come together in different solo vocal
genres.

VOICE: THE INSTRUMENT

The musical instrument that is the voice is the whole person: body parts
responding in particular coordinations to express thoughts and emotions
through verbal and musical means. Speech and singing are sensorimotor
skills undertaken in service of communication. A vocalist’s body may be
thinking language and music while apprehending internal sensations of
vibration, movement, and sound, and while attending/responding to external
sensations: the sound of the voice; the sight and sound of instrumental
accompaniment; other singers, and an audience. In this process, the ear
provides auditory input and control of body symmetry and balance. To
complicate matters, the structures involved in voicing also serve other
functions that may prove antagonistic to voicing. Plainly the brain is the
most important vocal organ!
All musical instruments comprise three elements: an actuator (energy
supply), a vibrator, and a resonator. For human vocalization the actuator is
respiratory-system-generated energy, the vibrators are the vocal folds, and
the resonator is air in the vocal tract. These body parts must be aligned
posturally to maximize their coordinated working, be directed by the brain
to produce the requisite pitch, loudness, duration, and timbre, and must
respond to higher level demands such as musical phrasing and text
articulation.
Control of pitch and duration, and to some degree timbre and loudness,
rests on breath management and phonation. The breathing mechanism
includes the diaphragm, lungs, rib cage, and thoracic and abdominal
muscles. For voicing, efficient inspiration involves taking in the required
amount of air quickly and without tension in the articulatory structures. The
controlled expiration required for efficient voicing requires coordinated
working of thoracic and abdominal muscles to provide subglottal pressure
appropriate for the required pitch, intensity of sound, and phrase length.
Singing makes heavier demands than speech, requiring sustained tone,
varying pitch and loudness, and the expressive shaping of sometimes
lengthy phrases.
The vibrator is the vocal folds of the larynx. The larynx is a cartilaginous
structure atop the trachea, with ligamental joints operated by small muscles.
Its primary function is as a valve preventing foreign matter entering the
airway and sustaining pressure in heavy lifting, childbirth, and elimination.
The vocal folds consist of muscles covered by a multilayered mucous
membrane. They open, close, and vibrate in response to muscular and
aerodynamic factors. Their vibration produces phonation, the basic vocal
sound, called the voice source. The vibration frequency is the vocal sound’s
musical pitch.
Vocal acoustics are largely reliant on vocal tract shape and size. The
cavities above the larynx—pharynx, mouth, and nose—comprise the vocal
tract, with the air in the vocal tract acting as a resonator. Depending on
vocal tract configuration, some voice source sounds are damped and others
enhanced. These resulting adjustments also can modulate vocal fold
vibration to some extent. Changes in vocal tract configuration are achieved
by movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, velum (soft palate), larynx, and
pharynx.

The Physical Bases of Vocal Technique

Understanding vocal anatomy, physiology, and acoustics ensures that
technical work is informed by principles of physical efficiency and vocal
health and provides the basis for fault diagnosis.

Body Alignment and Breath Management

For singers wishing to achieve vocal mastery in any style, efficient
alignment and well-coordinated body use cannot be overemphasized. Body
alignment and breath management affect lung volume, larynx height and
tilt, and tracheal pull. All these affect laryngeal function, the voice source,
and the resultant sound, which must be style and genre appropriate.
Alignment of the head is particularly important, as it affects all postural
reflexes. Many pedagogies refer to Alexander Technique as the template for
conscious creation of upright body use. In addition to fostering optimal
vertical alignment, the release and widening of the ribcage afforded by
Alexander principles is beneficial for projected voice.
Pedagogies differ in how breath management is taught. Breath
management involves gravity, elastic recoil, and muscular activity, with
body use affecting all these factors. Two common body use extremes have
been labeled “belly-in” and “belly-out,” or the “up-and-in” and “down-and-
out” methods of support. The “belly-in” approach emphasizes maintaining a
high, stable rib cage; the “belly-out” approach emphasizes maintaining
stable abdominal pressure.
Many musical demands made of singers require synchronized control
between breathing and pitch muscles. In order to control intonation,
particularly in loud singing, a singer needs fine control of subglottal
pressure, because subglottal pressure increases may also secondarily raise
pitch. While both loudness and pitch depend on subglottal pressure, these
factors are also influenced by airflow: similar loudness can be achieved
with reduced pressure and increased airflow, or with increased pressure and
decreased airflow.
The interrelation between posture, respiration and phonation is a feature
of appoggio, “a system for combining and balancing muscles and organs of
the trunk and neck, controlling their relationships to the supraglottal
resonators, so that no exaggerated function of any one of them upsets the
whole” (Miller, 1986, p. 24). In appoggio the sternum remains moderately
high throughout the inspiration-expiration cycle. Both epigastric and
umbilical regions are stabilized, with a feeling of balanced muscular
connection from sternum to pelvis. While this approach fits the “belly-in”
posture, its flexibility emphasis fits neither “belly-in” nor “belly-out”
methods. The flexible approach of appoggio best accommodates the
dynamic breath management required by different musical demands and is
well suited to different body types.

Phonation
The vocal folds open and close hundreds of times each second. This valving
is expressed in frequency or Hertz (e.g., A4 equals 440 Hz). Vocal folds
rely on a steady subglottal pressure to open and close, as moving air drives
the vocal fold tissue into motion. As one increases air pressure against
adducted vocal folds kept at a constant length, the sung pitch rises, and the
sound volume or amplitude increases. Increased volume means a wider
excursion of the vocal folds, lower volume a narrower excursion. By
modifying vocal fold length, stiffness, and thickness, singers can increase
subglottal pressure without raising pitch. Skilled singers accomplish this
complex task using primarily acoustic and kinesthetic feedback.
Laryngeal function is also affected by body alignment and use. Because
the larynx, hyoid bone, and tongue base move as a unit, anything that alters
their relationship to each other and to the sternum, spine, and skull affects
phonation. Head position must allow the sternocleidomastoid and scalene
muscles to stabilize the neck and thorax, and allow the external muscles
contributing to voice production (the strap muscles, cricopharyngeal, and
stylopharyngeal) to work efficiently.
Because the tongue is attached to the hyoid bone, from which the larynx
is suspended, tongue position affects the larynx: extending the tongue raises
the larynx, and depressing the tongue lowers it. Tension in the jaw is
undesirable in classical style, as it affects laryngeal position through the
muscles connected to the hyoid bone. In some other nonclassical styles, the
jaw may be more firmly positioned by muscular activity.
Airflow at the glottis is determined by the interrelation of subglottal
pressure and vocal fold resistance, with phonation onset important for both
musical aesthetics and vocal efficiency. Onset may be breathy, balanced
(“simultaneous”), or glottal (“pressed”, “hard”). While breathy or glottal
onsets are sometimes used, balanced onset achieves an optimal airflow to
adduction ratio and is more favorable in establishing flow phonation.
Neither breathy nor pressed phonation is efficient.
Fundamental frequency (pitch) may be controlled by changing lung
pressure, contracting the cricothyroid (CT) muscles, or contracting the
thyroarytenoid (TA) muscles to change the length, stiffness, and effective
vibrating mass of the vocal folds. These mechanisms may be
interdependent. Frequency control may also involve vertical larynx position
and larynx tilt, achieved by extrinsic laryngeal muscular activity. In
teaching, an indirect approach that addresses posture, audiation (auditory
imagery), breath management, onset, and registration factors usually
ensures intended pitches will be produced.

Resonance and Articulation

Pedagogical concerns about resonance and articulation include production
of a musical context-appropriate timbre, vowel quality, vibrato, and text
articulation. Voice quality depends on the voice source spectrum, how that
spectrum is filtered by the vocal tract, and how the source and vocal tract
resonances interact.
Vocal resonance and consonant intelligibility are interdependent
parameters reliant on articulator movements. Vowel production involves lip
and tongue shape, jaw opening, larynx height, and soft palate position.
Linguistic vowel classification, however, typically refers to the oral cavity
position of the main body of the tongue—high-low and front-back—and to
the degree of lip rounding or spreading (see fig. 2.1).
In the traditional vowel quadrilateral, /i/ is at the high front corner (the
tongue is high anterior in the mouth), /u/ at the high back corner (the tongue
is high posterior in the mouth), and /a/ at the low back corner (the tongue is
low posterior in the mouth). Other vowels, such as the neutral /∂/, are
classified as central. Vowels may also be classified as “closed” (the tongue
near the palate) or “open” (the tongue low, at the bottom of the mouth),
which may also be related to jaw opening.
The tongue position in effect produces two acoustic chambers through
which sound passes, and regulates conductivity between the chambers.
Each chamber can be considered an acoustic resonator, amplifying acoustic
energy near its resonances and reducing energy at frequencies far from
those resonances. Those frequencies that are amplified can be thought of as
resonance peaks, and are called formants. The fundamental frequency
(musical pitch) is labeled F0, and the formants F1, F2, F3, and so on, from
lowest to highest. It is the relationship between F1 and F2 that defines a
vowel. The first formant is particularly affected by mandible position and
the second formant by tongue shape.
Singers learn to tune formant frequencies through attention to vowel
quality and the emotional motivation of the text, guided by the teacher’s
analytical ear. There are also computer software programs (e.g., Sing&See;
VoceVista) that give objective feedback on vocal acoustics. (See the list of
resources at the end of this chapter for links to these and other software
products that are now available.)
Widening the pharynx produces a darker, stronger sound quality. Vocal
intensity can be significantly increased by tuning formants close to voice
source harmonics. By lowering the jaw and moving the lips forward and
inward at the corners, singers widen and lengthen the vocal tract, producing
a louder sound. However, high in the female range this strategy causes
formant frequency differences between vowels to gradually disappear as the
fundamental frequency increases, resulting in words being difficult to
distinguish when sung at high pitch in operatic style. Singing with a higher
larynx and using clear consonantal transitions makes words more
intelligible. This is the technique normally used in music theater and
commercial styles.

Figure 2.1 Articulatory vowel chart showing idealized positions of tongue and jaw.

The exciting ringing quality of the professional singing voice is a result

of the singer’s formant cluster. This quality found in male voices and lower
female voice classifications is essential for singers to be heard clearly over
large orchestras, electronic instruments, or background noise. Sundberg
(1987) identified the singer’s formant as a cluster of high spectrum peaks
appearing near 3,000 Hz (approximately F#7) in all vowels. The acoustic
effect may be reinforced by the fact that the ear is highly sensitive to
frequencies around 3,000 Hz.
Current research indicates production of the singer’s formant cluster is
dependent on a long-closed phase in the vocal fold vibratory cycle,
narrowing the vocal tract immediately above the larynx, a wide pharynx,
and articulatory adjustments that maximize resonance coupling between the
two main cavities. It may also involve aryepiglottic constriction and
ventricular fold narrowing. Most research on the singer’s formant has
assumed a “classical” timbre with strong spectrum peaks seen around
2,800–3,400 Hz. This contrasts with the sound used in much commercial
and world music, which has a high amount of acoustic energy between 800
and 2,500 Hz, and the spectra seen in belting, where some very bright-
timbred singers exhibit strength from 8,000 to 18,000 Hz.
Vibrato is a regular frequency and intensity modulation of the voice. It is
considered the result of a reflex loop that is greater than 40 milliseconds in
duration and that involves one or more agonist/antagonist muscle pairs (CT
and TA; CT and lateral cricoarytenoid [LCA]; or CT and a strap muscle)
that may change vocal fold length. Many vocal tract structures, such as the
jaw, velum, tongue, and pharyngeal walls, may rhythmically pulse in
synchrony with the vibrato. Consistent vibrato is an expected element of
classical vocal tone; it is used in different ways in other genres and styles.
Normal vibrato features pitch modulation of approximately one semitone
and a rate of 5.5–6.5 Hz. In order for vibrato not to interfere with the
melody, its extent needs to decrease for rapid pitch changes.

Registration
The nineteenth-century singer-teacher-researcher Manuel Garcia defined a
register as “a series of consecutive homogeneous sounds produced by one
mechanism, differing essentially from another series of sounds equally
homogeneous produced by another mechanism” (1982/1894, p. 8). Since
the 1970s, registers have been recognized as the result of interactions
between laryngeal and acoustical events, occurring at predictable
frequencies in different voice types. Because these interactions alter the
voice source, they also produce changes in voice quality. These different
qualities have been labeled “registers.”
There are two main register categories: those where TA activity is
dominant and those where CT activity is dominant. The TA is largely a
thickener/shortener of the vocal folds, the CT a thinner/lengthener. Changes
in muscle activation affect vocal fold oscillation, including the closed-
versus-open time ratio (closed quotient) and fold thickness. However,
because pitch and resonance changes are also involved, within those two
main categories there are subdivisions. These main categories, their
subdivisions, and their respective physiologies are detailed in the editor’s
commentary in Chapter 1. As can be seen, within the wider voice
community different terminologies are employed by scientists, voice
pathologists, spoken voice teachers, and singing teachers, adversely
affecting interdisciplinary communication.
 Since register change is regulated in part by TA/CT activation ratios, if
the ratio changes abruptly, the register changes abruptly and is clearly
heard. If the ratio changes gradually, the register changes gradually and is
less perceptible. In some instances, singers decide that an abrupt timbre
change serves aesthetic demands, as in yodeling, or in large leaps requested
by composers for emotional effect. In other instances, a blended tone is
required, and singers need to work on the relationship between laryngeal
action, breath pressure, airflow, and resonance to achieve this.
Resonance adjustments are achieved by vowel modification.
Modification involves the adjustment of vowels to achieve an optimal
alignment of source harmonics with vocal tract resonances. While subtle
adjustments occur in skilled singers throughout the entire range, precise
adjustments are particularly critical at register changes.

Voice Classification
This is a subtle, complex matter, involving vocal range, weight, timbre,
optimal tessitura (the range where a singer’s voice is most beautiful and
most easily produced), and register transition locations. These factors are
determined by vocal fold length and thickness; the relationship of the larynx
to adjacent structures; vocal tract length and configuration; thoracic
dimensions; and the interplay of pectoral, epigastric, and abdominal
muscles (Miller, 2000). Higher voices have shorter vocal folds and vocal
tracts; lower voices have longer vocal folds and vocal tracts. Hybrid
classifications occur when long-necked singers have short vocal folds,
producing a dark, high voice; or when short-necked singers have long vocal
folds, producing a bright, low voice.
The comfortable tessitura for classical singers is related to register
events. The major TA/CT register transition typically lies between D4 (294
Hz) and G4 (392 Hz), spanning six voice categories, lowest in the bass and
highest in tenor and contralto. Miller (1986), while not ruling out individual
variation, suggested D4 (294 Hz) as the passaggio for bass, E-flat 4 for
sopranos and dramatic baritones, E4 for mezzo sopranos and dramatic
tenors, and G4 for lyric tenor, spinto tenor, and contralto.

VOICE PEDAGOGY
Learning to sing involves learning vocal skills, sharpening aural perception,
understanding and articulating text (often in foreign languages),
appreciating musical structure, and understanding a range of styles and
literature. Those skills and understandings are combined as a Gestalt in
interpreting and communicating musical, textual, and emotional meanings.
Singing differs from other musical performance in that the performer is the
instrument. Solo voice pedagogy requires the teacher to meld technique
content knowledge with musical performance craft knowledge in a
systematic approach that facilitates the singer’s tuning of the instrument
while playing it.

Singing as a Sensorimotor Skill

Skill is goal-directed, efficient behavior, acquired through practice (Proctor
& Dutta, 1995). There are three stages of skill acquisition: cognitive,
associative, and autonomous (Fitts, 1964; Fitts & Posner, 1967). In both
cognitive and associative stages, modeling and external feedback are
important. Once the sensorimotor skills of singing have been acquired, the
cognitive demands are reduced, freeing mental resources for musical and
textual interpretation.
Learning to sing involves training on two levels: musical concepts and
psychomotor skills. These are interdependent, in that content (e.g., pitch)
cannot be studied without applying some specific skill level (e.g., the ability
to coordinate breath management and phonation to produce the requisite
frequency). For singers this process presents particular difficulties. First,
singers cannot hear themselves as others hear them. Second, vocalization is
accompanied by bodily sensations, and singers must learn the particular
body sensations associated with sounds that are aesthetically desirable and
physically efficient.
To efficiently perform a whole-body task, one needs an objective, an
overview of the task, a knowledge of the component parts, a knowledge of
how they fit together, and a system of cueing, such that one activity
automatically cues the next. Teachers can help singers form an action plan
by providing a task overview and directions using metaphor and mental
images meaningful to the singer. The teacher needs to gauge when the
singer is ready to learn a particular task, which then makes achievement of
succeeding tasks possible. This is how singers move to the third,
autonomous stage, becoming involved in a cycle of forethought,
performance, and self-reflection.

Practice and Song Learning

A number of studies exist on how practice affects motor learning (see
Lehmann & Jørgensen, chapter 9). Generally, learning increases with the
amount of time devoted to practice, and distributed practice is more
effective than massed practice, that is, skills are best learned when practiced
for short periods, but often. Combining physical and mental practice is most
effective in improving skill acquisition. While practice schedules and
extrinsic feedback aid motor skill acquisition, for long-term learning singers
should rely on personal auditory images and sensory feedback of the vocal
sound being produced, as performance situations may not provide any
extrinsic feedback.
Learning songs requires the memory and physicalization of musical and
verbal text. Understanding vocal and musical patterns allows smaller,
simpler patterns to be learned first, building to increasingly larger patterns.
Silent rehearsal assists this process.

Individually Tailored Approaches to Teaching/Learning

In designing training programs for singers, teachers should consider the
singer’s:

• Age and physical, emotional, and intellectual development

• Life circumstances
• Musicality, musical education, and performance experience
• Physical skills
• General education
• Language knowledge
• Emotional intelligence

Teachers should tailor their approach to the student’s particular intelligences

and the learning style linked to those intelligences (Gardner, 1993).

Speaking and Singing/Language and Music

Musical intelligence, like linguistic intelligence, is closely tied to the
auditory-oral tract. Because of the task and culture-specific demands of
singing competency, it is the example par excellence of auditory-oral
musical intelligence, which Gardner (1993) defines as the ability to discern
meaning and importance in sets of pitches rhythmically arranged and also to
produce such metrically arranged pitch sequences as a means of
communicating.
Essential to singing is both audition (hearing) and audiation
(discriminative mental hearing, or auditory imagery). “Audiation” is
Gordon’s (1993) term for “hearing” and comprehending musical sound that
is no longer present, or that may never have been present. The process of
hearing, perceiving, and remembering sound forms a loop with sound
production. In speaking and singing, sounds produced are constantly fed
through this phonological loop, dictating what is produced by the vocal
apparatus.

Modeling and Feedback

Singing teaching is commonly based on a master-apprentice model, relying
on modeling and feedback. Modeling may be provided by the teacher’s
demonstration, or by using live or recorded (audio and video) performance.
Feedback is the returning of part of a system’s output as input, especially
for correction or control. For singers, feedback may come from external or
internal sources. External sources include the responses of audiences,
teachers, or colleagues. Internal feedback—visual, tactile, auditory,
kinesthetic, and proprioceptive—is usually immediate and directly related
to body function.
Because music is sound artistically structured in time, musicians have
relied heavily on auditory imagery and auditory and verbal feedback on the
musical sound. Auditory feedback is also used as a control by the singer. It
allows the singer to match produced sound with intended sound. Thus, the
most important sense needed by singers may be hearing. Although humans
cannot hear their own voices accurately, it is of utmost importance that
singers develop auditory perception to a fine degree. The ability to perceive
harmonic information is crucial for pitch accuracy and to alter resonance.
For those singing multiple styles, the ability to monitor the many stylistic
differences as sound is invaluable. The mirror, the simplest visual feedback,
has been used by singers for centuries. More recently video recording and
computer-assisted visual feedback have become widely available. Tactile,
kinesthetic, and proprioceptive feedback is supplied through sensory
receptors located throughout the body.

SOLO VOCAL GENRES: COMMON AND DIVERGENT TRENDS IN TRAINING

Common to training in all solo genres is study of voice, musical style and
structure, repertoire, and performance skills. However, different genres
have different tonal ideals, which require divergent vocal skills; the
repertoire is obviously different, and may make divergent musical demands;
and different performance skills may be required.

Opera
Opera training involves study in voice, languages, and stage movement, as
well as Fach classification (discussed below) and detailed role study. Opera
singers are expected to sing in English, Italian, German, and French.
Russian, Czech, and Spanish may also be useful! Stage performance
demands vary with each role. If there is conflict between the demands of
voice, text, music, and characterization, the demand for beautiful quality
prevails. The voice must be audible in large venues, often over sizeable
orchestras and without amplification.
Internationally, the operatic tonal ideal is resonant, powerful, and vibrant.
A wide range is required. Operatic voice production features a relatively
low larynx, a wide pharynx, and articulatory strategies to achieve full, yet
ringing, sound. Consistent vibrato and matching quality throughout the
range are assumed. To meet these requirements, advanced voice study
involves range extension, efficient register transitions, and control of
resonance for loudness, intensity, and vocal characterization. Highly
developed breath management skills are also required to meet the
requirements of the appropriate Fach.

The Fach System

The Fach system originated in German opera houses, but is now used
internationally. It takes into account voice classification, range, voice
weight, and character, as well as aspects of physical appearance.
Psychologically, Fach is a singer’s identity. It is used for casting purposes,
with particular roles allocated to particular Fächer. The system does change
over time and from region to region.
There are many distinctions within categories, such as “kavalier”
baritones, “spiel” tenors, and “pants role” mezzo sopranos, which are more
casting requirements than vocal characteristics. While boundaries between
Fächer cannot be rigid, the Fach Chart offers a guide (table 2.1).
Table 2.1 Fach chart
Fach Name Range Description Example Roles Example
Singers
Coloratura soprano; C4–F6 Light, high soprano; needs Zerbinetta Natalie Dessay
Lyrische fioratura and staccato. (Ariadne) Beverly Sills
Koloratursopran Olympia
(Hoffman)
Dramatic; C4–F6 Same as above, but richer, Queen of the Diana Damrau
coloratura; more dramatic voice. Night (Flute); Joan
Dramatischer Violetta (Traviata) Sutherland
Koloratursopran
Soubrette soprano; C4– Light voice; strong middle Susanna (Figaro) Barbara
Soubrette/Charakter- C6 range; lively personality; Adele Bonney Rita
sopran fioratura. (Fledermaus) Streich
Lyric soprano; A3– Basic soprano voice; fine Mimì (Bohème) Renée Fleming
Lyrischersopran C6 legato; beautiful, feminine Pamina (Flute) Mirella Freni
quality. Micaëla (Carmen) Kiri Te
Kanawa
Dramatic soprano; A3– Rich, powerful voice with Ariadne Leonora Eva Marton
Dramatischersopran C6 volume and endurance (Fidelio) Zinka Milanov
Wagnerian soprano; G3– Powerful voice in all Turandot Isolde Birgit Nilsson
Hochdramatischer- C6 registers; stamina, volume. (Tristan) Kirsten
sopran Flagstad
Coloratura mezzo; G3– Fioratura; secure top Rosina (Barber) Joyce di
Koloratur- B5 notes; slim figure; can Angelina Donato Elena
mezzosopran impersonate males. (Cenerentola); Garança
Romeo (Capuleti) Marilyn Horne
Lyric mezzo- G3– Sim. to lyric sop. in a Cherubino Susan Graham
soprano; Lyrischer B5 lower range; middle voice (Figaro); Octavian Tatiana
Mezzosopran; cuts through orchestra; (Rosenkavalier) Troyanos Janet
Spielalt beautiful quality. Dorabella (Così) Baker
Dramatic contralto F3– Rare voice; penetrating Erda (The Ring) Stephanie
Dramatischeralt G5 low range; darker, more Ulrica (Ballo) Blythe Ewa
powerful than typical alto. Florence (Alb. Podles Lili
Herring) Chookasian
Counter-tenor F3– Tessitura and roles Apollo (Death in David Daniels
Countertenor G5 variable; some fioratura Venice); Didymus Brian Asawa
required. (Theodora)
Comic/Character C3– Strong actor; outstanding Pedrillo (Seraglio) Anthony
tenor; Spieltenor; B4 vocal beauty not required. Monostatos Laciura
Charaktertenor (Flute) Mime Alessio di
(Siegfried) Paolis Nico
Castel
Leggiero tenor C3– Light, flexible voice; Almaviva Juan Diego
Lyrischer Tenor D5 youthful appearance; (Barber) Tonio Flóres Luigi
agility required. (La Fille du Reg.) Alva
Lyric tenor C3– Beautiful vocal quality; Rodolfo (Bohème) Matthew
Lyrischer Tenor C5 strong high notes; Tamino (Flute) Polenzani
 romantic lead actor. Marcello
Giordani
Spinto tenor C3– Sound penetrates Bacchus (Ariadne) Plácido
Jugendlicher C5 orchestra; dramatic upper Don José Domingo Ben
Heldentenor range with ring; great (Carmen) Manrico Heppner Carlo
stamina. (Trovatore) Bergonzi
Lyric baritone B2– Sweet voice; sings easily Papageno (Flute) Thomas
Lyrischer Bariton G4 in all registers; good in Figaro (Barber) Hampson
Mozart roles. Billy Budd Nathan Gunn
Dietrich F-
Dieskau
Cavalier baritone A2– Manly voice, sometimes Count (Figaro) Di Dimitri
Kavalierbariton G#4 metallic quality; heavier Luna (Trovatore) Hvorostovsky
than lyric; attractive Robert Merrill
appearance.
Verdi baritone A2– Effective in high tessitura; Rigoletto Iago Ettore
Heldenbariton A4 powerful appearance; (Otello) Renato Bastianini
plays “heavy”. (Ballo) Piero
Cappuccilli
Leonard
Warren
Bass-baritone G2– Tessitura of roles varies; Scarpia (Tosca) Bryn Terfel
Lyrische F#4 some more bass-like, some Wotan (Ring) James Morris
Bassbariton baritonal. Golaud (Pelléas) George
London
Dram. bass-baritone E2–F4 Strong, powerful voice; Philip (Don Boris Christoff
Dramatischer dignified, authoritative Carlo)Boris (Boris Hans Hotter
bassbariton manner. Godunov); Cesare Siepi
Amfortas
(Parsifal)
Comic bass E2–F4 Excellent actor; facial Dulcamara Fernando
Spielbassbuffo mobility; flexible voice. (L’Elisir); Corena
Leporello Geraint Evans
(Giovanni)
Basso profundo C2–F4 Lowest bass voice; dark, Osmin Kurt Moll
Dramatische powerful sound; many (Seraglio)Hagen René Pape
Seriöser Bass small roles available; (Ring)Hunding Marti Talvela
imposing figure. (Walküre)

Fach and Repertoire Choice

While young singers may begin with any aria that suits their capabilities,
for mature singers seeking a career, one of the teacher’s most important
duties is ensuring a good fit between voice classification and repertoire,
based on Fach. Repertoire choice must be informed by the singer’s
strengths and weaknesses, the role’s demands, and casting directors’
expectations. Appropriate casting means singers are more likely to remain
healthy.
The major register transitions are a good guide for basic classification,
but these are not refined enough to distinguish between lyric and dramatic
soprano, for example. There are also some voices called zwischenfach, that
is, “between category” voices, whose natural proclivities straddle two
Fächer. In these cases, role selection should be undertaken on a case-by-
case basis.
Stamina is also an issue, with the ability to sing long periods in a high
tessitura usually indicating a higher, lighter Fach. When a role requires a
singer to possess full, sustained high notes or great stamina, such a singer
may not cope well with a constantly high tessitura.

Study of Roles
Once voice classification and Fach are established, then roles may be
studied. Understanding of a role is facilitated by reading relevant plays,
libretti, and original novels. The best match between role and singer may be
clarified by singing through the entire score at one sitting, with the singer
resting when the score indicates silence. The exact singing time the role
requires and the recovery provided between taxing passages will indicate
the stamina required.

Music Theater
Training for music theater involves study in singing, acting, and dance.
Voice classification is more flexible in music theater than for opera.
Different musicals make different vocal and stylistic demands and vary in
how much emphasis is placed on acting and dancing. Characterization and
word clarity take precedence over the vocal beauty emphasized in opera.
Amplification is standard, so the projection necessary in opera is not
required, allowing actor-singers to make timbre, amplitude, and style
choices according to character considerations. Music theater performers
must constantly move from spoken dialogue to singing and must possess
the stamina, physical, and vocal health to sing up to eight shows per week.
The tonal ideal for music theater is more speech-like than for opera, and
often features a brighter, more brassy timbre. Dynamics are adjusted
electronically, and the vocal range required is often narrower. Excellent
English diction is required, with consonant audibility and vowel
discrimination being aided by sound systems and the limited range. Belt is
an essential style element.

Voice Classification, Auditions, and Casting

Music theater singers choose repertoire that reflects their “casting,”
meaning their type (romantic lead, ingénue, character), which is based on a
combination of age, appearance, personality, and vocal strengths. In early
twentieth-century American and British musicals, the singing was much
like that found in operetta. After World War II music theater performers
mixed elements of classical singing with vernacular pronunciation in
musicals like Oklahoma! Soon, female Broadway singers needed a “legit”
upper voice and a lower “belt” voice, the former suggesting
virtue/innocence, and the latter experience/sensuality. The ideal male lead
voice became a kind of bari/tenor endowed with emotion and richness.
Around the 1950s Broadway producers began to persuade celebrated
nonsinging personalities to participate in productions. This practice dictated
lowering song keys to speech ranges. When original casts were replaced,
keys were not changed, to avoid the expense of new orchestrations. As a
consequence, replacement singers and those who tour shows must be
capable of performing those original keys, which may pose vocal health
problems for singers for whom the tessitura is inappropriate.
Current music theater composers write for two types of female singers.
The first is a “legit” soprano capable of singing to at least G5, and using a
chest-mix quality for her lower range. While the range does not extend as
high as an operatic soprano, it does extend lower. The upper range is sung
with a higher larynx than used in operatic singing, and the resonance is
more speech-like. The second type of female voice is a “belter.” Initially
these were mezzos who sang as low as E3 in “chest,” then in “belt” to D5.
Today more sopranos are belters, who may belt as high as F5, and then
continue higher in a “belt-mix.”
For music theater, physical appearance and theatrical expectations are
demanding. Youth and female beauty or masculine handsomeness are
required for romantic leads, and type casting is commonplace. In addition,
strong dancing skills are expected.
Currently, all major professional music theater productions and touring
shows are enhanced by a sound system. In some instances, the orchestra has
been replaced by recorded accompaniment. Ironically, large “cattle call”
auditions for Broadway and West End theaters in London are done without
microphones to reduce costs.
Auditions are the crux of the theater performer’s life. Singers need to
prepare 16- and 32-measure excerpts of their chosen song, as well as the
entire piece. Often only 16 bars are required, with the casting director on
that basis eliminating singers judged unsuitable vocally or physically.
Depending on the musical style, skill in acting and dance may be more
important determinants in hiring than singing ability. Those who remain
may be called back, often multiple times, before a decision is made.
Success in the audition process often depends on the strength of the
singer’s “book,” a careful selection of audition pieces. These pieces might
include songs in varying tempi and styles, such as “legit,” “belt,” and pop-
rock. Some singers rely on one show-stopping “pocket song” that shows
great vocal and emotional range, shows both “legit” and belting ability, and
can be used repeatedly.
Teachers of career-minded music theater singers must inform themselves
thoroughly about its history, past and contemporary, and the inner workings
of the professional theater. Professional theater magazines and newspapers
provide much necessary information, as well as books addressed to the
singing actor, such as Craig’s On Singing Onstage (2000) and Kayes and
Fisher’s Successful Singing Auditions (2002).

Vocal Chamber Music

In contrast to music for the stage, chamber music is smaller in scale and
intended for more intimate venues and smaller audiences. For singers,
chamber music encompasses the vast art song repertoire. There are two
basic types of vocal chamber music: (1) for a singer and one to four
instruments (usually heard in a recital or chamber music concert), and (2)
for a singer and a small ensemble of five or more instrumentalists (usually
presented in an instrumental concert). Because of the span of poetry and
languages covered by this repertoire, extensive foreign language study is
vital.

Voice
The vocal tone expected in chamber music depends on period, style, and
accompanying instruments. Not as much projection is required as for opera,
but a full, vibrant tone is expected. More florid music and music closer to
speech generally require less vibrato, but high Romantic songs by Strauss,
Wagner and Brahms may require a full operatic sound. Song literature
seldom demands the volume or range that opera does, but it does ask for
subtlety, refinement of musical effects and poetic meaning, and ensemble
skills.

Voice Classification and Repertoire Choice

The vast repertoire of vocal chamber music offers a musical array suited to
any voice type at any stage of development, and forms the mainstay of
classical voice pedagogy. Colleges, universities, and conservatories use this
repertoire in structuring curricula. All musical, textual, and vocal skills
necessary for classical singing can be developed through this repertoire,
with the operatic repertoire’s demands being left until basic skills have been
developed.

The Song Recital

The most common vocal chamber music form is the solo song recital with
piano. Beginning with Schubert and his circle, the recital developed during
the nineteenth century and, during the twentieth, gradually settled into a
form even now not much changed: song groups offered by one performer. A
variation, effected by soprano Marcella Sembrich, was ordering repertoire
chronologically with the singer standing in the curve of the piano; this
became the standard recital form for many years. Audiences now expect
more innovative programming, and in the twenty-first century there is a
clear need to reinvent the traditional song recital, adopting different
strategies to link items, and perhaps using other instruments, another singer,
and less formal staging (Emmons & Sonntag, 2001). Recitals can be paired
with other events, can be held in venues other than concert halls, or can use
dialogue, props, lighting, or visual projections. A recital will gain in interest
and audience response when it features variety and contrast between and
within groups; contrast in the personnel, the sound, and the visual effects;
and variety in the eras, languages, musical styles, and musical keys of the
repertoire presented.
Commercial Genres
Since the aesthetic of classical singing has developed over centuries, the
expectations are widely accepted and passed on to new students by their
teachers. As classical singing requires unamplified audibility in large
venues and over instrumental forces, years of training are needed to
produce the power, vocal beauty, and expressivity that identify this style.
On the other hand, contemporary vocal styles exhibit wide variability in
tonal preferences and are microphone-based. This amplification allows
singers of modest skill to have successful, lucrative careers.
One of the main differences between classical and nonclassical
approaches is that in the classical mind-view, the singer is a musical
interpreter, who creates a performance honoring the composer. In contrast,
the commercial singer approaches material as a cocreator, adding,
inventing, and changing the original tempo, key, rhythm, and even genre.
Until recently, the term “nonclassical” singing was widely accepted.
Current commercial voice teachers hope to replace this term with one more
positive and descriptive. “Contemporary commercial music” (CCM) has
emerged as one option, though even this term generates controversy. Some
pedagogues insist music theater belt should not be included in the CCM
appellation and that the concept of commercial singing styles should
include only pop, rock, rhythm and blues, world music, country, soul, and
jazz.
With commercial pop groups, musical ability is an important but only
small portion of the complex machinery of success. Identifiability and
originality are more prized than vocal beauty, agility, and power. For
commercial singers outside education programs, there remain those who
strive for technical virtuosity. But even for these, vocal training may not be
relevant or desired. Natural talent and the imitating of great singers may
relegate voice teachers of some singers to providing only warm-up
exercises, selecting songs, and maintaining vocal health.
In higher education, instruction is often separated into commercial music,
jazz, and music theater training. “Commercial voice” pertains most often to
pop, rhythm and blues, country, and rock. Jazz may or may not be included
in “commercial voice” curricula and is often taught as a separate discipline.
Music theater training is normally a separate field with an equal emphasis
on dance and acting training. Collegiate commercial voice programs began
in the 1970s in the United States and followed in other countries. Typically,
they include songwriting, record production, and marketing in the
curriculum.
Singers in each style are expected to have familiarity with/technical
knowledge of live sound reinforcement (e.g., monitors, amplifiers, and
microphones); recording hardware; digital, multitrack recording programs;
sound mixing; and CD mastering. Singers must feel comfortable in the
world of microphones, recording studios, and stages, and need experience
in the studio and in live settings, such as “open mics,” showcases, and
massive auditoriums.
For pop and R & B singers, there are other challenges. Many singers are
expected to dance athletically while singing, or at minimum be able to work
with a choreographer to help create a visually interesting show. The most
accomplished singers may move minimally with backup dancers doing
most of the work.
Verbal communication between singers and live audiences is typical.
Means to generate rapport with an audience may include sharing stories and
jokes or inciting the audience to higher excitement. Often this “patter” is
planned, with song order, encores, and lighting carefully rehearsed.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of live performance is maintaining
vocal health despite a grueling travel schedule, sound checks, press
interviews, and after-show parties, all of which require voice use.
Exhaustion and illness hound touring singers, who must adhere to a
regimen of vocal rest.
Though each style has its conventions, commercial styles show a high
degree of sonic diversity and individual variation and embrace a broad
definition of what makes a “good singer.” When analyzing the singing of
each style’s most highly regarded proponents, vocal styles can be examined
according to resonator shapes, laryngeal height, vibrato type/speed, the
straight tone to vibrato ratio, degree of breathiness, resonance choices,
vocal fold shaping, dialect, stance, mindset/worldview, phrasing, diction,
and stylisms (vocalizations particular to a style such as yodel, fry, slides).
Style variance depends primarily on changes from the vocal folds to the
lips. When comparing classical and commercial technique, one noticeable
postural difference is head position. Typically, classical singers employ a
level head position or tilt the chin down slightly, resulting in a lowered
larynx and a more spacious pharynx. Commercial singers often exhibit a
slightly higher head position, fostering a higher larynx position and a more
narrowed pharynx.

Repertoire Choice
Repertoire pressures facing commercial singers begin with song choices:
“Is it a hit?” After recording, the question becomes: “Will I be able to
perform it live?” In many genres, the process of choosing repertoire is style
dependent. Singers may be writers or cowriters of songs along with band
members and/or producers. For singers who are not also songwriters,
creating or obtaining appropriate songs often becomes the producer’s duty.
Songs are created or chosen based on personal taste, stylistic “direction,”
and to some extent vocal ability or lack thereof.
In the cabaret genre, repertoire choices are dependent on age and
relevance to the performer’s experience. Cabaret singers may create themed
programs, such as “A Night with Johnny Mercer.” Jazz singers rely less on
the cabaret’s theatrical approach and more on musical exploration
challenges. Song choice may be based completely on personal interest. In
this genre, the singer acts as an instrument within a musical team, often
comprised of a pianist, bassist, and drummer. Inventiveness and
improvisation are highly regarded. Jazz singers are held to high standards
musically, particularly in being able to “scat.” Scatting is vocal
improvisation that imitates instrumental soloing, particularly that of solo
saxophones, trumpets, and clarinets. In skilled jazz vocal scatting, the voice
becomes an exploratory sound source utilizing notes based in jazz theory.

SUMMARY OF KEY PRINCIPLES AND APPROACHES

 1. Best international practice in solo voice pedagogy for the twenty-first century requires teachers
to possess an understanding of vocal anatomy, physiology, and acoustics; a detailed knowledge
of the genres taught; and an appreciation of the appropriate principles of teaching and learning.
2. Common to training in all solo genres is study of voice, musical style, and structure, repertoire,
and performance skills.
3. In order to know the aesthetically appropriate vocal quality, teachers must know the
conventions of the genres and styles they teach and what physical coordinations produce that
quality safely and efficiently. They must also be acquainted with a broad range of repertoire in
the genres they teach, as well as understanding principles of voice classification and casting for
those genres.
4. Developing skill in singing is a constant refinement of audiation and kinesthetic memory.
5. Teachers need an understanding of teaching and learning theory; this fosters the development of
efficient approaches best suited to the individual learning styles of students.
6. Different genres and styles have different tonal ideals and may make divergent musical
demands and require different performance skills.
7. Regardless of genre, repertoire choice needs to be informed primarily by the singer’s stage of
vocal development and performance skills, as well as more general emotional, musical,
intellectual, career development, and economic considerations.
8. There is a diversity of accepted sounds across classical, commercial, jazz, world and music
theater genres; similarly, definitions of what makes a “good” singer vary with the genre.
9. Commercial vocal styles such as pop, jazz, R & B, rock, country, and music theater belting are
based on a naturalistic, speech-like sound.
10. Classical singers approach song as interpreters; commercial singers approach their material as
cocreators.
11. Popular singers are expected to be knowledgeable in songwriting, recording techniques, live
performance, and dance.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. How can a teacher help a singer determine which style best suits him or her?
2. What more can classical teachers and singers do to help in the task of settling on a Fach?
3. What role should technology play in the teaching of singing?
4. What methods should be used for teaching a singer to jazz-scat or improvise R & B runs?
5. How might a beginning popular singer gain valuable recording studio experience?

FURTHER READING

Legge, A. (2001). The art of auditioning: a handbook for singers, accompanists and coaches (rev.
ed.). London: Peters.

WEBSITES

http://www.singandsee.com.
http://www.vocevista.com.
http://www.speech.kth.se/software.
http://www.popeil.com/all-products.html.

REFERENCES

Callaghan, J. (2014). Singing and voice science: Body, brain & voice. Oxford: Compton.
Chapman, J. L. (2016). Singing and teaching singing. A holistic approach to classical voice (3rd ed.).
San Diego: Plural.
Craig, D. (2000) On singing onstage (rev. ed.). New York: Applause.
Dayme, M. (2009). Dynamics of the singing voice. Vienna: Springer.
Emmons, S., & Sonntag, S. (2001). The art of the song recital (2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland.
Fitts, P. M. (1964). Perceptual-motor skill learning. In A. W. Melton (ed.), Categories of human
learning (pp. 243–285). New York: Academic.
Fitts, P. M., & Posner, M. I. (1967). Human performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Garcia, M. (1982). Hints on singing (rev. ed.) (B. Garcia, Trans.). New York: Joseph Patelson Music
House. (Original work published 1894).
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind. The theory of multiple of intelligences (2nd ed.). London:
Fontana.
Gordon, E. E. (1993). Learning sequences in music. Skill, content, and patterns. A music learning
theory. Chicago: GIA.
Kayes, G., & Fisher, J. (2002). Successful singing auditions. London: A & C Black.
McCoy, S. (2006). Your voice: An inside view (rev. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Inside View.
Miller, R. (1986). The structure of singing: System and art in vocal technique. New York: Schirmer.
Miller, R. (2000) Training soprano voices. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nair, G. (2007). The craft of singing. San Diego, CA: Plural.
Proctor, R. W., & Dutta, A. (1995). Skill acquisition and human performance. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. Harvard
Educational Review, 19(2), 4–14.
Sundberg, J. (1987). The science of singing. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University.
Thurman, L., & Welch, G. (eds.). (2000). Bodymind and voice: Foundations of voice education (rev.
ed.). Iowa City: The VoiceCare Network, the National Center for Voice and Speech, Fairview
Voice Center, Center for Advanced Studies in Music Education.
 CHAPTER 3

GROUP AND ENSEMBLE VOCAL

MUSIC

STEN TERNSTRÖM, HARALD JERS, AND

JOHN NIX

The reality of many voices singing together for an audience in a room is

complex and convoluted. A successful result depends on many factors. The
audience must be able to hear the performers well. The conductor must
select music that is appropriate for the capabilities of the singers and the
specifics of the occasion and that suits the acoustics of the venue. Success
may depend to perhaps an even greater degree on the ability of the singers
to hear both each other and their own voices at the same time. In choral
performance, one strives to achieve optimal ensemble, balance, and blend
in the sound that reaches the audience. Ensemble denotes the ability of the
choir’s musicians to perform in close synchrony with each other; this is
achieved by a unified understanding of text interpretation, intonation, and
rendering of musical notation. Balance refers to a musically appropriate
proportion in loudness within each voice part and between each voice part.
Blend is the degree to which multiple voices are perceived as a single
unit/whole, rather than as individuals; this is achieved through a matching
of pitch, volume, timbre, vowel, and timing. In addition to the audience’s
requirements, each choir singer needs to hear his or her own voice over the
total sound. The room acoustics and the choral formation are key factors in
both respects.
Regardless of how knowledgeable a conductor is in implementing
advantageous formations or spacing between singers, the same conductor
can impair the choir’s development or compromise the good technique and
ensemble she helped the singers acquire by selecting inappropriate
literature. Secure singing technique, singing proper repertoire, and placing
singers on the correct vocal part are essential to a successful choral
experience. It is the conductor’s job to systematically choose repertoire that
ensures success and meets artistic goals while challenging but not
overwhelming the choir.

MAKING WISE REPERTOIRE CHOICES

Several criteria need to be considered when selecting choral repertoire:

• The singers’ physical development, strengths and weaknesses

• Placing singers in the appropriate part
• Expressive/emotional factors
• Musicianship skills

These criteria take on differing levels of importance depending on the

singers’ level of skill. For choirs of less highly skilled singers, physical
strengths and correct part assignment are paramount; for choirs with
advanced or professional singers, emotional factors and musicianship skills
become more important. Still, a hierarchy exists: namely, those that relate
directly to vocal production take precedence over aesthetic concerns.
Singers must successfully and healthily make the sounds required in the
score before expression and musical sensitivity can take place.
Physical strengths and weaknesses include several considerations: the
singers’ age, the extent of their vocal study, and the technical issues they are
facing. Age is important in understanding the choir members’
developmental level. For example, pubertal voices present directors with a
host of issues. More specific information on young singers can be found in
chapter 4 of this volume by Phillips, Williams, and Edwin. Vocal changes
do not cease at puberty, however. The larynges of singers in their forties are
capable of performing music that few 18-year-olds can manage. Young
singers lack the intrinsic and extrinsic muscular stability of adult singers to
perform long works with high tessiture. A prime example would be the
choir soprano part for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The changes do not
end at age 60; chapter 5 of this volume by Sataloff and Davidson, on the
older singer, discusses vocal aging and suggests strategies for educators to
enhance performance experiences for singers of all ages. So it is essential
that conductors consider the maturation of the singers under their direction:
are the choristers capable of managing the piece’s demands? The singer’s
length of vocal study is also important. Finally, what technical issues are the
choir’s singers experiencing? This is especially a concern in small
ensembles, where individual voices become more important and technical
problems more audible in performance. For example, do some of the
singers have passaggio difficulties? (See chapters 1 by Nix, 2 by Callaghan,
Emmons, & Popeil, and 4 by Phillips, Williams, & Edwin in this volume
for more specific information on registration.) If so, selecting pieces that
repeatedly traverse or sustain in troublesome areas might be of limited use
as technical exercises, but they would not be appropriate for public
performance. Are choir members skilled at breath management? If not,
repertoire that has phrases of various lengths, overlapping entrances, and
frequent rests may be needed until good breath management and staggered
choral breathing is learned. Are dynamic extremes awkward for choir
members? This can especially be true with beginning singers, adolescents,
and adult singers of advanced age. Directors should find repertoire that
avoids exposed pianissimi and sustained fortissimi until technical stability
can be developed. To sum up, selecting repertoire that assists the choir to
achieve vocal freedom is the top priority.
Singers need to be placed on voice parts on a piece-by-piece basis,
especially when young singers are involved. The conductor who knows
well the voices in his choir will flex or move singers from part to part on
each piece, to ensure that each singer is singing the optimal part within the
choir. The reciprocal of this applies to repertoire selection: a knowledgeable
conductor selects music that takes advantage of the individual and
collective vocal strengths of the choir, rather than fitting the voices to the
music. In order to do so, the conductor must be able to distinguish subtle
differences in voices, be familiar with a wide variety of repertoire, and even
be willing to arrange music for his own group. Voices are classified by
register bridge locations, tessitura, vocal timbre, and range. Register bridge
location and tessitura are considered more accurate in determining what
part a singer should sing in a choir, although all factors deserve
consideration. A conductor must have accurate information about each
choir member’s register bridges when assigning him or her to a part on a
piece. Assigning singers to a part that has full-voiced singing immediately
below a major register bridge can invite less-experienced singers to carry a
heavy production higher than optimal. The singers in question struggle, and
the choir’s intonation, balance, and blend suffer as a result. Vocal timbre
must also be considered. Because many factors influence timbre,
conductors must be careful when assigning singers to parts not to assume a
darker timbre means that the singer has a lower voice type, or to assume a
bigger voice is a heavier voice. It is best to find repertoire with parts each
singer can sing with his or her natural timbre, whether it is ringing and
brilliant or warm and lush. These individual timbres are then combined
through careful part assignment, an optimal formation, and appropriate
spacing into a corporate vocal color that matches the musical style and the
text. In addition, singers must be placed on parts that match their range,
and, conversely, music must be selected with the choir’s vocal ranges in
mind. This means not only the obvious “the soprano part ranges from C4 to
A5 in this piece” but also the context of the notes:

• How are the pitch extremes approached?

• What are other parts singing while each part has its extreme notes?
• How long are critical notes?
• Are the pitch extremes isolated, or are there several challenging notes
in quick succession?
• What vowels are set on these notes?

With choirs of younger or less skilled singers, which singer performs the
extreme notes of the inner parts and how they are to be produced must also
be considered. Would it be acceptable stylistically for the piece if some of
the altos assisted the tenor section in high passages? Should some male
members of the choir sing in a CT-dominant production (i.e., “falsetto”) to
assist the altos in performing certain passages? (A more detailed discussion
of voice classification can be found in chapter 2 by Callaghan, Emmons,
and Popeil.)
Expressive and emotional considerations include the choir singers’
emotional maturity, the “personality” of the choir, and the choir’s
preferences with regard to musical styles and poetry. Without thorough
explanation, few young singers can draw on life experiences to appreciate
the texts of Brahms’s Requiem, while adults might find studying the same
piece an enriching, moving experience. The choir’s “personality” is also an
important factor in repertoire selection. Some music and poetry demands a
forthright, visceral presentation, while other types require a subtle,
intellectual approach. Advanced opera performance students might enjoy
Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer, but might have a difficult time vocally and
temperamentally with the music of Hildegard von Bingen. Finally, all
singers have particular music and poetry that they enjoy performing.
Singers sing most expressively those musical styles that they like most. To
discern these criteria accurately, choir members and conductor must
develop a mutual relationship of respect and understanding. Only through
such a relationship and careful observation can a conductor tailor selections
to match the choir’s maturity, personality, and personal likes/dislikes.
Musicianship skills determine the choir’s ability to perform the score
accurately and to articulate the text clearly. With beginners, getting voices
to respond to mental directions is challenging enough; coupling musical
ideas, breathing, singing, having some awareness of other singers and
responding to the conductor’s gestures can be overwhelming. Beginners
should not be taxed with awkward leaps, dissonant harmonies, and odd
rhythms. They should also not be required to sing too softly or loudly.
Melodies with scalar or triadic patterns, clear harmonies, and
straightforward rhythms sung at a healthy mezzo-forte dynamic are advised.
The relationship of accompaniment to vocal parts is also critical: is it
subordinate to the voice parts or equal in importance? Is the texture
homophonic or polyphonic? Less experienced singers are best served
educationally by having only one challenge at a time, either musical or
vocal. Beginners are also often assisted by works sung in their native
language. As technical skill is acquired, more demanding music in other
languages can be approached. One final consideration is the performance
space’s reverberation time relative to the musical tempo, especially the rate
of harmonic changes. Less experienced singers may find a highly
reverberant acoustical environment a challenge. Pieces need to match the
performing site’s acoustics and the choir’s performance experience level in
that type of location. The conductor must strike a balance between musical
and technical challenges by knowing each choir member’s strengths and
weaknesses and by selecting repertoire that will give the choir the best
chance for success.
 PERFORMING IN CHOIRS: THE IMPACT OF PERFORMANCE SPACES AND
FORMATIONS

In this section some of the room acoustic factors that relate to choir singing
will be discussed and some consequences for performance formations will
be drawn. In this connection we have to distinguish between different terms
and their meaning: choir formation concerns the physical positioning of
sections in a choral ensemble, in other words, where each voice part stands
or sits within the choir. The term spacing denotes the distance between
adjacent choristers in an ensemble, regardless of the formation employed.
Placement is a description of the dispersal and order of choir singers within
their voice section, that is, who stands next to whom in the section.

Room Acoustics
Choirs are particularly dependent on the acoustics of the room. Each choir
singer generates sound, which is a form of energy. This acoustic energy is
radiated as pressure waves that bounce around in the performance space
until their energy has been completely absorbed by the walls and
furnishings. The greater the absorption, the shorter the reverberation time
will be. The reverberation time is the amount of time it takes for a sound to
decay 60 dB in intensity from its original level. The sound perceived by the
fellow singers and by the audience has three components:

• Direct sound (traveling from the source straight to the receiver)

• Early reflections (the sounds reflected by nearby walls and objects,
with round-trip delays of less than 50 milliseconds)
• The diffuse field (all the later reflections, which rapidly die down and
are also called reverberation)

The intensity of the direct sound decreases only with distance, which is
independent of the room. Early reflections are important for the perception
of liveliness and can be helpful for good intelligibility. The intensity of the
diffuse field is usually much the same throughout the room. The many
reflections merge into a practically uniform sound field with no direction of
its own, giving no information as to the location of the singers. The distance
from the sound source at which the intensities of the diffuse field and the
direct sound are equal is called the reverberation radius of the room, and it
will affect how the singers hear the rest of the choir. If the singer-to-singer
spacing in the choir is smaller than the reverberation radius of the room, the
sound of one’s neighboring singers will tend to dominate over the sound of
the whole choir. Outside the reverberation radius, each singer will generally
receive the entire sound of the choir rather than sounds of single singers.
This situation is similar to a listener in the audience, who will mainly
perceive the choir as a whole and not the individual singers. For a “dry”
concert hall with modest reverberation, one might recommend a spacing
between singers of one meter or more, while for a church a distance of
rather less than a meter would be appropriate.

Performance Spaces and Placement

The placement of choir singers may be adjusted with regard for the acoustic
properties of the room. In a very reverberant room, such as a small or
medium-sized church, the reverberation radius is very small (typical values
are less than one to two meters), and it matters little where in the choir the
singers are placed in terms of hearing the neighboring singers. In most
positions they will generally perceive the whole choir sound. For a less
reverberant room, for example, a concert hall or studio, the diffuse sound
will be somewhat weak, and so the sound inside the choir will be dominated
by that of the nearest singers. This can be adjusted by increasing the
spacing between the singers, depending on the amount of reverberation.
Inside the choir, this would reduce the dominance of the nearby singers and
lead to a better balance in the sound of the choir as a whole. In large
cathedrals, even if their reverberation is long, the diffuse field can be
weaker still and poor in early reflections, to the point of approaching
outdoor conditions. Here it can be helpful to provide reflectors around the
choir so that the singers can hear the sound of the whole choir and not just
their immediate neighbors.

Directivity of Singers
Every sound source is more or less directional: the sound radiation is not
uniform in all directions, and this variation also depends on the frequency.
Voiced sounds contain energy over the full audio spectrum, from the
fundamental or first harmonic that corresponds to the written musical pitch,
and up to 15,000 Hz or more for loud, bright tones. This results in a fairly
complex radiation pattern, even from a single singer.
Directivity measurements of singers show nearly omnidirectional
radiation for frequencies below 500 Hz (B4). This includes the fundamental
pitch range for practically all male voices and the lower portion of female
voices. The directivity increases with frequency and becomes important in
the range 800 Hz (approximately G#5) to 2000 Hz (approximately B6).
This includes the upper pitch range of female voices as well as the first and
second formant regions of most vowels. These two formants provide
essential information for the intelligibility of vowels. Most of the sound
energy is radiated to the front down direction, although some sound radiates
also to the front and sides. There is reduced propagation to the back, apart
from a minor local maximum exactly to the back due to constructive
interference. For frequencies from 2000 to 5000 Hz, front top and sideways
radiation are the main directions, with very little sound reaching to the rear.
This high range is the domain of the singer’s formant cluster, or “operatic
ring.” Although it is seldom used in choral singing, it is of particular
interest to soloists and actors. Frequencies above 5000 Hz are much weaker
and even more directional. This highest range will be of limited interest
unless microphones are used. A summary of directivity measurements from
singers is given in table 3.1. Interested readers wanting further details,
including graphic displays, on the directivity of sound from singers may
find more information at http://haraldjers.de by clicking on the link for
publications.
Table 3.1 Directivity of sound propagation from singers according to frequency
Frequency Main propagation properties
region
[Hz]
80–500 Nearly omni-directional
500–2000 Mainly front down, more and more sound to top front and right and left, reduced
propagation to back but local maximum at exact back due to constructive
interference
2000–5000 Apart from propagation to front top a lot of propagation to the right and left, rapidly
decreased propagation for the rear part

The implication of these measurements for choirs is that the spacing

between singers influences the total sound propagation of the choir; the
listeners in an auditorium perceive the choir differently according to the
spacing of the singers. A wider spacing between singers may lead to a more
voluminous sound in the auditorium, especially in rooms with only little
reverberation. As a positive consequence of this, each singer will feel more
responsible for his or her own voice, often leading to a higher quality of the
choral sound.

Formations
The directivity of the voice is in itself sufficient to cause slightly different
results in different choral formations. In addition, different singers tend to
sing with different vocal power (Coleman, 1994), so the ability to hear
one’s own voice will be influenced by one’s immediate neighbors and their
proximity. To this may be added a psychological component of who likes to
sing next to whom. There have been many traditions and opinions about
optimal formations in the history of choral music. Among the most popular
formations are block sectional, column sectional, and mixed.
In a block sectional formation, the choristers stand on the risers in
contiguous sectional blocks according to the respective voice parts sung. A
column sectional formation describes a disposition of singers where each
voice group builds a column of equal voices over all rows. This leads to a
formation where the voice sections are cut into pieces. A third formation is
the mixed formation, where the choristers are randomly distributed.
Sometimes this formation could be performed as a SATB quartet formation
as well, where the distance between equal singers has the biggest value.
Table 3.2 shows some advantages and disadvantages of the mentioned
formations.
Table 3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of commonly used choral formations
Formation Pros Cons Schematic of
formation
Block Sound is often louder Singers at the edges of a voice SSSAAATTTBB
sectional than in column sectional section may have difficulties BSSSAAATTTBBB
formation Suitable for hearing other singers of their SSSAAATTTBBB
homophonic pieces group Singers in the middle of a SSSAAATTTBBB
Alto II can occasionally section may have difficulties
help Tenor I in high discerning their own voice
tessitura passages; the against the section colleagues
same holds true for
Tenor II shifting to assist
Baritones in high
passages
Column Especially advisable for Some voice sections are far TTTTTTBBBBBB
sectional polyphonic music to separated TTTTTTBBBBBB
perceive entrances and SSSSSSAAAAAAS
achieve good balance of SSSSSAAAAAA
voice sections, especially
when tenors and
sopranos are in divisi.
Mixed Promotes self confidence Needs prior training Singers SATBSATBSATB
SATB Voices mix more at should be experienced Singers BTASBTASBTASS
quartets audience and often may “feel alone” Difficult for ATBSATBSATBB
sound louderSingers can conductor to address voice TASBTASBTAS
easily hear other voice sectionsSinger heights and body
sections; often improves sizes can be an issue in achieving
intonation good sight lines with the
conductor

Acoustics and Hearing One’s Own Voice

For the individual choir singer, a primary acoustic objective is to be able to
hear one’s own voice in a suitable proportion to the sound of the rest of the
choir. Otherwise, performance accuracy will suffer, especially in terms of
intonation. This relative strength of one’s own voice can be estimated by
measurements and expressed in decibels as the Self-to-Other ratio (SOR).
The feedback of one’s own voice, or “Self,” follows two acoustic paths.
The first path is that of the airborne sound that diffracts from the mouth
around the head and back to the ears. The greater directivity of high
frequencies means that these will tend to radiate mostly forward, and so
one’s own voice is perceived as lacking in treble, relative to the voices of
others. This effect is further compounded by the second path, the bone-
conducted sound, or rather vibrations, that travel from the vibrating vocal
folds through the body directly to the middle ear. One’s bone-conducted
sound is heard only by oneself, and it contains only low frequencies, much
as the tones leaking in from an adjacent apartment’s stereo tend to be most
annoying in the bass. Hence, one’s own voice is perceived as being rich in
bass and somewhat poor in treble. This is why most people, on hearing their
own voice recorded, find it surprisingly thin or tinny. It has been shown that
in speech the airborne and bone-conducted sounds are about equal in level
(Pörschmann, 2000). No data on this balance have been published yet for
the singing voice.
The sound of the rest of the choir, or “Other,” is the sum of the direct
sounds from all the other singers, plus the reverberated sound of the choir.
The level of the direct sound increases as the spacing is reduced. Studies by
Daugherty (2003) indicated that singers in choirs who stand with close
spacing, especially those constrained by risers or a small podium, find it
more difficult to hear their own voices. For a practical and often
acoustically appropriate spacing, one effective recommendation is for choir
singers to be able to put their hands on their hips without touching another’s
elbow. The level of the reverberated sound depends on the amount of
absorption in the room as a whole. For the choral director, the implications
would be as follows:

• If the singers report that they cannot hear their own voices well
enough, increase the spacing and/or the absorption of the room and
suggest they use their music scores as personal reflectors.
• If the singers indicate that they cannot hear each other well enough,
try to provide acoustic reflectors around the choir, or choose a more
circular formation where they face each other.

A large SOR (of +6 dB or more) means that one’s own voice will be easy to
discern above the rest. Ternström (1994, 1999) reported values of 0 to +8
dB as typical in chamber choir venues. Chorister preferences for SOR were
found to be diverse, but +6 dB on average. Most choirs seek to perform in
venues that are fairly reverberant. In such a space, the room acoustics are
instrumental in improving blend, reducing the impact of directivity, and
achieving a good balance between Self and Other.
 THE CHORUS EFFECT

A gradual distinction is often made between small vocal groups that have
typically one singer to each part and full choirs, with three or more singers
to each part. The sound of groups tends to retain some of the individual
character of the singers and may afford a precise consonance in complex
harmonies that is difficult to achieve with choirs. Choirs, on the other hand,
afford a fuller and more powerful, if more anonymous, sound; and, they are
more accommodating to amateur singers, since the audience will ideally
perceive an average sound rather than each voice. The “chorusness” of a
sound refers to that perceptual property of the sound of an ensemble of
unison voices that distinguishes it from the sound of an individual voice.
The chorus effect stems from the fact that, even when singing very
“straight” tones without vibrato, the vocal sound will always exhibit minute
irregular variations in the fundamental frequency (F0), on the order of 5–15
cents (hundredths of a semitone). These variations, or flutter, are the result
of the muscle fibers controlling the voice being activated in spurts and
regulated by what is believed to be two systems for controlling F0—a faster
one that is proprioceptive and a slower one that is auditory. Two sounds
with slightly different F0 will give rise to beats, but in the case of voices
these beats, too, will be irregular. With only two voices, the beats of all the
pairs of coinciding harmonics will still be in phase with each other. When a
third voice is added, however, there will be three simultaneous sets of beats,
and any remaining coherence is obscured. This is probably why the
character of the sound changes when going from one to two to three voices.
Adding more similar voices than three changes very little in this regard, as
may have been realized by J. S. Bach, who reportedly chose to pay for three
choristers on each part, but not more!
In the choral sound, the amplitude of each harmonic is subject to deep
and random modulation by beating, independently of the other harmonics.
The beating becomes more rapid higher in the spectrum, because the
frequency difference between beating harmonics is proportional to the
harmonic number. It was demonstrated by Dolson (1983) that it is this kind
of amplitude modulation that cues the perception of the chorus effect.
As far as sound waves are concerned, most rooms are like halls of
mirrors. Even a lone singer will be in the company of his reflections; thus, a
single voice can give rise to an ensemble sensation if the room is very
reverberant. The reflected signals are then delayed enough to be
distinguished from the direct sound, and act as if they came from other
singers. Therefore, the room acoustics have a direct bearing also on the
chorus effect of the sound produced by the choir.

STAGED WORKS: THE SINGING CHORISTER

Professional choirs on theatre and opera stages face rather specific

conditions. The acoustics of theatrical stages are quite absorbent, especially
toward the back and sides. One study observed that a singer in an opera
chorus hears much of her own voice and some of the voices of immediate
neighbors, but little of the whole ensemble and the soloists (Ternström,
Cabrera, & Davis, 2005). SOR values on the stage are typically in the range
+10 to +20 dB. The orchestra is usually in a pit; up on the stage, its sound is
often masked by the sound of the rest of the chorus. This places large
demands on the skill of opera chorus artists and their ability to follow the
conductor regardless of what they hear. The stage props, which are often
changed from scene to scene, can be very important as sound reflectors for
good audibility both between performers and to the audience. They can also
have the opposite effect, absorbing or diffusing sound rather than providing
helpful reflections. Some researchers have expressed concern that high
sound levels in professional opera choruses may need to be assessed with
regard to noise exposure and hearing hazards. Additional voice production
challenges facing the stage chorister arise from the fact that they are
required to be choral actors. Specific hardships include singing while
moving vigorously in dance scenes.

REAL-TIME FEEDBACK AND CHOIR INSTRUCTION

There is growing interest in the singing community in technical aids that

provide various visualizations of voice production, in order to facilitate
learning. However, the impact of real-time visual feedback on choral
rehearsal and performance has not been explored extensively. A number of
reasons exist for this lack of study, including the previously discussed
complexity of acoustics and psychoacoustics of choral singing, the choice
of equipment to perform and display the analysis as feedback, choosing
appropriate feedback displays, the vagaries of feedback interpretation by
singers and conductors, and the attention limitations of singers in a choir.
As has been previously stated, any choir’s sound, both within the choir
for the singers and also as received by listeners, depends as much on the
performance space’s acoustic characteristics, the location of the choir
within the performance space, and the location of listeners relative to the
choir and to reflective surfaces in the performance space as it does on the
actions of the choir itself. When a choir’s sound is analyzed by a computer
software program, what is displayed depends heavily on the type of
microphone(s) used, the placement of the microphone or microphones
within the performance space and their placement with respect to the choir,
the reverberation rate and other acoustic parameters of the room, the nature
of the software, and the processing capacity of the computer being used. It
is certainly possible that some of what is displayed is caused by these
additional factors rather than the choir’s singing.
Meaningful use of voice analysis software in choral rehearsal and
performance requires users to control as many potential variables as
possible. Although studies with individual voice students suggest that the
use of visual feedback may be helpful to both teacher and student, using
visual feedback in group singing situations introduces complexities not
present with individual singers. More research is needed under controlled
conditions before any conclusions can be drawn and recommendations
made.

SUMMARY OF KEY PRINCIPLES

 1. Choral repertoire needs to be chosen that enhances the choir’s vocal and artistic development,
capitalizes on the choir’s current capabilities, and is suitable for the acoustical environment of
the performance space.
2. The choral sound is influenced by many acoustical factors related to voice production, sound
propagation, and auditory perception. Taken in isolation, most of these factors are of minor
importance, but when many circumstances combine favorably, the end result can be markedly
improved.
3. Choral musicians sing based on experience. Their experience-based practices often support the
results of acoustic research. More scientific investigations are warranted, so that mistakes
stemming from outdated methods can be avoided and rehearsals and performances can be
enhanced.
4. The psychology of choral singing can be complicated and should be taken into account
concerning interactions between choristers. The vocal responses of choristers to changes in the
gestures of the conductor are also very intriguing and complex. Some qualitative studies have
been done. More quantitative research is needed in this area. These topics have not been
considered in this chapter.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. What is it about singing in choirs that encourages singers to adopt the positive (and negative)
vocal behaviors of the singers near them?
2. How does matching of voices work?
3. Should bigger voices hold back in choir?
4. Should singers control or modify their vibrato in choir?

REFERENCES

Coleman, R. (1994). Dynamic intensity variations of individual choir singers. Journal of Voice 8(3),
196–201.
Daugherty, J. F. (2003). Choir spacing and formation: Choral sound preferences in random,
synergistic, and gender-specific chamber choir placements. International Journal of Research in
Choral Singing 1(1), 48–59. Retrieved from http://www.choralresearch.org.
Dolson, M. (1983). A tracking phase vocoder and its use in the analysis of ensemble sounds.
Doctoral diss., California Institute of Technology.
Pörschmann, C. (2000). Influences of bone conduction and air conduction on the sound of one’s own
voice. Acustica 86, 1038–1045.
Ternström, S. (1994). Hearing myself with the others—sound levels in choral performance measured
with separation of one’s own voice from the rest of the choir. Journal of Voice 4(8), 293–302.
Ternström, S. (1999). Preferred self-to-other ratios in choir singing. Journal of the Acoustical Society
of America 105(6), 3563–3574.
Ternström, S., Cabrera, D., & Davis, P. (2005). Self-to-other ratios measured in an opera chorus in
performance. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 118(6), 3903–3911.
 CHAPTER 4

THE YOUNG SINGER

KENNETH H. PHILLIPS, JENEVORA

WILLIAMS, AND ROBERT EDWIN

Development of the singing voice is especially important for the young.

Those who learn to sing early reap a lifetime of benefits. In addition to
developing aesthetic awareness, these benefits include personal, social, and
educational outcomes.
Singing is a skill that requires disciplined study if the singer is to develop
her potential. While vocal music teachers agree that children can and should
learn to sing, some have considered it inappropriate to teach singing to
children via formal instruction. Fortunately this opinion is changing. The
American Academy of Teachers of Singing states:
no scientific, pedagogical, or psychological evidence indicates that child voice pedagogy is
inherently harmful to children’s bodies, minds, or spirits. The Academy now recognizes that
there are benefits to teaching children to sing. In fact, well-trained singers of any age are less
likely than untrained singers to hurt their vocal instruments or to allow their instruments to be
hurt by others. (2002, p. 1)

The authors agree that structured singing is a learned behavior and that
formal vocal instruction is appropriate for most young people. The purpose
of this chapter is to present specific information for developing child and
adolescent singers.

THE CHILD VOICE

Research on the child singing voice is expanding, and comprehensive
reviews exist. Phillips (1992) summarizes much of the vocal research up to
1990. Phillips and Doneski (2011) summarize over 100 research studies
from 1990 to the early twenty-first century on this topic. Although the
research base is small compared to that for adults, interested readers may
find helpful the list of articles and books available at the authors’ websites
listed at the end of the chapter.

The Physical Instrument

The proportions and physical properties of the child’s voice are
significantly different from those of the adult. Infant laryngeal structure
reflects the survival requirements for crying and sucking. The infant larynx
sits high in the vocal tract, level with the jaw and cervical vertebra 3 (C3),
whereas the adult larynx is visible midway down the front of the neck. The
baby’s high larynx permits the epiglottis to couple with the soft palate,
enabling simultaneous sucking and breathing; it does not enable the variety
of vowel sounds required for speech. The laryngeal cartilages are soft, and
movement between them is relatively clumsy.
An infant’s lungs are proportionately smaller and more horizontally
positioned than those of the adult. This allows room for a larger digestive
tract and the production of short, sharp bursts of sound. These smaller lungs
do not facilitate the extended vocalizations speech requires. As the infant
matures, the lungs move into a vertical position, and they assume an adult-
like structure by age eight, when longer phonations become possible. It is at
this age that voice instruction begins in the boy-choir tradition.
When survival requirements of the child shift to speech development, the
larynx descends, the laryngeal cartilages become more firm and mobile, and
lung volume increases. This is a gradual process that continues through
puberty. The small lung size does not permit extended sung phrases, the
relatively clumsy laryngeal cartilage articulation deters rapid pitch changes,
and the vocal fold structure restricts the possibility of a large dynamic
range. Due to the ratio of vocal fold length to vibration amplitude, young
singers have a limited ability to increase intensity without impacting
intonation. A short vocal tract restricts fullness of vocal timbre. In general,
the child singer has a reduced capacity for vocalizations that are
disproportionately long, agile, loud, high, or rich in timbre.
 Vocal abuse is rampant among children, and otolaryngologists frequently
see children with vocal injuries. Those at risk often are involved in shouting
and loud activities in play, speaking over high levels of background noise,
speaking on inappropriate pitch (often too low), prolonged talking, and
coughing or harsh clearing of the throat. The speech habits and voice
hygiene of family members and role models can play an important role.
Children with allergies, asthma, or chronic upper respiratory tract infections
also are at risk. In addition, abuse of the voice is common among those who
demonstrate aggressive or emotionally unstable personality traits.
Fortunately, because of the adaptability of the developing larynx children
are more likely to recover spontaneously from voice disorders with vocal
rest. Teachers must be alert for voice abuse among children and take steps
to advise teachers, parents, and students of the possible lasting damage to
the voice from harsh usage. (Guidelines for vocal health are included in this
volume in chapter 6, Voice Health and Vocal Education by Nix and Roy.)

The Psychomotor Process

The act of singing is a psychomotor process involving the coordination of
mental and motor activities. This process has four steps: (1) the teacher
provides a model or stimulus; (2) the student perceives and decodes the
model; (3) the student imitates the model; and (4) the student analyzes
teacher-provided and internal feedback regarding his effort and seeks to
make improvements and/or changes in vocal production. The psychological
element in step 2 involves two basic mental processes: aural acuity (precise
perception of pitch and memory thereof) and audiation (musical pattern
discrimination).
The psychological origin of poor pitch perception can result from a
number of factors, including inattention to pitch, insufficient feedback, and
inadequate teaching mode. A child who is inattentive can be helped by
moving her closer to the teacher. Insufficient feedback is resolved by using
multiple means, including aural, visual, and kinesthetic input. Some
progress has been made employing computers to provide real-time visual
feedback. (See the list of programs provided at the end of this chapter.)
Children are more likely to perceive pitch precisely if the model they hear
accurately represents what they should produce with pitches sung in their
singing range. The adult male voice singing down the octave can be
troublesome for pitch-matching tasks among less experienced young
singers, as does the female voice employing full vibrato. The child voice of
a classroom peer who sings well is the best model for other children to
imitate.
Tonal memory is a skill most children learn as they mature; memory span
generally increases with age. If a student can identify known melodies by
name, for example, Jingle Bells, he or she is demonstrating the skill of
remembering tonal patterns. Classroom exercises that aid tonal memory
include singing a song silently “on the inside,” call-response activities, and
rote imitation of tonal patterns.
Edwin E. Gordon uses the term audiation to describe the process
necessary for developing pitch discrimination, that is, the process of
comparing and making critical judgments among various perceived sounds.
According to Gordon, children should learn to audiate in relation to musical
syntax, that is, musical patterns. When a child audiates or recognizes a tonal
pattern sung on a neutral syllable and sings it back using solfège, he is
developing the skill needed to recognize and sing patterns found in written
music. Gordon believes that tonal-pattern matching is far superior as a
pedagogical exercise than having inaccurate singers try to match single
pitches. A pattern forms a musical statement, a “whole” that seems to better
facilitate the pitch matching process.
A feedback loop is established aurally as children hear their own singing
voices, decode what they hear, and make vocal adjustments accordingly.
For this to occur, a child must be able to hear and recognize her own voice.
Most classroom singing is done in a group, and young children sometimes
have difficulty hearing and recognizing their own voices. It can be helpful
for a child to use a cupped hand between the mouth and ear to reflect her
own sound. In addition, teachers can use a technique where children
respond alone using call (teacher) and response (student) tonal patterns (3–4
pitches) in rote imitation. This enables the instructor to hear who is and is
not matching, and permits each child to hear her own voice. Reluctance to
respond alone is sometimes present, but repeated use of this approach
results in children becoming comfortable sharing their voices with others.
A final factor in the psychological constructs that affect singing is the
home environment. In general, good musical environments tend to produce
accurate singers, while poor musical environments tend to produce
inaccurate singers. Fortunately, evidence exists that children from poor
musical homes can be helped musically by early intervention in organized
music programs. Vocal development is not strictly bound by time.
Experience seems to be the vital ingredient: A good vocal program in the
elementary school, church choir, community children’s chorus, or private
studio can overcome a lack of musical experience in the preschool years.
Motor development is the second important area of the psychomotor
process. Body alignment, breath management, kinesthetic awareness,
efficient use of the vocal source, resonance adjustments, and articulation
techniques all must be developed through motor coordination practice and
are discussed later in this chapter.

Vocal Production
Two facts concerning singing accuracy are known: (1) more girls sing
accurately than boys, and (2) the number of inaccurate singers decreases
with age. Both these findings appear to be related to age: boys mature more
slowly, and both genders improve in singing accuracy as they mature
(Welch, 2009).
The frequencies reported for inaccurate singing among children (10%,
28%, and 75%) varies according to the criteria used to measure pitch
deviation and the ages measured. This wide variation of percentages
suggests the profession should adopt a standard means for assessing pitch
accuracy. What can be said is that accuracy continues to be a problem
among varying numbers of children and is probably related to the level of
vocal instruction used by teachers.
The main problem with child singing accuracy seems to be the inability
of the singer to shift registers as pitch ascends. Wurgler (1991) details the
importance of this register shift, noting that 85% of the children tested (n =
285, aged 5–12) exhibited two perceptually distinct vocal registers: one
characterized by thyroarytenoid muscle activity (TA), traditionally called
the “chest voice” register, and one with substantial cricothyroid muscle
activity (CT), traditionally called the “head voice” register. These two
registers interact, producing a secondary or middle register. Wurgler reports
that children who sang predominantly in the TA register had intonation
problems and made gross changes to the vocal tract by pushing the jaw
forward. Children who employed CT-dominant production had greater
registration options. Pedagogically, Wurgler states: “rarely could head tone
be found by ascending to it, especially when the ascent was by step” (p.
113). The singing of descending pitch patterns was strongly recommended
for helping students make the register change a smooth transition.
Vocal ranges of maturing children vary widely, depending on their ability
to shift from the lower (TA-dominant) register to the upper (CT-dominant)
one. Many children who imitate popular singing models sing predominantly
in the TA register. However, teacher-guided exploration and utilization of
both modes, CT- and TA- dominant, can provide children with a wide range
of healthy singing possibilities. Working with a variety of descending and
ascending vocal patterns is the best way to proceed in establishing a smooth
register transition. Typical ranges and registration events for different age
groups and genders are included in this volume in chapter 1 by Nix.
Children who receive some type of formal vocal instruction should be
able to sing the range of an octave (C4–C5) by first grade. Thereafter the
vocal range expands gradually, and by sixth grade the range can often
exceed two octaves (G3–G5). While singing exclusively in either CT- or
TA-dominant production is discouraged, some types of music do require
more of one intrinsic function than another. Teachers should encourage their
students to seek ease of production over loudness.

Vocal Pedagogy/Instruction
Motor coordination begins with body alignment development. The aim is to
find efficiency and balance—to achieve stability as alert stillness. Good
alignment focuses on the body as the singing instrument, maximizing
flexibility for breath management.
Most children do not demonstrate natural good alignment, and telling
them to “stand tall” avails little. However, good body alignment can be
practiced. A program of gentle stretching followed by exploration of body
balance options can be very effective. Alignment possibilities of the head,
neck, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles can be tested in series and
compared for differences. For example, students can “lock” their knees and
then relax them. Shoulders can be rolled forward or back and up or down.
Attention to and practice of total body alignment, which provides poise,
balance, and efficiency, can make good body use for singing a habit.
Managing breathing efficiently for singing is generally a learned skill.
This involves release of the abdominal muscles on inhalation without
unnecessary displacement or lifting of the upper chest. Management of the
breath for singing involves (1) breath control, or regulating the rate of
emission of the air, and (2) support, or balancing sufficient airflow with the
subglottic pressure needed for the desired pitches. Breath control involves
vocal fold adduction and a slowly relaxing diaphragm coupled with a
slowly relaxing ribcage. The diaphragm does not contract on exhalation—it
relaxes upward. Breath flow or support is led by contraction of the lower
abdominal muscles (primarily the transverse and oblique abdominals).
Sustaining a long, unvoiced fricative (e.g., /S/) on exhalation is one
traditional way to feel and activate the breath support process.
Children (and adults) will often drastically raise the upper ribs and
shoulders (clavicular breathing) in an attempt to take in a large amount of
air. This gives the sensation of working hard but is generally
counterproductive to efficient vocalization. It is helpful to encourage the
lower abdomen to extend (relax) during inhalation and pull in gently
(contract) during expiration; an overworking in the upper body typically
results in the reverse of this action (pulling the abdomen in during
inhalation). Abdominal flexibility can be encouraged by gentle trunk turns,
such as are found in Feldenkrais work and tai-chi, and with the use of
rhythmical hissing and buzzing exercises.
Next to developing good body alignment habits, learning to manage the
breath may be the second most important element in emerging vocal
technique. The voice is a wind instrument and requires optimal, consistent
breath pressure to operate properly. Some inaccurate singing may be due to
poor breath management.
Tone production is a subjective and stylistically specific matter. There
are, however, vocal tract tension issues that are counter to healthy singing in
any style. Jaw tension can be observed either as immobility or a forward
alignment. Movement of the jaw forward (e.g., as occurs when the jaw is
fully open) can be felt by placing the fingertips on the jaw hinge just in font
of the ears. This movement both pulls on the pharyngeal wall and limits
tongue mobility. Asking singers to open their mouths overly wide can be
counterproductive to good vocal resonance. Ideally the jaw should hang
freely from the hinge, with the actual mouth opening varying according to
the vowel, pitch, and dynamic level being sung.
Tongue tension can be felt by placing the thumb under the chin, behind
the jawbone. Any consistent downward pressure sensed by the thumb while
singing indicates unnecessary tongue tension that will affect laryngeal
position.
 Another area of potentially harmful tension can be constriction
immediately above the larynx. This is often perceived as a harsh sound, and
can eventually lead to cracking (unstable phonation). Physically, it often
involves muscles that would be normally active in swallowing to overwork,
leading to the false vocal folds being active in singing as well as the true
vocal folds. This encourages a pressed phonation, which is perceived as
harshness. Laryngeal constriction is often evident with noisy inhalation.
General physical release will help this, as will vocalizing with
semioccluded vocal tract exercises. In the adult classical tradition, the
larynx generally does not rise during the singing process. However,
children, adolescents, and even young college-aged singers may lack the
extrinsic muscle stability to consistently achieve this posture. In other styles
it may elevate somewhat, depending on the stability of the singer’s extrinsic
musculature. Artificially lowering the larynx is also undesirable and may
result in an overly darkened timbre.
Principles detailed in chapter 2 by Callaghan, Emmons, and Popeil
regarding singing voice acoustics are relevant for children as well as adults.
However, young singers’ resonance frequencies are substantially higher
than those found in adults due to the short vocal tract and smaller epilarynx.
Other issues of tone production are stylistic choices. Vocal onset can be
glottal, aspirate, or simultaneous. A glottal onset is created by the vocal
folds coming together before the air passes through. As the breath comes
through the glottis, an audible “click” is heard. (This technique should not
be confused with “shock of the glottis,” which is a rather violent burst of
the vocal folds on onset.) A glottal onset is used for emphasizing words that
begin with a vowel and is commonly used in the German language. An
aspirate onset results from the airflow preceding the vocal fold contact, as
in words beginning with an h. Simultaneous onset requires greater
coordination between the laryngeal muscles and airflow, and is the most
commonly used form of onset in singing words beginning with a vowel.
Principles of articulation are important for children to study as a means
of effectively communicating text. Many children may transfer casual
patterns from everyday speech into singing, or may acquire
counterproductive habits because of orthodontic appliances. Exercising the
vocal articulators can be accomplished through rhythmic consonant drills
organized by consonant classifications, through child-friendly tongue
twisters as warranted, and by speaking texts separate from the music.
 Finally, elements of expression should not be left to chance. Teachers
need to address the meaning and mood of the music, engaging students in
discussions of purpose (why?), feeling (what?), the journey (where?), the
text (how?), the recipient (to whom?), and the audience (who, where, and
how many?). Musical terms relating to dynamics or tempos may be too
abstract for children; they may relate better to feelings such as excited, sad,
or strong, allowing their voices to reflect these sentiments as appropriate
when singing.

Classic, Cultural, and Popular Singing Styles

If one listens to the singing of children from various cultures around the
world, it becomes abundantly clear that the human voice can make an
incredibly wide variety of sounds. These sounds can vary from the western
European style called classical or the African style called mbube. In modern
times, many of the sounds around the world take the form of the style called
popular.
Depending on a child’s musical upbringing, he may learn to sing in one
or a number of styles. The choices are staggering, from alternative to
zydeco. All styles have in common a triggering source (the brain), a power
source (the breath), a phonation source (the vocal folds), a resonation
source (the vocal tract), and a diction source (the articulators). Each style
requires specific vocal techniques to ensure authenticity, to respect
tradition, and to fulfill aesthetic expectations.
For example, a child singer training in a classical setting might be asked
to sing with a more oval mouth shape in a CT-dominant (head) register with
clear and even tone color throughout the voice range. A child singer
training in an African-American tradition gospel setting, however, will be
asked to sing with lateralized, speech-like vowels in a TA-dominant
(chest/mix) register with a diversity of tone colors, including spontaneous
shouts and yells.
All singing involves telling a story. How the singing system is used to tell
that story is so varied that it cannot and should not be defined by one
methodology or approach. At the core of any methodology for children
must be age-appropriate and voice-appropriate technique and repertoire.
Expanding on the aforementioned commonalities in singing, most, if not
all singing styles can employ the
diaphragmatic/intercostal/abdominally/supported breath management
techniques described earlier in this chapter and elsewhere in this section.
There should be no dispute among singers and teachers about a predictable
and efficient power source.
The phonation source (the vocal folds), on the other hand, can employ
many options. Dancers do not train only their upper or lower limbs, yet
many singers only use one part of their voices. Child belters often exhibit a
weak upper register, and children in some types of choirs often display a
weak lower register. Whether that is the result of personal choice or teacher-
imposed direction, voice science and modern voice pedagogy agree that
using one register exclusively at the expense of the other prevents the voice
from reaching its full potential. The CT and TA muscles must work
cooperatively to vary and regulate vocal fold length, thickness, and
stiffness. Therefore, voice educators should have child students explore,
isolate, and integrate lower and upper register activity. Achieving a higher
level of coordination can be a long and winding road. Brains and muscles
take time to learn what to do. The more skills the singer can master, the
better the results, no matter what style of singing is engaged. Teachers are
urged to be patient and persistent.
The amplification source, the pharynx, oral, and nasal cavities, can also
benefit from some “cross training” work (Edwin, 2008). In classical
singing, the pharynx widens in some areas while the larynx lowers, creating
a larger resonance space. In most forms of contemporary commercial music
(CCM) singing, the throat narrows and the larynx rises, creating a more
speech-like tonal quality.
Articulation, or diction as it is commonly called, is very style dependent.
Cleanly articulated choir singing is a must for clarity of text. The same
articulation approach in CCM singing, however, can often sound unnatural
and stylistically inappropriate.
Several major points need to be reiterated regarding any and all child
voice pedagogy, including CCM. (1) Voice techniques need to be age
appropriate. Children are not little adults. They already tend to copy adult
singing without possessing adult vocal equipment. Err on the side of bright
and light versus dark and heavy timbral choices. (2) Repertoire needs to be
age appropriate. It is neither cute nor smart to have a child try to sing
“Quando m’en vo” from La Boheme. Neither is it cute nor smart to have a
child try to sing Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You.” They
may not understand the songs, and they may do significant damage to
themselves trying to copy the adult artists who sing those songs.
Specific to the CCM dynamic, young people want to sing pop and rock-
based songs, and such songs usually feature TA-dominant registration.
Teachers may have been taught that belting or TA chest voice-dominant
singing can ruin a child’s voice. Any physical activity can be dangerous and
harmful if done incorrectly. Good and healthy belting is a mix of TA and
CT muscle activity combined with resonance coupling that does not
overload or overtax the instrument. This requires specific breath
management technique. Belting requires a vocal quality specific to popular
culture, and that quality must be embraced if a teacher is to help a child
singer successfully negotiate belt and mix voice.
Children come in different sizes. So do their voices. Each child has a
unique instrument that must be evaluated on an individual basis to
determine range, timbre, endurance, and flexibility. Some children thrive in
the often maligned musical Annie because their voices and personalities suit
the show. Children with strong, high voices can negotiate the F#5s in
belt/mix. Kids without that range and temperament cannot. Teachers need to
classify children for the same reasons one classifies adults in the classical
Fach system: to define current capabilities and limitations, and to prevent
singers from exceeding those limitations. If the same range sensibilities are
employed in CCM as are used in classical, both singers and the art of
singing will be healthier.

THE ADOLESCENT VOICE

The adolescent years encompass approximately ages 12 through 17,

although signs of puberty can be seen earlier (as early as 10 with some
girls) and later. Physiological and psychological problems abound, making
the transition from childhood to adulthood somewhat erratic. Adolescents
often have difficulty singing, especially in the early stages, when voice
change in both males and females can negatively impact the process.

The Physical Instrument

The physiological changes experienced by adolescents are initiated by
changing levels of hormones in the individual. These tend to be produced in
surges, leading to growth spurts rather than steady patterns of growth.
Children living in warmer climates are known to begin the pubertal process
earlier, and in general, the age of pubertal onset became younger in the
second half of the twentieth century. There are theories for why this is
occurring (involving caloric intake, prenatal care, and environmental issues)
but as yet no empirical evidence to substantiate any of them. It is known
that pubertal onset cannot generally be accelerated or delayed except by
extreme circumstances such as malnutrition, severe emotional deprivation,
or chronic illness. Obesity in boys can delay puberty, while for girls, obesity
can accelerate it.
The larynx of the female does not undergo as radical a change as that of
the male. Her larynx thickens and grows more in height and laterally (side
to side). The female vocal folds average a 3- to 4-millimeter increase in
length, which is accompanied by a slight lowering of the speaking voice.
Other changes can be caused by the edematous thickening of the vocal folds
in response to increased hormonal levels. This can result in huskiness or
breathiness, which seems to be the most noticeable characteristic of the
female changing voice. Although the sequence of physical changes in girls
is not as predictable as for boys, the most noticeable voice changes in girls’
voices occur with the onset of menses.
The growth of the larynx, most notably in the anterior-posterior
condition, is more noticeable in boys, as the thyroid cartilage increases in
size by about 65% during puberty. This growth process can take anywhere
from one to four years. During this time the larynx grows in stages, and
between each stage the boy’s voice can settle at a specific pitch range for a
few weeks or months before dropping further. The overall pitch drop is
generally about an octave.
The phenomenon of overnight voice “breaking” is doubtful, as vocal
folds and cartilages cannot grow that rapidly. It is more likely that a boy
may have maintained his habitual speaking and/or singing pitch, counter to
the gradual pitch descent normally caused by laryngeal growth. At some
point, the muscles are unable to hold this intrinsic tension level any longer,
and a sudden release would be experienced. As well as the pitch lowering
caused by the lengthening of the vocal folds (to approximately 17
millimeters), they also thicken; the inferior portion of the TA muscle in
particular tends to bulge such that the vibratory movement of the fold
becomes more complex. This enables the adult male voice to extend the
speech register, or TA-dominant phonation, to beyond E4 (baritones) or G4
(tenors). During puberty and into the early twenties, young males will
experience a gradual strengthening of the voice as the vocal fold structure
grows and stabilizes.
Puberty can be a difficult life transition for some teenagers, and many of
the psychological problems encountered can negatively impact a desire to
sing. For example, other boys may ridicule a boy whose voice changes late
because he continues to sing “like a girl.” This can severely damage a boy’s
self-esteem. Girls also can have identity issues and feel as though they are
no longer “talented.” Peer approval is much needed by adolescents; if
singing isn’t “cool,” this attitude can cause some students to discontinue
singing activities. In addition, the mercurial nature of adolescents
sometimes makes it difficult to keep them focused on any task that involves
discipline and practice, such as singing. The vocal teacher of adolescents
must be mindful of both the psychological challenges and the physiological
changes facing young people going through puberty.

Characteristics of Vocal Production

Adolescent voice change in both boys and girls follows a general pattern of
development. However, the age of onset and the rate of development may
vary. The stages of female voice change have been categorized by Gackle
(2006) into four phases: prepubertal, early puberty, early postmenarcheal,
and later puberty. These changes can begin at any age from 9 to 13, and can
take up to five years to complete. The journey through the high point of
adolescent voice change tends to be complete by the ages of 15, 16, or 17.
Boys’ voices can commence change from the age of 10 to 15. This
developmental stage can then take from two to four years to complete. It is
generally accepted that boys’ voices change in stages; a period of rapid
growth is followed by a period of relative stability. Each stage may last
from between a couple of months to a year. As the boy’s larynx grows, the
vocal folds lengthen (enabling lower pitches to be accessed) and thicken
(enabling a stronger TA-dominant vocalization in the lower pitches). The
development of this voice quality in the lower range takes time, and the
sound can seem somewhat “thin” or husky in the meantime. The use of the
upper pitch range (CT-dominant) can continue through voice change as a
means of extending the capabilities of the voice and enabling the boy to
participate in choral repertoire. Some choral conductors may want to keep
boys in the upper voice parts, if they are still able to access the notes, in
order to give strong leadership to younger trebles. However, it is
inadvisable to use the CT-dominant or a developing “falsetto” quality in
isolation for long periods during voice change. If the boy is able to sing
pitches as low as E3, then his voice is changing, and he will be better placed
in the tenor or bass parts (Williams 2012).
There have been two schools of thought regarding the stages of voice
change for males. The first or “limited range” school believes that boys’
voices change predictably, lowering gradually according to a rather
prescribed pattern. Irvin Cooper was the originator of this theory (the
“Cambiata” concept); two of his students continue to advocate this
approach: Don Collins (founder of Cambiata Press) and John Cooksey (the
“Eclectic” theory). Cooksey (1992) expands on Cooper’s work and now
includes five stages for the male pubertal voice during change. The second
or “extended range” school believes that boys’ voices can change slowly or
quickly and might not be limited to a midvoice comfort range of an octave
or less during puberty. Frederick Swanson was the originator of this school;
contemporary advocates include Henry Leck (2009) and Kenneth Phillips
(2004). The Cooksey system of five stages may be a useful guide for less
experienced teachers and singers. It is relatively simple to grasp, and it is
unlikely to be misinterpreted. The “extended range” school may be more
applicable to experienced boy singers, who may have a larger accessible
pitch range.
Research suggests that the adolescent male voice may change slowly or
quickly, predictably or unpredictably. In a typical 11- to 14-year-old boy
choir, there will be boys with unchanged, changing, and newly changed
voices; they should not all be singing the same voice part.
Ranges and registers for adolescent male and female singing are provided
in chapter 1 by Nix. Given the wide variation of limited to extended ranges
advocated by the two schools of thought for adolescent males, it is
recommended that the reader review both Cooksey (1992) and Leck (2009)
for more in-depth coverage.

Vocal Pedagogy and Instruction

There are conflicting opinions regarding males singing during voice
change. The German professional boys’ choirs advocate a year of rest from
singing in choir, although the boy may continue to have singing lessons.
Choir directors in the United Kingdom and United States tend to encourage
boys to continue singing while remaining within a comfortable pitch range.
This may be anything from a sixth to two octaves, depending on the stage
and the individual. There is no evidence to suggest that singing in this way
may be harmful to the boy either at the time, or for future voice use.
The vocal instruction involving body alignment, breath management, and
so on, as presented earlier in this chapter, is applicable as well to the
adolescent singer. The vocal instructor must remember, however, that the
pubertal voice is developing rapidly and should not be treated as an adult
voice.
The young female singer should demonstrate the following
characteristics. (1) The girl’s enlarged vocal folds require a different
balance for breath management than before, and she should continue to
develop this skill; (2) descending scales and arpeggios that mix head voice
with the middle and low registers are vital to good vocal technique; (3) the
girl’s voice that is produced well should be light and possess flexibility; and
(4) young women should exercise the entire voice, TA dominant and CT
dominant.
Young adolescent boys need to explore the TA-dominant chest register,
for this is the voice they will sing in the most as adults. Likewise, boys need
to actively exercise the upper voice (CT dominant) so as to strengthen it for
a full vocal compass. For a young male adolescent it is easier to ignore the
middle register until technique is sufficient to produce a passaggio that is
different from the prepubertal boy’s mixed voice. A male alto sound that is
cultivated from E4 up is an easy sound to float without vocal strain.
Medical and vocal authorities Sataloff and Spiegel (1989) suggest that boys
in early adolescence sing with an audible shift from one register to another,
without blending in the middle: “This produces a tolerable choral sound,
and they can continue singing safely in whichever mode is most relaxed for
any given note” (p. 37).
Choosing music for young adolescents to sing is especially challenging,
particularly for boys with changing voices. However, many voicings are
possible, including SSA, TB, SATB, Two-Part, Three-Part Mixed, and so
on. In each case the music chosen must be matched to the vocal ranges of
the students in the group. Learning to place students by appropriate
voicings takes much experience, regular individual assessments, and a real
knowledge of student voice ranges. What works one month may not work
the next. The key for educators is to be flexible; when nothing works, be
prepared to arrange music that does work.

Classic, Cultural, and Popular Singing Styles

As boys become men and girls become women, physical changes prompt
expectations by society, religion, culture, and music regarding the use of
their voices. Traditionally, men are expected to speak and sing in their TA-
dominant (chest/mix) register, while women are expected to speak in a
chest or head mix and sing in their CT-dominant (head) register.
As society and other factors change, vocal parameters change as well. In
today’s diverse cultures, there is a recognition that the human voice can do
many different things: men can sing high in their CT-dominant register and
may even go into the whistle register; women can sing low in their TA-
dominant register; men can sing sounds similar to women; women can sing
sounds like men. In this context, similarities and differences between men
and women blur.
For voice educators, this blurring of gender-specific vocal expectations
can open up dramatic new training procedures, especially for adolescents.
Developing the entire vocal mechanism without limiting it to traditional
male and female parameters can create a balance in the voice that makes it
more functionally efficient whether it is performing classical opera or
classic rock-and-roll.
Challenges do exist, however. At puberty, voices change, and so does the
terminology used in describing those changes. For example, in the
traditional Italian register model, gender-neutral terms such as chest and
head become chest, head, and falsetto for men and chest, middle, and head
for women, even though the function of the laryngeal mechanism remains
basically gender neutral. Fortunately, more voice scientists and educators
are eschewing gender-specific register terminology for more accurate
evidence-based terms, such as cricothyroid (CT) and thyroarytenoid (TA)
dominant registers.
Changes in terminology and pedagogic practices, however, do not belie
the reality that singers must be capable of conforming to vocal expectations
in the various styles of singing. For example, male operatic singers (other
than countertenors) will still be expected to sing in a TA (chest) dominant
register, while female operatic singers (even those doing “pants roles”) will
continue to sing primarily in their CT (head) dominant register. Likewise,
both male and female rock singers will be expected to spend a majority of
their vocal time in some kind of TA-dominant register.
Training the entire voice to maximize its potential has its challenges
when teaching adolescents. Pubescent boys developing their new-found
masculinity may be reluctant to continue using the CT-dominant register
when it may be associated with sounding female. Pubescent girls, on the
other hand, are often more than glad to embrace their TA-dominant register
because most CCM music requires it. The challenge is to counterbalance
that vocal fold activity with a significant amount of CT-dominant exercises.
To that end, vocalizing in both registers can directly confront the
gender/cultural issues.
As with the child voice, traditional voice training previously suggested
that adolescents, especially boys, refrain from singing and voice study
during the voice change (mutation). Although caution is still advised, many
modern voice scientists and pedagogues believe that singing training can
actually facilitate a smoother vocal transition from boy to man and from girl
to woman. Simply put, inactivity diminishes coordination and causes
muscle atrophy. Athletes continue to play and dancers continue to dance
during adolescence; it follows that singers should continue to sing.
Many, if not most, of the commercial singing guidelines suggested in the
child voice section above are applicable to the adolescent singer. Teachers
are encouraged to continually test singers’ ranges. The future high-voiced
rock singer, for example, may not be ready in the various stages of voice
change to comfortably access those TA-dominant G4 and higher pitches
that populate so much of male and female pop/rock vocal literature. The
concern expressed earlier about children copying adults is much less a
factor as adolescents settle into their new, preadult voices. Although singers
should always be encouraged to find their own voices, the demands of the
musical marketplace, such as music theater roles, cover bands and demo
singer expectations, may make stylistic imitation a needed skill to be
acquired.

SUMMARY OF KEY PRINCIPLES

 1. Vocal instruction for most children and adolescents is appropriate and desirable.
2. The vocal instrument of children is not the same as the adult; special knowledge is required for
teachers of child singing.
3. Children must establish an aural feedback loop, preferably in early years, to decode what they
hear and make vocal adjustments accordingly.
4. A problem with child pitch accuracy may be an inability of the singer to shift registers as pitch
ascends.
5. Motor coordination instruction should include body alignment, breath management, kinesthetic
awareness, efficient use of the vocal source, resonance adjustments, and articulation techniques.
6. The child vocal range expands gradually and by age 11 may exceed two octaves (G3–G5 or
A3–A5).
7. Good and healthy belt singing is a mix of TA and CT muscle activity combined with resonance
coupling that does not overtax the instrument. Appropriate breath management is essential.
8. Both males and females experience pubertal voice change.
9. Adolescents can continue to sing safely through voice change.
10. Knowledge and use of basic vocal registers (TA dominant and CT dominant) can greatly impact
the singing of males and females during puberty.
11. For voice educators, the blurring of gender-specific vocal expectations can open up new
training procedures, especially for adolescents.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. What efforts can be made to ensure that teachers who instruct children in vocal music have the
necessary knowledge and age-appropriate techniques?
2. Do you agree or disagree with the authors that belt singing can and should be taught?
3. Is it ethical for educators to teach a style of singing, be it classical or popular or world music,
that they personally have never studied or sung?
4. Is the ability to demonstrate the psychomotor process for singing a high priority for teachers of
young singers?
5. What impact on educational administrators could be made with the knowledge that singing is a
learned behavior and not a “gift” for the privileged?

WEBSITES

Real-time feedback software websites:

www.vocevista.com.
www.singandsee.com.
Personal websites with research sources and sample exercises:
www.jenevorawilliams.com.
www.robertedwinstudio.com.

REFERENCES
American Academy of Teachers of Singing. (2002). Teaching children to sing: A statement by the
American Academy of Teachers of Singing. Retrieved from
http://www.americanacademyofteachersofsinging.org/assets/articles/TeachingChildren.pdf.
Cooksey, J. M. (1992). Working with the adolescent male voice. St. Louis, MO: Concordia.
Edwin, R. (2008). Cross training for the voice. Journal of Singing, 65(1), 73–76.
Gackle, M. L. (2006). Finding Ophelia’s voice: The female voice during adolescence. Choral
Journal, 45(5), 28–37.
Leck, H. (2009). The boy’s changing expanding voice: Take the high road. Choral Journal, 49(11),
49–60.
Phillips, K. H. (1992). Teaching kids to sing. New York: Schirmer Books/Cengage.
Phillips, K. H. (2004). Directing the choral music program. New York: Oxford University Press.
Phillips, K. H., & Doneski, S. M. (2011). Research on elementary and secondary school singing. In
R. Colwell & P. Webster (eds.), MENC handbook of research on music learning (pp. 176–232).
Vol. 2: Applications. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sataloff, R. T., & Spiegel, J. (1989). The young voice. NATS Journal, 45(3), 35–37.
Williams, J. (2012). Cathedral choirs in the United Kingdom: The professional boy chorister. In S.
Harrison, G. F. Welch & A. Adler (eds.), Perspectives on males and singing. London: Springer.
Welch, G. (2009). Evidence of the development of vocal pitch matching ability in children. Japanese
Journal of Music Education Research, 39(1), 38–47.
Wurgler, P. S. (1991). A perceptual study of the vocal registers in the singing of children. Doctoral
diss., Ohio State University. Retrieved from Dissertation Abstracts International. (52/02, 461A).
 CHAPTER 5

THE OLDER SINGER

ROBERT T. SATALOFF AND JANE W.

DAVIDSON

An interest in singing and voice training may begin at any point in the
lifespan. Singing lessons can benefit students of any age, provided the
teaching is age-appropriate. This chapter highlights factors that affect older
singers. The definition “older” is elusive. The physiological changes
associated with aging appear in people at different chronological ages;
senescence is neither uniform in appearance nor a linear phenomenon.
Some singers have few aging changes apparent even in their seventh
decade, while others sound old in their fifth decade. In this chapter, “older”
refers to people who have developed age-related changes in function,
regardless of chronological age. Indeed, older adults differ from children
and young adults anatomically, physiologically, endocrinologically, and
psychologically. Laryngeal and lung structure and function, the hormonal
environment and other bodily conditions, such as aerobic conditioning, all
typically weaken with age, displaying injury susceptibility. Psychologically,
while an older person may possess more experiences and coping strategies,
there is also a tendency to project a fixed sense of self with associated
physical and psychological capacities. This can present difficulties, as many
aspects of physical and intellectual condition decline. Cognitively,
individuals may encounter simple problems associated with memory recall,
but diseases like dementia or Parkinson’s can intrude, causing huge
problems for the individual and her sense of pride, dignity, and self. Thus,
psychological strategies to manage aging associated conditions are as
important as those used for managing physical conditions.
 Just as singing teachers must understand the physical and psychological
functions and limitations of young students and beginners, teachers must
also become familiar with the special needs, limitations, and challenges of
older students in order to provide effective, safe education. This is true
whether the older students are veterans attempting to extend and expand a
professional career or beginners singing for the first time.
Providing vocal education to older adults can be particularly rewarding,
as their motivation is often high. As people age, they have to give up many
activities. Older singers are often very anxious to keep music in their lives
for the joy of performing and for the social contacts they maintain through
performing organizations. Singing training may offer the older student
improved voice quality and endurance. Such improvements may also alter
the perceived vocal age of the singer, and often inspire further commitment
to singing, which has been proven to encourage mental stimulation, social
engagement, and physical health and well-being (Davidson et al., in press).
This chapter has been stimulated by a growing interest in a range of
singing activities for older people. On one end of the spectrum, there is the
professional singer who requires strategies to extend his career (e.g.,
Placido Domingo); at the other extreme is the newcomer, undertaking vocal
training for the first time at age 70. Generally at the latter end, the
motivation for singing is for fun and social benefits at a time when social
life may be changing.
Singing teachers collaborate with a range of experts to produce a
multidisciplinary approach: knowledgeable laryngologists, speech-language
pathologists, internists, endocrinologists, exercise physiologists, and
clinical psychologists. This current chapter draws attention to the range of
information and techniques available for the voice educator, and begins by
focusing on how anatomical, physiological, and endocrinological factors
affect the aging singer. It continues by exploring psychological aspects that
impact singing and the motivation to sing. The chapter concludes with
strategies the educator may employ to optimize and maximize positive
benefit of singing for the older singer, drawing on the range of disciplinary
information now available.
The effects of age on the voice and management of voice disorders have
been reviewed at length elsewhere (Sataloff & Linville, 2005; Sataloff,
2005a), so this chapter only provides a brief overview of this information,
aiming to stimulate further research and inquiry.
 THE IMPACT OF AGING ON THE CAPACITY TO SING: ANATOMICAL,
PHYSIOLOGICAL, AND ENDOCRINOLOGICAL FACTORS

Since these factors tend to interact in the physical aspects of singing, they
need to be considered in parallel.

Respiratory System and Larynx

The respiratory system and larynx comprise the singer’s instrument. From
young adulthood to old age, the respiratory system undergoes marked
anatomical and physiological changes. Typically, in older age, there is
decreased force and rate of contraction of respiratory muscles, a stiffening
of the thorax, and a loss of lung tissue elasticity, all of which undermine the
power source of the voice (Kahane, 1981; McKeown, 1965). Lung vital
capacity decreases, and forced expiratory volume and air flow rate decline.
Some changes are gender dependent (Hoit & Hixon, 1987; Hoit et al.,
1989), and these along with others result not only in decreased power
source functions but also in changes in breathing strategy.
The larynx itself also undergoes extensive change (Linville, 2001), and as
cartilages ossify and calcify, so too, do intrinsic muscles begin to atrophy
(Bach et al., 1941; Ferreri, 1959) and joints erode (Kahane, 1990). Age-
related changes in the vocal fold epithelium are somewhat in dispute, with
several investigators reporting thickening, while others have found no
evidence of change with aging.
Advanced age is often associated with vocal fold “bowing.” This is due
to an atrophy of the vocal fold muscles and surrounding tissues. The vocal
folds appear concave and thin. Glottic closure is soft or incomplete. The
condition is associated with soft, breathy voice and voice instability. These
problems can be ameliorated through therapy and/or surgery.
Marked anatomical changes in the vocal tract above the vocal folds affect
resonance and occur from young adulthood to old age. Facial bones
continue to grow during this period, although the magnitude of that growth
(3–5%) is relatively modest. Changes in facial muscles include decreased
elasticity, reduced blood supply, atrophy, and collagen breakdown (Lasker,
1953; Levesque et al., 1984). The temporomandibular joints undergo
extensive changes with aging. The oral cavity structures affected by aging
include mucus-secreting membranes, tongue surface, dentition, and
pharyngeal and palatal muscles (Ofstehage & Magilvy, 1986; Sonies,
1991).
From a functional perspective, the mucus-secreting membrane changes
and the deterioration or loss of salivary function can produce symptoms of
oral dryness, swallowing difficulties, and oral discomfort in the elderly; oral
infection susceptibility also may increase. The elderly may experience
significant loss of tongue strength, although endurance remains relatively
unaffected. Lingual pressure reserves during swallowing also decline with
aging, although maximum tongue pressures during swallowing remain
stable.
Speech intensity also changes with age. Men over 70 talk louder than
younger men, even after taking hearing loss into account. Elderly women
do not have a similar increase in speech intensity. However, both genders
experience a decrease in maximum intensity levels with advancing age
(Ptacek et al., 1966; Morris & Brown, 1987). In addition, women have an
elevated minimum intensity level (they cannot phonate as softly as young
women).
Although some age-related alterations cannot be avoided in specific
individuals, not all of them are manifestations of irreversible deterioration.
In fact, as understanding of the aging process improves, it is becoming
increasingly apparent that many changes can be forestalled or corrected.

Hormones and Hormone Therapies

Much is being learned about the aging voice by combining general
knowledge about the aging process with specific knowledge about laryngeal
aging (Sataloff & Linville, 2005; Linville, 2001). As a consequence, certain
aging aspects are now relatively easy to control medically. For example,
hormone research shows that as female singers reach menopause, estrogen
deprivation causes substantial changes in the mucous membranes that line
the vocal tract, the muscles, and elsewhere throughout the body. These and
other hormonal effects are frequently reflected in the voice but can be
forestalled through hormone replacement therapy. It is reported that female
opera singers have found such treatments very useful to prevent dryness and
hoarseness and that they can be useful for muscle tone maintenance and
thus control of pitch. Dosage is best determined by checking estrogen levels
prior to menopause and in strict consultation with a medical specialist. Drug
therapies containing androgens should be avoided whenever possible
because they can cause lowering of the pitch of the voice. However, treating
physicians are aware of contraindications to hormone replacement; expert
advice is always essential when weighing the risks and benefits of any
treatment, including hormone replacement.
In addition to the endocrine problems discussed above, thyroid disease in
the elderly deserves special mention. Both hyper- and hypothyroidism are
notoriously difficult to diagnose during advanced age. The elderly patient
with hypothyroidism frequently does not display the “typical” features
encountered in younger people. These include mental slowing, loss of
energy, neurotic behavior, hearing loss, weight gain, musculoskeletal
discomfort, dry skin, changes in facial appearance, and other problems.
Diagnosis in the elderly is often missed because many symptoms may be
inaccurately attributed to age. In addition, elderly patients often have other
conditions to which difficulties are ascribed in the absence of clear
hypothyroidism diagnostic clues. Alterations in thyroid function frequently
produce substantial changes in vocal quality, including loss of range,
efficiency, and “muffling” of the voice. These vocal complications
generally resolve when the thyroid condition is treated.

Hearing Loss
Problems associated with hearing loss are extremely important for older
vocalists, as pitch and loudness distortion can result in faulty intonation
(Sataloff, Sataloff, & Sokolow, 2005). Thus, singing teachers should
determine the hearing status of their older students.

Other Conditions
Other age-related factors must be considered in assessing and diagnosing
older singers. These include coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular
disease, hypertension, stroke, cancer, diet (with obesity and anorexia being
possible), diabetes, osteoporosis, vision loss, anemia, arthritis, neurological
dysfunction including tremor, incontinence, and gastrointestinal disorders.
All of these may have adverse effects on the voice, either through action
directly on the larynx or through impairment of the voice-producing
mechanism at another anatomical site. The teacher needs to have an overall
awareness of an older student’s medical conditions.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AND THE AGING VOICE

Research has shown that individuals display characteristics that are both
trait (persistent) and state (transient and contextual) dependent. There are
many theories about traits, but in terms of personality, in one approach
(Friedman, 1996), two types have been distinguished: Type A
(characterized by time-consciousness, impatience, concern about personal
status, highly competitive, aggressive, has difficulty relaxing); and Type B
(regarded as relaxed, easygoing).
The Myers-Briggs inventory (see Barrick & Mount, 1991; Briggs &
Myers, 1976), perhaps the most commonly cited approach, argues for a
five-factor model of personality, measured in terms of extroversion,
emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and culture.
Whichever model is applied, it is certain that people behave with very
different primary trait characteristics. When taking a student of any age,
some sort of rule-of-thumb assessment of personality is useful to help
ascertain how the student reacts to instruction and the pressures of the
demands placed on her or him. Many personality tests are commercially
available, and it is also possible to call on the skills of a clinical
psychologist; however, the general experience of a singing teacher informed
with some additional theoretical knowledge and common sense will assist
in assessing what type of student is being taught and help the teacher to
anticipate how the student may react to circumstances. McCarthy (2006)
has written about the need to address the interaction between voice and the
individual’s innermost personality. Without combining physical and
psychological approaches, the teacher can quite easily fail.
Clearly, not only do trait and state characteristics interact, but
information about physical factors such as illness are likely to affect
different individuals in different ways, having differing psychological
outcomes. One person with menopausal difficulties may react differently
from another if their personality types differ.
With an awareness of personality factors, Deci and Ryan (2008) note that
humans require psychological fulfillment, based on the satisfaction of three
psychological needs: competence, the need to be effective in one’s efforts;
relatedness, the need to be connected socially and integrated in a social
group; and autonomy, the need to feel that one’s activities or pursuits are
self-endorsed, self-governed, and of free will. These conditions apply
whatever the learning context. While other psychological needs are argued,
such as meaningfulness and self-esteem, Deci and Ryan (2008) argue that
all of these can be explained as subsets or combinations of competence,
relatedness, and autonomy. When psychological needs are met, experience
and motivation is enhanced.
Research on competence and music reveals that learners experience
greater psychological needs satisfaction when they are most engaged, and
less psychological needs satisfaction at the time they cease musical
engagement (Evans, McPherson, & Davidson, in press). At the time of
ceasing musical participation, learners feel less capable and less
autonomous, and also relate less to their music teachers (Evans, 2009).
Thus, developing conditions to promote learning satisfaction, especially in
relation to teacher support, is crucial. The need to feel endorsed by one’s
social network—in other words, experiencing relatedness—impacts
positively on a desire to engage with musical experience. Autonomy is
important because it influences the satisfaction of competence and
relatedness. Self-regulation is closely linked with autonomy, because the
more individuals internalize regulation, the more they are intrinsically
motivated, and therefore more likely to feel their actions are self-endorsed
and self-governed (Deci & Ryan, 2008). In summary, it appears that
feelings of autonomy facilitate intrinsic motivation and promote the
internalization of regulation. Facilitating participant control in musical
learning is crucial. Therefore, the student, whatever the age, should be
trained to engage and develop these three psychological needs for
commitment, sustainment, pleasure, and improvement in their vocal studies.
For older people, there is a tendency for a decline in personal confidence, as
people do perceive themselves as less robust than in their younger days, but
some modifications in goals and self-perception can assure satisfaction,
confidence, and the fulfillment of psychological needs (Ryff, 1991). It may
be that the teacher needs to finely tune and balance demands placed on the
singer—this strategy being particularly pertinent for the older professional
singer, whose identity formation is closely aligned to her vocal capacity and
career.

Psychological Approaches for the Older Professional Singer

A series of documentaries has been produced that features performing
artists expressing how they cope with their careers and the aging process.
Among these, actor James Earl Jones and opera singer Shirley Verrett
discuss how they have modified the types of performances they undertake,
and by doing so accommodated to age restrictions by changing the demands
they place on themselves (Macksoud & Ankele, 2000). Among the advice
they offer is:

• Take regular rest.

• Accept that demands are different in older age.
• Accept that vocal range is reduced.
• Realize memory demands are greater.
• Recognize that reduced performance stamina may require breaks in
performance.

All of these approaches, well managed and accompanied with a regular

vocal, physical, and mental exercise regime, appear to have assisted these
individuals to keep their attainments and spirits up. These views are
supported by the work of Drohan (2004), which indicates that those who
have had extended careers in opera have adapted their psychological
approach and adapted techniques to make sure they maintain muscle tone,
as well as achieving good levels of rest appropriate to personal age-related
requirements. These successful individuals were also accepting of the aging
process and were satisfied with their changing achievements. It appears that
both physical and psychological problems are most likely to ensue when
singers are not able to accept new working parameters that challenges their
potential to work in new ways and different ways from when they were
younger.
There is a body of research that shows that musicians who achieve the
highest solo professional standards display characteristics of
dedication/conscientiousness and persistence and view criticism as a base
from which to improve (Evans, McPherson, & Davidson, in press). The
extremely high standards of the professional and the frustrations that the
aging processes may impart can be a challenge to the teacher. A good
teacher will take note of how best to work with an individual’s attitudes,
turning potential negative areas into positives.

Psychological Approaches for the Singing Teacher of the Older Student

The holistic integration of the elements of good singing requires not just
maintenance work but also reflection. All physical elements are completely
dependent on the student’s bodily awareness, motivation, and psychological
state. Both Chapman (2006) and McCarthy (2006) recommend the teacher’s
use of personality information, and also reference Gardner’s (1983) concept
of multiple intelligences as a means of accessing new points of contact and
psychological motivation, which can have great relevance for the older
singer. In brief, according to Gardner, we each have different naturally
preferred ways of experiencing the world, and these form the bases of our
intelligences. While we may be stronger in some areas than others, all can
be accessed and developed. One clever approach with older singers is to
encourage the exploration of weaker natural areas to gain new and exciting
insights about capacities and ways of working (see McCarthy, 2006, p.
159).
All teachers need to display sensitivity to student views and feelings.
Teachers must remain open and responsive rather than reactive to
expressions by the student. The overwhelming loss of confidence and
defensive aggressiveness that may be shown by an older student needs to be
acknowledged. Drawing on psychotherapeutic approaches, McCarthy
promotes the idea of the teacher as a “container,” holding and supporting
new learning processes, facilitating the student to be in a trusting and safe
space. In addition, while the older professional singer has a lifelong
experience with audiences, the teacher assisting the transition into late
career needs to be respectful of these skills, yet also ready and able to
challenge where views are fixed or inappropriate.

VOICE TRAINING APPROACHES FOR OLDER SINGERS

One useful vocal training text is by Chapman (2006). Based on traditional

operatic singing methods, scientific research, and her studio experiences,
she emphasizes the need to be aware of all the factors discussed: anatomy,
physiology, endocrinology, and psychology. Her approach comprises a
nucleus/satellite model that embraces postural, breath, and core sound
work, interfaced with speaking voice work, articulation, resonance, and
matters associated with artistry, combined with performance techniques. As
people age, they grow and develop. Chapman emphasizes that teachers
must approach students as lifelong learners, appreciating that singers need
to reflect on all aspects of vocal technique and their psychological
approaches to shifting goals and challenges. Please see Callaghan,
Emmons, and Popeil, chapter 2, to find more information on the
components that must be integrated in order to achieve free, expressive
singing voice production.
Singing in older age is not only a professional activity. As previously
noted, singing for the older person can be promoted purely for the sake of
health and well-being impact, and this is in itself very relevant.

Singing for Health and Well-being Outcome

The population of people over 60 years of age is growing at a faster rate
than any other age group (World Health Organization, 2002; Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2004; Government of Western Australia, 2006).
Evidence demonstrates that older people are significantly more likely than
other members of society to lose family members and friends, and “be more
vulnerable to loneliness and social isolation” (World Health Organization,
2002, p. 28). The relationship between depression, social isolation, low
social support, coronary heart disease and other chronic health problems has
been reported in a number of studies (Bunker et al., 2003; Sorkin et al.,
2002). Berkman and Glass (2000) cite evidence that socially isolated people
have between two and five times the risk of dying from all causes,
compared with those who maintain close familial, friendship, and
community ties.

Fostering Well-Being in Older Age with Group Singing Experiences

Group singing has been found to provide an invigorating physical and
psychological opportunity for meaningful social engagement.
Benefits of singing have been measured through the use of surveys and
qualitative case studies. Results include positive self-mood-regulating
effects, increased self-esteem, a shared sense of identity/group cohesion, as
well as improved concentration and anxiety reduction (Bailey & Davidson,
2005; Davidson & Corriea, 2001). The physical sensation of being well
exercised has also been claimed, and objective measurements of the
physical outcomes of group singing have included lowering of stress-level
biomarkers (Beck et al., 2000) and improved peak breath flow (Clift &
Hancox, 2001; Engen, 2005).
A study has shown a positive mental health benefit in a sample of older
people new to the choral experience. Cohen et al. (2006) showed that older
people with mood disorders who participated in a choral group, in contrast
to a comparison group, reported improved general health and morale,
reduced loneliness, fewer visits to doctors, and a reduction in the number of
over-the-counter medications taken. These are important findings and ones
that are of use if improving overall well-being in the elderly is a societal
goal.
Note that because singing is a very “natural” activity (practically all
persons are capable of making some type of singing sound), the barriers to
participation are low. If one refers back to psychological needs theory, it is
evident that social capital and autonomy can be easily promoted in this
activity. In addition, good instruction can ensure a feeling of competence,
even when beginning lessons and training in older age.

Approaches to the Novice Older Singer

One of us (Davidson) has invested much time and energy into developing
singing activities for older people for well-being impact. Davidson and
Faulkner (2010) describe approaches to implement health and well-being
impact in singing groups for older participants. They include the following:
 • Warming voice and body with gentle vocalization and physical
exercises
• As the session progresses, encouraging more vigorous
breathing/diaphragmatic support work and physical stretching
• Connecting participants with musical games for technical and social
impact—tongue twisters, rounds, rhythmic movement
• Making sure all of the above are undertaken at the singer’s personal
level of comfort—chairs always being available should singers feel
tired, dizzy, or uncomfortable
• Selecting a range of invigorating as well as soothing and comforting
repertoire
• Providing both familiar and new repertoire
• Encouraging creative participation in song writing and harmonization,
with unaccompanied and accompanied songs
• Encouraging critical reflective listening, with attention to pitch
matching, good vocal quality and optimal respiratory support of vocal
production, using legato, staccato, and florid exercises
• Always moving at a comfortable pace, with opportunities for
hydration and rest and refreshment breaks to encourage recovery and
social exchange
• Encouraging healthy options breaks, with competitions for healthy
snacks
• Introducing a program of performance opportunities that encourages
memorization and motivation toward going out into the community
• Using strong leaders with sound knowledge of physical and
psychological concerns of the cohort
• Encouraging the leader’s use of humor and fun to stimulate
participants

No single educator is an island, and having both the knowledge and

confidence to consult and refer individuals for specialized assistance is also
important. There are several specialists with whom the vocal music
educator can consult regarding older singers.

Voice Therapists
The singing teacher can work symbiotically with the speech-language
pathologist, caring for both singers and nonsingers (Sataloff et al., 2005).
An acting voice trainer can also be invaluable in a voice team (Freed et al.,
2005). Acting voice trainers teach techniques not only for development of
voice strength and projection but also for control of face and body function,
vocal expression of emotion, preparation, interpretation, and other
communication skills. Learning these techniques improves voice quality
and authority and gives the patient enhanced confidence in her ability to
control vocal communication. In some cases, this confidence is almost as
therapeutic as measurable acoustic improvements.
Voice therapy can be extremely valuable (Sataloff, 2005a; Heuer et al.,
2005), with some expert clinics offering programs in “voice cosmesis” for
patients whose concern is the aged quality of their voices. Such patients
may have undergone cosmetic surgery to disguise visual signs of aging, yet
their voices “give them away.” While such steps might seem irrelevant for
the recreational singer, for a professional performer they may mean the
difference between continuing to be hired for work or not. Voice cosmesis,
or “voice lift,” is a term that was developed to describe a multidisciplinary
approach to restoring youthfulness to the voice (Sataloff et al., 2005). Voice
lift is commonly misunderstood as referring to surgery for voice
improvement, analogous to “face lift.” Surgery is only one component of
the voice lift process, which always begins with medical evaluation, voice
therapy, and retraining of the voice in speech and singing. Surgery is
considered only after all nonsurgical treatments have been explored,
optimized, and deemed insufficient by the patient and voice team.

Surgical Interventions for Aging Vocalists

In some patients, even the best voice therapy is insufficient to overcome
presbyphonia. If glottal closure weakness from vocal fold bowing or poor
adductory function is minimal, vocal exercises may increase muscle bulk
enough to restore closure. At the same time, improved vocal technique will
enhance audibility even if slight breathiness remains. However, when
glottal incompetence is too great, surgery should be considered.
Appropriate preoperative evaluation and surgical techniques are reviewed
elsewhere (Sataloff, 2005b).

Special Considerations: The Untrained Professional Singer

Older, untrained professional singers present special challenges. If they
have had successful careers, often they have been singing correctly
“naturally,” despite a lack of formal training. Most singers who sing
abusively with excessive tension and hyperfunction suffer fatigue and
injury; they do not build successful, long careers. Even contemporary
commercial singers who have survived decades of performance frequently
sing technically well much of the time. However, as such singers age, they
may not have sufficient knowledge and craft to modify vocal techniques in
order to compensate for physiologic changes or injuries. Hence, as they
struggle to produce their usual sound, they frequently change from
fundamentally good technique to poor technique. This results not only in
impaired performance ability but also commonly in injury. Helping such
singers is relatively easy once they are convinced that they need help, and
that the help they will receive in an intervention is not going to damage
their style and identity. Training such individuals must begin with a full
medical evaluation, aerobic conditioning, strengthening of muscles of the
back, abdomen, and chest, and vocal reeducation. This reeducation should
include singing lessons and speaking voice training. The singing lessons
address basics that would be taught to beginning-level singers. However,
older adults may respond more slowly, particularly when asked to
relinquish habitual hyperfunction and strengthen laryngeal musculature that
has not been used effectively, bringing the vocal system more “into
balance.” Since nearly everyone speaks more often than he sings, it is
helpful to include formal speaking voice training (using a speech-language
pathologist and/or acting voice specialist) in the retraining process.

Special Considerations: The Choral Singer

Choral singers represent a majority of the people who sing. Choral groups
offer a multitude of musical and social benefits to singers. Typically,
choristers are devoted to their groups, enthusiastic about all aspects of
participating, and relatively untrained. Until recently, many choral
conductors were also not well trained in voice technique and vocal health.
Many came from instrumental backgrounds (piano or organ most
commonly) and did not understand that instrumental rehearsal techniques
are not always appropriate for singers. Happily, this trend is beginning to
change. In any case, all choral singers, regardless of their age, can be helped
by individual lessons and by avoiding singing too loudly in the noisy choral
environment (Smith & Sataloff, 2012. More details on the unique aspects of
choral voice can be found in Ternström, Jers, and Nix, chapter 3.

General Recommendations
It can be helpful to think of each individual as having a performance range
from his poorest performance to his optimal performance. Most
knowledgeable Western audience members have established levels of
performance expectations for a professional singer, amateur singer, and so
on, through their attendance experience. For example, at the age of 18, a
singer with an excellent voice may perform at only 50% of her current
potential. Yet she may “get away with it,” because the condition of her body
exceeds the performance standard. However, as a singer ages, physical
abilities deteriorate. If the singer continues to perform at only 50% of her
“new” ability, she will be perceived perhaps as falling below the acceptable
performance standard, as it will be recognized that she has passed the
window of youthful opportunity for improvement. If, however, through
appropriate training, exercise, medication, and other factors, an older singer
is able to achieve 70%, 80%, or 90% of her potential performance level,
professionally acceptable performance standards may be maintained for
many decades. For this reason, in treating age-related problems, best
practices combine traditional voice therapy, singing training, acting voice
techniques, and aerobic conditioning to optimize neuromuscular
performance. In general, rehabilitation is sufficient to restore acceptable
voice function and eliminate most of the acoustic information perceived as
“old.”

SUMMARY OF KEY PRINCIPLES

1. Voice changes associated with aging are common. They can be disturbing to many people. In
some cases, vocal weakness and decreased endurance may be disabling professionally, and may
lead people to stop singing.
2. Most patients with age-related voice changes (presbyphonia) can be helped. Intensive
management through age-appropriate voice lessons and therapeutic and medical management
should be encouraged.
3. Because older singers may have considerably less natural reserve and resilience than youthful
performers, educators need to be particularly accurate in instructing them. Older singers cannot
compensate for or tolerate weakness like teenagers, nor can they recover quickly from injuries
to their vocal apparatus.
4. With optimal physical and psychological conditioning, older singers may enjoy extra years or
decades of improved performance, which are gratifying both to them and to their audiences.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. What factors might a professional singer consider when contemplating retiring from public
performing?
2. How might a choral director of a volunteer choir at a church balance the needs of choir
members who range in age from 22 to 80?
3. Does vocal aging affect all voice types (i.e., soprano, tenor, etc.) equally? If not, why not?
4. An aging teacher of singing accustomed to demonstrating concepts and offering models for
imitation now faces a decreased capacity to effectively model. How might such a teacher adapt
to this reality or adjust his teaching style?
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Elements of this chapter have been taken, with permission, from Sataloff,
R. T. (2005). Professional voice: The science and art of clinical care (3rd
ed.). San Diego: Plural Publishing.

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 CHAPTER 6

VOICE HEALTH AND VOCAL

EDUCATION

JOHN NIX AND NELSON ROY

Vocal health is of paramount importance to educators and performers of all

ages and genres. Establishing and preserving vocal health informs every
aspect of vocal education described in this part. Whether the topic is
selecting appropriate repertoire for soloists, adjusting spacing to provide
ideal self-to-other ratios between choir singers, developing age-appropriate
exercises for young singers, or managing medication side effects on older
singers’ voices, optimizing vocal health creates the conditions for singers to
reach their full potential and to produce expressive performances.
This chapter begins with a consideration of some of the occupational
hazards voice educators and performers face. It also provides an overview
of evidence-based healthy practices for teaching and performing, and offers
suggestions for teaching healthy voice use to students. Included in this
discussion is information on integrating the function of the whole body with
the voice. We close with information on developing healthy
learning/teaching environments.

OCCUPATIONAL ISSUES IN VOICE EDUCATION

Teachers represent the largest group of professionals who use their voices
as the primary tool of trade. By speaking loudly for long periods in adverse
acoustic environments, teachers place heavy burdens on their voices.
Repeated exposure to upper respiratory infections and other airborne
irritants complicates the problem. The vocal burden is especially heavy for
vocal music teachers—those persons who teach one-on-one lessons,
provide group voice instruction or direct choirs. The singers these teachers
instruct may range in age from young to old and in career path from
professional to recreational.
Vocal music teachers are expected to be competent musicians capable of
modeling good body alignment, healthy breath management for speech and
singing, efficient voice onset and offset, fine differences between vowels
and consonants found in multiple languages, and important musical skills,
such as legato phrasing. They must also possess extremely keen auditory
and visual perception and kinesthetic empathy in order to evaluate the
performances of their students. A list of core capabilities for vocal teachers
can be found in Chapman (2006, pp. 299–311).

EPIDEMIOLOGY WORK REGARDING TEACHERS

Research confirms that voice disorders are a relatively common

occupational hazard of teaching, with 11% of teachers reporting a current
voice disorder and 58% of teachers reporting a history of a voice disorder
during their careers. Vocal dysfunction interferes with job satisfaction,
performance, and attendance, causing 18% of teachers to report missing
work on a yearly basis. Teachers are more likely than nonteachers to have
consulted a medical professional regarding a voice disorder, and to consider
future career change due to voice-related dysfunction (Roy et al., 2004a,
2004b). Because of lost workdays and treatment expenses, the societal costs
have been estimated at $2.5 billion annually in the United States alone.

HIGH-RISK GROUPS WITHIN THE TEACHING PROFESSION

Other research indicates that teachers who specifically engage in vocally

intense activities for extended periods, such as loud talking and singing, are
at greatest risk for developing disorders. This subgroup includes teachers of
vocal music, drama, and the performing arts. In contrast, teachers of special
and vocational education, who typically enjoy smaller class sizes, do more
one-on-one instruction, and infrequently use a loud voice, report the fewest
voice problems. As compared to all teacher types (including physical
education teachers), vocal music teachers are at greatest risk for developing
chronic voice disorders (Thibeault et al., 2004). It seems clear that music
education is associated with vocal activities that disproportionately
contribute to excessive vocal fold tissue vibration and injury, thereby
contributing to chronic voice problems.
One obvious explanation for the increased frequency of voice disorders
within this occupational group relates to the voice demands of teaching
school. Titze suggests that vocal fold tissue injury can occur in predisposed
individuals if a critical vibration dose is exceeded. Speaking or singing
loudly for long periods without sufficient time for vocal fold tissue to rest
or recover likely contributes to vibration “overdose.” It is presumed that
vibration overdose contributes to cycles of vocal fold tissue injury and
repair, and subsequent voice changes.
Another contributing factor for some vocal music educators is juggling
multiple jobs. In many countries, societal emphasis on education has not
been matched with salary increases for educators; thus, teachers,
particularly music educators, often take on additional employment on top of
their vocally demanding teaching positions for financial reasons. In the case
of vocal music educators, this may take the form of a church music position
conducting or singing in a vocal ensemble or performing in a paying
musical theater situation. Teachers may also take on extra
employment/performing opportunities for artistic enjoyment. Whatever the
motivation for attempting multiple jobs, this additional vocal load can have
a negative effect on the vocal health of the teacher.

VOCAL DOSES

The research literature describes three vocal doses: the cycle dose, which
tracks the total number of vibrations over a fixed time period; the time dose,
which is a log of phonation time; and the distance dose, which is derived by
multiplying the time dose, the average fundamental frequency, and an
estimate of the vocal fold vibration amplitude (based on the measured
radiated sound pressure level). The distance dose essentially tracks the
movement of the vocal fold tissue over time.
 As professional voice users, vocal teachers place great demands on their
voice production system. Some of these demands are on the macro level;
for example, the long-term use of multiple postural muscles that provide
optimal body alignment, or the sustained use of large muscle groups
(diaphragm, intercostals, and abdominals) in breath management. Other
demands that have become of great interest to researchers recently are on
the micro level. These include the effects of prolonged vibration on vocal
fold tissue—the very tissue responsible for generating sound. Researchers
have examined this vibration exposure in a number of ways. Most recently,
dosimeters have been developed that track vibration time, intensity, and
frequency of vibration over minutes, hours, days, and weeks. Best practices
try to reduce the cycle and time doses through behavior changes, or at least
provide frequent rest breaks for tissue recovery, and reduce the distance
dose by reducing voicing time and vibration amplitude. The same practices
seek to reduce vibration amplitude by improving output through voice
therapy, often employing what is known as Resonant Voice or Resonance
Therapy, and through mitigating background noise and/or the use of
amplification.
One important behavioral change for dose reduction involves finding an
optimal speaking pitch. Each teacher has phonatory anatomy of a particular
size and stability. It follows that each individual will have a speaking
frequency range that gives the best voice output for the smallest energy cost
at the macro level (large muscle groups) and causes the least amount of
wear and tear on micro level laryngeal tissues. A short list of activities for
optimal speech pitching is included at the end of this chapter.

VOCAL HYGIENE

Despite the prevalence of voice problems among teachers, teacher training

programs rarely provide instruction in care and preservation of the voice.
This is often referred to as vocal hygiene instruction (VH). While there
exists some variation, most VH programs include instruction regarding (1)
the amount and type of voice use, (2) vocal behaviors thought to be
phonotraumatic, (3) hydration issues, and (4) a discussion of lifestyle and
diet factors that can support or interfere with a healthy voice. Without
exception, contemporary voice texts emphasize the importance of proper
care of vocal fold tissue, suggesting that certain vocal behaviors and
lifestyle and diet choices can be either harmful or helpful to vocal fold
tissue and voice production. To preserve or restore normal voice, the
hygiene approach typically requires the teacher to eliminate behaviors that
are potentially harmful and replace them with more healthy substitutes.
Music teachers in particular demand vocal flexibility and predictability to
achieve instructional and musical goals; even relatively minor problems can
be professionally incapacitating.

TEACHER PERCEPTIONS OF THE VOICE RISKS OF TEACHING

As previously stated, few teacher preparation programs provide information

regarding maintaining vocal health for effective music teaching. Rhonda
Hackworth of Rutgers University explored the issue of vocal health among
music teachers in a series of articles published in the Journal of Music
Teacher Education. Hackworth (2009) examined three primary research
questions: (1) how do perceptions of voice use, vocal hygiene, and risks of
vocal problems in the music teaching profession differ based on teaching
experience (i.e., preservice v. early-career v. late-career teachers)? (2) How
do self-reported vocal problems differ at various stages of music teaching
experience? (3) Does vocal hygiene instruction and behavior modification
influence vocal behaviors of music teachers? Hackworth’s research showed
that many teachers (regardless of experience) already possessed some
hygiene knowledge related to voice problem prevention, such as drinking
more water, avoiding alcohol, and throat clearing. But important differences
existed based on experience; for instance, “speaking in noisy environments”
was rated as more vocally stressful by the experienced teachers than the
preservice teachers. Furthermore, experienced teachers rated teaching as a
much higher risk profession for voice disorders than preservice teachers.
These differences in perception are likely related to striking differences in
the frequency of reported voice problems among different levels of teaching
experience, with almost half of late career music teachers (11-plus years’
experience) reporting voice problems, compared to 22% of early career (1–
10 years’ experience), and only 14% of preservice, music education majors.
Hackworth’s finding regarding the prevalence of voice disorders in late
career music teachers is compatible with other reports in the literature that
voice problems accumulate over a teacher’s career, with ages 40–59
representing the highest risk group. Ideas regarding maintaining a healthy
voice may need to be not only established early during teacher preparation
but also reinforced frequently through booster/refresher sessions in order
for a teacher to maintain healthy practices throughout a career.

THE IMPACT OF VOCAL HYGIENE INSTRUCTION

Although vocal hygiene instruction early in a teacher’s career makes

intuitive sense, controversy exists surrounding the value of hygiene
instruction as a primary means to prevent voice problems in teachers.
Evidence exists that although vocal hygiene education is viewed favorably
by teachers, education alone may be insufficient to produce durable vocal
behavioral changes and/or restore a healthy voice. Hackworth (2007)
addressed this controversy in research aimed to better understand the value
of vocal hygiene instruction alone as compared to hygiene instruction plus
behavior modification on the self-reported vocal health habits of public
school music teachers. The behavior modification program was designed to
help individual teachers identify and correct their specific vocal problems.
The results indicate that teachers who received the combined approach
reported significantly fewer vocal problems after treatment as compared to
teachers who received only hygiene instruction. Hackworth’s study
confirms that education about healthy voice practices alone may be
insufficient to establish true behavioral change, or voice improvement once
problems become established. Although knowledge of healthy vocal
behaviors is valuable, additional one-on-one instruction and periodic,
careful monitoring may be necessary to establish and sustain these
behaviors to prevent voice problems in high risk groups.

Hygiene Instruction and Therapeutic Interventions: Clinical Evidence

For a substantial number of teachers, prevention programs arrive too late,
and the teachers suffer chronic, seemingly intractable voice disorders. In
clinical circles the desire to limit vibration dose is a recurrent theme, and
many broad-spectrum voice therapy approaches are designed ostensibly to
achieve this end. However, until recently little was known regarding which
voice therapy approach or combination of approaches worked best for
teachers with voice disorders. Over the past decade, researchers at the
University of Utah have conducted randomized clinical trials (RCTs)
designed to assess the efficacy of specific voice treatment approaches using
teachers with voice disorders as subjects (see Roy et al., 2003, for a
review). In these trials, teachers with voice disorders were randomly
assigned to one group (a treatment or control group). Teachers were seen on
four occasions during a six-week treatment phase by speech language
pathologists (SLPs) who were trained in the therapy approaches. Each
teacher completed the Voice Handicap Index (VHI), an instrument designed
to appraise the self-perceived psychosocial consequences of voice
disorders, before and following the six weeks. Improvements on the VHI
are interpreted as reflecting improved voice-related functioning or quality
of life.
In the first RCT, vocal hygiene instruction, vocal function exercises
(VFEs), and a non-treatment control group were compared. As a treatment,
the vocal hygiene approach is conceptually similar to a vocal diet. By
eliminating unhealthy behaviors and/or replacing them with healthier
practices, the vocal diet aims to reduce vocal fold tissue injury and facilitate
recovery, thereby improving voice. In contrast to the diet approach, VFEs
claim to strengthen and rebalance the subsystems involved in voice
production (i.e., respiration, phonation, and resonance) through a program
of systematic exercise. Therefore, this clinical trial aimed to compare the
diet approach (i.e., VH) versus an exercise (VFEs) approach for
rehabilitating the injured voices of teachers. Interestingly, only the group of
teachers who adhered to the VFEs reported a significant benefit (i.e.,
significantly reduced VHI scores). These results supported the conclusions
of Hackworth, seriously called into question the clinical effectiveness of
vocal hygiene instruction alone as a broad-spectrum voice therapy
approach, and provided the first objective evidence to support VFEs with a
voice-disordered population.
In a second RCT, the Utah researchers compared the effects of portable
voice amplification (VA) and VH instruction. Voice amplification targets
loudness (and indirectly tissue vibration amplitude) as the principal factor
to be modified. The amplifier does most of the work for the teacher by
providing the desired loudness. While both VH and VA aim to rehabilitate
the voice and protect the individual from potentially phonotraumatic
behavior, the methods proposed to accomplish these goals are procedurally
dissimilar. Based on pre- and posttreatment comparisons, only the
amplification group experienced significant reductions on mean VHI
scores. The non-treatment control group reported a significant increase in
level of vocal handicap as assessed by the VHI. And, although most pre- to
post therapy changes were in the desired direction, no significant
improvements were again observed within the VH group for any outcome
measures.
In the final RCT, the Utah-based team examined the effects of the
previously mentioned Resonant Voice or Resonance Therapy (RT) as
compared to VA or Respiratory Muscle Training (RMT). RT involves
training the voice-disordered individual to produce voice in an easier, more
resonant manner. Resonant voice, or voice created with “forward/frontal
tone focus,” describes a type of voicing with increased midfacial region
vibratory sensations. This approach has dual objectives: to achieve the
strongest possible voice with minimal effort and to reduce impact forces
between the vocal folds to minimize the likelihood of injury. RMT, another
treatment that has recently received attention, seeks to strengthen the
expiratory muscles in order to help patients with voice disorders generate
sufficient, consistent subglottal breath pressure. The basic principle
underlying RMT is that when the respiratory “pump” provides insufficient
or inconsistent energy for voice, compensatory laryngeal hyperfunction
may result. This hyperfunction can lead to tissue injury and voice changes.
By improving the strength and coordination of the expiratory muscles, the
burden on the larynx is presumably lessened, reducing compensatory
behaviors and tissue trauma potential. To accomplish RMT, a pressure
threshold device was used in the study that demanded increasing levels of
expiratory muscle strength. Analysis of the results revealed that only the
teachers who received VA or RT reported significant reductions on mean
VHI scores. These findings replicated previous results from the earlier
clinical trial confirming the efficacy of amplification, and provide new
evidence to support RT as an effective treatment alternative for voice
problems in teachers.

HEALTHY PRACTICES IN TEACHING AND PERFORMING

Given the occupational risks that music educators and singers face as
professional voice users and the available research evidence, vocal
educators and performers must take a proactive role in reducing as many of
their personal voice risk factors as possible. The following section provides
guidelines for establishing and maintaining vocally healthy practices in
teaching and performing. The guidelines come with the caveat that healthy
practices (i.e., vocal hygiene) are only preventative steps for avoiding
injuries, or are an adjunct to therapy when an injury has already occurred.
Healthy practices do not appear to be useful to vocally injured individuals
beyond preventing the injury from worsening.

Regular Examinations by a Voice Care Professional

One essential vocal health step all music educators and performers should
take is to have an annual voice examination with a laryngologist. Ideally, an
initial exam should occur when the teacher or performer has not been using
her voice heavily, in order to establish a “rested” baseline exam for
comparison purposes when or if problems occur. Regular exams can help
teachers track the effects of their voice use over time; these exams can also
identify functional or pathological problems before they become acute.

Daily Maintenance of Healthy, Efficient Vocal Function

Another crucial element in teacher/performer self-care is adhering to a daily
schedule of warming up vocally and physically before teaching or
performing and warming down after heavy voice use. Vocalizing before
demanding voice use increases blood flow to laryngeal tissues. Warming
down at the end of the teaching/performing day assists in the removal of
lactic acid from fatigued muscle tissues and gently stretches muscles and
connective tissues. Warming down also enables the teacher/performer to
assess the vocal effects of heavy use.
Daily vocalizing sessions should review the skills needed for healthy
voicing. Vocalizing daily renews the fine neuromuscular control of
phonation that teachers need to be able to demonstrate for their students.
Such sessions provide a means of monitoring vocal health by allowing
educators to track changes in the quality of phonation on a daily basis. A
list of suggested vocal exercises for speaking and singing is provided at the
end of the chapter.
 In addition to a daily warm-up and warm-down routine, teachers and
performers can monitor their voice production and keep themselves on
track functionally throughout the workday by regularly undertaking vocal
exercises or key spoken and sung phrases that optimize voice production.
The rationale for this distributed type of practice is that revisiting well-
established target behaviors or performance anchors periodically enables
vocalists to monitor their current voice quality and recalibrate voice
production against a healthy standard. For example, teachers who commute
by car between schools each workday might implement this concept by
doing a few of their daily warm-up exercises in the car while stopped at a
traffic signal. One might massage one’s neck and jaw and do easy pitch
glides to release tensions between musical scenes or during a meal break.

Healthy Body Alignment for Voice Use

Use of good body alignment by teachers and performers is essential for
efficient respiratory function, phonation, resonation, and articulation. Such
alignment provides the best opportunity for all component parts of the voice
system to work cooperatively. As is mentioned below, it also serves as a
good model for students to follow. See chapter 2 by Callaghan, Emmons,
and Popeil in this volume and the section below on body work for more
information on specific body use methodologies.

Adjusting Rehearsal and Teaching Methods to Optimize Vocal Health

Educators should adjust rehearsal and teaching methods to allow the
performers and the teacher to recover from intense voice use and fatigue.
Hunter and Titze (2009) suggest that vocal fold tissue recovery after a vocal
loading task (i.e., two hours of continuous reading) follows a healing
pattern similar to chronic dermal wound healing. With daily voice use,
teachers likely endure continuous low-level injury to vocal fold tissue, and
the healing mechanism is in a state of constant repair trying to maintain a
minimum level of tissue health. If the intensity and duration of voice use
exceeds a critical limit, acute injury becomes more likely, and changes the
healing trajectory. Work is ongoing to establish the effect of different
lengths of recovery on vocal fold tissue. Common examples of short-term
recovery (a few seconds) include phonation breaks during inhalation and
pauses in conversations. Medium-length recovery (several minutes to a few
hours) for teachers or performers can occur during a teacher’s planning
period during the work day or on a lunch break during an opera rehearsal.
Longer term recovery (a day or more) might occur on days off from
teaching, a long weekend, or summer holidays. Short-term recovery allows
blood flow into vibrating tissues, the relaxation of overworked intrinsic and
extrinsic muscle fibers, and the dissipation of heat from active tissues.
Longer term recovery permits tissues overexposed to vibration-related
forces to repair themselves and tissue edema to subside.
In the classroom, to enhance short- and medium-length recovery,
rehearsal and teaching methods can be adjusted to permit frequent rest
breaks for the performers and for the teacher. An example would be
alternating who speaks and who sings in a classroom activity. When leading
a group of singers, teachers should limit their demonstration singing to
concepts as much as possible, rather than constantly modeling pitching of
musical lines or specific tonal models. Teachers can also use a performer’s
tactic, “marking,” by singing in a comfortable range and avoiding pitch and
intensity extremes. This reduces the cycle and distance doses. Most
important, teachers should not sing with or over students or their choirs.
Doing so only limits the teacher’s ability to monitor her own production and
to clearly hear the students.

Voice Amplification for Teachers

Earlier in this chapter, clinical trials involving the use of voice amplification
for teachers in the classroom were discussed. For the already injured or
genetically less robust voice, this option certainly has great benefits.
Amplification reduces the amplitude that a teacher must use to be heard, but
it does not improve the quality, pitch, or overall efficiency of the speaker or
singer’s production; it merely reduces the workload (the previously
mentioned distance dose). Amplification systems range from those with a
headset microphone, portable amplifier, and small speaker that is worn on
the teacher’s body to those with a clip-on microphone, radio transmitter
system, and fixed speakers positioned around the classroom.

Preventing Reflux
Reflux of stomach acid and enzymes is a serious vocal health concern.
Singers and vocal educators are at particular risk for problems due to the
heavy demands they put on their vocal systems and their use of abdominal
muscle activity during breathing for singing. Dietary and lifestyle behaviors
that should be avoided to minimize reflux include:

• Gaining excess body weight; obesity exacerbates reflux

• Intake of large amounts of red meats and fatty or spicy foods
• Eating within three hours of sleeping, before heavy vocal use, and
before robust aerobic exercise
• Intake of large amounts of caffeinated, carbonated or alcoholic
beverages
• Overly large meals

Dietary and lifestyle behaviors to be encouraged include:

• Eating a balanced, low-fat diet

• Eating smaller meals more frequently in place of a few large meals
• Elevating the head of one’s bed, in order to raise the head, neck, and
upper torso above the esophageal sphincter
• In consultation with a physician, and if necessary, use of appropriate
medications to reduce acid levels

TRAVELING AND TEACHING OR PERFORMING

Traveling is fact of life for some prominent teachers and performers. For
the vocalist, air travel has risks associated with it that warrant special
attention.
Risks:
 • Sleep-wake cycle disruption (“jet lag”)
• Dehydration from exposure to very dry air (below 10% relative
humidity) in the passenger cabin
• Exposure to irritants in cabin air (fuel fumes, cleansers)
• Exposure to bacteria and viruses in the cabin air and on common
surfaces
• Noise exposure to ears
• Speaking over cabin noise

Recommendations for coping with air travel include:

• Maintaining a regular diet, exercise regimen, and sleep schedule as

much as possible during traveling
• Frequent washing of hands with hot, soapy water
• Adequate if not extra hydration before, during, and after flights
• Avoiding sitting near engines
• Avoiding speaking over noise.

TEACHING HEALTHY VOICE USE

In addition to safeguarding their own health through employing vocally

beneficial teaching strategies and behaviors, voice educators have an
obligation to teach healthy voice use to their students. Suggestions follow
for accomplishing this crucial educational objective (see table 6.1).
Table 6.1 Vocal hygiene recommendations
Recommendation
Adequate hydration (2 liters
of water per day)
Daily dental hygiene
(brushing 2-3 times per day
and flossing)
Regular aerobic exercise (a
minimum of 3 times per
week)
Avoidance of tobacco
products (smoke, smokeless
tobacco products and 2nd
hand smoke), dust, pollution,
airborne chemical irritants
Avoidance of chewing gum
Dietary and behavior changes
which reduce or prevent
reflux
Recommendation
Careful use of herbal
supplements
Avoidance of exposure to
noisy environments
Careful management of travel
on jet aircraft
Purpose and effect on vocal function
Hydration lowers the viscosity of the tissue of the outer layers of
the vocal folds, reducing the amount of breath pressure
(respiratory effort) needed to start a sound. Hydration also thins
body mucous, reducing the tendency to cough or clear the throat.
Healthy gums prevent infections which might compromise voice
use
Increased overall fitness; part of a good body weight management
program; improves respiratory function, which can enhance voice
output
Reduces exposure to vocal fold tissue irritants; prevention of oral,
laryngeal and lung cancers; reduced susceptibility to respiratory
infections.
Reduces tension in jaw and tongue muscles, easing articulation of
vowels and consonants.
Reduces the frequency and intensity of stomach acid production
and/or reduces the amount of acids escaping through the
esophageal sphincter which can irritate the esophagus and larynx,
thus reducing the production of mucus. Please see the bullet
points in the text for more details
Purpose and effect on vocal function
Reduces the possibility of interactions with prescription
medications; the lack of government oversight in some countries
also can result in a lack of quality control on ingredients and
supplement consistency, causing unpredictable changes in health
Preservation of hearing, especially at high frequencies. Helps to
prevent teachers from compensating with extra muscular effort
Preserves consistent vocal production under stressful and variable
conditions. Please see the bullet points in the text for more details

TEACHING THROUGH EXAMPLE

The behavior of adult role models has a great influence on young learners.
Nothing better reinforces visual, verbal, and textual messages about vocal
health than a teacher who puts those messages into action. Teachers should
demonstrate that they practice what they preach—that is, they vocalize
daily, eat a balanced diet, maintain a stable body weight, exercise regularly,
and do not abuse tobacco, caffeine, alcohol, or other drugs. Specific
example behaviors should also include the use of a healthy vocal onset and
release of phonation at all times, and the use of healthy breathing habits,
including not speaking or singing too long on one breath.
Teachers should exhibit good body use when sitting, standing, and
conducting. This may mean rearranging teaching spaces and strategically
placing mirrors around classrooms so that teachers do not have to
compromise efficient, healthy body alignment in order to see and be seen
by students. As good body use is essential to the coordination of breathing,
phonation, resonation, and articulation, to say nothing about avoiding
overuse injuries, all music educators and students can benefit from this type
of physical risk management.
The pitch, inflection, and dynamic range of vocal commands and the
types of gestures used as nonverbal commands for leading individuals and
ensembles should be healthy for the educator to produce and should elicit
healthy sounds from the students involved. It is paramount that the
vocalizations and gestures used to match the character of the music not
cause either teachers or students to lose body health awareness.

Reinforcement of Healthy Habits

In some school situations, the music teacher may be the only person
sensitive to unhealthy vocal and body use habits in students. This makes it
even more important to reinforce healthy choices in lessons and classes
early and often. Specific to the voice, teachers can reinforce good habits
being established in the singing voice by making sure these habits are also
transferred into the speaking voice. This can be achieved by having singers
alternate speaking, then chanting (singing the text in rhythm but on a single
pitch), then singing short phrases from their repertoire as well as short
phrases from everyday speech. Such transference work can be incorporated
into warm-up and warm-down portions of lessons.
Teachers must expect and encourage appropriate sounds from singers.
There is no educational justification for teenaged singers to sound like 40-
year-old adults. Educators can help their students produce appropriate
sounds through their selection of repertoire (see also discussions in chapters
2–5 in this volume on this topic). Repertoire must build in success and be
not only age and gender appropriate, but also skill level appropriate
(consider, for example, adult beginners). Oftentimes teachers/directors
make repertoire choices based on musical aspects/values first. While
important, these criteria must follow what is physically most beneficial for
the student.

Hygiene Instruction
This instruction should be integrated into curricula at the level of individual
vocal lessons, choral rehearsals, voice classes, and the rehearsals of operas
and musicals. For younger singers (up to age 22), voice teachers should
advocate for singers having two short lessons per week rather than one long
lesson. This reduces the possibility of fatigue while it maintains the amount
of weekly contact time and increases the frequency of student-teacher
interaction. In addition, in planning choral, opera, and musical rehearsals,
ensemble leaders need to monitor carefully the duration of rehearsals—not
just their total time but also the total singing time. Following on the
previous discussion about types of vocal tissue recovery, it is also essential
to plan in regular rehearsal breaks. Finally, teachers need to specifically
teach singers how to “mark.”
Hygiene information can be distributed in a variety of ways, such as
paper handouts, web materials, social media, and postings in teaching
spaces and on bulletin boards. Families of learners can be engaged in
disseminating and reinforcing healthy messages so that learning continues
outside the formal instruction site. Teachers can invite voice care
professionals to speak to classes, choirs, and casts at rehearsals. Finally, if
possible, teachers can take students on “field trips” to vocal health clinics
for tours.

Advocacy for Vocal and Auditory Health

Teachers should advocate for policies that encourage healthy habits in
students. This may include:
 • Advocating for smoke-free school campuses
• Insisting that water be available in teaching rooms and practice
facilities
• Promoting the use of appropriate amplification for speakers and
singers in large halls or with loud ensembles
• Discouraging the use of earbuds on personal music players (i.e., mp3
devices)
• Insisting on ear protection for musicians/educators in loud ensembles
• Engaging educational administrators in improving classroom
acoustics

BODY WORK AND VOICE TRAINING

As chapter 2 by Callaghan, Emmons, and Popeil details, singers are

musicians whose instruments are part of their bodies. A number of
body/mind integration methods exist that have found favor with music
educators. Incorporation of these methods into singing instruction is
grounded on the premise that behaviors, postural alignments, and means of
thinking or perceiving the body in activity that seem to improve whole body
function improve specific bodily functions, especially voicing. The research
to rigorously examine the anecdotal accounts of these methods’ benefits is
still in its early stages; a compilation of research to date can be found in
Field (2009). Since the larynx is located in the neck as an integral part of
the respiratory system, and it is in close proximity to major arteries, the
upper digestive tract, and the spine and spinal cord, there is little doubt that
vocal function is highly dependent on the function of larger body systems.
There are undoubtedly merits, if not yet completely investigated, to the
judicious use of a number of body/mind methods in voice training. The
method chosen should be carefully selected to meet the gender, age,
learning style, and needs of the singer or singers involved. A few popular
methods are discussed below. This discussion is meant to be descriptive and
informative rather than offering specific recommendations.

Body Work Methods

Body work methods can be divided into several different categories. For
example, such methods as the Alexander Technique, Body Mapping, and
the Feldenkrais method do not necessarily involve rhythmic movements;
Dalcroze Eurhythmics does. Examining the same methods from another
perspective, Alexander Technique, Body Mapping, and Feldenkrais are not
explicitly linked to music perception or performance, while Dalcroze work
is. We will begin with the methods not specifically related to music
(Alexander, Body Mapping, and Feldenkrais) and then examine Dalcroze,
which does have its roots in music education. Many other body work
methods, such as yoga, tai-chi, and massage, develop kinesthesia,
flexibility, and body balance; as such, they have great value for vocal
educators and performers. Readers are urged to explore them and other
activities as well.

Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique seeks to enhance kinesthetic awareness and to
provide a means for intervening in the stimulus-response cycle to
voluntarily inhibit and redirect patterns of body use and behavior. The
technique was created by F. Mathias Alexander, an Australian orator who
experienced a nearly debilitating loss of voice in performance. Although it
has been used in music instrument training, voice training, and voice
therapy, it has also been applied to athletic training, pain and disability
management, and other heath issues. Its efficacy on vocal training and
health has not been quantified outside outcome descriptions and
testimonials. (More information can be found at
www.alexandertechnique.com. Popular print resources include works by
Barlow [1990], Conable & Conable [1995], and Gelb [1994]).

Body Mapping
This method, which was first defined and explored by William Conable, an
Alexander Technique teacher and musician, can be thought of as
complementary to Alexander and other body methods. It concerns the
mental concept a person has about his own body—its dimensions, anatomy,
and physiology. According to practitioners, inaccurate concepts about the
body impair an individual’s ability to move freely. Body Mapping training
pairs factual information on anatomy and physiology with enhanced
kinesthesia. A useful manual for singers is Malde, Allen, & Zeller (2009).
(Further information can be found at www.bodymap.org.)

Feldenkrais Method
Older in origin but in many ways quite similar to Body Mapping is the
Feldenkrais method. As described in Feldenkrais (1972) and in Nelson &
Blades-Zeller (2002), the Feldenkrais method is a means of self-discovery
through sequences of movements. There are two aspects of Feldenkrais
methodology: Awareness Through Movement, which is taught in groups
and features movement guiding verbal directions, and Functional
Integration, which is taught through hands-on guidance by a certified
teacher. The movement sequences are designed to help the user understand
more clearly how the body functions most freely. So while Alexander
Technique is based on the premise that changing one’s thinking about
responses and body habits leads to changes in function, in the Feldenkrais
Method it is the performing of specific movement sequences that helps one
discover freedom and changes one’s thinking about activities. (More
information can be found at www.feldenkrais.com.)

Dalcroze Eurhythmics
This approach can be of great benefit to vocal music educators in uniting
musical expression with vocal and body freedom. Emile Jaques-Dalcroze’s
work is based on the premise that rhythm is the central aspect of music, and
that the natural rhythms of the body (such as breathing) are the source of
musical rhythmic patterns. Dalcroze-trained educators use aural training,
improvisation, and most of all movement as the primary means of teaching
all musical elements. As such, Eurhythmics can be very useful in
establishing ease of function while performing or teaching music; this is
particularly important in vocal music, where the body of the singer or
teacher is the instrument. Caldwell (1995) provides a concise description of
Dalcroze’s work and its application to voice instruction. (Further resources
can be found at www.dalcrozeusa.org/bibliography.)

HEALTHY LEARNING/TEACHING ENVIRONMENTS

Classroom Acoustics
In the contemporary classroom, talking and listening are still the dominant
modes of communication. Classroom acoustics, however, have been
generally overlooked in education. Noise, echoes, reverberation, and room
configurations typically interfere with teachers being heard and understood.
In the absence of adequate amplification systems, music teachers must
expend considerable physical effort to be heard over background noise. The
three crucial factors to classroom acoustics are the ambient noise level, the
reverberation time, and the speech signal-to-noise ratio. There are several
internal and external sources of ambient classroom noise, including outside
traffic (noise from hallways, adjacent rooms, automobiles on the street,
etc.), heating and ventilation noise, and the activity of the students, to
mention only a few. Typical classroom noise levels range from 60 dB(A) to
85 dB(A) and often exceed the music teacher’s voice level. Second,
reverberation of sound from reflective surfaces prolongs speech and
musical instrument sounds, thereby masking subsequent communication.
The recommended reverberation time (the time taken for sound to decrease
60 dB from its original intensity) is 0.4 seconds. However, reverberation
times as long as 1.5 seconds are common. Finally, the speech signal-to-
noise ratio is critical for teachers to be understood. In typical classrooms
this ratio varies from –7 dB to +4 dB, most frequently being zero. This is in
stark contrast to the recommended level of +15 dB. The synergistic effects
of noise and reverberation reduce speech recognition and force music
teachers to expend considerable effort to be heard. This prolonged use of
the loud voice makes music teachers particularly vulnerable to vibration
overdose.
In the United States, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
published minimum acceptable values of noise and reverberation for
kindergarten (age 5) through 12th grade (age 18) classrooms (ANSI, 2010).
Similar standards have been developed in Australia, New Zealand,
Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and
the United Kingdom. However, the degree to which these acoustic
standards have been adopted and implemented varies substantially. The
standards, if implemented, should have a positive influence in constructing
schools and classrooms better suited for speech communication. However,
the cost to build or modify classrooms to meet national standards has often
been viewed by educators and industry groups as cost prohibitive, leaving
many existing schools well below the standards with little hope of
undertaking costly acoustic renovations. One relatively inexpensive
alternative to the costs associated with meeting standards is to install sound
field amplification systems in music classrooms. These devices amplify the
teacher’s voice over the noise present in the classroom, thereby reducing the
potential for vocal fold vibration overdose. It has been asserted, however,
that classroom amplification is an effective option when the primary
acoustic problem is background noise, but is less effective if the primary
problem is reverberation. Researchers at Utah State University (Larsen,
Vega, & Ribera, 2008) showed that employing amplification improves
speech recognition in students even in classrooms that exceed
recommended reverberation levels, thus confirming that amplification
works and that it is a viable alternative to expensive remodeling. In the
absence of costly acoustic remodeling of classrooms, the most cost-efficient
means to preserve a music teacher’s voice and for students to hear and
understand his instruction is sound field amplification.

Auditory Safety
Music teachers are regularly exposed to multiple noise sources during
classroom activities. Many of these sounds are sufficiently intense to cause
hearing loss. Extracurricular activities, such as competitions, school
performances, or musicals, each of which requires additional band,
orchestra, and/or choral rehearsals, add substantially to the overall noise
exposure. Although a relatively large literature exists regarding the risk of
hearing loss in musicians, there are few studies assessing the risk to music
teachers or conductors of ensembles. Recently, Canadian researchers
measured noise exposure levels in a group of music teachers over the
course of a typical teaching day (Behar et al., 2004). The researchers
recorded “equivalent continuous noise levels” (Leq), as a means to estimate
the risk of hearing loss. Leq, measured in dB(A), is defined as the constant
noise level that would provide an equal amount of sound energy over the
measurement period. Noise exposures that exceeded 85 dB(A) when
averaged over a whole working day are considered unsafe. The researchers
reported that an alarming 39% of music teachers were exposed to noise
levels that exceeded safe limits (i.e., were greater than the 85 dB(A) limit
averaged over eight hours). The researchers concluded that there is a
potential risk of hearing loss for music teachers (especially instrumental
music teachers) and that measures should be implemented to reduce noise
exposure. The authors suggested that hearing conservation programs should
be established in schools where music teachers are exposed to excessive
noise. The program would (1) raise awareness of the effect of excessive
noise and the risk of hearing loss, and (2) institute the use of hearing
protection. The ideal protector is the “musician earplug” type that offers a
flat frequency response and does not excessively attenuate the sound level.
Proper use, fit, and care of the ear plugs should be taught to all users.
Finally, audiometric screening with follow-up every two years was strongly
recommended to monitor any changes in hearing or the onset of noise-
induced hearing loss. Based on noise levels obtained in their study, the
authors also offered safe exposure limits for specific music instructional
activities (see table 6.2).
Table 6.2 Safe exposure limits (used with permission from Behar et al., 2004)
Safe Exposure Limits Activity
Singing Percussion Keyboard Recorder Band
Hours per day 4.3 5.5 9.4 3.8 2.1
Hours per week 21.5 27.7 47 19.1 10.3

SUMMARY OF KEY PRINCIPLES

1. Vocal teachers face numerous occupational hazards, including heavy voice use, minimal
recovery time, and challenging teaching environments.
2. Good vocal health involves minimizing vocal fold tissue wear and tear by reducing voicing
time, frequency, and intensity; improving voice efficiency through appropriate training, therapy,
or amplification; daily practicing of essential skills, and avoiding harmful behaviors.
3. Healthy practices for vocal teachers and performers include regular voice examinations, daily
warm-up and warm-down routines, efficient body alignment, especially when teaching, and
adjusting teaching or rehearsing schedules to promote recovery.
4. Vocal teachers have an obligation to teach healthy voice use to students. They can accomplish
this through modeling good behaviors, reinforcing healthy behavior choices by their students,
instructing students and their families in good hygiene, and advocating for policies that
encourage vocal and auditory health.
5. Voice health depends on a holistic approach, as optimal voice output can only occur when
postural alignment, the respiratory system, and mental function all cooperate rather than
conflict with one another.
6. Good classroom acoustics are a critical and often neglected part of vocally healthy teaching and
learning. Good acoustics reduce the effort level for teachers and enhance intelligibility of
spoken and sung messages for students.
7. The auditory system needs equal attention with the voice production system when healthy
teaching habits are being established.
 ACTIVITIES AND QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY

Optimal Speech Pitching Exercises

1. Count backward speaking aloud from 10 to 1. Repeat several times, randomly sustaining on
“three” or “two” for several seconds; check the pitch of the sustained word on a keyboard. Note
this pitch.
2. On the same pitch(es) noted in number 1, chant the words “Hello, how are you?” then speak the
same text. Did the pitch remain fairly constant whether spoken or sung? Was it comfortable to
chant and speak at this pitch?
3. Find a partner. Have the partner ask a series of yes/no questions. Answer “Mm-hm” for each
question. Have the partner test with a keyboard to find the pitch of the “Mm-hm” responses. Try
speaking at this pitch (which should be the same approximate pitch indicated in activities 1 and
2).

Vocal Exercises for Healthy Speaking and Singing

 1. Tongue extensions. Done without voicing, this involves protruding the tongue from the mouth
to the right, straight out, and to the left for several seconds each. For freedom in the root of the
tongue in speaking and singing.
2. Lip buzzes; humming; glissandi on /v/ or /z/; singing vowels into a straw. All of these
semioccluded vocal tract postures help singers and speakers to discover “resonant voice”
production. See Nix (1999) and Nix and Simpson (2008) for more details. These exercises can
also be performed as pilot behaviors immediately prior to running speech or singing to optimize
transfer of the resonant production.
3. Yawn-sigh. A descending glide featuring a low laryngeal position and a high air flow rate. For
speaking or singing.
4. /jaja/. This rapid alternation of back and front vowel positions can be used for developing
freedom in the tongue and for better tongue/jaw movement independence, especially in higher
pitched speaking and singing. Can be performed in a spoken mode on a single pitch or a pitch
glide, or on various musical patterns when sung.
5. /bla bla/. This consonant/vowel combination can be used to promote an elevated palate position,
a relaxed forward tongue position, and lip and jaw freedom. Like the /jaja/, this can be
performed in speech or sung mode.
6. Pitch glides. Done on any vowel, easy glides from high to low range promote a smooth
transition of activity between opposing laryngeal muscle groups. See chapter 2 in this volume
for more details on laryngeal function.
7. Agility work. Agility exercises, or rapid wide changes in pitch, promote quick adjustments in
laryngeal muscle activity as well as vowel modification. For singing voice only.
8. Sustained singing. Requires stability of muscle function intrinsic to the larynx, extrinsic to the
larynx, in the respiratory system and throughout the postural system.
9. Onsets. Requires a precise coordination of intrinsic posturing of the vocal folds and breath
management. Can be explored first with easy /ha/, /ho/, /hu/, /hi/ in a speech mode, or as
repeated vowel onsets on a single sung pitch, on scale patterns or arpeggios (see Miller [1986]
for more details). Care must be taken not to overemphasize the initial /h/, or to use the so-called
glottal onset.
10. Messa di voce (long crescendo/decrescendo on a single vowel and pitch). Requires coordination
of intrinsic posturing of the vocal folds, subglottic breath pressure, breath management, and
vowel adjustment.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

Voice preservation protocols have been developed and tested for teachers;
would such a protocol enable singers to perform eight shows a week over a
six-month to one-year period (a typical Broadway national tour)?
What possible drawbacks might there be to the widespread use of
amplification in classrooms?

WEBSITES

http://clas.uiowa.edu/comsci/.
http://ncvs.org/products_health.html.
http://www.alexandertechnique.com.
http://www.bodymap.org.
http://www.feldenkrais.com.
http://www.dalcrozeusa.org.

KEY SOURCE

Thurman, L., and Welch, G. (eds.). (2000). Bodymind and Voice: Foundations of Voice Education.
Iowa City and Minneapolis: National Center for Voice and Speech and Voice Care Network.

REFERENCES

American National Standards Institute/Acoustical Society of America Secretariat. (2010). Acoustical

performance criteria, design requirements, and guidelines for schools. Part 1. Permanent schools.
Melville, NY: Acoustical Society of America.
Barlow, W. (1990). The Alexander technique: How to use your body without stress. Rochester, VT:
Healing Arts Press.
Behar, A., MacDonald, E., Lee, J., Cui, J., Kunov, H., & Wong, W. (2004). Noise exposure to music
teachers. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 1, 243–247.
Caldwell, J. T. (1995). Expressive singing: Dalcroze eurhythmics for voice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Chapman, J. L. (2006). Singing and teaching singing: A holistic approach to classical voice. San
Diego: Plural Publishing.
Conable, B., & Conable, W. (1995). How to learn the Alexander technique: A manual for students
(3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Andover Press.
Feldenkrais, M. (1972). Awareness through movement: Health exercises for personal growth. New
York: HarperCollins.
Field, T. (2009). Complementary and alternative therapies research. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Gelb, M. (1994). Body learning: An introduction to the Alexander technique. London: Aurum.
Hackworth, R. S. (2007). The effect of vocal hygiene and behavior modification instruction on the
self-reported vocal health habits of public school music teachers. International Journal of Music
Education, 25(1), 20–30.
Hackworth, R. S. (2009). Vocal hygiene perceptions of experienced and pre-service music teachers.
Journal of Music Teacher Education, 18(2), 74–88.
Hunter, E. J., & Titze, I. R. (2009). Quantifying vocal fatigue recovery: Dynamic vocal recovery
trajectories after a vocal loading exercise. Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology, 118(6),
449–460.
Larsen, J. B., Vega, A., & Ribera, J. E. (2008). The effect of room acoustics and sound-field
amplification on word recognition performance in young adult listeners in sub-optimal listening
conditions. American Journal of Audiology, 17, 50–59.
Malde, M., Allen, M. J., & Zeller, K. A. (2009). What every singer needs to know about the body.
San Diego: Plural Publishing.
Miller, R. (1986). The structure of singing: System and art in vocal technique. New York: Schirmer
Books.
Nelson, S. H., & Blades-Zeller, E. (2002). Singing with your whole self: The Feldenkrais method and
voice. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.
Nix, J. (1999). Lip trills and raspberries: “High spit factor” alternatives to the nasal continuant
consonants. Journal of Singing 55(3), 15–19.
Nix, J., & Simpson, C. B. (2008). Semi-occluded vocal tract postures and their application in the
singing voice studio. Journal of Singing, 64(3), 339–342.
Roy, N., Merrill, R., Thibeault, S., Gray, S., & Smith, E. (2004a). Voice disorders in teachers and the
general population: Effects on work performance, attendance, and future career choices. Journal of
Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 47(3), 542–551.
Roy, N., Merrill, R., Thibeault, S., Parsa, R., Gray, S., & Smith, E. (2004b). Prevalence of voice
disorders in teachers and the general population. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing
Research, 47(2), 281–293.
Roy, N., Weinrich, B., Gray, S. D., Tanner, K., Stemple, J., & Sapienza, C. (2003). Three treatments
for teachers with voice disorders: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Speech, Language, and
Hearing Research, 46(3), 670–688.
Thibeault, S. L., Merrill, R. M., Roy, N., Gray, S. D., & Smith, E. M. (2004). Occupational risk
factors associated with voice disorders among teachers. Annals of Epidemiology, 14(10), 786–792.
 PART 2

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Part Editor
SUSAN HALLAM
 CHAPTER 7

COMMENTARY: INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC

SUSAN HALLAM

Human beings have played musical instruments since at least 33,000 BCE
(Conard et al., 2009). How they learnt to play is a matter for speculation:
were they self-taught; did they receive informal instruction from family or
other musicians in wider communities of practice; or were they engaged in
more formal tuition? These approaches are all in evidence today, although
in the Western classical tradition tuition has typically been one-to-one and
framed within a master-apprenticeship model (see chapter 10 by Creech &
Gaunt). During the twentieth century, globalization and technological
developments have led to major changes in the extent to which we can
access music, the ways that we do so, and also the types of instruments that
are played. These changes are increasingly impacting on pedagogy (see
chapter 13 by Webb & Seddon).
In the Western world, access to tuition has frequently been limited to
those who could afford to pay for lessons. Opportunities to learn without
charge have been relatively few. Typically, children are selected for these
scarce resources based on their musical ability as assessed by tests of aural
perception. Increasingly, the concept of musical ability has been criticized
with an acknowledgement that every child has the potential to acquire
musical skills given an appropriate musical environment in which they can
develop (for a review see McPherson & Hallam, 2016). Worldwide there is
now a much greater emphasis on giving every child access to music-making
opportunities.
 THE AIMS OF INSTRUMENTAL TUITION

Most children learning to play an instrument do not go on to pursue a career

in music. The aims of learning to play an instrument and what might be
considered successful learning outcomes have to be formulated to take
account of this (see chapter 8 by Hallam & Bautista). In the case of one-to-
one tuition, decisions about repertoire and genre can be negotiated between
learner and teacher, but this is clearly problematic where children are
learning in large or small groups. In developing a curriculum in such
circumstances the teacher might take into account the musical culture of the
local community; the long-term prospects for learners to engage in music-
making in that community; the likelihood of support for the musical activity
in families; and available resources and sustainability in the longer term.
Teachers also need to take account of their own musical and pedagogic
skills (Hallam & Creech, 2010).
Until relatively recently, instrumental tuition tended to focus on the
learning of repertoire. A further consideration in establishing the aims of
learning to play an instrument is the extent to which creative activities such
as improvisation and composition should be included. Being able to play by
ear and improvise is increasingly accepted as a legitimate aim of
instrumental tuition. Improvisation relies on the prior automation of a range
of skills, which the performer can then draw on to develop unique musical
contributions, although, initially, memorizing short fragments can generate
acceptable improvisations even in rule-governed genres like jazz.
Improvisation requires the development of high-level aural skills so that the
improviser can predict the sound created before it is played. Typically, skills
are developed through exploration and musical doodling until some ideas
can be included in performance. Gradually, these will become more fluent
with greater technical control and clearer structure until ultimately the
player will develop her own personal style (Kratus, 1996). An important
element of this development is the provision of opportunities to play in
improvising groups. The extent to which improvisation is promoted in
instrumental lessons is clearly an issue for educators.
Related to the inclusion of improvisation in the instrumental curriculum
is the issue of learning to read musical notation. Cultures where music is
based within aural traditions rely on musicians playing by ear and passing
on knowledge to the next generation through shared experiences. In
contrast, in the Western classical tradition music is notated in some way.
Currently, both cultures exist alongside each other. Whether students learn
to read notation or play by ear needs to be an informed decision based on
the musical genre within which they are engaged and their future likely
needs. Both sets of skills can be useful to most learners and can be taught in
parallel. This is particularly important, as learners can experience
difficulties when they have been taught exclusively in one mode and then
need to acquire skills in the other.
Instrumental teachers are frequently berated for spending too much time
focused on issues of technique and accuracy at the expense of musicianship.
Observations of lessons tend to support this (Thompson, 1984). This focus
is understandable. When music is played inaccurately, with a lack of
articulation, poor intonation, and an unattractive tone it is evaluated
negatively by listeners. It is only when technical skills are sufficiently
secure that listeners begin to evaluate interpretative elements. However,
teachers can teach in ways that address technical and musical issues
simultaneously (see chapter 11 by Duke & Bio). For instance, practicing
scales can be enhanced by introducing “jazzy” rhythms, asking groups of
students to play scales in thirds or contrary motion, getting students to
compose pieces that rehearse particular techniques.

PRACTICE

To attain even moderate levels of expertise on any instrument requires

practice and commitment (see chapters 8 and 9). This is necessary for
complex motor and cognitive skills to become automated so that players
can focus on the musical aspects of performance, interpretation,
communication, and coordinating playing with others. There has been
considerable controversy about the relative importance of the amount of
practice as opposed to its quality in the acquisition of expertise (see chapter
9 by Lehmann & Jørgensen). As is considered in chapter 12 by Papageorgi
and Kopiez, extensive physical practice can lead to long-term health
problems for musicians. An alternative is mental practice, which has been
demonstrated to be effective in enhancing performance when undertaken in
conjunction with physical practice, reducing the amount of physical
practice that is required. Practice can also be made more effective through
planning, the use of appropriate strategies, and monitoring of progress, thus
reducing the time required to be spent in doing it. Related to this is the
increasing recognition of the importance of the development of
metacognitive (learning to learn) skills so that learners become autonomous
and take increasing responsibility for their own learning. Equipped with
these skills, learners can continue their engagement with music long after
they cease to have tuition (see chapters 8 and 9).

MOTIVATION

Motivation and commitment are required for individuals to devote

sufficient time to develop high levels of expertise. Those who are most
successful are able to motivate themselves and balance formal or required
practice tasks and informal, creative, or motivating activities (McPherson &
McCormick, 1999). Teachers and parents play crucial roles in motivation.
In the early stages of playing an instrument, learners are exploring
possibilities and need to have encouraging, relatively uncritical support,
particularly from teachers. If they decide to make an ongoing commitment
to music they will look to teachers to act as role models and to provide
constructive feedback on how they can improve (Manturzewska, 1990;
Sosniak, 1985). Parents are essential for providing practical resources, in
addition to supporting practice and having high expectations. Those who
give up playing do so for a wide variety of reasons, but the extent to which
music satisfies internal motives and provides personal fulfilment is an
important motivational factor (see chapter 8 and Hallam, 2016). Where
students experience severe performance anxiety, this can negatively affect
motivation, although a range of strategies can be adopted to support them in
overcoming their fears (see chapter 12).

PEDAGOGY

There are many ways individuals can learn to play a musical instrument.
They can teach themselves, modeling their practice on recordings or
deriving guidance from self-help tutors; they can learn through joining a
community of practice where instrumental tuition is part of a wider musical
experience, for instance, in a brass band or jazz group; they can engage in
informal learning through combinations of trial and error, repetition,
watching and taking advice from other players, reading, listening, and
emulating (Green 2001; Cope, 2002); and they can receive formal tuition
individually, or in small or large groups. Recently, opportunities are
emerging to learn instruments through using a variety of computer software,
through the Web, or through other interactive technology (see chapter 13).
There is no “ideal” way to learn to play a musical instrument. Learning is
a natural process for humans and is undertaken in many different ways. The
teaching approach selected needs to be appropriate for the context and the
desired aims. Combinations of methods may be the most effective. Table
7.1 sets out the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches. Where
learning is within a formal teaching context the teacher can adopt didactic
methods of transmitting knowledge or more facilitative methods that
support discovery learning. The practices that teachers adopt depend on the
influences of the context within which they work, the demands of the
curriculum, the specific instrument they teach, and the way that learning is
assessed. They also depend on their own beliefs (Hallam & Ireson, 1999).
To be successful, teachers need to have a wide range of teaching strategies
that they can adopt to meet specific needs.
The remainder of the chapters in this section address the issues outlined
above in greater detail, providing more in-depth analyses. Chapter 8
explores the processes underlying learning to play an instrument, chapter 9
considers practicing, chapter 10 considers issues relation to individual
tuition, chapter 11 instrumental teaching in the classroom, chapter 12
learning to perform, chapter 13 global perspectives in acquiring
instrumental skills, and chapter 14 the role of bodily movement.
Table 7.1 Advantages and disadvantages of different learning contexts’
Advantages
Self-tuition through Inexpensive
experimentation or Learning is independent of
tutor books time and location
The pace of learning is set
by the individual
Engenders independent
learning
Self-tuition through Learning is independent of
technology time and location
The pace of learning is set
by the individual
Some systems allow
learners to interact with
others
Students may find using
technology natural and
motivating
Informal peer learning Encourages listening skills
Fosters team work and
other transferable skills
Fosters independence
Can promote creativity
Supportive environment
Workshop Can be motivating,
sessions/master classes inspirational and creative
Can provide advice on
technical and musical
issues
Consultation or top up Cost and time effective
lessons Provide a fresh eye
Supports autonomous
learning
Learning through a Provides an immediate
community of practice authentic musical
experience
Expert advice immediately
available
Advanced student Provides supervision for
mentoring practice
Ensures practice is focused
Supports the learner
Consolidates skills for the
mentor
Small group tuition Effective use of time
students of same Students learn from and
standard and support each other
instrument
Disadvantages
Lack of expert feedback and guidance
Requires high levels of self-motivation
and self-regulation
Lack of musical interaction with others
Depending on the programme these may
include lack of feedback
Possible lack of musical interaction with
others
Requires high levels of self-motivation
and self-regulation
More suited to some instruments than
others
Lack of immediate access to expert
feedback and guidance
Unsupportive peers
Destructive criticism
Lack of continuity
Limited opportunities for long term
developments
Can undermine previous learning
Could undermine previous learning
Could identify problems with no ongoing
support
Learning of technique is determined by
the group repertoire
Limited opportunities for creative work
Could inhibit learning of self-regulatory
and meta-cognitive skills
Could encourage the development of
dependency
Not always possible to identify individual
difficulties
 Opportunities for group and
individuals to receive
feedback and guidance
Small group tuition Provides ensemble
with students of opportunities
different instruments
Large group tuition of Effective use of time and
same instruments resources
Large group tuition of Provides immediate
ensembles musical experience
Time not used effectively if teacher listens
to each instrument separately
Lack of repertoire and tutor books
Feedback and guidance to individuals is
difficult
Progress may be slow as teacher needs to
explain and teach technical demands of
each instrument separately

REFERENCES

Conard, N. J., Malina, N., & Munzel, S. C. (2009). New flutes document the earliest musical
tradition in southwestern Germany. Nature, 460, 737–740.
Cope, P. (2002). Informal learning of musical instruments: The importance of social context. Music
Education Research, 4(1), 93–104.
Green, L. (2001). How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. London & New
York: Ashgate.
Hallam, S. (2016). Motivation to learn. In S. Hallam, I. Cross, & M. Thaut (eds.), Handbook of
psychology of music (pp. 479–492). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hallam, S., & Creech, A. (2010). Learning to play a musical instrument. In S. Hallam & A. Creech
(eds.), Music education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom: Achievements, analysis and
aspirations. (pp. 85–104) Institute of Education, University of London.
Hallam, S., & Ireson, J. (1999). Pedagogy in the secondary school. In P. Mortimore (ed.), Pedagogy
and its impact on learning (pp. 68–97). London: Sage.
Kratus, J. (1996). A developmental approach to teaching music improvisation. International Journal
of Music Education, 26, 3–13.
Manturzewska, M. (1990). A biographical study of the life-span development of professional
musicians, Psychology of Music, 18(2), 112–139.
McPherson, G., & Hallam, S. (2016). Musical potential. In S. Hallam, I. Cross, & M. Thaut (eds.),
Oxford handbook of music psychology (pp. 433–448). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McPherson, G. E., & McCormick, J. (1999). Motivational and self-regulated learning components of
musical practice. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 141, 98–102.
Sosniak, L. A. (1985). Learning to be a concert pianist. Developing talent in young people. In B. S.
Bloom (ed.), Developing talent in young people (pp. 19–67). New York, Ballantine.
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of Music, 17(1), 63–82.
 CHAPTER 8

PROCESSES OF INSTRUMENTAL
LEARNING: THE DEVELOPMENT OF
MUSICAL EXPERTISE

SUSAN HALLAM AND ALFREDO

BAUTISTA

The processes that underpin learning in music are shared across cultures and
are part of the natural learning processes that are common to all human
beings. As a species we are preprogrammed to learn, and this can occur
deliberately and intentionally or incidentally (without our conscious
awareness) (Blakemore & Frith, 2000). For instance, when we listen to
music we process an enormous amount of information rapidly and
effortlessly because we have internal representations developed from our
previous experiences based on the culturally determined tonal scheme to
which we have become accustomed (Dowling, 1993). This knowledge is
implicit, learned through exposure to particular environments, and is applied
automatically whenever we listen to music. Musical expertise begins to
develop in the womb and continues through infancy as the individual is
encultured into the musical language of his particular culture, although bi-
musicality is possible if the environment supports the development of
understanding and proficiency in the technical and musical requirements of
two musical systems (O’Flynn, 2005). The enculturation process means that
the pre-requisites for the development of expertise on an instrument begin
long before the start of formal tuition.

THE BRAIN AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MUSICAL EXPERTISE

Information processing in the brain is undertaken largely through
interactions between its 100 billion neurons, each of which has
approximately a thousand connections with other neurons. When we learn,
there are changes in the growth of axons and dendrites and the number of
synapses connecting neurons. When an event is important enough or is
repeated sufficiently often, synapses and neurons fire repeatedly (Fields,
2005), leading to changes in the strength of existing connections and the
coating of the axon of each neuron (myelinization), enhancing efficiency.
Pruning also occurs where the number of synaptic connections is reduced.
As these processes occur over time in response to our activities, the cerebral
cortex self-organizes. These processes have been demonstrated in much
research concerned with the development of musical expertise; the longer
the engagement with musical learning, the greater the neurological changes
(Pantev et al., 2003). Changes are also specific to the particular musical
learning undertaken. For instance, processing of pitch in string players is
characterized by longer surveillance and more frontally distributed event-
related brain potentials (ERP) attention, while drummers generate more
complex memory traces of the temporal organization of musical sequences,
and conductors demonstrate greater surveillance of auditory space (Munte et
al., 2003). The adoption of different learning strategies also leads to
activation of different parts of the brain. Altenmuller and colleagues (1997)
asked students aged 13–15 to judge symmetrically structured phrases as
balanced or unbalanced. A declarative group received traditional instructions
about the differences, including verbal explanations, visual aids, notation,
verbal rules, and some musical examples that were played for them. A
procedural group participated in musical experiences that established
genuine musical representations through singing, playing, improvising, or
performing examples from the musical literature. A control group did not
receive any instruction.
The music processing of the verbally trained declarative group produced
increased activation of the left fronto-temporal brain regions, probably
reflecting inner speech and analytical, step-by-step processing. The
musically trained procedural group showed increased activation of the right
frontal and bilateral parieto-occipital lobes, indicating a more global way of
processing and visuo-spatial associations. In the control group overall
activity decreased slightly. These findings indicate that the way that music is
taught influences brain activation patterns. Overall, the brain substrates of
processing reflect the “learning biography” of each individual (Altenmuller,
2003, p. 349). As we engage with different learning experiences over long
periods of time permanent changes occur in the brain. These changes reflect
the way expertise is developed in each individual.

CONCEPTUALIZING LEARNING AS THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERTISE

The expertise paradigm challenges the notion that high-level achievement

depends on inherited ability, suggesting instead that the length of time
engaged in activities is a better predictor of the level of expertise attained. In
music, it has been suggested that classical Western musicians may have
accrued up to 16 years of individual practice to achieve levels that will lead
to international standing in playing an instrument, the individual usually
beginning to play at a very early age with increasing amounts of practice
being undertaken, up to as much as 50 hours a week by adolescence
(Sosniak, 1985), although there is individual variation (Ericsson, 2006).
As the individual engages with a particular domain, the characteristics of
expert performance begin to be acquired. These characteristics are specific
to a particular domain, and even within a domain, transfer of skills can be
problematic. For instance, Sudnow (1978), a highly skilled, adult,
professional, classical musician, documented how tedious, effortful,
frustrating, and time-consuming was the experience of acquiring expertise in
jazz improvisation. As expertise develops, the individual becomes
increasingly able to identify meaningful patterns in the field. For instance, in
music, when reading notation, skilled readers do not fixate on each note;
their fixations are directed across line and phrase boundaries, scanning ahead
and returning to the current point of performance (Goolsby, 1994). They can
continue to read about six or seven notes after removal of the printed page,
while poor readers only manage about three or four (Goolsby, 1994;
Sloboda, 1984). Increasing expertise leads to greater speed in learning and
problem solving and greater capacity to draw on prior knowledge to
facilitate working memory (Kalakoski, 2007; Knecht, 2003). The levels of
automaticity that are developed in relation to skills frees up working
memory for other tasks. Problems are viewed and represented at a deeper
level, and more time is spent analyzing problems before attempting
solutions. In music, experts acquire an overview of a new piece of music
before beginning detailed practice by studying the score or playing through
the music, identifying difficult sections that will require more work. They
have well-developed meta-cognitive and self-monitoring skills, identifying
errors, generating new strategies to solve problems, while constantly
monitoring and reviewing progress (Chaffin et al., 2002; Hallam, 1995a,
1995b; 2001a, b).
The increasing levels of automaticity acquired as expertise in an area
develops are not always advantageous. Increasing levels of expertise can
lead to overconfidence, with individuals overestimating their comprehension
of a problem (Glenberg & Epstein, 1987); inflexibility and mental set, even
within a creative domain (Hatano & Inagaki, 1986; Wiley, 1998); and
inaccuracy in the prediction of novice performance (Hinds, 1999). The latter
feature of expertise is likely to be in evidence in music teachers for whom
much accrued knowledge is embedded and skills automated, making it
difficult for them to take the perspective of the novice accurately, although to
date this has not been verified empirically.

HOW DOES EXPERTISE DEVELOP?

Expertise depends on the acquisition of skills. There are generally

considered to be three phases in skill learning (Fitts & Posner, 1967). In the
cognitive—verbal–motor—stage, learning is largely under cognitive,
conscious control. The learner has to understand what is required to
undertake the task and carries it out while consciously providing self-
instruction. In the associative stage, the learner begins to put together a
sequence of responses that become more fluent over time. Errors are
detected and eliminated. Feedback from the sounds produced and the teacher
play an important role in this process. In the autonomous stage the skill
becomes automated, is carried out without conscious effort, and continues to
develop each time it is used, becoming more fluent and quicker. In learning
to play a musical instrument many skills are acquired simultaneously, new
skills constantly being added to the repertoire. As mastery of more advanced
skills is acquired, skills learnt earlier are continuously practiced so they
achieve greater automaticity. As one set of skills is becoming increasingly
automated, others will be at the associative and cognitive stages. The
development of procedural skills and the acquisition of knowledge in most
domains are inextricably intertwined (Hallam, 2001b).
Gruson (1988) and Hallam (1995a, 1995b, 1997a, 1997b, 2001a, 2001b)
explored how practice changes as expertise develops from novice through to
professional levels. They demonstrated the importance of learners having
knowledge-based mental representations of appropriate musical outcomes to
check for errors, select possible strategies, and monitor progress. Novices
tend not to have these schemata and are often unaware that they are making
errors. They have problems in identifying technically difficult sections, tend
to practice by playing through the music repeatedly rather than focusing on
difficult sections, initially correct errors by repetition of the single wrong
note, gradually come to repeat small sections (half bar or a bar) when errors
are made, ultimately focusing error correction on “difficult sections,” which
are then worked on as units. When they are learning to read music, they tend
to focus first on playing notes that are at the correct pitch. Attention is then
directed to rhythm. This then extends to all of the technical aspects of
playing. Finally, attention becomes focused on dynamics, interpretation, and
the expressive aspects of playing. The use of more advanced strategies is
more closely linked to developing expertise than age, but strategy use per se
does not seem to determine the quality of performance (Williamon &
Valentine, 2000). Once a certain level of expertise has been attained,
equivalent to entry to higher education, it is possible to identify similarities
in strategy use with professionals. There is a greater concern with
interpretation, and individual differences emerge in approaches and
orientations to practice.

LEARNING TO LEARN IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERTISE

An important element in the acquisition of expertise is the development of

meta-cognitive (learning to learn) skills. Executive, meta-cognitive strategies
are concerned with the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of learning.
They are crucial to all aspects of practicing and can be considered at the
level of a particular task (learning a new piece) or in relation to the more
global concerns of the musician to maintain or improve the standard of her
playing (sustaining and enhancing technical skills) an ongoing process, in
part, dictated by the extremely competitive nature of the music profession. In
both cases knowledge of personal strengths and weaknesses, the nature of
the task to be completed, possible strategies, and the nature of the learning
outcome are important. There are considerable differences between
beginners, novices, and experts in their knowledge and deployment of
different practicing and metacognitive strategies (Hallam, 2001a, 2001b;
Pitts et al., 2000a, 2000b; Renwick & McPherson, 2002; Sloboda et al.,
1996) as well as individual differences among musicians and novices at the
same level of competence (Austin & Berg, 2006; Nielsen, 1999a, 1999b,
2001).
Some activities that students engage in during practice sessions are not
related to learning, for instance, avoidance behaviors (taking a long time to
set up a music stand or maintain an instrument) (Pitts et al., 2000a;
McPherson & Renwick, 2001). Motivation and regulation of practice are
associated with the quality of the home environment, personal interest,
effort, and emotional responses during practice (Austin & Berg, 2006).
McPherson and Renwick (2001) found that over a period of three years as
students became more self-regulating in their practice, a higher percentage
of practice time was focused on improving performance, with less time spent
responding to distractions, talking to others, daydreaming, or expressing
frustration. High-achieving students tended to strike a balance between
formal or required practice tasks and informal, creative, or motivating
activities such as playing a favorite piece or improvising. This sustained
motivation (McPherson & McCormick, 1999; Sloboda & Davidson, 1996).
The more self-regulated learners are, the better they manage their
environment to optimize learning (Barry & McArthur, 1994; McPherson &
Zimmerman, 2002).

CHANGES IN CONCEPTIONS OF INSTRUMENTAL LEARNING AS EXPERTISE

DEVELOPS

Recent studies have focused on describing the changes that occur in

conceptions of instrumental learning as students develop expertise (Bautista
et al., 2009, 2012; Marín, Pérez Echeverría, & Scheuer, 2014; López et al.,
2009). These studies have been undertaken within the theoretical paradigm
of conceptual change (for an in-depth rationale, see Pozo et al., 2006).
According to Bautista et al. (2009) and López et al. (2009), students during
the first years of instrumental education (usually between 8 and 14 years old)
tend to conceive of musical scores as collections of symbols to be processed,
prioritizing playing the notes correctly, and making frequent reference to
playing being “correct” or “incorrect.” In consequence, the learning
strategies they consider “the most suitable” are usually repetitive in nature.
These findings are consistent with those derived from studies of instrumental
practice (e.g., Gruson, 1998; Hallam, 1997a). Beginners conceive of the
evaluation process as an external judgment made by the teacher, with the
aim of assessing (usually numerically) the students’ achievements. These
conceptions reflect a direct, or traditional theory of instrumental learning
(see Torrado, 2003) among novices (Bautista et al., 2012) similar to the
“reproductive approach” described by Hultberg (2002).
During intermediate levels of instrumental education (up to age 20) a
more sophisticated interpretative position develops (see Pozo et al., 2006),
where students focus on an increasing number of dimensions in sequence:
(1) technical skills, (2) syntactical features, (3) performance dimensions
(Bautista et al., 2009). These learning procedures differ depending on the
specific point reached in learning a particular piece of music (Marín et al.,
2014). Initially, there is a focus on the reading and reproduction of printed
notation, while procedures addressing memorization are introduced in the
middle phase. Only in the final phase are expression and communication
considered. Overall, intermediate level students do not acknowledge the
relevance of creating an artistic “big picture” of the piece at the start of the
learning process (see Chaffin et al., 2002). They also conceive of evaluation
as an educational practice aimed at allocating marks and correcting mistakes
(Bautista et al., 2012).
The conceptions of advanced-level students (over 21 years of age) tend to
be based on the constructivist approaches displayed by expert interpreters
(see Hallam 1995a, 1995b; Nielsen, 1999a, 1999b, 2001). Musical scores are
conceived of as sophisticated external representations that need to be
analyzed and artistically communicated (Bautista et al., 2009; Casas & Pozo,
2008) (see also the “explorative approach” of Hultberg [2002] and the focus
on “learning to express personal meaning” of Reid [2001]). These students
adopt learning strategies based on reflection and self-regulation that are used
strategically to operationalize an artistic and expressive image of the musical
score (Marín et al., 2014). Evaluation is understood from a constructivist
epistemological perspective, where different interpretations of the same
musical piece can be equally valid and are viewed as having both
pedagogical and formative functions (Bautista et al., 2012). The descriptive
nature of these studies does not allow the relative importance of age, level of
musical expertise, educational level, or knowledge of theories of learning to
be determined with regard to conceptual change processes. Further research
is required to establish these possible influences.

PHASES OF ENGAGEMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERTISE

The identification of phases of engagement in the acquisition of expertise

has been a focus of research in the Western world, although it has less
relevance in the developing world, where music is frequently such an
integral part of cultural rituals and everyday life that it is shared by all (see
Blacking, 1967, 1973). Despite this, in some developing cultures children
seen to be exceptional at an early age are singled out for special treatment.
Goodale (1995), studying the Kaulong, an agrarian culture in Papua New
Guinea, found that higher standards were expected of these children, while
Campbell (2006) found that if the Wolof griots of Senegal identified a child
as particularly talented he was taken under the wing of a male relative and
trained until he was sufficiently skilled to take a minor part in a public
festival.
When a decision is made to learn to play an instrument, choices have to be
made about the particular instrument to be played. Factors affecting the
choice of instrument are complex and include convenience, availability,
gender, parents’ views, influence of the school or other providers, friends,
interests, and enthusiasms. The main reason for wanting to play an
instrument is a personal desire to do so (MacKenzie, 1991), although social
influences are important for girls, school factors for boys. There are gender
differences in instrument preference, girls preferring small high-pitched
orchestral instruments, boys choosing large low-pitched ones. These have
been persistent over time and have resisted current trends where gendered
roles are less well defined (Sheldon & Price, 2005; Hallam et al., 2008),
although girls are less inhibited about selecting a masculine instrument
(Zervoudakes & Tanur, 1994). Where technology has been introduced into
musical activity, currently, boys predominate (e.g., Green, 1997; Ho, 2001).
These stereotypical preferences can be manipulated, indicating that they are
learned. They may be influenced by parents, who also tend to have
stereotypical views of which instruments are appropriate for each gender
(Abeles & Porter, 1978; Griswold & Chroback, 1981).
In Western classical cultures, the development of musical expertise
requires considerable time and effort. Those who want to play an instrument
therefore need to be highly motivated. Time needs to be spent in “deliberate”
individual practice to attain high levels of expertise (Ericsson et al., 1993),
although there is variability depending on the nature of the demands of the
genre and instrument; for instance, jazz guitarists (Gruber et al., 2004) and
singers tend to begin formal training later (Kopiez, 1998), while different
instrumental groups of conservatoire students practice for different amounts
of time (Jorgensen, 2002). There is also considerable debate regarding the
extent to which playing in a range of musical groups, playing more than one
instrument, composing, or listening may compensate for lack of individual
practice on one instrument.
The phases that have been identified in the development of musical
expertise reflect changes in the level of commitment made by an individual.
Sosniak (1985) suggested three phases: introduction to activity in the
domain; the start of instruction and deliberate practice; and for those wishing
to become professional musicians, a commitment to pursue activities on a
full-time basis. Harnischmacher (1997) provided a more detailed account of
the early phases, identifying an activity stage where musical activity is play-
related; an adoption stage, where the work ethic develops, and the young
musicians thinks about the causality and goal-orientation of her practice; an
integration stage, where practice becomes part of the daily routine while the
playful element serves for relaxation; and the identification stage, where
there is reflection on the implicit self-relation of practice, as well as
improving effectiveness and an awareness of standards. Changes in the
structure of practice appear to be accompanied by increased meta-cognitive
awareness. Other research has taken a longer term perspective, considering
development throughout the life span (Manturzewska, 1990; Ericsson &
Smith, 1991). This is illustrated in Figure 8.1, with the inner section
representing the ongoing process of skill acquisition (Papageorgi et al.,
2010).
 Figure 8.1 Development in musicians (Papageorgi et al., 2010).

Why some children move beyond the playful phase of engagement to

want to learn a specific instrument may depend on the extent to which
engaging with music satisfies internal motives and provides personal
fulfillment. Musical activity satisfies desires for achievement (Gellrich et al.,
1986), curiosity, and self-actualization (de la Motte-Haber, 1984). It also
induces emotions, provides opportunities for positive social responses to
performance, may allow the exploration of aggressive drives through its
requirement for the development of motor skills, and provides opportunities
for some degree of exhibitionism (Nagel, 1987). Overall, musicians seem to
derive considerable personal fulfillment from the act of making music, with
the balance of motives being related to particular musical environments and
also changing over time as individuals progress through their musical careers
(Harnischmacher, 1997; Manturzewska, 1990; Sosniak, 1985). The different
motivations for engaging with music may contribute to determining
individual career trajectories.

GOALS AND AIMS OF LEARNING TO PLAY AN INSTRUMENT

The goals and aims of learning to play an instrument are rarely made explicit
by teachers or learners, but they are clearly crucial in determining what is
learned. So what should the aims of learning an instrument be? There is
clearly no “right” answer to this question. What is important is that teachers
and learners share aims at any point in time. If they do not, tensions will
arise. Where there are mismatches between the learner’s aims and those of
the teacher the motivation of both may be affected. As learners become more
expert, their aims and their expectations of teachers change (Creech, 2006)
as does their ability to distinguish between their teacher’s personal and
professional qualities (Davidson et al., 1997). In the early stages of learning,
it is crucial that teachers are supportive and relatively uncritical, engendering
enthusiasm and love of music, but as learners progress, they expect
challenge and constructive criticism in order to be able to improve
(Manturzewska, 1990).
In the Western world there is currently a lack of full-time permanent
performing employment opportunities for musicians. Most have “portfolio”
careers where they undertake a variety of musical activities. Nonperforming
careers include those as music educators (class and instrumental), composers
and arrangers, music therapists, community musicians, music journalists,
librarians, publishers, retailers, promoters, administrators, or instrument
manufacturers and repairers. Music also makes an important contribution to
the education of those wishing to pursue careers in related fields, e.g., TV,
radio, film, and theater. Many who learn to play an instrument will pursue
careers unrelated to music. They may become active amateur music-makers,
express their love of music through listening, or if their musical experiences
have been particularly negative, turn to other recreational activities. There is
currently considerable debate regarding the long-term possible musical
outcomes for learning to play an instrument in addition to the wide range of
nonmusical benefits that may occur (see Hallam, 2014).
At one extreme, we might argue that the only purpose of learning to play
an instrument is to become an “expert” on that particular instrument. At the
other extreme we could argue that learning should just be for fun. These
extreme views both have weaknesses. Individuals are unlikely to have fun
playing an instrument if they cannot technically cope with the music they
want to play. This simply creates frustration. Equally, having technical
mastery if playing is not enjoyable will not be a rewarding experience.
Teachers need to provide an environment that offers challenge and
enjoyment. More enjoyment leads to better motivation, better motivation
results in more practice, more practice (with proper guidance) usually means
better progress, good progress leads to more enjoyment.
Opportunities to learn to play a musical instrument have increased greatly
in the Western world as societies have become more affluent, as have the
opportunities to engage in a wide variety of amateur musical activities. At
the same time the nature of the music profession is changing and is likely to
continue to do so with continuing advances in technology. The aims of
instrumental tuition need to be formulated in ways that take these factors
into account. One way forward is to formulate aims in terms of the wide
variety of skills that can be acquired through active engagement with music.
Table 8.1 provides an outline of the kinds of skills that might be included.
This could serve as a resource for teachers and learners in establishing what
they can offer to learners and also be used to negotiate a curriculum with
individual students.
Perhaps the most important set of skills that need to be developed are
those that enable learners to become independent and autonomous.
Traditionally, much instrumental tuition has been developed on a model of
passive learning where the teacher passes knowledge to the student with
little discussion or questioning of what is being learned or why. This has
sometimes lead to the unquestioning acceptance of rigid methods of
instruction or adherence to certain technical approaches, with particular
approaches being seen as right or wrong and little acceptance that there may
be a number of alternative ways of teaching, learning, and performing that
may be equally valid. Teachers may be reluctant to allow their students to
take an active role in determining what is learned, and some students may
not want to take responsibility for their own learning (Bautista et al., 2010).
Encouraging pupils to become independent learners requires that they think
for themselves; that will inevitably mean that they will question accepted
practice. This can be uncomfortable for the teacher.
Table 8.1 Skills which can be acquired in learning to play an instrument
Aural skills supporting the development of:
• rhythmic accuracy and a sense of pulse;
• good intonation;
• the facility to know how music will sound without having to play it;
• playing by ear;
• improvisational skills.
Cognitive skills supporting the development of:
• reading music;
• transposition;
• understanding keys;
• understanding harmony;
• understanding the structure of the music;
• the memorisation of music;
• composing;
• understanding different musical styles and their cultural and historic contexts.
Technical skills supporting the development of:
• instrument specific skills;
• technical agility;
• articulation;
• expressive tone quality.
Musicianship skills supporting the development of:
• expressive playing;
• sound projection;
• control;
• conveying musical meaning.
Performance skills supporting the development of:
• communication with an audience;
• communication with other performers;
• being able to co-ordinate a group;
• presentation to an audience.
Creative skills supporting the development of:
• interpretation;
• improvisation;
• composition.
Evaluative skills support the development of:
• listening with understanding;
• being able to describe and discuss music;
• being able to make comparisons between different types of music and performances;
• critically assessing personal performance, improvisation and compositions;
• monitoring progress.
Self-regulatory skills support the development of:
• managing the process of learning;
• managing practice;
• enhancing concentration;
• enhancing motivation.
 What might it mean to encourage students to be independent learners? We
might expect that an independent learner would:

• Take advantage of a range of opportunities for playing, improvising,

composing and performing with others
• Develop meta-cognitive and self-regulatory skills for managing
learning and motivation
• Try to ensure that the learning environment is conducive to meeting
their goals
• Identify short-, medium-, and long-term goals and work toward them
• Listen extensively to all kinds of music, comparing and critically
evaluating it and its performance
• Search out and act on feedback from others
• Engage in mental as well as physical rehearsal
• Develop skills of critical analysis
• Develop a range of creative skills
• Acknowledge the relationship between time engaged with music and
achievement and set out to invest the time as necessary

For those who wish to pursue a career in music a range of life skills are
also important. Professional musicians require social skills for working with
other musicians, promoters, and the public; planning and organization skills;
and time management skills.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PROCESSES OF LEARNING AND

TEACHING

Teachers cannot learn for their learners. They can only support learning.
Figure 8.2 sets out a model of the way the teacher and learner interact
together to affect learning, the dotted lines indicating where influences may
be weaker or nonexistent. Learners and teachers will each have their aims,
which may or not be shared. Indeed, the learner may not have any input into
which aims are adopted. Once a task is selected the teacher and student(s)
can apply effort and a range of teaching/learning strategies to work on the
task. Once the task is mastered the characteristics of the learner will change
as a result of the acquisition of a new skill or new knowledge. The teacher
may or may not enhance his teaching skills and self-perceptions as a teacher,
depending on his motivations. There are a range of strategies that teachers
can use to support student learning, including explanation, questioning,
demonstration, and provision and discussion of a range of options. They may
provide scaffolds for learning and give feedback that may be very specific or
simply praise achievements. Through these processes they can inspire and
enthuse their students. Because attitudes and emotions are learned during
particular musical activities, teaching can have negative consequences. For
instance, what may be learned is that music tuition is not enjoyable, that the
teacher is very critical, or that others are making better progress. Among the
other functions of the teacher in musical learning processes, at any
educational level, some of the most important are to ensure that students
understand what is required, provide appropriate opportunities for feedback
and reflection, support the development of meta-cognition, and motivate
students so that they want to learn.

Figure 8.2 The relationship between teaching and learning.

 CLOSING COMMENTS

The processes underpinning the learning of a musical instrument are

universal and apply across all cultures. All require time, effort, and
commitment, although the extent to which these are needed depends on the
nature of the music itself and the particular cultural traditions that pertain in
relation to its creation and performance. Widening participation in
instrumental learning means that most learners will engage with music-
making in the longer term as a recreational activity either through amateur
music-making or as listeners. What they need to develop as a result of their
learning is a love of music and the meta-cognitive skills that will support
them throughout their lifetimes in whatever musical activities they choose to
pursue. To reflect these changes music educators need to consider what their
curricular priorities should be. Learning is most enjoyable when what is to
be learned is challenging (not too easy or too difficult) and there is a sense of
achievement when it has been mastered. Expecting high levels of attainment
and providing enjoyment in learning are not mutually exclusive; indeed,
effective learning environments provide both.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

• Which of the many possible aims of learning to play an instrument

best fit with your aims and skill set?
• As an instrumental student or teacher, what are the most important
skills you want to achieve when learning or teaching a new musical
score?
• What strategies do you have for motivating yourself?
• What kinds of activities do you implement to foster independence in
learning? To what extent are these activities effective?
• How do you assess your progress toward your goals?

KEY SOURCES

Ericsson, K. A., Charness, N., Feltovich, P. J., & Hoffman, R. R. (eds.). (2006). The Cambridge
handbook of expertise and expert performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hallam, S. (2006). Music psychology in education. London: Institute of Education, University of
London.
Jorgensen, H., & Hallam, S. (2016). Practising. In S. Hallam, I. Cross, I., & M. Thaut (eds.), Oxford
handbook of music psychology (pp. 449–462). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McPherson, G. (ed.). (2016). The child as musician: A handbook of musical development Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

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 CHAPTER 9

PRACTICE

ANDREAS C. LEHMANN AND HARALD

JØRGENSEN

The great pianist and composer Arthur Schnabel (1991) stated that practice
is a threat to children. He suggested that the probing question “Have you
practiced today?” be replaced by “Have you made some music today?” It
appears that practicing is not an inherently enjoyable activity—although its
results may be so—and even professional musicians maintain an ambiguous
relationship with it. This chapter answers some of the questions regarding
differences between practice and less effective but more enjoyable
activities, it emphasizes the learned nature of practice, and it tentatively
outlines fruitful approaches to practice. Although most research has dealt
with classical music, the results ought to apply equally to other musical
styles (e.g., rock, jazz).

THE CONCEPT OF (DELIBERATE) PRACTICE

The outstanding achievements of music throughout the ages document the

ability of teachers and musicians to optimize learning environments and
techniques. Not only in recent times have advances been made to promote
effective learning. In the seventeenth century, in 1685 in Venice, Giovanni
Bassano published a book on instrumental ornamentation. In the eighteenth
century, musicians and pedagogues like Leopold Mozart, Johann Joachim
Quantz, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach started to publish manuals and
tutorials for the violin (in 1756), flute (in 1752), and piano (in 1753),
respectively; these contained lessons and exercises for (self-) teaching. It is
clear that the goal was not a musician who could only perform pre-notated
music but one who was versed in ornamentation, improvisation, and so on,
and had impeccable taste. Nowadays, there is much more information about
how high levels of expertise in music are attained, with a greater emphasis
on the importance of effort, commitment, and the way that practice is
undertaken.
In conceptualizing practice, the idea of “deliberate practice” (Ericsson,
Krampe, & Tesch-Römer, 1993; Ericsson & Poole, 2016) has become the
most influential concept. Other authors have called it “formal practice”
(Sloboda et al., 1996). The many research articles on practice since
Ericsson et al.’s 1993 article suggest a growing interest of practitioners and
the general public in effective training. Deliberate practice denotes a
structured activity, often designed by teachers or coaches with the explicit goal of increasing an
individual’s current level of performance. In contrast to work and play, it requires the generation
of specific goals for improvement and the monitoring of various aspects of performance.
Furthermore, deliberate practice involves trying to exceed one’s previous limits, which requires
full concentration and effort. Consequently, it is only possible to engage in these activities for a
limited amount of time until rest and recuperation are needed. (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1999, p.
695)

In less formalized language, Hallam (1997, p. 181) defines effective

practice as “that which achieves the desired end-product, in as short a time
as possible, without interfering negatively with longer term goals.” An
everyday description might be “my child practices when she is playing her
instrument.” The importance of research on practice in various domains can
be gleaned from the appearance of several books targeting a general
audience that deal with the role of talent and practice and heavily weigh the
scale toward the impact of environment and training instead of inborn talent
(e.g., Colvin, 2008). All of these books prominently feature Ericsson’s work
on deliberate practice. Although practice is difficult to research, an
increasing openness of practitioners to talk about this often hidden activity
has broadened our knowledge (see Chaffin, Imreh, & Crawford, 2002;
Hallam, 1995).
What does not constitute deliberate practice? Broadly, every suboptimal
training activity or any activity that is not undertaken with the intent to
improve performance cannot be considered deliberate practice in the strict
sense. In everyday life, some activities are mistaken for practice. The above
definition already mentions work, which essentially entails doing a learned
task repeatedly as reliably as possible (e.g., typing a letter), and play, which
is highly enjoyable and only rarely geared toward improvement of skill
(e.g., an amateur dancer waltzing around with his partner at a ballroom
dance). Thus, the central aspect of practice is the goal to improve, and this
is where many musicians fail even when they are trying to practice. For
example: if a child is playing through a piece she already knows quite well
from beginning to end several times just to kill time, this is not really
practicing; and researchers (e.g., Austin & Berg, 2006; McPherson &
Renwick, 2001; McPherson, Davidson, & Faulkner, 2012; Renwick &
McPherson, 2002) have documented such cases. In fact, Hallam (1997)
reports that the majority of beginners, novices, and advanced students did
not correct their errors, which then tended to become habitual. Of course,
there are always exceptions to the rule. Lisboa (2008) found that children
focus largely on technical and not expressive aspects and even incorporate
mistakes in the mental representation of the piece. It is surprising how
ineffective people’s practice behaviors often are and how unaware teachers
are of this fact. Therefore, we need the right type of behavior and the right
mental processes when practicing. The seventeenth-century harpsichordist
and composer Francois Couperin even suggested keeping the instrument
locked away between children’s lessons in order not to undo during random
practice what the teacher had instilled during the lesson (cited in Gellrich,
1992, p. 9).
A number of studies have shown that length of practice is monotonically
related to the level of expertise attained (see also Hallam & Bautista,
Chapter 8, and Papageorgi & Kopiez, Chapter 12, for more detailed
descriptions; Hallam et al., 2012). It is now well established in psychology
that performers, not only in music, who have practiced more than others
tend to attain higher levels of expertise than musicians or performers who
have practiced less. Traditionally, individual differences have often been
attributed to differences in innate dispositions, that is, talent, but recent
research has asserted the power of training activities.
Platz et al. (2014) have found a corrected correlation of .61 between
amount of task-relevant practice and closely corresponding indicators of
performance. Although there has been some controversy about the
predictive power of training durations in music, the basic result has been
replicated in various domains of expertise (see Ericsson & Poole, 2016, for
details). To date, durations of practice has proven to be the best single long-
term predictor for performance, although some authors have suggested that
working memory, motivation, or even genetic causes may also predict
performance (Hambrick et al., 2014). However, we have to be aware of the
fact that estimates of durations do encompass optimal as well as suboptimal
stretches of time, such that practice bouts include concentrated phases of
work as well as occasional occurrence of irrelevant activities, for example
when a peer comes into the practice room to chat or when the learner
interacts with his or her cell phone. Thus, correlations between accumulated
amounts of time and indicators of performance (e.g., evenness of scale
playing) underestimate the true relation between deliberate practice and
performance.
Aspiring professional pianists and string players in academies and
conservatories might practice between 25 and 30 hours per week with a
daily average of roughly 4 to 5 hours (Jørgensen, 1997). While accumulated
lifetime practice durations are predictive of level of expertise (Ericsson &
Poole, 2016; Ericsson et al., 1993; Sloboda et al., 1996; Jørgensen, 2001),
short-term practice efforts are less predictive of performance of particular
music (Williamon & Valentine, 2000). But even in adult expert pianists,
improvements in basic performance skills such as evenness in scale playing
can be attributed to the accumulation of practice between measurement
points (Jabusch et al., 2009). Note, however, that amounts of general
instrumental practice cannot be used to predict performance, say in sight-
reading or improvisation, for which specialized activities might be relevant,
i.e. accompanying activities or participation in jam sessions, respectively.
Obviously, one could speculate about transfer effects, because general
instrumental skills most likely constrain other component skills such as
sight-reading or improvisation.
Generally, daily practice times increase from childhood through the
formative years and decline as performers become professionals (e.g.,
Hallam et al., 2012). The differences in daily practice times vary greatly
between instruments, with pianists and violinists at the top end and singers
at the lower end (e.g., Jørgensen, 1997; 2002). Children who practice little
or not at all tend to drop out of instrumental study (Hallam, 1998; Sloboda
et al., 1996), whereas future experts start their music training early (e.g.,
Jørgensen, 2001), practice more, and are extremely well supported by their
home environment (McPherson & Davison, 2002; Creech, 2010; see
McPherson, 2016, for several pertinent chapters).
 Studies on practice often take simple measures of practice and do not
differentiate between deliberate practice and, for example, time spent at the
instrument. The reason is that there is no way to accurately assess how
much rigorous deliberate practice goes on, say in a 30-minute practice
session. One would have to undertake a microanalysis of the practice
sessions, as some researchers have done (Chaffin, Imreh, & Crawford,
2002; Nielsen, 1999), to see what musicians are accomplishing. However,
mere practice durations (i.e., time at the instrument) give us only a rough
estimate of the time span during which quality practice, which can
rightfully be termed deliberate practice, may have taken place. As a result,
the true correlation between task-relevant training and performance
outcomes is usually underestimated (Platz et al., 2014). The reliability of
(retrospective) practice estimates has been questioned (e.g., Madsen, 2005),
but diary studies suggest that the biases are systematic and largely
negligible. Thus, although accumulated practice times are predictive of
success in the long term, the quality of the practice is tantamount (see
below).
Here is where the dichotomy between enjoyment and effort emerges.
Deliberate practice is effortful and can therefore only be sustained for
limited amounts of time each day. Using questionnaire data Ericsson et al.
(1993) showed that practice alone and taking lessons was rated as highly
effortful but also highly relevant for improving skills. The inverse relation
(correlation of -.4) between effort and enjoyment in practice activities has
also been found in a survey study (Lehmann, 2002). Here, the highest
concentration and lowest enjoyment was found for the category “trouble
spot practice.” Hyllegard and Bories (2009) have corroborated the previous
results in controlled laboratory studies. Appropriately, in a diary study, Roth
& Sokolowski (2011) found that more proficient instrumental students
engaged in practice even in a non-motivated (so called “volitional”) state
where they had to willingly force themselves to start. Intrinsic motivation to
practice and internal attributions of achievement (ability and effort) were
also related to longer practice durations (e.g., Schatt, 2011).
Educators know that beginners have two separate problems to overcome:
(1) they have to find or apply learned strategies to the problems they
encounter during their practice, and (2) they have to manage their
motivational and volitional resources to support short-term and, even more
important, long-term endurance. Most research (e.g., McPherson, 2005)
agrees that, putting quantity of practice aside for now, self-regulation and
task-appropriate, specific strategies are essential ingredients of effective, i.e.
deliberate practice.

PROCEDURAL PLANNING AND PRACTICE

Planning ahead and reflection on practice, that is, “What we do (in what
order)?” and “Why we do it?” are important considerations for learning.
Several studies have demonstrated that repertory work and technical work
dominate in most practice sessions in the classical tradition, regardless of
age level and level of expertise (e.g., Hallam, 1995; Jørgensen, 1998;
McPherson, 2005), often in a ritualized sequencing of technique followed
by work on repertoire (Duke et al., 1997). Although McPherson argues that
in addition to performing rehearsed music from notation “competent
musicians” must be able to perform from memory, play by ear, sight-read,
and improvise, his research reveals that these activities are either
completely absent or take up but a small part of young instrumentalists’
practice time.
To the novice, an error free and smooth future performance, emerging out
of a concatenation (forward chaining) of motor chunks with expression
added like whipping cream at the end, may be the ultimate goal. Experts,
however, construct a complex performance plan, that is, a mental map of
the piece of music with characteristic landmarks (see Chaffin, Imreh, &
Crawford, 2002; Chaffin et al., 2010). For this, professional musicians start
physical practice on a piece with some kind of general idea (big picture)
about their expressive ideas in mind; those then evolve gradually as practice
unfolds (Chaffin et al., 2003; Nielsen, 2001). Research has illustrated how
performance cues developed during practice are supplemented with cues
that emerge spontaneously during performance (Bangert et al., 2014; 2015;
Ginsborg & Chaffin, 2011), or how an interpretation is re-created in
successive performances (Chaffin et al., 2006).
From our experience and informal observations, far too few students
really plan their daily practice. Planning is an activity where students
apparently have a large potential for improvement, and more research on
practice planning is needed.
 STRATEGIES FOR MOTIVATIONAL PREPARATION AND CONCENTRATION

If practice can be viewed as a slightly aversive occupation at times and

duration at high levels of efficiency is needed, a central question concerns
the motivation to practice. Why do some learners engage in it so much
more in this task than others? Research on motivation can be linked to two
theoretical camps: Behavioral theories and social cognitive theories (Maehr
et al., 2002). In the former the focus is on the external environment and how
we “react to this environment behaviorally in terms of choice, intensity,
persistence, and quality of behavior” (p. 351), while the second approach
centers more on processes within the individual, in particular expectations,
values, interests, our sense of self, the way we attribute success and failure,
and finally the goals and purposes of our actions. The available research
indicates the importance of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in a complex
interplay of impulses and action at all levels of skill (Hallam, 2001; Raijas,
2006). There is also an interaction between the person and the environment,
resulting in a fluctuating motivation (e.g., Harnischmacher, 1997; Pitts et
al., 2000a, 2000b).
Studies of motivation in practice have been theoretically related to task
and ego goals, expectancy/value theory, self-efficacy, and flow theory (see
Hallam, 2009; Hruska, 2011, reviews). The studies are too few for a meta-
analysis, but overall it seems that the relationship between motivational
approach and use of strategies is weak. Individual differences in personality
could also be influential. For example, Miksza (2006) indicated a
relationship between concentration and achievement in practice when he
found that high school brass students with low impulsiveness made better
progress in a practice session than students with high impulsiveness.
Control of impulses is an issue in children with ADHD. We can only
speculate how different students might control frustration and stress in the
practice situation.
Motivation for practice activities is a vast and complicated area to study.
Hallam (2009; Sichivitsa, 2007, for a similar model) presented a helpful
overview including individual and environmental factors that determine
motivation for participating in musical activities, not only for practicing:
enduring individual characteristics; malleable aspects of the personality and
self-concept; goals and aims; cognitive characteristics of the individual;
cognitive processes; and the environment with its family relationships,
peers, teachers, and so forth. In general, studies have concentrated on
practice of melodies or repertoire and not on motivation for other activities
like warming up, playing exercises, and improvisation.
A recent strand of studies has tackled the issue of motivation from the
perspective of psychological needs (Evans, McPherson, & Davidson, 2012)
and self-determination theory (Evans, 2015). The authors posit that
psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy might keep
students motivated to make music or to cease music learning. Evans (2015)
provides a large framework (umbrella or metatheory) to integrate many
studies on motivation by emphasizing the fact that individuals try to align
what they do with a sense of their self and “the universal human propensity
toward psychological health and wellbeing” (p. 66). Although this theory is
a great help in bringing together existing research from different areas, it is
unclear how much it can do to help the design of individual future studies.

REHEARSAL STRATEGIES

When practice starts we can differentiate between physical practice and

mental practice. Mental practice is usually defined as the cognitive and
imaginary rehearsal of a physical skill without overt muscular movement.
Mental practice is not a strategy per se, it is an approach to learning that
relies heavily on internal cognitive processes, and it has to be learned and
practiced as a skill in itself. One initial use of mental strategies is to prepare
music before it is played for the first time, a second is to develop images
(visual, muscular, kinesthetic) that can contribute in the playing phases, and
a third is to memorize the music for performance away from the instrument.
In addition, mental imagery may be used for many other purposes such as
preparing for performance on stage to reduce performance anxiety. Gregg et
al. (2008) observed that musicians employed imagery to limit distractions,
recover from an error, maintain mental toughness, demonstrate confidence,
and overcome mental and physical fatigue. They also used it to see
themselves overcoming a difficult situation.
Unfortunately, the comparison of mental and physical practice leaves us
with inconclusive results (e.g., Coffman, 1990; Highben & Palmer 2004;
Rosenthal et al., 1988; Ross, 1985). This is hardly surprising, given the
varying methodological approaches and settings of the studies. According
to Wöllner and Williamon (2007), our knowledge of the fundamental
psychological and musical characteristics of mental practice is still
incomplete. An important aspect of imagery in musicians’ mental practice
is its potential to activate cortical areas related to motor processing when
thinking about sound (e.g., Kleber et al., 2007). The general
recommendation from the available studies is to combine mental and
physical practice. However, it is pointless to decide one evening after
physically overpracticing to start working mentally. Mental practice itself
requires some training to become a useful tool.
A large survey study on the development of practicing strategies with
pre-college age students was undertaken by Hallam et al. (2012). The
authors were interested in changes in amount of practice, strategies, and
attitudes toward practice. Consistent with the expectations, durations of
practice increased with level of performance (and age), and use of strategies
showed complex reliable effects of level of expertise:
“There were decreasing trends for statements relating to: practising pieces from beginning to
end without stopping; working things out just by looking at the music and not playing; trying to
find out what a piece sounds like before beginning to try to play it; analyzing the structure of a
piece before learning to play it; when making a mistake going back to the beginning and starting
again; making a list of what to practise; and setting targets for each practice session. There were
increasing trends for: identifying difficult sections; practising small sections; doing warm-up
exercises; getting recordings of a piece that is being learned; starting practice with studies;
practising things slowly; knowing when a mistake has been made; when making a mistake,
practising a section slowly; when something was difficult playing it over and over again;
marking things on the part; practising with a metronome; starting practice with scales; recording
practice and listening to the tapes; and thinking about how to interpret the music.” (Hallam et
al., 2012, p. 659)

While the above study and others (cf. Zhukov, 2009; Miksza, Prichard, &
Sorbo, 2012) are mostly done with sub-expert young musicians, other
studies investigate experts. And in fact, this difference is noteworthy since
insights gained from experts cannot always be generalized to sub-expert
contexts (Ericsson, 2014). Expert musicians seem to partition the music in
meaningful parts, based on its formal structure and the complexity of the
technical or musical execution (Chaffin et al., 2002; see above regarding the
big picture in practice). Parts tend to become longer as practice progresses,
but attention to small parts and details may also continue through the whole
practice process. The observations outlined here derive from observing
advanced players
 When a practitioner encounters a piece of music that is complicated and
should be played at a demanding tempo, the usual approach is to play it
slowly and gradually increase speed. Novice players may have to slow
down to the point that the musical context or meaningfulness of a phrase or
a melody vanishes (McPherson & Renwick, 2001), which then is
problematic. Donald (1997), with university piano students, found that
alternating tempo might be the most efficient, while Henley (2001) found
no difference in efficiency between differing tempo strategies with high
school wind players practicing an etude. The “play it slowly” strategy has
been challenged by Drake and Palmer (2000), who observed that slower
performances tended to contain more errors than faster later ones. In their
study of coordination and control in bowing for cellists, Winold et al.
(1994) found that coordinative solutions for slow movements were not the
same as those used for fast movements. This is an issue requiring more
research.
The path from first encounter with a piece to ultimate performance has
been studied in several instances (e.g., Chaffin et al., 2002; dos Santos et
al., 2012; Lehmann & Ericsson, 1998). The musician tries to safeguard the
performance against unexpected problems by overlearning the music,
selecting possible entry points in case of memory lapses, engaging in
extended retrieval practice along performance cues, and running practice
performances for friends and family. The actual practice differs, depending
on the complexity of the music, the amount of material (e.g., one piece of
music or a whole concert program), the time span available, the
performance condition (for instance, play from memory or not), and several
other factors.
Since medical problems of professional players, music students, and
students in music schools are well documented (e.g., Arnason et al., 2014;
Lonsdale et al., 2016; Nawrocka et al., 2014; Ranelli et al., 2011) teaching
students how to prevent playing-related injuries is important (Redmond &
Tiernan, 2001). This has resulted in several efforts in music education
institutions in different countries to teach students to prevent injury because
of overuse or misuse of the body (e.g., Ioannou & Altenmuller, 2015;
Laursen & Chesky, 2014; Lopez & Martinez, 2013; Panebianco-Warrens et
al., 2015; Spahn et al., 2014). Resting between practice sessions is not only
important for those who practice several times a day. The few studies that
have addressed rest and music practice have indicated that music
memorized at the beginning of a period with waking activity is retained less
well than practice and memorization right before sleep (e.g., Allen, 2012;
Simmons & Duke, 2006; Simmons, 2012). The reason why sleep and rest
are important is that during this time neural reorganization (consolidation)
takes place (Walker & Stickgold, 2008).

SELF-MONITORING AND EVALUATION STRATEGIES

Most learning theories accept that knowledge of results is necessary for

learning. Without feedback through oneself or a teacher there is no means
of improving. This finding has been well established in educational
psychology. But feedback immediately after a practice session is rare. In
their video study of three beginners, Pitts et al. (2000a) observed that
practice sessions ended rather haphazardly with no reflection on progress
and planning. That this behavior is not restricted to beginners was
demonstrated by Jørgensen (1998), who found that only 21% of
conservatory students “always” made plans after a practice session and that
50% “seldom” or “never” made plans. There is obviously need for
improvement in this area.
To be able to evaluate a performance the practitioner must have an idea
(mental representation) of a goal and must be able to internally represent
her current performance in reference to the goal (Lehmann, 1997). The
player may develop this goal representation by studying the score and
playing the music. An alternative is to have a live or recorded aural model
with which to make comparisons. Several studies have confirmed that
models are potentially helpful for practitioners at many levels (e.g., Cash et
al., 2014; Henley, 2001; Hewitt, 2001; Lisboa et al., 2005; Varvarigou &
Green, 2015). “Play along” models can also be used (e.g., in jazz), but
studies comparing practice with and without external models come to
inconsistent conclusions (e.g., Linklater, 1997; Puopolo, 1971). Differences
in research design and participants may partly account for this
inconsistency. Furthermore, it is unclear how the “play along” models are
used. The crucial question is how well musicians are able to imitate what
they hear from the model. For instance, Yarbrough et al. (1993) found that
novice pianists could perceive the dynamics and articulation of a piece and
that they could successfully imitate the model’s articulation but less so the
dynamics. Woody (1999) found that university pianists differed in their
ability to identify expressive features in the model and that only those
features that were correctly verbally identified by the performers were
subsequently also imitated. This means that goal representations have to be
deliberately constructed.
The prevailing situation is that performances are evaluated without the
aid of an external aural reference. Several studies have indicated that
students have difficulties self-evaluating (e.g., Bergee, 1993). Daniel (2001)
found that university students’ self-evaluation improved when they
observed a video-recording of their performance as part of the study.
However, few students seem to use video or audio recordings as a regular
means for evaluation.
Whatever the approach to practice, the fundamental challenge is to detect
and correct “errors.” Studies of beginners tell us that a majority may ignore
errors and play on (Hallam, 1997), while the rest of them either stop and
correct every single wrong note or repeat a small part, perhaps half a bar
(Pitts et al., 2000a; 2000b). Generally, pitch errors are noticed while
rhythmic inaccuracies often go unnoticed among beginners (McPherson &
Renwick, 2001). Drake and Palmer (2000) observed that pause errors (like
hesitations in speech) were the dominant type of errors among beginners,
followed by duration and pitch. Among the more skilled pianist there were
few errors, with pitch errors the most frequent ones. The question what
exactly constitutes an error and how instrumentalists should deal with it
might need more research. Students need more functional strategies than the
girl in the study by Pitts et al. (2000b, p. 60) who said: “I stop and say
‘sorry’ and then continue.”
Self-regulation is central for successful and independent learning and has
stirred much interest in recent years (see McPherson & Zimmerman, 2002;
Varela, Abrami, & Upitis, 2016, for reviews). From her observational
studies Nielsen (2001) developed a cyclical model of self-regulation; here,
participating organ players went from (1) recognition of a problem to (2)
the use of strategies, then to (3) self-evaluation, and finally to (4) associated
actions. Self-regulation theorists emphasize the necessity of meta-cognition,
which is “one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes and
products” and “the active monitoring and consequent regulation and
orchestration of these processes” (Flavell, 1976, p. 232). The prerequisite
here is that the practitioner must possess knowledge about practice
strategies. Many of the studies already cited found differences between
beginners, novices, and experts in the number of strategies applied. The
only strategies that seem to be present on all levels are repetition and slow
practice. Research shows that one of the most central elements in deliberate
practice, the ability to develop goals for practice activities, is lacking or
vague in the practice of many students (e.g., Pitts et al., 2000a; Oare, 2012).
Even at the same level of skill there seem to exist different types of
practicers, and a broader knowledge of practice techniques seems to be
associated with superior improvements (Rohwer & Polk, 2006). The
tendency is that the more accomplished musicians use the most efficient
strategies.

TEACHING HOW TO PRACTICE EFFECTIVELY

When Barry and McArthur (1994) asked instrumental teachers of children

and young people if they included specific instruction on how to practice,
84% answered that they “always” or “often” did. However, 40% of students
who entered a conservatory reported that their former teachers had put
“very little” or “no” emphasis on practice behavior (Jørgensen, 2000). The
challenge for teachers is to address practice behavior in a manner that
actually influences the students’ actions (e.g., Burwell & Shipton, 2013;
Jørgensen, 2015; Miksza & Tan, 2015). Practice behavior must be taught
and learned; it does not evolve without support and knowledge. This is
especially important for beginners and novices, since older students also
learn from reflecting on their own practicing as well as from peers and
teachers they encounter in master classes and seminars (Jørgensen, 1998).
While one would hope that they apply this knowledge to their practice,
there exists an unfortunate gap between “knowing” and subsequent
“intelligent doing” (Byo & Cassidy, 2008; Lisboa, 2008).
However, modeling has important consequences in the master-apprentice
system: Koopman et al. (2007; also Barry, 2007) illustrated that there is
coherence between the way the teacher structured the lessons and the way
the student structured his practice. For instance, when the structure of the
lesson was fashioned without planning by the repertoire the student was
working on, with the student playing the piece and the teacher commenting
on it, a similarly reactive approach was observed during practice sessions;
when the teachers combined work on specific pieces with supportive
exercises and skill-building over several lessons and gave clear instructions
for practice, the students practiced specific skills more selectively,
following the sequenced approach modeled during the lessons! Studies of
how instrumental practice strategies change as expertise increases have
illustrated interesting differences between beginners, novice, and expert
instrumentalists (e.g., Hallam et al., 2012; McPherson, 2005). To change
ineffective and unproductive practice habits and strategies and help students
to build up an operational body of practice strategies is a challenge all
teachers must meet if they want their students to progress. Practicing must
be regarded as a subject matter to be taught.

APPLICATIONS

What Teachers Can Do

• Talk about practice with the student and create awareness for effortful
deliberate practice. Start an ongoing discussion about practice habits
and address problems of motivation openly. Everyone has trouble
finding solutions, working up endurance, and coping with drawbacks.
• Be aware of the students’ individuality. What works for one student
may not work for others. Devote some time to honestly trying out new
approaches with the student and discourage useless ones. Point out
those strategies that experts use, but do not simply impose what you
do yourself onto the student.
• Try to find out what goes on outside the lesson. Ask students to
regularly record their practice and take time to listen to a sample of
the practice tapes. You might discover things that need improvement
or aspects that can be further encouraged. Enlisting the parents in this
effort may be useful with younger students.
• Teach practice strategies and habits, and make it a central part of skill
building. Many teachers have trouble remembering their own musical
development, especially when it was early and things came easily.
Therefore, they have difficulties empathizing with student who have
problems.
What Learners Can Do
• Learners need to possess a repertory of well-defined practice
strategies (i.e., “When I encounter this problem, I do that”). They
need to ask if the strategy is broad and flexible enough for specific
practice tasks. For example, do they have specific mental practice
routines or memorizing strategies? If not, they should seek a teachers’
advice. Sometimes a friend’s teacher might have an excellent idea that
one’s own teacher hasn’t thought of, so sharing ideas with others can
also be useful.
• Learners should approach practice consciously, and it should be
planned. They should be aware of their short-, middle-, and long-term
goals and document those. A diary helps keep track of those plans and
emerging problems, and it allows an objective monitoring and regular
revisiting of practice (e.g., quantity, regularity, strategies,
accompanying thoughts).
• Learners should develop a list of expressive and technical tasks that
they address systematically in each practice session. For example,
they should establish their weaknesses and isolate them in exercises
that might help them to improve in the long run (e.g., start sight-
reading a few minutes each time with specialized material).
• Learners should develop their ability to evaluate or monitor what they
do. This can be done by systematically recording playing and
listening to the recording or listening critically to it with a friend or
teacher. Problems should be addressed in the next practice session. It
may be useful for learners to form practice partnerships with a friend
(e.g., practicing together once a week for an hour).
• Learners should be as specific as possible when practicing. What
exactly does the learner want to accomplish at the moment or during
the practice session? When trouble spots are practiced, a good
diagnosis may be half the cure: What’s wrong and how do I fix it?
Simple repetition without a clear goal follows the “principle of hope”
(Mantel, 2001) but cannot be termed practice.
• Learners should start to think of practice as a broader concept that
does not solely consist of motor practice but includes a multitude of
tasks. Spending time on specific exercises, listening to a recording (of
oneself or a professional), or simply documenting and planning
practice are as useful as actually practicing a difficult section.
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

• What is the relation between quantity and quality of practice, and

when is quantity predictive of superior performance?
• In what respect do beginners and experts differ from each other when
it comes to practicing?
• Why is the “one-practice-method-fits-all” approach not appropriate
for students?
• What aspects of practice are motivating and which ones are not?
Discuss the reasons.

KEY SOURCES

Hallam, S., Rinta, T., Varvarigou, M., Creech, A., Papageorgi, I., Gomes, T., & Lanipekun, J. (2012).
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Jørgensen, H. (2004). Strategies for individual practice. In A. Williamon (ed.), Musical excellence.
Strategies and techniques to enhance performance (pp. 85–103). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McPherson, G. E., Davidson, J. W., & Faulkner, R. (2012). Music in our lives: Rethinking musical
ability, development and identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Varela, W., Abrami, P. C., & Upitis, R. (2016). Self-regulation and music learning: A systematic
review. Psychology of Music, 44, 55–74.

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 CHAPTER 10

THE CHANGING FACE OF

INDIVIDUAL INSTRUMENTAL
TUITION: VALUE, PURPOSE, AND
POTENTIAL

ANDREA CREECH AND HELENA GAUNT

One-to-one tuition is established as a continuing core activity in Western

classical instrumental learning. Although learning in groups has become
more prevalent, for example whole class introduction to playing instruments
through the UK Government Wider Opportunities Programme for primary
aged children (Rogers & Hallam, 2010), or student-led learning modeled on
informal rock band development (Green, 2008), children often begin formal
engagement with one-to-one learning at an early age. At the same time,
within our current social demographic context it is likely that increasing
numbers of adults over the age of 50 will engage with leisure and learning
(McCormick, McDowell, & Harris, 2009), including learning musical
instruments on a one-to-one basis. Indeed, there is a growing body of
evidence that instrumental music-making can provide a source of enjoyment,
personal development, and empowerment for older people (Creech, Hallam,
Varvarigou, & McQueen, 2014). Thus, engagement with one-to-one tuition
potentially forms a significant corpus of experience for those engaged with
instrumental playing, across the life span.
One might expect that advances in our understanding of effective learning
and teaching, changing patterns of engagement with music, growing cultural
diversity, and change relating to globalization and technology would all
potentially impact on perceptions of the value and purpose of individual
instrumental teaching. However, this chapter will highlight some research
that would suggest individual instrumental tuition has actually changed very
little in response to these social influences. We will explore the
characteristics that contribute to making one-to-one tuition an enduring
mode of instrumental tuition. We will also consider the implications for one-
to-one tuition of changes within the professional music world, as well as the
influence of changing concepts of teaching and learning, more generally.
The chapter will conclude with some suggestions for maximizing the
potential for transformational learning, over and above transmission of
instrumental and musical skills, within the context of individual instrumental
instruction.

THE CONTEXT OF INDIVIDUAL TUITION

Although the last decades have seen considerable change in many contexts
in the structuring of instrumental tuition, for example mixing individual and
group tuition, individual tuition remains a relatively undertheorized area and
has most commonly been characterized by anecdote and “deeply held
convictions about the purposes, benefits, and substance of private music
study” (Duke, Flowers, & Wolfe, 1997, p. 51). Many questions have only
recently been formally addressed by, for example, those in a position to
influence conservatoire curricula (AEC, 2009): how can it best be
conceptualized, what skills does it stimulate, how do students learn through
it, how does it relate to other contexts of learning, what may be unique to it,
what are its limitations, what particular skills are required of teachers in this
context?

KEY ISSUES RELATING TO THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF INDIVIDUAL

TUITION

Strengths
Existing studies of one-to-one tuition have demonstrated that there are some
tensions between its potential benefits and difficulties, and at times
contradictions between teachers’ and students’ aspirations for tuition and
what actually occurs in practice (see Hallam and Bautista, chapter 8).
Several studies investigating the benefits of individual tuition have
emphasized significant dimensions of personalized learning, continuity
achieved through a sustained relationship over time, and the intensity of
close personal interaction (Barrett & Gromko, 2007; Burt & Mills, 2006;
Gholson, 1998; Heikinheimo, 2009; Presland, 2005; Purser, 2005). In a UK
study of student and teacher perceptions in a conservatoire, students referred
to the individual nature of the relationship and the enjoyment of personal
rapport:
Student: I feel it is very individual because every student is different, and the teacher has to
respond to that individual, so I feel treated as an individual and that makes me feel very special.
And there is no such thing as a prototype or model that you can impose on every student (Gaunt,
2011)

Findings from these studies suggested that teachers and students were
generally deeply committed to the one-to-one learning context and
considered that it allowed scope for the transmission of detailed content in
terms of technical expertise, musical knowledge, and approach to the
interpretation of repertoire.

Potential Difficulties
Some studies have also begun to identify problematic characteristics in one-
to-one tuition. A seminal paper by Persson (1996) identified a lack of
progressive teaching approach in a case study of a conservatoire teacher. In
this he clearly articulated a common occurrence: an instrumental teacher
being a high-level performer but having experienced little or no development
work as a teacher. Mills (2004, p. 245) found that instrumental teachers in a
UK conservatoire perceived themselves as committed teachers, but as
“accomplished novices” rather than “answer-filled experts.” While this
highlighted an impressive desire to continue learning as teachers, it also
contrasted with the perception of their professional expertise as performers,
and acknowledged the lack of systematic professional development as
teachers. In response to such issues, researchers have identified the need for
“pedagogical scholarship” that makes visible and transparent the actual
practices and relational issues that are important to student learning in the
context of instrumental teaching and learning (Carey, Grant, McWilliam, &
Taylor, 2013, p. 152). Duke and Byo (chapter 11) develop this theme,
providing a detailed analysis of pedagogical scholarship with musicianship
as a core principle.
Issues Arising from the One-to-One Relationship
Several researchers have focused on potential difficulties arising specifically
from the one-to-one interpersonal relationship. A critical feature analyzed in
several studies has been the balance of participation between students and
teachers in individual tuition. Young, Burwell, and Pickup (2003) analyzed
video recordings of nine instrumental teachers teaching three individual
lessons each in a university in the United Kingdom, charting proportions of
verbal interaction between teacher and student. They found low proportions
of student talk or students asking questions and high proportions of teacher
talk devoted to technical commands. Where teachers did ask questions these
were often interpreted as rhetorical, representing an alternative form of
instructions or seeking agreement from students rather than promoting
critical thinking. This pattern of interaction was similar to that found by
Schmidt (1989) and Hepler (1986) in the United States.
In a similar vein, Burwell (2005) analyzed the dialogue from 67 individual
lessons involving a total of 19 teachers. Here, she reported that questioning
strategies typically did not stimulate students’ creativity, exploration, and
skills as mature and independent learners. In a qualitative study exploring
the perceptions of 20 teachers in a conservatoire and 20 of their students
about one-to-one tuition, Gaunt (2008, 2010) found that while teachers
might have aspired to supporting students taking responsibility for learning,
in practice students demonstrated rather little responsibility around planning
their own personal and professional development. The question of how to
nurture autonomous approaches to learning within instrumental lessons has
been persistent. McPhail (2013), for example, highlighted the particular
significance of “self-monitoring, strategizing, and taking responsibility for
and ownership of the learning process” (p.162) for instrumental learners.
With a view to enhancing these self-directed competencies within
instrumental lessons, McPhail argues in favour of the application of
classroom-based principles of informal learning. Using a case-study action
research example McPhail demonstrates how student autonomy may be
promoted via a discourse that includes, for example: “learning by ear,
student choice of repertoire, flexibility with sequence, pacing, and goals” (p.
168).
Research has also begun to explore the nature of the relationship itself and
its impact on learning. Maidlow (1998) reported that instrumental students in
the United Kingdom portrayed their teachers as highly influential,
supportive, and much admired. Several studies have focused on aspects of
personality types and how their interaction may impact on learning
(Donovan, 1994; Hepler, 1986; Schmidt, 1989). Schmidt analyzed the
relationship between personality traits and teacher behaviors, and found that
personality traits were significantly related to approvals, rate of
reinforcement, teacher modeling or performing, and pace in a lesson, but
were not significantly related to disapproval, teacher amount of talk, or
questioning strategies.
Irrespective of pupil attainment levels, relationships with teachers have
been found to have a significant impact on outcomes for instrumental
learners and their teachers working together in one-to-one contexts (Creech
& Hallam, 2009, 2010). Creech (2009), who researched the contribution of
interpersonal interaction to teaching and learning outcomes (encompassing
attainment measured by examination grade, as well as measures of self-
efficacy, satisfaction, enjoyment, motivation, and self-esteem), among 263
UK violin teachers and their pupils aged 8–18, proposed a model of six
overarching interaction types found among the learners, their teachers, and
their parents. The teachers in this study represented several teaching
methods and had teaching experience ranging from one year to over 30
years; 50% had over 15 years of experience. While no single type of
interaction consistently produced the best outcomes for teachers, pupils, and
parents alike, overall the most effective teaching and learning outcomes were
found among those classified as “harmonious trios,” representing a parent-
professional-child partnership characterized by reciprocal communication
and mutual respect among all three participants. Psychological remoteness
within pupil-teacher relationships was found to have a detrimental effect on
learning, while mutual respect, common purpose, and the establishment of
child-centered rather than teacher-centered goals were associated with
positive outcomes. There was some evidence that where pupils had some
influence over setting objectives, this had a small but positive impact on
musical attainment. This supports the view that in constructive and
productive one-to-one learning partnerships the pupil benefits from being
allowed an active voice. Interpersonal interaction influenced outcomes for
teachers as well. Teachers with the highest professional satisfaction
demonstrated responsive leadership, combining authoritative guidance with
responsiveness to individual pupil needs and circumstances.
 Abeles (1975) identified what he termed the “halo” effect: the tendency
for students to idealize teachers, exaggerate the gap between themselves and
their teachers, and be unable to be discriminating of their teacher’s abilities
even as a performer. This was corroborated by Gaunt (2010), who found that
students in a conservatoire context tended to be in awe of their current
teachers but much more critical of previous teachers. They were often most
comfortable in a position where the teacher was idealized, and where they
largely adopted the opinions and attitudes of the teacher. Furthermore, the
study also indicated that students’ motivation to “do the right thing” in
relation to the teacher could be amplified by the teacher being involved as a
member of formal assessment panels for the student, or being in a position to
offer the student professional work and help build up useful professional
contacts. In both these studies, however, it was clear that the dynamics of
power in the relationship between the student and teacher, while having
extensive impact, largely remained tacit.

APPRENTICESHIP AND MENTORING—SHIFTING CONCEPTS OF INDIVIDUAL

TUITION?

Traditionally, instrumental tuition has been conceptualized predominantly in

terms of the master-apprentice model. Hallam (1998) proposed a series of
possible models of one-to-one teaching, developed from Pratt (1992):
engineering (delivering content); apprenticeship (modeling ways of being);
developmental (cultivating the intellect); nurturing (facilitating personal
agency); social reform (seeking a better society). She suggested that these
models moved from the most teacher-dominated (engineering) through to
the most student-centered (nurturing), and that apprenticeship most clearly
reflected the practices of instrumental teaching.
Apprenticeship, premised fundamentally on the acquisition of practical
skills, was analyzed across a range of professional disciplines by Schön
(1987). He observed and characterized the reflective practice of a musical
master class in terms of reflection-in-action (responding in the moment to
the experience of playing) and reflection-on-action (adjusting response in
relation to feedback, memory, modeling, etc.). This conception foregrounded
reflective practice as a short-term cycle, concentrating attention on the
immediate context of the particular music being played and specific
instrumental points of technique. It was less concerned with a longer term
cycle of learning, including factors such as motivation, creativity, goal
setting, contextual integration, and evaluation of development. These longer
term issues, however, inevitably have a major impact on individual tuition,
where interest must be first captured and then sustained through extensive
periods of training and self-regulated practice.
Kennell (2002, p. 252) compared apprenticeship in the one-to-one
instrumental lesson to a crucible, “a durable vessel with finite dimensions”
within which the teacher and student voyage. While the apprenticeship
model continues to prevail in one-to-one tuition, the artifacts that occupy the
“crucible” and characterize the master-apprentice model undergo continual
subtle change. Thus, alternative discourses are beginning to challenge this
model with descriptors of one-to-one instrumental lessons, including terms
such as friendly, curious, and collaborative (Gaunt, 2008).
In an observational study of the teaching practice at the University of
Cincinnati of an expert violinist, Dorothy Delay, Gholson (1998)
characterized the interactions in lessons as conversational rather than
didactic, and made turn-taking in lessons the unit of data for her
observational analysis. She then theorized the relationship not as
apprenticeship, but in terms of a more holistic proximal positioning and a
mentoring approach. She identified five thematic threads that contributed to
the efficacy of the interactions: high levels of functioning in both teacher and
student; reciprocity through mutual feedback; developmental cycles; a
protective and nurturing context; and the benefit of the relationship to both
participants. More recently, the idea of conversational turn-taking as a
framework for learning and performing within instrumental lessons has been
explored by Ivaldi (2014). In a study involving a detailed conversation
analysis of 18 undergraduate instrumental lessons, Ivaldi (2014, p. 215)
demonstrated how “students ‘do’ playing, learning and understanding, and
how teachers ‘do’ demonstrating, assessing and instructing” through a
multimodal and “complex interplay between talk, visual demonstration, and
the physical space of the lesson.” These studies have been seminal in
emphasizing the reciprocity of the teacher-student relationship, and the
significance of learning happening through interaction, relationship and with
mutual feedback. This conception appears to fit with what has been
perceived as comprising the potential benefits of individual tuition in more
recent studies. It indicates a holistic approach underpinned by dimensions of
mentoring as well as transmission or instruction. Mentoring itself has rapidly
gained currency in fields of education, business, and health care, both
conceptually and in practice. Definitions of mentoring, and its distinction
from coaching, counseling, and advising, vary. Indeed, human interactions
often combine elements of the different processes (Garvey, Stokes, &
Megginson, 2009). However, in this context mentoring may best be
understood in terms of evolutionary (Brockbank & McGill, 2009) or
developmental mentoring (Megginson & Clutterbuck, 200). Essential to this
concept is that mentoring considers individuals in a broad context,
recognizing the interdependence of personal and professional development.
Its aim may be described as to “assist the learner to integrate as a fully
functioning person within the society they inhabit” (Garvey et al., 2009, p.
21). Key dimensions of mentoring are that mentors help mentees to make
their own decisions by fostering and encouraging independence; mentors
help to remove fear of failure by building confidence; and mentors prioritize
creating an environment of trust, commitment, and active involvement
between mentor and mentee. Furthermore, specific qualities of mentors
include credibility and experience in the particular field, ability to let go of
one’s own ego, ability to be self-reflective and self-aware, a wide repertoire
of language skills in order to frame appropriate questions, being open and
nonjudgmental, empathy, and listening skills (Renshaw, 2009, p. 66).
Interactions are characterized by layers of dialogue (Megginson &
Clutterbuck, 2009) moving fluidly between social exchange, honing of
specialist craft and musical skills, transformative collaborative exploration
of artistry, development of self-insight and professional direction, strategic
career planning, and integrative development of personal and professional
identity.
Distinctions between didactic aspects of apprenticeship and mentoring
may be particularly significant to contemporary contexts, in that they
emphasize the contrast between more immediate local craft concerns and the
bigger picture of artistic, personal, and professional identity and its
development. This contrast has been theorized by Swinkin (2015) who
discusses the potential for one-to-one instrumental lessons to be experienced
as deeply experiential and embodied aesthetic encounters, as opposed to
merely utilitarian. From this perspective, an aesthetic experience requires
that “most if not all musical skills and aesthetic sensibilities are addressed on
two simultaneous levels—a conscious, discursive level in which these issues
are openly addressed (by activities and discussion) and a more subliminal,
non-conceptual level in which they are exemplified by the teacher and
experienced firsthand by the student” (p. 203). As the contexts in which an
individual may be engaging as a musician are becoming increasingly
diverse, this broader framework of engaging with an individual’s
development in an experiential, holistic, and unified manner is growing in
importance.

THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL CHANGE ON ONE-TO-ONE INSTRUMENTAL

PEDAGOGY

In the last decades, the creative and cultural industries have seen
unprecedented change in how people create, perform, and listen to music
(Clayton, 2009; Kenyon, 2012; Leadbeater, 2009). This is bringing more and
more opportunities in terms of how people engage with playing instruments.
At the professional level, the most reliable feature of instrumentalists’
careers is now often their multiple facets and unpredictability (Rogers,
2002). Many will combine several types of musical activity, and may spend
considerable time inventing new ways to create and present music. The wide
proliferation of popular music has had an impact on the patterns of
engagement with music and has influenced the choices learners make in
relation to which instruments and music they wish to learn (Hallam &
Creech, 2010). Meanwhile, the concept of lifelong learning has become
widely accepted, and opportunities for learning instruments have increased
across all age groups (Hallam & Creech, 2010).
Research shows that the transition from student to professional life for
performing musicians now demands a broader array of skills than
previously, including flexibility and entrepreneurialism as well as refined
musical skills, personal confidence, and artistic imagination. Musicians must
develop resilience and versatility of this kind (Bennett, 2009; Creech et al.,
2008) in order to survive in a global workplace. Young professional
musicians can increasingly expect to follow a freelance “portfolio career”
requiring a range of transferable skills. Thus, teaching approaches that
incorporate exploration, discovery learning, problem-solving, and reflection
all have an important role to play in supporting the “portfolio musician”
pathway, which requires critical, creative, and self-regulated thinking skills
that can be transferred to a broad range of activities (Brown, 2009).
Increasingly, teachers themselves will be musicians for whom teaching
forms part of a complex patchwork of activity, incorporating performance,
education work, informal music workshops, and community music activities
with diverse learners. Indeed, a survey of the UK Musicians Union total
membership revealed that over 60% of the 30,000 members said that
teaching formed part of their portfolio careers (MU, 2009). These changes
require a reappraisal of what might be considered to be successful learning
outcomes, as well as flexible and versatile pedagogical approaches that meet
the diverse needs of learners.

THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY

Swanwick (2001, p. 33) asks whether, “if anything can bring about cultural
change, for better or for worse, is it advancing technology?” In the context
of one-to-one teaching, students are typically positioned as inheritors of a
cultural tradition that is at times seemingly impervious to technological
advances. However, Swanwick argues that music is not an object to be
transmitted; rather it is always a dynamic contemporary event. From this
perspective, the one-to-one encounter is a forum where technology acts as a
medium of transformative change.
Interpreted broadly, technological innovations that influence the one-to-
one context include developments in instrument design, highly refined
recording technology, and rapidly advancing communication technology.
Himonides and Purves (2010) provide numerous examples of the use of
technology in music education. In relation to the one-to-one context they cite
the VOXed project (Howard et al., 2007) where real-time auditory and
visual feedback of student singers’ behaviors was reported to enhance the
cohesiveness between teacher talk, instructional style, and student singing
behavior. Increasingly, portable equipment is available that can be and is
being used to measure a variety of, for example, vocal and respiratory
functions in a teaching studio, as opposed to in a laboratory environment,
making it easier to integrate the use of such measurement and feedback
seamlessly within the teaching and learning process.
 In addition, one can speculate that the possibilities for instantly sharing
musical performance on a global scale have enormous implications for
transforming musical discourse. Musical scores influenced by the fusion of
musical genres and new compositional strategies may broaden the remit and
scope of the one-to-one lesson. Furthermore, synchronous and asynchronous
web-based interactions among teachers and learners, as well as the use of
digital video to record and review student practice and performance, offer
possibilities for supporting autonomous learning and extending the
boundaries of what might be perceived as technically or musically possible.
Renshaw (2001) argues that effective and innovative use of technology
has the potential to contribute to developing inclusivity in the delivery of
one-to-one teaching in music. Real-time networks and collaborations, in
combination with the models and resources that might be shared via, for
example, sites such as You Tube, contribute to processes of democratization,
widening the accessibility of one-to-one teaching. Renshaw also argues that
effective use of technology, while providing a platform for fusion of musical
genres, may also provide the means for maintaining cultural diversity.
It is curious that in the midst of our technological age, Gaunt (2008)
reported that there was little interest in teaching with technology among her
sample of 20 one-to-one conservatoire teachers in the United Kingdom.
Himonides and Purves (2010) elucidate this point, stating that “not much
conceptual support is offered with regard to using technology in order to
become “better” in music (i.e., to become better musicians).” Indeed, the
potential use of technology in one-to-one teaching is an area where further
research is clearly required, in order that one-to-one teachers and learners
may fully exploit the possibilities. However, it is possible that as
technological advances become embedded in one-to-one teaching and
learning, added value may become attached to face-to-face, live music
teaching contexts. There is a need for research that will contribute to an
understanding of how web-based and face-to-face, one-to-one teaching may
be developed as complementary activities, rather than one attempting to
replicate the other.

CHANGING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

The previous sections of this chapter have outlined the dominant models of
one-to-one teaching in musical contexts, considering the strengths of these
models as well as some problematic aspects. They have also highlighted
some major factors that may influence change in this context. This section
will explore implications for understanding the purpose and effectiveness of
this mode of teaching. Enduring constructions of effective one-to-one
teaching and learning in music will be contrasted with discourses around this
activity that are flexible and responsive to change.
Professional one-to-one instrumental tuition may be conceptualized as
being located within a musical community of practice (Lave & Wenger,
1991) that is concerned with lifelong learning, engagement in musical
heritage, performance artistry, technical skills competency, and career
preparation (Gaunt, 2008). A community of practice, according to Lave and
Wenger, is characterized by its own particular discourses that establish and
reinforce values, cultural traditions, and power relations. Traditionally held
concepts within these discourses may be reinforced or challenged through
alternative discourses. Lave and Wenger view the process of learning as
involving negotiation and renegotiation of meaning between newcomers and
old-timers in the community of practice and conceptualize transformational
learning as one possible outcome of someone’s increasing social
participation and identification within it.
One-to-one instrumental teachers, according to Nerland (2007, pp. 399–
400), typically have close ties with the professional music performance
community and thus “make the lessons an arena for the maintenance of
particular cultural practices” that comprise performance conventions as well
as “rules, standards and expectations related to what it means to be a
teacher.” Thus, one-to-one teachers and learners interact together, and may
both sustain and challenge ideas relating to the purpose, value, and inherent
expectations or aspirations of their joint enterprise.
Although communities of practice are characterized by their own practices
and discourse, their boundaries are permeable. This is a salient point in the
context of twenty-first-century creative and cultural industries, characterized
by diversity and versatility. The boundaries around one-to-one tuition as a
community of practice might be expected to have become thoroughly
malleable and characterized by diverse influences. However, for the most
part this seems not to have been the case. It has been noted that one-to-one
instrumental teachers, who belong to both performing and teaching
communities, may in fact have only peripheral membership within either
context. Gaunt (2008), for example, reported that conservatoire teachers
experienced isolation, few mechanisms of support, and limited opportunities
for professional discussion or development.
There may be several reasons for this. In general, teachers first acquire
professional knowledge that earns them a place within a specialist
community of practice, and they then acquire knowledge of how to teach
(Robson 2006). With reference to the wider educational context of teachers
in the UK post-compulsory sector, Robson noted a discourse of resistance to
teacher training programs, among subject specialists. In this vein, it is
knowledge and expertise in their specific discipline that carries most capital
and provides credibility within the specialist community of practice.
Pedagogical expertise is for many a secondary concern (Robson, 2006), a
point that resonates with Gaunt (2008), who reported a tacit assumption
among conservatoire teachers that because one had been taught in the
conservatoire one could also then teach. It may also be that there is a
perceived opposition between tradition and innovation in musical terms,
which fosters a strong focus in tuition on preserving a tradition, its values
and practices.
Opportunities to transcend these dualities (the subject-specialist as
opposed to pedagogue, or tradition versus innovation) and thus to support
transformational learning within one-to-one tuition may in fact lie in the
concept of the boundary-less, portfolio career, with musicians moving
among multiple communities of practice, able and looking to learn and teach
in different contexts and to make connections between them. Creative
partnerships in the United Kingdom, for example between an international
symphony orchestra, a conservatoire, and an international arts center and
providers of instrumental teaching within primary and secondary schools
(Hallam, Creech, & Shave, 2009) have contributed to this blurring of the
boundaries and changing discourses relating to one-to-one teaching and
learning that reflect both tradition and innovation.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Within a twenty-first-century context, traditional conceptualizations relating

to individual instrumental instruction as apprenticeship may be shifting
toward the notion of learning as being transformative. This is not to say that
skills, knowledge, and musical traditions do not continue to form an integral
part of the learning process. Rather, this corpus of skills and tradition
comprises part of the community of practice where learning is situated. The
difference is one of emphasis; transformative learning suggests a focus on
student reflection, autonomy, and motivated, self-directed learning. This
shift in focus allows scope for students to go beyond reproduction and to be
equipped with skills for creative problem-solving and interpretation. In
addition to the reflective practice and mentoring approaches noted above,
recent research in the area of motivation for self-regulated learning has much
to offer one-to-one teachers and learners, in terms of practical strategies that
can bring about this shift in focus. A model comprising some of these
strategies is proposed at the conclusion of this section.

Maximizing Learning within the One-to-One Context: The Role of

Reflective Practice
Reflective practice has become recognized as a framework for stimulating
ownership of learning, personalized development, and innovation. There are
many possible approaches to supporting this within the context of one-to-one
tuition. Strategies that have been explored in one UK conservatoire, the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, include:

• Students having more than one teacher. This encourages them to

reflect on learning from different perspectives, to be responsible for
planning lesson content and making their own artistic judgments.
• Video recording performances or practicing sessions and using these to
stimulate reflection and collaborative critical evaluation.
• Using a practice diary to document individual work and record
immediate perceptions; this can be used as the basis for peer discussion
or reflection with a teacher.
• Enabling teachers to swap students for one or more lessons, and then
use the experience to reflect together on approaches used and their
experiences as teachers.

Maximizing Learning in the One-to-One Context: The Role of

Mentoring
With a view to maximizing the investment in one-to-one learning,
instrumental teachers could be supported with appropriate professional
development in widening their role to encompass more mentoring
responsibilities. For example, a mentoring development program at the
Guildhall School has brought together a wide range of instrumental and
vocal teachers to explore key qualities of mentors and processes of
mentoring, and to build skills as mentors through engaging with each other
as co-mentors. Outcomes have included stronger understanding of:

• The purpose and value of self-reflection

• The impact of different types of open and closed questions
• The boundaries between mentoring and counseling
• The importance of active listening as a teacher and creating space for a
student voice
• The difference between mentoring and giving advice

How Motivation Research Can Support Self-Directed Learning and

Critical Thinking
A large amount of research during the first decade of the twenty-first century
has been specifically concerned with how to facilitate transformative
learning, where learners develop as autonomous, creative, and critical
thinkers. Much of this research has been carried out within the framework of
motivation theories, investigating the processes by which learners may be
motivated to engage deeply with their learning and to develop sophisticated
self-regulation strategies. Some key messages from this body of research are
highly relevant in the context of one-to-one instrumental or vocal
instruction.
One of the most salient messages is in relation to self-theories students
hold about their ability. In academic contexts researchers have identified
students who hold either entity theories, subscribing to a view of intelligence
as fixed and innate, or incremental theories, where intelligence is believed to
be malleable and teachable. Dweck and Master (2008) report compelling and
consistent evidence characterizing incremental theorists as students who
focus on the processes involved in learning, attach value to effort, and
develop a repertoire of study strategies that they then deploy in appropriate
ways that support their progression. Entity theorists differ, in that their focus
tends to be on sustaining their image as “smart.” They tend not to attach
value to effort, as to do so would be to undermine their theory of themselves
as having native ability. Furthermore, they have little motivation for
developing learning strategies, as these would not seem to be worthwhile
within the framework of fixed ability. In a musical context, despite
overwhelming evidence in favor of incremental theory of musical
development, the discourse of innate talent (an entity theory) continues to be
pervasive (Creech, Papageorgi, & Welch, 2009). The consequences for
learners who are supported in challenging entity theories and formulating,
instead, incremental self-theories, may be far-reaching. Motivation research
would suggest that students who adhere to incremental theories of ability
would be more likely than their entity theorist peers to formulate specific,
proximal (achievable yet challenging) goals, would take ownership of their
learning, would persist more, and would expend greater effort (Zimmerman,
2008).
A further important message from motivation research that has the
potential to enhance one-to-one teaching and learning in music relates to the
concept of performance goals and mastery goals (Fryer & Elliot, 2008).
According to goal theorists students may be oriented toward performance
approach goals, whereby their goal is to compete with and outperform
others, or alternatively mastery approach goals, where the focus would be on
mastering tasks and enhancing one’s own skills and understanding.
Performance and mastery goals are also coupled with “avoidance,” as
opposed to “approach”; performance avoidance goals (the least helpful goal
orientation) translate to threat appraisal, fear of failure, and fear of appearing
to be incompetent, while mastery avoidance goals may underpin evasion of
learning or adopting a perfectionist standard. Empirical evidence
consistently supports the view that mastery approach goals are the most
conducive to deep learning; students with this orientation develop sustained
interest, recover quickly from poor performance, attribute success to effort
and the correct use of learning strategies, take ownership of their own
progression, and demonstrate deep engagement with learning.
Although performance approach goals have been linked with enhanced
performance outcomes in the short term, this goal orientation has also been
found to have a negative effect on intrinsic motivation and has been linked
with surface learning strategies. Some researchers have suggested that
combining mastery approach with some degree of performance approach
goals may produce the most positive outcomes for students, although high
levels of competition have not been found to be beneficial for students in the
long term (Fryer & Elliot, 2008). The implications in a musical context,
where performance goals, both avoidance and approach, often take
precedence over mastery goals, are clear, as is the relationship of mastery
approach goals to an incremental self-theory, noted above. Teachers who
wish to equip their students with the cognitive resources required by truly
autonomous and effective learners can facilitate this process by engaging
with mentoring strategies and reflective practice with a view to supporting a
mastery approach goal orientation. Specific strategies for achieving this are
set out here in a proposed model for supporting transformative learning (fig.
10.1).
Figure 10.1 A theoretical framework for supporting transformational learning.
 CONCLUSIONS

Has the purpose and value of individual instrumental instruction changed?

We would contend that this is the case. Rapid societal change, including
technology, globalization, and economic forces, has impacted on discourses
of effective teaching and learning. While instrumental learning continues to
be situated within a strong cultural heritage with its own conventions, skills
and knowledge, there is a growing awareness that within this domain there is
often a need to push the traditional boundaries. Individual instruction in
instrumental teaching offers the scope for highly personalized learning,
where learners and teachers may together formulate aspirations and
objectives. Indeed, the one-to-one context, at any level, offers the potential
for transformational rather than reproductive learning—learning that equips
the learners with critical, creative, and self-regulatory skills that may be
transferred to other domains.
For the potential of transformational learning to be realized, a shift is
required from the traditional master-apprentice model in instrumental
teaching, toward a more facilitative model where teachers and students
collaborate, reflect, and problem-solve together. Dimensions of mentoring fit
alongside the transmission of core subject knowledge and skills. In the first
instance it is teachers who must be responsible for taking the risk and
engaging with pedagogical approaches that may not resemble the way they
themselves were taught. It must be acknowledged that for instrumental
teachers, for whom teaching forms just one part of a wider portfolio of
activities, the prospect of engaging with new pedagogies may be daunting. It
is known, for example, that opportunities for continuing professional
development (CPD) in this area are sometimes scarce and that, furthermore,
musicians who do access CPD are often self-funded (Creech, 2010). Thus,
teachers require the support of their institutions and professional
organizations if they are to respond effectively to the challenges laid out in
this chapter.
In addition to a shift toward facilitation rather than transmission of
knowledge, one-to-one instruction will benefit from consideration of how
this mode of teaching may be incorporated into a wider repertoire of
teaching approaches. In particular, learning online, learning in groups, and
learning through community music workshop activities offer the potential
for greater inclusivity, broadening of skills, peer learning, and motivation
derived from social interaction (see Webb and Seddon, chapter 13). Figure
10.2 offers a model of how individual instruction might fit in to a wider
range of modes of learning, each contributing to the learner’s developing
musical concept in important and distinct ways.
Thus, while individual instruction remains a valuable context for
personalized learning, the benefits of this mode of learning could be
maximized were it to be embedded within a wider portfolio of creative
activities that more closely reflect the professional experience of the twenty-
first-century portfolio musician teacher.

Figure 10.2 Individual instruction as part of a wider repertoire of modes of learning.

 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

• What contribution can individual tuition uniquely make to musical,

personal, and professional development?
• How can individual tuition be most effectively integrated within wider
contexts of musical learning?
• How might instrumental and vocal teachers respond to twenty-first-
century change, in terms of pedagogical approaches?
• What skills and attributes do teachers and learners need to realize the
potential of individual tuition?

KEY SOURCES

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Hallam, S., & Creech, A. (eds.) (2010). Music education in the 21st Century in the United Kingdom:
Achievements, analysis and aspirations. London: Institute of Education.

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 CHAPTER 11

BUILDING MUSICIANSHIP IN THE

INSTRUMENTAL CLASSROOM

ROBERT A. DUKE AND JAMES L. BYO

A school boy learning physics is a physicist, and it is easier for him to learn
physics by behaving like a physicist than doing something else.
Jerome Bruner (1960)

Our chapter is premised on a generalization of Bruner’s proposition: that a

novice in a beginning instrument class is a musician, and it’s easier for her to
learn music by behaving like a musician than by doing something else. The
challenge for teachers of beginning instrumentalists is to create experiences
in which learners behave like accomplished musicians every day in class.
Each year, many thousands of children all over the world begin formal
music instrument study. Many of their lessons are taught in teachers’ studios,
in homes, and in other environments with one teacher and one student
present, an approach to music instruction that has a long history extending
across time and cultures.
Instrumental music is taught in group settings as well, but the nature of the
teacher and student interactions in group instruction varies widely among
musical traditions. A more recent context for beginning instrument
instruction is the school music classroom, with groups of children all
learning together under the guidance of a teacher who provides direction and
feedback as students play together as an ensemble, in small groups, and
individually. This type of class, which is most common in industrialized
societies with institutional school systems, presents particular challenges for
teachers trying to accommodate the needs of roomfuls of children with
varied experiences who do not all learn in the same ways or at the same
rates.
In this chapter, we focus on this type of classroom instrument study,
devoting special attention to the development of musical expression in
young learners. There are numerous method books and instructional
materials designed to teach the technical aspects of instrument playing. We
will not delve into those resources here. Our purpose instead is to consider
how best to cultivate expressive music-making, focusing attention on
musical communication in children’s first experiences with wind and string
instruments, a topic that has received little attention in the literature to date.
It is undoubtedly the case that there are teachers of beginning classes who
successfully devote time and attention to the expressive aspects of music-
making, though there are virtually no published observational data that
describe the extent to which expressive music-making is addressed in
beginning class instruction. Studies of the teaching of expression in
individual lessons have been undertaken (Laukka, 2004; Lindstrom, Juslin,
Bresin, & Williamon, 2003; West & Rostvall, 2003; Young, Burwell, &
Pickup, 2003) and generally have found that little attention is given to
expressive music-making in the lessons observed. Musical expression (i.e.,
conveying ideas and emotions to listeners) has not been a prominent feature
of most commercially available classroom materials written for beginners,
especially with regard to wind and percussion instruments (Byo, 1988;
Karlsson & Juslin, 2008).
Classes taught by teachers who give consistent attention to musical
expression embody a number of characteristics that are quite different from
classes devoted primarily to the technical demands of instrument playing.
Our goal in this chapter is to describe the essential elements that characterize
instrument classes in which expressive music-making is a prominent
instructional goal—prominent in the minds of teachers and students alike.

WHY CONTINUE?

It would be hard to imagine a music teacher who is not discouraged by the

fact that only a fraction of children who begin instrument study continue
after their first years of instruction and that an even smaller percentage
continue to play throughout their adult lives as avocational lovers of music-
making. A remarkable illustration of the extent of attrition in instrumental
music is provided by data from the Public Education Information
Management System in the state of Texas in the United States. During the
1998–99 academic year, for example, approximately 98,000 sixth-graders
were enrolled in beginning band classes in Texas public schools. By the time
the same students were in twelfth grade, in the 2004–5 academic year, only
14,000 of them were still enrolled in band. Attrition rates in Texas orchestra
and choir classes during the same period were also near 85%. These
numbers are not atypical for instrumental study in public schools across the
United States, unfortunately. Attrition rates in other countries that provide
school class instruction are not well documented.
Children enroll in beginning band or orchestra classes with the hopeful
promise of being able to make music like the musicians who have inspired
them. It’s not the physical skills of instrument performance that attract most
young learners to begin studying an instrument; it’s the music, the sounds
that have the capacity to convey emotion, to excite, to calm, to dazzle, to
move (Campbell, Connell, & Beegle, 2007; Lum & Shehan Campbell,
2007).
There are many reasons why learners may decide to discontinue
participation in activities they have begun, of course (Gouzouasis, Henrey, &
Belliveau, 2008; Hallam, 1998; Hartley & Porter, 2009; Kinney, 2010).
There are other demanding activities that compete for their time; they find
the new activities to be something other than they’d expected; they don’t like
their teacher; they discover that their passions lie elsewhere. But it is also
true that many children who begin learning instruments spend a good deal of
time and effort laboring over basics of instrument playing that are practiced
quite apart from the basics of music-making. It seems a reasonable
conjecture that many of the students who drop out of instrument classes do
so because of the time lag between the beginning of instrumental study (i.e.,
how to play the thing) and the beginning of music-making (i.e., using the
thing to make music).
We present in this chapter a view of instrumental music instruction that
from the outset focuses on the development of high-quality technical skills
and the application of those skills in expressive musicianship. Most
published instrumental methods show children how to hold their
instruments, form embouchures and bow holds, and blow and strike and
bow, but the activities devoted to skill development are often practiced to the
near exclusion of activities devoted to musical expression. Expressive
capacities of young musicians are often held in abeyance far longer than is
necessary, thus making beginning instrument study something other than
beginning music study.

EXPLOITING THE WAYS THAT LEARNERS LEARN

In school, in general, we teachers talk too much—way too much—which is

perhaps unsurprising, given the fact that verbal explanation is widely
understood to be the primary mechanism for teaching. We teach learners by
telling them things and showing them things while we tell them about what
we’re showing them.
What seems greatly undervalued in formal instruction in all disciplines is
strategically creating experiences for learners in which they work through
well-designed challenges in ways that deepen their understanding and skill.
And overcoming challenges is the way that all of us learned to do most
everything we learned before we went to school: we watched, we listened,
we imitated, we experimented, we failed, we got frustrated, we experimented
some more, we explored, we played . . .
We didn’t learn to walk through explanations about weight distribution.
We didn’t learn to speak through explanations about parts of speech and
tense. We didn’t learn to reach, grasp, and bring something to our mouths to
taste or chew through explanations about proprioception and muscle
contraction. We learned all of that through experimentation that was highly
goal-directed and error-ridden. We learned to walk all the while focusing on
wanting to get somewhere. We learned to reach and grasp while focused
almost entirely on getting enticing objects into our mouths. We learned to
speak out of an intense desire to tell someone else what we wanted and what
we thought and how we felt and what we knew.
It is well understood that all of these early learning experiences include
very contingent feedback (i.e., feedback that is consistently dependent on
what we do), and that the feedback shapes the development and refinement
of behavior. More successful locomotion reinforces increasing control and
balance. More successful acquisition of desired objects reinforces the
refinement of motor programs involved in reaching and grasping. And the
responses of those around us, parents especially, reinforce the development
and refinement of language and other pathways of human communication.
But the important point we wish to emphasize in all of these early learning
experiences is the learners’ focus on the goals that the behaviors are
intended to accomplish.
In formal instruction in school, attention to the ultimate goals of learning
is often forestalled with the thought in mind that novices are unable to deal
with the complexities of the skills and ideas they are working to master. So
instead, learners’ attention is directed toward a few aspects of new
experiences that are certainly more immediately accessible and in closer
proximity to the learners’ levels of understanding and skill, but are also
devoid of the context provided by the subjects’ goals.
Educational institutions often rely on the promise that what children are
taught in school will become meaningful, even useful, eventually. But to
teach from this perspective is to ignore well-understood principles of
memory formation and skill development. Effective learning is context-
dependent and goal-driven. And while it’s certainly valuable use of a young
musician’s time to play scales slowly while watching the needle on a tuner to
learn to compensate for the intonation tendencies of her instrument, to do so
without complementary opportunities to play melodies for listeners,
mustering her tone production and intonation skills to convey something
effectively, convincingly, and beautifully, is to distract her from the reasons
for doing what she’s doing.
Fluent native language speakers maintain the grammatical rules of their
culture not because they can explain them, but because their long histories of
hearing their language spoken and seeing their language in printed text has
led to their forming expectations about what looks and sounds “right.” In
fact, when individuals try to apply disembodied rules rather than rely on
what sounds correct according to their listening histories, they often
introduce technical mistakes into their own speech. Self-conscious speakers
who seek to point out “the differences between he and I” are only the most
obvious of these offenders. No natural English speaker who reads a lot and is
in the presence of educated speakers would think to follow a preposition
with the nominative form of personal pronouns, but attempting to “speak
correctly” by applying formal rules (even rules that are misunderstood) is a
far worse strategy than relying on one’s vast history of auditory experience.
There are good reasons to understand parts of speech. But to teach only
the technical aspects of word categories, absent the application of words to
convey ideas, is to mislead the learner about what he’s doing. This way of
teaching often requires the invention of motivators to get children to do
things that seem to them—quite reasonably, we think—to have no point at
all.
Of course, not every aspect of a learning experience can be contextualized
from the start. Some skills, like music instrument playing, involve such
complexity that individual components of the skills must be learned and
practiced in ways that allow learners to focus on developing the physical
strength and coordination necessary to master them. There is no substitute
for this kind of deliberate attention to fundamental skill development. In
order to produce sounds that are pleasing and in tune and rhythmically clear,
all learners must devote considerable time to the nuts and bolts of deliberate
skills practice. But what all these developing skills are for is conveying
musical ideas to listeners. The reason for refining fundamental skills is that
their refinement allows one to make music beautifully, and notes that are out
of tune or rhythmically misplaced or inconsistent or strident make beautiful
music impossible.
The challenge for the teacher is to balance the time and attention devoted
to the development of the physical skills necessary to make pleasing sounds
and the development of the expressive aspects of music-making.
Instrumental technique is often conceived as a prerequisite for effective
music-making, and most would agree that it is. The important question
concerns how much of the “pre-” is required before the music begins. Our
point in this chapter is all about that.
It’s understandable that a teacher trying to convey the fundamentals of
instrument playing to a room full of children may recoil at the suggestion
that something more needs to be added to everyone’s attention. Young
musicians certainly need to learn to adjust their intonation, to begin and end
notes on time, to play a true legato, and to follow bowings that make it
possible to phrase correctly. And it may seem that there is no room in their
thinking to consider anything else. All of us, regardless of the activity and
regardless of our levels of expertise, must devote concerted attention to the
technical details that can get in the way of what we’re trying to accomplish,
be it writing compelling prose or hitting away from outfielders or
performing robotic surgery or singing a beautiful melody. No great musician
became great without a lot of serious practice. But it’s the contextualized
application of the fundamentals and the errors that the contextualization
reveals that provide both direction and rationale for the practice.
All learners come to beginning music instruction with a lifetime of music
experiences, as listeners certainly, but also as analyzers, movers, and singers.
In a very real sense, then, the students of beginning instrumental music
instruction aren’t beginners at all in terms of their histories of experiencing
music; they are, in many important ways, musical, before ever stepping
inside a school or a studio with the intention of learning how to play an
instrument. One key to making formal music instruction optimally effective
is to exploit learners’ extant, intuited knowledge of music’s structure,
function, and expressive capacity. Our prescriptions for music instruction in
class settings are informed by this fact.
One of us was working with a young clarinet player who was struggling to
work out a difficult passage from a new piece and was playing an
incomprehensible version of the rhythm. When asked whether he’d ever
heard music that sounded like that, he answered no. When asked to play the
passage the way he thought music usually goes, the rhythm was immediately
corrected, as he relied on what music sounds like and less on “how many
beats that note gets.”

A VISION OF STUDENTS AS ACCOMPLISHED MUSICIANS

Planning any course of instruction must start with a clear, precise description
of what learners will be like at the end of the learning experience. When
students complete their lessons, finish the class, graduate from the
institution, become independent adults, What will they do? What will they
think? and How will they feel? These questions help focus attention on the
purpose of the time, effort, and energy invested in teaching and learning, and
they serve to remind teachers of what all their efforts and the efforts of their
students are for.
This departs somewhat from the now-well-engrained phraseology of
“what learners should know and be able to do” that permeates curricula and
standards documents (e.g., Consortium of National Arts Education
Associations, 1994). Although our definition of instructional goals may
seem like so much ivory-tower hairsplitting, we believe that the know-and-
be-able-to-do kind of goal setting is fundamentally inadequate, first because
it ignores learners’ attitudes (how learners feel), and second because it
focuses only on what learners are able to do in the future, which is
fundamentally and importantly different from what learners actually do in
the future.
Effective learning experiences extend well beyond merely providing
information or demonstrating the technical elements of skills. Effective
learning experiences increase the capacities of learners to engage in
meaningful behavior and accomplish valued goals. Precisely describing
accomplished learners (i.e., learners who become what teachers, parents, and
institutions intend for them to become) provides a clear, vivid image of what
the instruction is supposed to be about. It allows teachers to articulate what
they intend to accomplish—where they intend for their students to arrive—
before they embark on leading them there.

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF INSTRUMENT PLAYING AND MUSIC PERFORMANCE

Of course, a learner’s capacity to express himself effectively is constrained

by his ability to control the instrument he is playing. And success in playing
an instrument expressively is entirely determined by a mastery of
fundamental skills. There is a reason to play with a consistent, resonant tone,
to play in tune, to articulate clearly: doing so is required to effectively
convey your ideas to listeners through your music. Note that this emphasizes
that the goal is centered on what reaches the ears of listeners. Skilled
instrumentalists’ attention doesn’t stop at their embouchures or at their
fingers or their bow holds or at the ends of their bells. Their attention
extends to the human beings with whom they wish to communicate.
The fundamental skills that an aspiring instrumentalist must learn to
master are surprisingly few in number and very easy for most individuals
(even novices, even very young children) to understand. Expert
musicianship is characterized by the following:
 • Optimally relaxed position of the body and instrument
• Beautiful tone
• Intonation
• Note accuracy
• Rhythmic precision
• Clear articulation
• Dynamic variation
• Expressive inflection

With the exception of tone production and intonation (inextricably bound

together), which require the development of specific musculature and
coordination, none of these skills is especially difficult to learn. What’s
difficult is executing all of them at the same time in the context of music-
making. Musicians who are capable of demonstrating all of these skills on an
instrument can use that instrument to create music that conveys ideas and
emotions to listeners. Weaknesses in any one of the skills listed above are
impediments to successful communication. These skills aren’t the music;
they allow the translation of musical intentions into music.

HABIT FORMATION

The development of human skills in any domain involves increasing the

habit strength among the constellation of behaviors each skill engages. Most
of our behavior throughout the course of our daily lives is not governed by
conscious control but by highly automatized responses to environmental
circumstances. Even though we may consciously intend to “drive to the
office” or “scramble some eggs,” the intellectual and behavioral components
that lead to the realization of those goals are most often not a part of
conscious deliberation.
This raises the question, then, of how to develop such automaticity in the
behavior of novices who are attempting to master a psychomotor skill as
complex as music instrument playing. One understandable strategy is to
“break down” the complex skill into component parts that are easily
manageable by beginners. Doing so is understandable because it’s clear at
the outset that novices are mostly incapable of negotiating all of the many
details of thought and action required to play an instrument. Doing so is
disadvantageous because it often unnecessarily decontextualizes component
skills of music-making, and fluent application of skills is highly context-
dependent.
It is well understood that the creation of sustainable, flexible,
generalizable memories in every domain is facilitated by applying
intellectual and physical skills in a variety of contexts. Although it may seem
paradoxical at first, experiences that involve error and error correction are
more valuable than are experiences that involve only carefully scripted,
highly guided experiences with predictable outcomes.
Forming fluent, flexible habits is advantaged by using what you know and
trying out what you can do in ways that vary from time to time. All
musicians who are efficient practicers know this well. Efficient practice
involves variations in tempo, timing, phrase shape, or inflection. Researchers
who study the encoding, retention, and retrieval of skill memories know this,
too. Variations in practice parameters, even though they tend to create more
error during practice, also lead to more lasting and generalizable procedural
memories.
Thus, the development of skill components that are highly interconnected
requires the deft interleaving of compartmentalized component practice with
instances of application that require the combination of skill components in
authentic tasks that are limited enough in their demands to permit the
successful application of the component skills.

IMPLEMENTATION—CONDITIONS OF EFFECTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES

We turn now to structuring instrumental classes that satisfy the conditions

we’ve described above and that foster the kind of thinking and behavior that
leads to the development of skillful, meaningful, and satisfying music-
making. To illustrate our points, we outline three essential elements of
effective learning experiences: ongoing learner self-evaluation, high-quality
modeling, and a well-sequenced repertoire of melodies. There are other
aspects of classroom instruction that we will not address in this brief chapter,
but the three we explain here are far-reaching, and their absence creates
tremendous impediments to effective music learning.
 SELF-EVALUATION

A central feature of fine musicianship is highly developed auditory

discrimination. Expert musicians listen to the sounds they produce and form
judgments about them that lead to adjustments in their motor behavior in the
present and guide their practice in the future. To become a musician is to
become an astute listener. Classroom instruction, then, must provide guided
practice in listening as much as it provides guided practice in making
sounds.
The goal in each class meeting should not only be to change each
learner’s performance (for the better, of course) but also to change each
learner’s perception of her own performance. If learners must rely on the
teacher to indicate what sounds good and what does not, and what needs to
happen next after every performance trial, then there is little that learners can
do on their own time in individual practice. And individual practice is where
the most progress is likely to be made. This has implications for both
refinement of skill and motivation.
Learning is error correction. And the extent to which learners are
motivated to expend time, effort, and attention is proportional to their
dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs and their confidence in their
ability to change things for the better (self-efficacy). Having students who
will work to earn a positive evaluation from their teacher is certainly helpful
in developing musical skills, but it is ever more valuable when learners
recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and independently formulate
realistic plans to improve.
Most often teachers think of models as examples of quality that are
external to the learner. Consider also that models may include aspects of
performance that the learner can execute beautifully on his own. Even a
rank beginner plays some notes with better tone than others, so within his
own capacity there is a basis for working during practice to make his less-
pleasing sounds more like his more-pleasing sounds, to make his clumsily
executed phrases more like his well-executed phrases. In these instances, the
model isn’t the teacher or a recording of a revered artist; the model is the
learner’s own best work.
For this kind of experience to take place, teachers must conceive of their
classes less like ensemble rehearsals and more like groups of individual
lessons taught all at the same time, in which planning and decision-making
about how to proceed are based as much on the needs of individuals as on
the needs of the group. Improving the skills of individual learners within the
group then builds a collective musicianship.
In this kind of class, individual learners play alone and in small groups in
class every day. This does not mean that every student plays alone every day
(especially when classes are large), but that many students play alone and in
small groups every day. Hearing individuals and small groups creates rich
opportunities for students to obtain feedback from the teacher, from
classmates, and from the sounds of their instruments, feedback that is
necessary if learners are to become increasingly discriminating about tone,
intonation, timing, and expression. The goal is to move novices from a
mindset that assumes that one sound is the same as the next to an awareness
of differences, large and small, among the sounds they produce.
Far from being too time-consuming for the teacher or intimidating for the
students, performances by individuals and small groups can be skillfully
woven into the fabric of class activities to the extent that they are part of the
normal routine. When getting to individuals is strategic, brisk, and
productive, it is invigorating for everyone in the room.

MODELING

The advantage of having an excellent musician for a music teacher is that he

can behave musically in your presence. Right there in the room, standing
next to you. There is no verbal explanation of “resonant tone” or “connected
notes” that will provide for a learner the same amount of information that is
gained from hearing a teacher produce a resonant tone in a legato melody on
an instrument.
We often observe teachers trying desperately to teach by verbal remote
control, from across the room or on the podium, offering incessantly
repeated advice to “take a big breath” and “blow through the horn” and
“firm your corners” and “look at your contact point” and “raise your scroll”
and “LISTEN!”—most often to little good effect. Of course, there is almost
nothing in the repertoire of human skills that is learned through verbal
instructions like this.
Expert teachers behave differently, directing learners’ attention to the
central aspects of the sounds they produce, guiding their listening, their
thinking, and, ultimately, their motor behavior. Through this ongoing
practice in meaningful listening, learners begin to associate the sounds of
their instruments with the physical motions that produce those sounds, all the
while refining motor control in service to achieving intended auditory goals.
Hearing good models from the start allows for advantageous auditory
comparisons. That’s how my teacher sounds. This is how I sound. What’s
the difference? What can I do to sound more like her? Expert teachers who
play along with and in alternation with their students in class every day share
the experience of music-making with their students. Everyone in the room,
including the teacher, is producing tones, shaping phrases, conveying ideas.
In the early stages of instrument study, when learners need a teacher, not a
conductor or a coach, the benefits of the teacher performing on the
instruments students are learning to play makes more vivid to the students
and to the teacher the needs of students at a time when students are in fact
quite needy. The juxtaposition of the teachers’ playing and the students’
playing focuses the attention of everyone involved on the priorities of
beautiful music-making.
There is a vast amount of information in a 4-measure phrase played
beautifully and expressively. The teacher’s goal is to put the picture and
sound into the mind of the learner; that is, to create in the learner mental
images that subsequently function as internal models and auditory goals.
Learners’ efforts are then anchored by and directed toward these
unambiguous and meaningful targets.
Wonderful models provide procedural information that exploit human
capacities for imitation without the necessity of “explaining students” into
new behavior, obviating the need for learners to decipher verbal explanations
about what to do. A musical model gives meaning, context, and elaboration
to the performance task at the point of encoding. Although it is certainly
advantageous at times to draw students’ attention to their arm or their tongue
or their abdomens or the corners of their mouths, it is much more effective,
once they are close to correct positions, to prompt them to experiment with
their musculature to make sounds that resemble those of the teacher.
Consider that most expert musicians often have little idea of what
moment-to-moment adjustments they are making as they play a beautifully
rendered phrase. In fact, it would be quite impossible for a human being to
consciously control each of the invisibly subtle movements necessary to
make all of the tones of a clarinet or trumpet or violin sound as though they
come from the same instrument. Great players learn to do that by listening
carefully to the sounds they create and by quite literally fooling around
(experimenting) to make them sound more like the auditory images they
have in their heads.

WHAT TO PLAY—SEQUENCING LEARNING EXPERIENCES

It takes time, effort, and deliberate attention to master the physical skills
necessary to produce a clear, resonant, beautiful tone on an instrument. And
instruction must begin with developing the physical capacity to produce
good sounds. In these very beginning stages of developing instrumental
technique, the goal is to build the machinery for effective communication.
It is possible to create sequences of experiences that increase the
likelihood that learners will think and behave in ways that approximate the
thinking and behavior of experts. And conversely, of course, it is also
possible to create experiences that make doing so much less likely.
Here we describe ways of sequencing the early experiences of music-
making in the context of wind instrument playing that facilitate the
development of sophisticated musical thought. Although the particulars may
vary with regard to string and percussion playing, the principles we illustrate
below are generally applicable to all class instrument study.

The Production of Sound

Where to begin? Beautiful tone and accurate intonation become priorities for
learners when they are priorities in the minds of teachers. All teachers know
that tone and intonation are important, but many fewer create conditions in
class that inculcate this priority in the minds of learners. This may in part be
a function of available instructional materials and traditions that
(unintentionally) distract from these priorities. Chief among them are the
class method book and the perceived need to move through it quickly, a goal
that seems motivated by the view that pages covered is the measure of
progress.
Beginners come to think of sound quality as a major priority when the
teacher’s focus of attention is directed unwaveringly toward tone production.
Creating this focus is facilitated at the outset when potential distractions are
absent—no books, no music stands at first, just musicians, instruments, and
the sounds they make.
Learners’ first experiences producing sounds might best be reconceived as
first experiences experimenting with sounds. There’s the production part, to
be sure, and there is also the listen-and-decide part, which in turn informs
the production part in an ongoing cycle of discrimination and refinement.
Effective teachers structure experiences in which students make judgments
about their individual tone qualities all the time. And in order for this to
happen, individual students must play alone in class all the time.
These issues have been addressed more often in approaches to string
instrument playing than they have been in methods for winds and
percussion. Methods based on the teaching of Suzuki, Kodàly
(Colourstrings), and Paul Rolland, for example, all prescribe devoting
attention to expressive music-making from the start, though the extent to
which expression is actually a focus of attention at the beginning stages of
instrumental study based on these methods varies (Colprit, 2000; Duke,
1999).
Attention to musical expression is less often a prominent feature of
beginning instruction for winds and percussion. So here we illustrate a
sequence that gets to musical expression in the context of beginning wind
instrument playing. In our approach to beginning winds, tone production
begins with the parts of the instruments that actually create the vibrations
that are the heart of the instruments’ tone, what we call the small pieces:
flute head joint, clarinet mouthpiece and barrel, saxophone mouthpiece and
neck, and brass mouthpieces. Beginning with the small pieces helps promote
a focus on tone and intonation and provides learners with opportunities at the
very beginning to make judgments about the sounds they produce—Higher
or lower? Louder or softer? Rough or smooth? Dark or bright?—without the
challenge of having to hold and balance the entire instrument.
And once the instrument is assembled? In many approaches to
instrumental study, the earliest attempts to produce tones focus on the easiest
notes to play, which has understandable appeal: learners make sound quickly
and are encouraged by their accomplishment in doing so; few students in a
class are frustrated by their inability to make a sound, and thus few require
much individual attention from the teacher.
The disadvantages are perhaps less obvious but are most certainly
consequential. With many wind instruments it is possible to produce a sound
on the easy-to-play first notes while doing many fundamental things
incorrectly or inadequately. It’s possible to produce an open G on the
clarinet, for example, with a poorly formed embouchure and a weak stream
of air. (It is notable that the throat tones of the clarinet are also arguably the
hardest notes to play with a beautiful tone.) As long as learners continue to
perform these easy-to-play notes, and only these notes, it is not only likely
that they will become accustomed to their poor tone as representative of
what a clarinet sounds like, but it is also likely that they will repeatedly
practice and eventually learn physical positions, embouchures, and ways of
breathing that will not be sustainably useful, because they “work” (sort of)
only on the easy-to-play notes. On these easy-to-play notes the instrument
provides little feedback as to the quality of the learners’ execution of the
fundamental skills of playing, because of the many ways available to play
incorrectly and still produce a sound.
Consider instead the advantages of moving students quickly from the
notes on which it’s easiest to produce a sound to the notes that are easiest to
produce a sound with the characteristic tone of the instrument. On most
wind instruments, such notes require considerably more effort and attention
on the part of the learner than do the easy-to-play first notes. Continuing
with the clarinet: to play a chalumeau G requires excellent hand position, a
firmly secure embouchure, a well-positioned tongue, and a fast stream of air.
Absent any one of those variables, and the note simply won’t play. In this
way, the instrument provides vivid feedback about the quality of the
student’s work. Holes not covered, loose embouchure, weak breath, and the
note doesn’t speak. When all of those performance fundamentals are in place
and the note does speak, the tone quality is much more likely to be what one
would consider characteristic of the clarinet than what most beginning
students typically produce when they play open G. When clarinetists are set
up to play primarily long-tube notes in the first months of study, they are
more likely to produce a beautiful tone early in their experience.

From Tones to Melodies

The extent to which young musicians can devote attention to the
communicative aspects of their playing is inversely proportional to the
technical challenges of their repertoire. The more a learner has to think about
to simply get the notes out of the instrument, the less attention is available to
listening to the sounds she’s producing and matching the sounds produced
with her imagined musical intentions.
Once only a few of the characteristic-tone starting notes on an instrument
are reliably produced with a clear, resonant tone, it is time to begin playing
simple melodies, using those notes to play expressively. Even with two
pitches at one’s disposal, it’s possible to create authentic melodies that have
character and style and the potential to communicate to listeners.
One of the great assets of music is the expansive array of musical
repertoire, both within and among cultures. There is no reason to limit the
variety of music that beginners play; they are disadvantaged by doing so.
Beginners can play slow music and fast music and all tempos in between;
they can play music that is sweet, angry, boisterous, playful, and languid.
The development and refinement of skill memories are enhanced by
having frequent opportunities to apply skills in varied contexts. In music this
translates to applying tone production and musical communication skills—
the fundamental skills of instrumental performance—in varied repertoire.
This means that at each stage of technical development and with each
introduction of a new skill or idea (e.g., a new note, a new rhythm gesture),
there should be numerous melodies with which to apply the skills acquired,
making music in a variety of styles—slow music and fast music, duple meter
and compound meter, funny tunes and serious tunes, all with melodies that
are selected or composed expressly to facilitate the development of
productive physical and conceptual habits of music-making. (We have
composed a sequence of approximately 150 such melodies for beginning
wind players. They are available without cost at
http://cml.music.utexas.edu/Habits/HabitsOpener.htm.)

Learning Something New versus Refining What You Know

We find in our analyses of beginning instrumental methods for winds a low
ratio of varied melodic material to newly introduced skills. In other words,
as a learner progresses through a typical introductory method the number of
melodies introduced is relatively close to the number of new notes,
techniques, or ideas. This means that with the introduction of each new
thing, learners have few contexts in which to apply the new thing before the
introduction of the next new thing. This curricular structure conveys to
teachers and students alike that young musicians’ measure of progress is the
number of new things they learn, because almost every page-turn in the
method book means learning a new thing.
An alternative to this approach, which we see as highly advantageous, is
to provide multiple and varied opportunities to apply each new thing in
varied contexts of music-making, an approach in which progress is measured
in terms of the refinement of the skills one already knows. The primary goal
in this approach is not getting to the next new thing; the primary goal is
making the old things (the known things) more beautiful.
The notion of phrasing provides a good example of this approach in
practice. Teachers routinely admonish young wind players to conceive of
phrases as lines of connected notes that form a unified element in a melody;
along with this admonishment is the accompanying instruction to breathe
only at phrase endings so as not to interrupt the flow of music. One way to
facilitate the realization of this conception is to play legato from the outset,
but this is only feasible if the melodies played make it possible to do so.
When beginning melodies are constructed so that the melodic rhythm is
created by pitch changes (i.e., there are no repeated tones within phrases),
then learners can sustain one uninterrupted stream of air throughout a
musical phrase, because the absence of tongued articulation obviates the
interruption of the airstream. (The two- and three-note melodies in fig. 11.1
and 11.2 are all to be played slurred.)
In this way, phrases are in fact single streams of uninterrupted breath, and
playing phrases legato at the beginning requires effective breathing.
Sustaining sound in legato passages creates positive habits that persist when
articulation using the tongue is later introduced. Sustaining the breath is not
something that needs to be remembered while the learner is tonguing
separated notes. Sustaining breath is now a requisite of playing the music.
Playing in a variety of tempos further expands the range of characters that
novices can convey. Young wind players often are confined to a narrow
range of tempos from grave to moderato, and their limits on speed are
defined by the nature of the melodies they attempt to play. Melodies with
arpeggiated passages, for example, are difficult because of challenges of
fingering. Melodies with repeated alternations between adjacent tones,
conversely, are easy to play fast. The inclusion of the full range of tempos in
the beginner’s repertoire is purposeful as it increases the emotional variety
that even novices are capable of conveying through their music (see fig.
11.2).
Figure 11.1 From the B-flat Clarinet book of The Habits of Musicianship (Duke & Byo, 2009).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert A. Duke and James L. Byo. Used with permission.
 Figure 11.2 From the B-flat Clarinet book of The Habits of Musicianship (Duke & Byo, 2009).
Copyright © 2009 by Robert A. Duke and James L. Byo. Used with permission.

Fast, even, and nimble movements develop when learners play simple
melodies that employ rapid alternations between adjacent tones. In these
melodies, playing fast does not require tedious practice, and the
requirements of the music induce learners to play with correct hand position
and finger technique, because at a fast tempo it is not possible to play with
poor position and tense muscles.
Note also that varying tempos creates contextualized musical goals for
learners: making a melody called “Triumphal March” sound like it could
move people, making “Whistling Song” sound brilliant, “Brushing My
Teeth” vigorous, “What’s a Lilt” lilting, and “Pet the Kitty” gentle. The
musical goals serve as motivators. Why do I need to practice this melody?
Because I can’t yet play fast enough to achieve the musical goal. Why do I
like practicing this melody? Because there is something uplifting about
allegro. To increase one’s ability to play allegro, current limits must be
challenged. The fingers must move faster than they are comfortably moving
at the moment. Same for the tongue. During acquisition, note errors and
unevenness will occur. But exposed errors can be corrected, oftentimes self-
corrected, especially when the musical goal drives the effort.
When the goal is in effect to create meaning through sound, because
there’s a message or mood to express to a real or imagined audience, the
elements of music and techniques of expression come alive. There are
important reasons for learners to project their sounds and not breathe in the
middle of phrases. They become eager to play a convincing legato in a
lyrical melody and an energetic marcato in a march. As they experiment and
make decisions about expressive inflections in timing and volume, their
attention is focused on the interpretive signals inherent in the construction of
melodies that indicate how the music goes. As they are given daily
opportunities to thoughtfully consider the message-conveying options at
their disposal, learners become increasingly more independent in their ability
to create meaning in music.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

We began with a quote from Jerome Bruner, who in the 1960s challenged
science teachers to close the gap between the thinking and behavior of
experts and the thinking and behavior of novices. Bruner recognized the
inherent inefficiency in teaching temporary ways of thinking that are
designed with the best of intentions to help novices navigate the
complexities of new subject matter, but that ultimately unnecessarily keep
learners from experiencing the essential qualities of the discipline.
We have not outlined every aspect of instrumental instruction that works
to bridge the distance between expert and novice, of course, but we have
attempted to illustrate how an approach to teaching that begins with a focus
on the goals of music-making can instill in learners a way of thinking and
behaving that very much resembles the thinking and behavior of expert
musicians. If the intent of music instruction is to create lifelong participants
in music-making, then realizing the potential of musical communication
should be an ongoing part of every learners’ experiences from the very start.
The goal of affecting other human beings through one’s own music-making
is a tremendously gratifying reward, one that is within reach for every
instrumental beginner.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the bases of your own musical decision-making.

2. How may young musicians learn to make informed decisions about musical expression? In what
ways can teachers provide ongoing opportunities for musical decision-making in the classroom?
3. Record several sessions of an instrumental class that you teach. Describe the ways you direct
your students’ attention to the expressive aspects of music-making.
4. Create an assessment procedure that reveals students’ capacity to formulate independent musical
decisions in unfamiliar music.

KEY SOURCES

Duke, R. A. (2009). Intelligent music teaching: Essays on the core principles of effective instruction.
Austin, TX: Learning & Behavior Resources.
Duke, R. A., & Byo, J. (2009). The habits of musicianship: A radical approach to beginning band.
Austin, TX: Center for Music Learning.

WEBSITES

The Habits of Musicianship, at the Center for Music Learning,

http://cml.music.utexas.edu/Habits/HabitsOpener.htm.
LIPs: Live Illustrations by Professionals, at the Center for Music Learning,
http://cml.music.utexas.edu/LIPS/LIPSopener.htm.

REFERENCES

Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Byo, J. L. (1988). Beginning band instruction: A comparative analysis of selected class method books.
Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 7(1), 19.
Campbell, P. S., Connell, C., & Beegle, A. (2007). Adolescents’ expressed meanings of music in and
out of school. Journal of Research in Music Education, 55(3), 220–236.
Colprit, E. J. (2000). Observation and analysis of Suzuki string teaching. Journal of Research in Music
Education, 48(3), 206–221.
Consortium of National Arts Education Associations. (1994). National standards for arts education.
Reston, VA: MENC: National Association for Music Education.
Duke, R. A. (1999). Teacher and student behavior in Suzuki string lessons: Results from the
International Research Symposium on Talent Education. Journal of Research in Music Education,
47(4), 293–307.
Gouzouasis, P., Henrey, J., & Belliveau, G. (2008). Turning points: A transitional story of grade seven
music students’ participation in high school band programmes. Music Education Research, 10(1),
75—90.
Hallam, S. (1998). The predictors of achievement and dropout in instrumental tuition. Psychology of
Music, 26(2), 116–132.
Hartley, L. A., & Porter, A. M. (2009). The influence of beginning instructional grade on string
student enrollment, retention, and music performance. Journal of Research in Music Education,
56(4), 370–384.
Karlsson, J., & Juslin, P. N. (2008). Musical expression: An observational study of instrumental
teaching. Psychology of Music, 36(3), 309–334.
Kinney, D. W. (2010). Selected nonmusic predictors of urban students’ decisions to enroll and persist
in middle school band programs. Journal of Research in Music Education, 57(4), 334–350.
Laukka, P. (2004). Instrumental music teachers’ views on expressivity: A report from music
conservatoires. Music Education Research, 6(1), 45–56.
Lindstrom, E., Juslin, P. N., Bresin, R., & Williamon, A. (2003). “Expressivity comes from within
your soul”: A questionnaire study of music students’ perspectives on expressivity. Research Studies
in Music Education, 20(1), 23–47.
Lum, C.-H., & Shehan Campbell, P. (2007). The sonic surrounds of an elementary school. Journal of
Research in Music Education, 55(1), 31–47.
West, T., & Rostvall, A.-L. (2003). A study of interaction and learning in instrumental teaching.
International Journal of Music Education, 40(1), 16–27.
Young, V., Burwell, K. I. M., & Pickup, D. (2003). Areas of study and teaching strategies in
instrumental teaching: A case study research project. Music Education Research, 5(2), 139–155.
 CHAPTER 12

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF
LEARNING TO PERFORM

IOULIA PAPAGEORGI AND REINHARD

KOPIEZ

Learning to play a musical instrument is a complex process, requiring the

development of aural, cognitive, technical, musical, communication and
performing skills (Hallam, 2006). Musical performance involves the
integration of multimodal sensory and motor information and precise
monitoring of the performance through auditory feedback (Altenmüller &
Schneider, 2009), as well as the interaction of various memory systems
(Chaffin et al., 2009). The excessive technical demands of performance,
along with its highly competitive nature and public exposure, can lead to
both psychological and physical stress in musicians (Vervainioti &
Alexopoulos, 2015). The purpose of this chapter is to discuss psychological
and physiological demands of learning to play a musical instrument and to
propose ways of addressing them. Performance anxiety, one of the most
common psychological problems experienced by musicians, is initially
discussed. Physiological problems relating to sensorimotor and
musculoskeletal functions are considered in the next section. The chapter
then moves on to consider how musicians can address common
psychological and physiological problems. Implications for teachers are also
discussed, particularly concerning the assessment of students’ susceptibility
to performance anxiety and physical problems, as well as the development of
critical skills in evaluating performance.
 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE OF PERFORMERS

The development of expertise in musical performance is a result of the

interaction between biological and environmental factors (see Hallam and
Bautista, chapter 8 for more details), but in order to achieve high levels of
performance, musicians also need to maintain mental, physical, and
psychological health. Professional performance is highly competitive and
requires huge amounts of determination, integrity, and faith in one’s
potential. Musicians are constantly under the scrutiny of audiences and
critics, which means that most musicians are likely to experience some form
of rejection that can provoke insecurity at some point in the course of their
careers. Considering the high demands of the music profession, it is perhaps
not surprising that those who choose to become professional performers are
usually devoted to music (Salmon & Meyer, 1998). They are often so
committed to their craft that they can sometimes fail to separate their
personal identity from their performance abilities (Kemp, 1996). Thus,
professional musicians, and particularly students, tend to measure their self-
esteem against how well they perform and their personal value against their
performance competence (Dews & Williams, 1989; Kemp, 1996; Tobacyk &
Downs, 1986). Identification of one’s musical achievement with personal
value can be positive for musicians with high self-esteem and who perceive
themselves as being successful, but it can have negative effects for less
confident musicians. It can lead to maladaptive behavior that is often
observed in performers with lower self-esteem and negative self-perceptions,
due to the presence of heightened apprehension, self-criticism, and
perceptions of incompetence (Kemp, 1996). Such maladaptive behavior may
characterize persons who view performances as threatening and who
experience anxiety that has negative effects on performance. The excessive
technical demands of performance, due to the highly competitive nature of
the profession, can lead to psychological stress and physical stress as well. A
number of physical and musculoskeletal impairments can occur as a result of
the repetitive use of the same muscle groups or maintaining bad posture
during long hours of practice and performance.
The following sections focus specifically on the aforementioned
psychological and physiological demands of musical performance, and are
followed by suggestions for addressing key issues.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DEMANDS OF MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: MUSICAL
PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

The quality of performance at any given point is affected by the performer’s

level of expertise and adequacy of preparation, but can also be affected by
psychological factors, such as self-perception, self-efficacy beliefs, and
experience of performance anxiety.
One of the most debilitating and frequently reported negative influences
on musicians’ development and on the quality of performance is musical
performance anxiety (MPA). It can be defined as “a state of arousal and
anxiety occurring before or while a person is performing non-anonymously
in front of an audience producing a valuable or evaluated task touching on
his/her self-esteem” (Kesselring, 2006, p. 309). As has been confirmed by
many studies, MPA can negatively affect the quality of performance,
especially in female musicians (Dews & Williams, 1989; Fishbein et al.,
1988; Kenny & Osborne, 2006; Papageorgi, 2007a, 2007b, 2008; Rae &
McCambridge, 2004; Ryan, 2004; Wesner et al., 1990; Iusca & Dafinoiu,
2012; Thomas & Nettelbeck, 2014) and less experienced musicians such as
adolescents and undergraduates (Fehm & Schmidt, 2006; Papageorgi, 2009;
Papageorgi, Creech, & Welch, 2013; Thomas & Nettelbeck, 2014; Patston &
Osborne, 2015). Studies with professional and higher education student
musicians have indicated that MPA is one of the most frequently reported
problems (Williamon & Thomson, 2006), and it has been argued that MPA is
a critical problem for 15–25% of musicians (Steptoe, 2001). Recent studies
have also identified comorbidity between MPA and other forms of
psychopathology such as generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and depression
(Osborne & Franklin, 2008; Andrade et al., 2012; Medeiros Barbar, de
Souza Crippa & de Lima Osorio, 2014, Vaag, Bjørngaard, & Bjerkeset,
2016).
Nevertheless, when anxiety is controlled and kept within reasonable
levels, it can be beneficial. A number of studies have supported its adaptive
effects, such as preparing the body for the demands of the forthcoming task,
increasing motivation, improving concentration, and improving the quality
of performance, particularly in experienced performers (Gates & Montalbo,
1987; Papageorgi, 2008, 2009; Papageorgi, Creech, & Welch, 2013;
Hamann, 1982; Kemp, 1996, Larrouy-Maestri & Morsomme, 2014; Thomas
& Nettelbeck, 2014). There is therefore a need to differentiate between
maladaptive (or debilitating) and adaptive (or facilitating) forms of musical
performance anxiety.

Conceptualization of Anxiety in Musical Performance

Theories explaining MPA conceptualize it as a multidimensional construct
operating over time (Hallam, 1998; LeBlanc, 1994; Papageorgi, Hallam, &
Welch, 2007). According to Kesselring (2006, p. 311), MPA is a form of
social anxiety because performance in front of an unknown audience makes
predictions of reactions (as the fulfilment of norms) difficult. Papageorgi et
al. (2007) developed a conceptual framework that focuses on the performer
through the various stages of performance preparation, enactment, and
follow-up, showing in detail the processes that take place once a performer
agrees to participate in a performance. Within this framework, MPA has
been represented as a construct within a transactional model that suggests
that the level of arousal depends on the interaction of (1) the performer’s
susceptibility to experiencing anxiety when the commitment to perform is
made (which may include individual characteristics such as gender, age, trait
anxiety, self-esteem, self-concept, and self-efficacy), (2) the performer’s task
efficacy (which relates to the process of preparation, learning approach,
motivation to learn, task difficulty and value, and anxiety coping strategies),
and (3) the characteristics of the specific environment in which the
individual is expected to perform (which can be influenced by parameters
such as audience presence, perceived degree of exposure, and venue
characteristics).

Manifestations and Aetiology of MPA

Anxiety symptoms fall into three categories, namely cognitive, behavioral,
and physiological (Lang et al., 1988). This three-factor model of anxiety
states that anxiety arises from the interaction between three major
components: a cognitive (or verbal) component (thoughts related to mental
images of danger and threat), a behavioral component (inclination to keep or
run away from everything perceived as dangerous), and a physiological
component (bodily reactions to heightened arousal). Maladaptive MPA is
accompanied by high levels of physiological arousal that result from the
activation of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. This
response is a result of the triggering of the “fight or flight” reflex of the
human body, stimulated during anxiety or stress situations such as when a
musician perceives a performance to be particularly challenging (Lehrer,
1987). This response was useful to our ancestors as a means to confront or
escape physical danger, and was therefore evolutionarily adaptive for the
preservation of the human species. During a “fight or flight” response, our
body is programmed to utilize resources to optimize survival. The organs
that are of most significance are the muscles, the heart, the lungs, and the
brain, while the rest of the human body systems evidence reduction of
operations. Blood flow is targeted to these areas to provide “fuel” in the
form of oxygen to support the organism’s innate survival instinct. While
these responses were relevant for humans living in the wild and trying to
avoid physical danger, they are irrelevant when a person is required to
perform. The perception of physiological changes in the organism’s
homeostasis scares performers, especially if they are unaware of its
aetiology, symptoms (manifestation), and effects. Changes to the
physiological state of the organism include increase in heart rate and
respiration, tension in all bodily muscles, “butterflies” in the stomach, dry
mouth, sweaty palms, cold hands, tremors, frequent urinary need, release of
hormones such as adrenaline (epinephrine) and cortisol, and gastrointestinal
disturbances (Gabrielsson, 1999; Steptoe, 2001; Yoshie et al., 2009).
Physiological responses to anxiety are also accompanied by behavioral
indicators and effects on cognition. Behavioral indicators of anxiety include
tremors, trembling and shaky hands, quivering voice, difficulty in moving
naturally, moistening lips, and errors in performance (Gabrielsson, 1999;
Steptoe, 2001); the effects of anxiety on cognition can result in loss of
concentration and attention, heightened distractibility, memory failure,
maladaptive cognitions, and misreading of the musical score. These are
some of the most common effects on cognition (Steptoe, 2001).

Coping with Anxiety in Musical Performance

The importance of devising appropriate coping strategies for dealing with
the potential maladaptive effects of MPA should not be overlooked. If not
dealt with appropriately, it can create significant problems by impairing the
quality of performance and by impeding a musician’s ability to cope
successfully with the demands of performance. Research (Papageorgi, 2008;
Papageorgi et al., 2010) emphasizes the importance of musicians developing
anxiety coping skills.
 Musicians tend to utilize strategies distinguished as “emotion focused”
and “problem focused” (Papageorgi, 2008). Similar categorizations have
been reported by Wolfe (1990), as well as by Folkman and Lazarus (1980) in
general anxiety research. Emotion-focused strategies concentrate on
alleviating/moderating distressing emotions (e.g. specialized techniques such
as hypnotherapy, meditation or neurolinguistic programming, taking
medication, avoiding performance, maintaining a positive attitude to the
performance, etc.). Problem-focused strategies concentrate on finding ways
to cope with the demands of performance and deal with the negative effects
of anxiety (e.g. practicing, rehearsing mentally, warming up, exercising, and
eating healthily). Other coping strategies reported in MPA literature include
relevant terms such as task-oriented coping, emotion-oriented coping, and
avoidance-oriented coping (Endler & Parker, 1990; Kobori, Yoshie, Kudo, &
Ohtsuki, 2011).
Young musicians also report using a variety of coping strategies for
dealing with the demands of performance. Figure 12.1 shows the responses
given by 410 adolescent musicians in a self-report questionnaire dealing
with various learning and performance issues, when asked what (if any)
strategies they use to deal effectively with performance anxiety.
The reported strategies relate closely to the emotion-focused and problem-
focused strategies reported by adult musicians in other studies (e.g., Sinico
& Winter, 2013). This demonstrates that MPA is also an issue for younger
musicians and suggests that devising appropriate strategies to deal with
performance anxiety is imperative in order to avoid problems in the future.
Figure 12.1 Adolescent musicians’ strategies for coping with the demands of performance (N =
410) (Papageorgi, 2009).

In a more recent meta-analysis by Goren (2015), the efficacy of various

types of nonpharmacological therapies for MPA has been analyzed. Based
on a sample of 29 studies (total N = 852), an average medium-effect size
(Hedges’ g which is comparable to Cohen’s d) of 0.64 (95% CI = 0.25, 1.03)
was found. Subgroup analyses revealed that combined (cognitive-
behavioral) therapeutical approaches showed a higher effect (Hedges’ g =
0.73) when compared to behavioral interventions (Hedges’ g = 0.57) or
complementary and alternative methods (e.g., yoga or biofeedback; Hedges’
g = 0.67).

PHYSIOLOGICAL DEMANDS OF INSTRUMENTAL LEARNING

From a historical perspective, we can observe a continuous increase of
sensorimotor demands on the performance of rehearsed music over the past
200 years. As Lehmann (2006) argues, this historical trend seems to be
unbroken. The consequence of this increase in sensorimotor demands is an
increasing need for musicians to consider the conditions of sensorimotor
skill acquisition and health maintenance.

Physiological Prerequisites of Instrumental Choice

At the beginning of a successful instrumental education, the student has to
choose his or her instrument (see Hallam and Bautista, chapter 8). The ideal
case would be that high individual motivation to learn a particular
instrument met the instrument’s physiological prerequisites (for the special
demands of voice health, see Nix and Roy, chapter 6). However, detailed
information on biomechanical norms for selected instruments is rare. Based
on an extensive collection of biomechanic data from musicians, Wagner
(2005) showed that the left forearm of violin players is characterized by a
high degree of left-hand supination (easy turn of the hand to and fro) which
can be achieved with little effort. In addition to the degree of forearm
rotation, the second biomechanical aspect of hand flexibility is movement
facility. This means that not only the maximum degree of possible forearm
rotation but also the force needed to reach the maximum rotation angle are
relevant for violin playing. Although it seems reasonable to base the
recommendation for a particular instrument on simple hand movement
norms, Wagner (2005) emphasizes the wide range of observable variation in
hand parameters in musicians. However, as long as there are only post hoc
measurements and no longitudinal studies on the influence of biomechanical
factors on instrumental success, recommendations for an instrument based
on hand movement norms have a weak basis. Against the background of
general processes of physiological adaptation, it is hard to answer the
“chicken-and-egg” question of what comes first—the biomechanical
requirements or the successful instrumental learning. This means that
physiological criteria may be helpful as additional aspects of instrument
choice; for example, students with small hands will have difficulties playing
the viola or violoncello, and students with irregular tooth positions will have
difficulties in learning a brass instrument. However, with the current state of
research, it seems to be more reasonable to rely on the common sense of
experienced music educators and their intuitive knowledge when parents ask
for advice on the choice of instrument for their child. Furthermore, smart
strategies of adaptation in terms of repertoire can allow for successful
instrumental learning despite seemingly disadvantageous biomechanical
requirements. To keep the balance between the necessary physiological
requirements and the child’s emotional attraction to an instrument remains a
challenge for the experienced instrumental teacher.

The Rules of Sensorimotor Skill Acquisition and Maintenance

According to previous analyses of musical biographies by Ericsson et al.
(1993), two necessary factors for the development of performance
excellence can be observed: (1) early commencement of musical education,
usually starting between four and five years, and (2) a large amount of
accumulated practice time up to the age of 18 in the range of about 10,000
hours (see Lehmann and Jørgensen, chapter 9 for more details). But why
does the development of sensorimotor perfection take so much time? The
answer is given by the “power law of skill acquisition”: after a steep increase
of skills at the beginning of sensorimotor learning (e.g., starting to learn the
piano), in the later phase small improvements in skills are only reached by a
significant rise in practice time. Lehmann and Ericsson (1998), in a long-
term case study with a pianist preparing a public performance, found that the
progression of tempo in a piece by Prokofiev from 85 to 100 beats per
minute took about 10 weeks, while the increment from 100 to the final
tempo of about 115 beats per minute required 30 additional weeks.
However, we should bear in mind that successful skill improvement not
only requires a sufficient amount of time, but is also characterized by an
optimum (and not a linear) relationship between practice and outcome.
Hettinger et al. (1975), in a controlled study of sensorimotor skill acquisition
(O’Connor finger dexterity test) over a training period of four weeks, found
that the simple relationship of “more is better” is wrong: the optimum
efficiency of training was reached with 150 repetitions per day. A further
increment of training trials resulted in a decrease of sensorimotor
achievement (see figure 12.2). In addition to this effect of “over-
optimization,” the authors observed a performance leap even 1.5 weeks after
the end of training.
For professional musicians the question of skill maintenance is of high
importance. How much time is needed to maintain the acquired level of
expert performance? An objective method to answer this question has been
developed by Jabusch (2006) in the form of the so-called “scale analysis”:
the evenness in scale playing on a keyboard at a fixed tempo. The author
measured the mean deviation of interonset intervals between adjacent scale
notes of a C major scale, played 10–15 times over two octaves in sixteenth
notes at a tempo of 120 beats per minute. Results showed that professional
pianists were able to play scales with an average evenness of 8.1
milliseconds for the ulnar (outward) playing direction and 8.9 milliseconds
for the radial (inward) playing direction. In a longitudinal study, Jabusch et
al. (2009) investigated the influence of practice on the long-term
development of motor skills in professional pianists. Scale playing was
investigated twice within a time interval of 27 months. The retrospective
assessment of amount of practice revealed that sensorimotor skill
maintenance was achieved with an average of 3.75 hours of daily practice
time. However, great differences between individual performers could be
observed in the amount of practice needed for skill maintenance at the piano.
Subjects with an average practice time of about two hours kept regularity of
scale playing just as well as subjects with a practice time of about five hours.
This large variance can be explained by other factors than the mere
quantitative element of practicing. For example, the quality of practice in
terms of deliberate practice could account for these differences (see
Lehmann and Jørgensen, chapter 9, for details).
 Figure 12.2 The relationship between number of daily training trials in a finger dexterity task
and training effects (solid line). An increment of sensorimotor performance could be observed in
a retest, 1.5 weeks after the training had stopped (dashed line). (Diagram based on data from
Hettinger et al., 1975).

Health Promotion
High demands on the musculoskeletal and nervous system of musicians and
competence in health maintenance should be taken seriously by all
musicians. However, as Kreutz et al. (2009) found in a survey of music
students, awareness of the importance of health responsibility was minimal.
Only moderate engagement in health-promoting behavior was observed
(e.g., lack of physical activity). In a more recent study (Spahn et al., 2017),
the validity of this finding was verified based on a nationwide sample of
music students. Results showed that although about 70% of the music
students participated in preventive health behavior during their university
education, students with no playing-related health problems did not engage
in preventive activities. Those with low-level or high-level playing-related
health problems exercised preventive activities or took medicine. Against
this background, instrumental tutors, in particular, have the responsibility for
their students and should give advice on health matters related to playing.
However, as emphasized by Spahn et al. (2017), the acceptance of
preventive courses and the transfer of learned strategies to daily life and
practice remains a task for future activities. Recommendations for healthy
practicing can also be derived from biographies of historical musicians. For
example, to avoid physical and mental exhaustion, Clara Wieck-Schumann
was not allowed to practice more than three hours per day as a child. Her
father and piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck, attached great importance to
regular physical exercises of the hands (e.g., finger stretching) and to general
physical endurance (e.g., walking for hours, see Altenmüller & Kopiez,
2010).
A special occupational health risk in professional musicians is loss of
motor control. Musician’s cramp (focal dystonia) is a prominent example of
this domain-specific movement disorder (Jabusch & Altenmüller, 2006).
According to estimates, about 1% (with a male-to-female ratio of 4:1) of all
musicians are affected with this disorder. Pathophysiological findings have
revealed that a perfectionist attitude and anxiety influence this disorder
(Jabusch & Altenmüller, 2004). Based on the current state of research, focal
dystonia seems to be the result of maladaption in neuroplasticity with
currently only little probability of a complete cure.

STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS KEY PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL

ISSUES

Suggestions for Coping with Musical Performance Anxiety

Appropriate preparation (technical and psychological) and the development
of coping strategies can help in ensuring that performers are not affected
maladaptively by performance anxiety but benefit from the adaptive
properties that preperformance arousal can have. Such strategies need to
focus on maintaining a positive attitude toward performance and on reducing
a focus on high stakes elements. According to Lehmann et al. (2007), MPA
consists of three sources: physiological arousal, cognitive anxiety, and the
task itself. Thus, coping strategies should consider these factors. For
example, physiological arousal can be controlled by the acquisition of
relaxation strategies; cognitive anxiety can be reduced by positive self-
statements (“I am well prepared”) and the interruption of negative
ruminations; the anxiety-inducing potential of the task itself can be reduced
by an adequate choice of pieces: choosing repertoire that realistically
matches the performer’s skill level (and is adequate for public performance
and not just for practicing) will help to control for this source of anxiety.
An interesting approach to MPA comes from research in social anxiety
disorders: Rapee and Heimberg (1997) found that people with social phobias
are characterized by a bias in the processing of social evaluative information.
Pre-event, real-time, and post-event negative ruminations play a central role
in the generation of social anxiety. These ruminations can lead to heightened
anxiety in social situations. The authors’ proposal for therapeutic treatment
includes the redirection of attentional resources away from negative self-
evaluation and evaluation by the audience and toward the development of a
realistic mental representation of how the audience sees the individual. In
another study on social anxiety disorder, Abott and Rapee (2004) developed
a post-event rumination questionnaire. People with heightened social anxiety
showed an increased score one week after a public speech. The role of
negative post-event ruminations has been investigated in musicians (Gorges
& Alpers, 2009). The authors observed a correlation between negative
ruminations over a concert video recording (e.g., worry about mistakes) and
cognitive symptoms of MPA. Against this background, a strategy for coping
with MPA could also include the interruption of negative ruminations.
Finally, more recent approaches try to use performance simulation for the
development of coping strategies (Williamon, Aufegger, & Eiholzer, 2014;
Aufegger, Perkins, Wasley, & Williamon, 2016). First findings showed that
effective training depends on the subject’s exposure to the real-world
performance setting in the simulator.
Practical suggestions for dealing with the psychological demands of
performance and overcoming performance anxiety are offered as follows:
Step 1: Increase awareness.
 • Understand the aetiology and manifestation of MPA.
• Understand the sources of the physiological changes occurring in the
body.
• Differentiate between adaptive and maladaptive musical performance
anxiety.
• Reconceptualize the potential effects of musical performance anxiety
and focus on the positive effects. It can prepare the body to deal with
the task and can increase alertness and concentration.
• Understand that musical performance anxiety is a normal response that
even seasoned performers experience.

Step 2: Prepare mentally—visualize a successful performance.

• Maintain a realistic outlook on the performance.

• Be confident and believe that you will do well (positive outcome
expectancies).
• Employ mental imagery to visualize yourself during the performance
and envisage doing very well.

Step 3: Prepare practically—master technical demands and anticipate

specific performance conditions.

• Practice—but not too much, and use mental rehearsal to improve

memorization and rest the muscles.
• Have a mock performance in the recital/examination venue if possible.
• Simulate performance conditions—play in front of an audience
without stopping; play in the performance outfit to make sure it feels
comfortable.
• Eat healthily, exercise, and sleep well.
• Think about stage presence (e.g., seating, clothing).

Suggestions for Practicing and Health Maintenance

Professional musicians are confronted with numerous factors increasing
occupational stress: exposure to noise working unusual hours, bad lighting
and air conditions, and traveling. Thus, a sufficient knowledge of how to
maintain health and skills should be developed at an early stage of
instrumental education for all musicians. According to recommendations
given by music-medicine specialists (Altenmüller, 2006; Hildebrandt, 2006),
guidelines for healthy practicing should include the following three main
areas.

• General practice strategies: development of efficient time

management for performance preparation, verbalization of clear aims
for a practice session, training to be successful at the first attempt,
development of movement anchor points (e.g., orientation or starting
points for difficult sections), training of entire action patterns instead
of isolated movements, training of movement variations to increase
flexibility of movement patterns, weekly stage training in front of
colleagues.
• Physiological strategies: only complete a single-digit number of
repetitions, observation of skill increase and avoidance of
overoptimization, avoidance of coordinative exhaustion through
regular breaks while practicing (rule of thumb: short break after 45
minutes, longer break after 120 minutes), allowing sufficient time for
physiological recovery between the end of the practice phase and
public performance, development of stable mental representations of
movement patterns (e.g., by mental practice methods and practice in
different playing positions).
• Health promotion: the application of health-promoting techniques
(gymnastics, muscular relaxation), prevention of musculoskeletal
overuse symptoms by regular breaks (e.g., warm-up exercises before
and after practicing), development of a good physical condition and
stress resistance (e.g., endurance training), distributed, as opposed to
concentrated, practicing.

IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS

Teachers can and should play a significant role in supporting learners. One
of the main areas to which they can significantly contribute is in identifying
susceptibility to psychological and physiological problems, and supporting
musicians in dealing with them effectively. Furthermore, teachers should
help learners develop critical skills in evaluating the quality of their
performance and encourage them to be realistic and pragmatic—not
perfectionistic. This section offers suggestions on how teachers can address
these two issues.

Assessing Susceptibility to Psychological and Physiological Problems

Identifying how prone young musicians are to experiencing psychological
and/or physiological problems should be a major part of the instrumental
teacher’s work. Teachers can assess the extent to which performance anxiety
might be a problem either through discussions with the student or by using
specially devised assessment scales during the lesson.
For assessing students’ susceptibility to experiencing performance
anxiety, one exemplar scale is the Adolescent Musicians’ Performance
Anxiety Scale (AMPAS; Papageorgi, 2007b), shown in text box 12.1.
For assessing how at risk musicians are for experiencing physical
problems, one exemplar scale is the “Are You at Risk” scale (adapted from
Llobet & Odam, 2007), shown in text box 12.2.
Such assessments can be very useful in identifying each student’s
predispositions and can assist teachers in devising teaching approaches
tailored to suit each student’s dispositions and needs.
In addition to identifying individual student needs, teachers should
provide constructive feedback to young musicians so that positive identity
development and self-confidence are promoted, and their motivation for
engaging with music is not jeopardized. Teachers should try to maintain
students’ interest and intrinsic motivation and help them maintain a healthy
and balanced approach to performance by stressing that each performance is
a learning experience. At a practical level, teachers need to ensure that
students are familiarized with the performance venue prior to the event, so
they will be psychologically prepared for what to expect, and also to practice
performing itself. Teachers also need to emphasize the importance of
musical communication and the audience’s enjoyment of the performance.

Supporting the Development of Critical Skills in Evaluating

Performance
The ability to play a musical instrument is one of the most highly valued
skills for musicians. As a result, the assessment of musical performance
features prominently within music curricula at all levels of expertise. Exam
boards and music programs need to conduct objective performance
assessments in order to be able to compare different musicians and award
graded examination results and performance degrees. For this reason,
different assessment methods are employed to achieve objectivity in
performance assessment. Such methods usually involve establishing criteria
for the most valued constructs in performance, such as phrasing, balance,
articulation, rubato, and dynamic range, and require adjudicators to dissect
the various components and evaluate them separately (McPherson &
Thompson, 1998; Thompson, 2009). Objectivity can be increased by
determining clear criteria against which performances are evaluated and the
employment of rating scales so that adjudicators can indicate the extent to
which a performer meets them (Boyle, 1992). Multidimensional assessment
rubrics have also been used to assess instrumental and vocal performance at
university level (e.g., Ciorba & Smith, 2009).
Assessment can provide important feedback to students and teachers
regarding instructional objectives, and undoubtedly has many educational
benefits (Stanley et al., 2002). At the same time, the ways evaluation
practices and assessment procedures are articulated in educational and
professional settings can be a source of psychological and physiological
problems, such as MPA. The excessive technical demands of performance
due to its highly competitive nature also increases pressure. To further
complicate the matter, a performer’s perception of the quality of her
performance immediately after its completion can be inaccurate or not
completely objective due to a range of external factors. It can also be
influenced by basic self-image (Gordon, 2006).
It is important for learners to develop critical skills to be able to
objectively reflect on and evaluate their work so that they are able to identify
areas for improvement, but also recognize their achievements. Using video
recordings as a learning tool provides learners with an audience perspective
on their work and can be highly valuable (Hallam, 2006). Educators
increasingly incorporate this methodology in their teaching as a means to
engage students in self-reflection and self-assessment and raise students’
critical awareness (Lynch, 1998; Benson, 2000). In a study investigating the
effectiveness of introducing this method, almost half of the students
surveyed stated that seeing the video helped them identify their errors more
clearly than at the time of performance (Daniel, 2001). Perceived advantages
reported by the students included (1) pinpointing areas of difficulty and then
trying to address them, and (2) assessing themselves from an audience point
of view and seeing how they reacted in the performance arena. Some
students noted, however, that video recording can make performers more
nervous and that the quality of sound can sometimes be poor (Daniel, 2001).

Text Box 12.1 The Adolescent Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Scale

(AMPAS
Read each of the following statements carefully and then circle the
appropriate number to indicate the degree of frequency that you experience
or do certain things.
 Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never
1. Prior to an important performance 5 4 3 2 1
(exam, audition, concert) I find myself
thinking: “I can do this. I have studied
hard and I am going to do well.”

2. I feel confident when I perform in 5 4 3 2 1

front of other people.

3. I worry a lot for several days before I 5 4 3 2 1

take a recital examination in front of a
jury.

4. During recitals I get so nervous that I 5 4 3 2 1

have a mental block.

5. Sometimes, especially if I score low 5 4 3 2 1

in an exam or audition, I do not tell
anyone exactly what my score was.

6. I believe that anxiety is not bad for 5 4 3 2 1

my performance.

7. I believe that anxiety is bad for my 5 4 3 2 1

performance.

8. Sometimes, before an important 5 4 3 2 1

performance (exam, audition or
concert) I find myself thinking: “This
is too difficult. I am not going to do
well”, even though I may have
worked really hard in preparing for
that event.

9. I feel relaxed when I perform in front 5 4 3 2 1

of other people.

10. Just before an exam, audition or 5 4 3 2 1

concert I feel very anxious, worry that
things will go wrong and wish this
was already over.

11. During recitals / exams my heart beats 5 4 3 2 1

very fast.
 Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never
12. Sometimes, especially if I score high 5 4 3 2 1
in an exam or audition, I do not tell
anyone exactly what my score was.

13. I believe that anxiety makes me feel 5 4 3 2 1

alert and eventually has a positive
result on my performance.

14. I believe that anxiety makes me forget 5 4 3 2 1

parts of the music, makes it difficult
to concentrate on my playing, and
eventually has a negative result on my
performance.

15. I like recitals because they are 5 4 3 2 1

opportunities to show to others the
hard work I have been doing.

16. During recitals / exams my hands are 5 4 3 2 1

cold.

17. Just before I get feedback on my 5 4 3 2 1

performance or expect to hear the
results of an exam, I get anxious and
jittery.

18. During my recitals I feel great. 5 4 3 2 1

19. During recitals / exams my hands 5 4 3 2 1

sweat.

20. I enjoy my recitals because I can share 5 4 3 2 1

my music with others.

Text Box 12.2 The “Are you at Risk” scale

Please read each of the following questions carefully and then circle the
appropriate number to indicate the degree of frequency that you experience
or do certain things.
 Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never
1. Do you usually play for several 5 4 3 2 1
hours without a break?

2. Following a few days without 5 4 3 2 1

playing do you pick up your activity
gradually, and go all the more
slowly after a long break?

3. Do you perform stretching exercises 5 4 3 2 1

before and after playing and do you
save the more difficult pieces for the
middle of the rehearsal time?

4. Do you play even though you’re 5 4 3 2 1

tired or feel some discomfort?

5. Do you habitually play in the forte 5 4 3 2 1

range?

6. Do you play an instrument that is 5 4 3 2 1

heavy, large or has very taut strings?

7. Do you perform physical exercise 5 4 3 2 1

more than once a week?

8. Do you sleep for less than eight 5 4 3 2 1

hours a day?

9. Are you a perfectionist? 5 4 3 2 1

10. Do you find it difficult to say ‘no’ to 5 4 3 2 1

a musical project?

11. Are you usually under a lot of 5 4 3 2 1

pressure?

12. Do you choose your repertoire with 5 4 3 2 1

regard to your physical, technical
and psychological abilities?
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never

13. Do you regularly review your 5 4 3 2 1

 posture in front of a mirror or
through being filmed?

The use of video recordings for self-assessment is clearly an invaluable

tool for educators and learners alike. In addition, it can also be useful in
formal assessment processes to increase the objectivity of evaluation. Video-
recorded performances can be observed and independently evaluated by two
or more judges. Interrater agreement can be assessed, and upward or
downward adjustments can be made in cases of discrepancies in assessment
grades, on the basis of approved guidelines.

CONCLUSION

Learning to play a musical instrument is a demanding activity. The

development of expertise in musical performance, like that of other skills, is
a process that takes place over a long period of time, and requires a
considerable amount of practice. Performance usually takes place in a public
context; it is almost always directly or indirectly evaluated by an audience;
and it is assessed in real time. These conditions place considerable
psychological and physiological demands on musicians, who need to be
physically, emotionally, and mentally fit to achieve in such a highly
competitive field. For a better understanding of the special living conditions
of professional musicians, modern documentaries can be helpful. For
example, Trip to Asia (Dirks et al., 2008), the documentary on a concert
journey of the Berlin Philharmonic, gives an unadorned insight into the daily
high demands on outstanding orchestral musicians.
Employing appropriate strategies can assist musicians in dealing
individually with the psychological and physiological demands of
performance. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that
performance expertise is more likely to develop in a learning environment
that supports the development of “communities of practice” and encourages
peer support between musicians. Furthermore, institutions should offer
programs informing musicians of the psychological and physiological
demands of musical performance and how to cope with potential problems.
They should also openly encourage and foster the development of supportive
learning communities to facilitate the development of well-rounded
musicians who are able to reach their full potential.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. How can performing musicians maintain their motivation in the face of the increasing
psychological and physiological demands of performance?
2. Do all musicians respond to the demands of performance in the same way?
3. What are the most important recommendations for health maintenance and the avoidance of
overuse symptoms?
4. What is/should be the role of educational institutions responsible for training performing
musicians in preparing them for the demands of their chosen profession?

KEY SOURCES

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(pp. 390–400). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rosset i Llobet, J., & Odam, G. (2007). The musician’s body: A maintenance manual for peak
performance. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

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 CHAPTER 13

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT LEARNING,

MUSIC ENSEMBLES, AND
MUSICIANSHIP IN A GLOBAL AND
DIGITAL AGE

MICHAEL WEBB AND FREDERICK A.

SEDDON

Laurent Aubert has said: “It is right to replicate as far as possible the
preexisting conditions of transmission of every type of music or, at least, to
respect their coherence and adapt their methods with discernment. There is
such a diversity of teaching methods in the world that no model is
universally applicable” (2007, p. 70). Aubert notes a “new order, now well
on the way to completely transforming all our musical standards, [that] is
nothing but a consequence of the vast process of globalization characterizing
the contemporary age” (p. xi). Jones observes, “musical life today is
organized through plural, coexisting contexts and perspectives, including
those of repertory, musicology, pedagogy, feminism, ethnomusicology and
various genres and styles” (Jones, 2008, p. 21). As will be seen in this
chapter, the emerging order, where multiplicities of musical instruments,
sounds, systems, styles, and technologies circulate freely and with some
accessibility, holds particular implications and possibilities for music
education. In the wider context of modes and combinations of pedagogy,
formal and informal, we focus on aspects of learning to play a musical
instrument, ensemble learning, and musicianship. Generally, our discussion
refers to Western or Western-type educational contexts, and we write from
within a Western cultural framework, employing an approach that draws on
ethnomusicology.
 The chapter is organized into three sections. In the first section we discuss
approaches to musical instrument learning (some of which are also
applicable to the voice) with a particular emphasis on digital settings, and
describe recent research on virtual learning. In the second we examine the
new kinds of instrumental ensemble that now form part of world culture and
discuss these in relation to their potential for music education. In the third
we briefly discuss the nexus of musical genre, pedagogy, and musicianship
in relation to the pluralism that is a structuring feature of our global age. We
propose embracing the widening conceptions of musicianship made possible
under conditions of pluralism, which can move us beyond the
“classical/popular” binary thinking that has informed recent music education
practice.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT LEARNING AND MUSIC EDUCATION

Learning to play a musical instrument can generally be considered from two

perspectives: content (broadly, musical and technical information) and
transmission mode (which is commonly formal, or more clearly systematic,
and informal, or less obviously systematic).1 A third perspective—that of
setting—is also worth mentioning. Settings may be considered formal
(relating to schools or institutions), nonformal (community groups, networks
—including digitally based—and programs of various kinds), or informal
(interstitial spaces, including digital spaces). Examples of music and musical
instrument learning in nonformal settings include the classical ensemble the
Really Terrible Orchestra,2 the rock band program Weekend Warriors,3 and
the classes and ensemble learning offered by the Old Town School of Folk
Music.4 As we will see, many nonformal cyberspace settings also now exist.
Formal and informal settings are discussed below in relation to formal and
informal modes of transmission.
As is frequently noted, the stylistic and expressive characteristics of a
music genre and its mode of transmission are closely bound together (see,
for example, Gatien, 2009). With most genres of music regardless of setting,
the learner gains access to content through some combination of verbal
and/or written explanation, some form of notation, and/or by aural-visual
demonstration or modelling (either live or via audio or audio-visual
recording). Of course, attempting to categorize transmission modes in any
absolute way is hazardous. Nevertheless, such a discussion is useful since it
has the potential to reveal new ways to adapt, alternate, and combine modes
and technologies for new settings as they arise, or to assist in modifying
existing settings in the pursuit of more consistently musical gains.
Stages of musical instrument learning might be termed “beginner,”
“intermediate,” and “advanced.” In the case of some genres such as beginner
classical, content usually includes learning to read standard notation at the
same time as developing playing technique. Here it can be seen that learning
content and means of transmission overlap. With other genres, such as
beginner pop or rock music, where learners’ aural capacities are developed
through a “play by ear” approach, the content is generally focused solely on
music and technique.
Exceptions to the above include beginner Suzuki violin lessons (where in
the initial stages aural learning is privileged over notational learning) and
intermediate and advanced keyboard lessons, where the student may be
reading transcriptions of pop and rock songs from standard notation. In the
case of intermediate and advanced jazz lessons on almost any instrument,
students are encouraged to make their own transcriptions of iconic
improvised solos, and these may be either internalized aurally or written out
in standard notation, as they are being learnt. Various kinds of genre-specific
tab (tablature) are also often used at the beginner stage of musical instrument
learning, and these may cross genres (for example, “fiddle tab”; see
Chalford, 2001).
In many instrument-learning contexts, regardless of genre, the teacher is
an expert performer and teaches the student through explanation and
demonstration. Here the teacher and student establish a master-apprentice
relationship that can be considered a formal learning mode. This mode
commonly takes place with an individual student (although small group
learning may also occur) in a face-to-face or “real” learning environment.
Self-instruction can occur in both formal and informal learning modes.
Where the student follows a preconstructed text or course of study with the
support of audio or audio-visual materials prepared by an expert
instrumentalist, self-instruction can be considered formal (although the
setting may informal). In situations where the student copies commercial
recordings of a favorite performer, the learning can be considered informal.
It is often the case that in the initial stages of the latter approach the learner
gets started on the instrument with the modeling and assistance of a slightly
more advanced peer. An important distinction between these forms is that in
the informal mode of self-instruction the learner has more control over the
structure and flow of the learning.
In How Popular Musicians Learn, Green discusses collaborative peer
learning in detail (2001). This is considered an informal mode of learning;
however, as Green conceives it in Music, Informal Learning and the School,
it is transferred to the formal setting of the school, becoming “a new
classroom pedagogy” (2008). In the formal school setting the teacher is
expected to step back from more traditional instructional roles, so greater
personal motivation is required from the student, although the new
combination of transmission mode and setting often engenders motivation
(see, for example, Webb, n.d.).
An additional pedagogical mode that shares an affinity with the informal
mode (see, for example, Dunbar-Hall, 2009) is what might be termed a
“folk” mode, or what Rice refers to (in his account of learning to play the
Bulgarian gaida) as “the traditional ‘nonmethod’ ” (1996, p. 4). Rice
discusses the cognitive, psychomotor, and social process involved in this
transmission mode and recounts in detail how under particular historical
conditions one Bulgarian master musician reinvented himself as a music
teacher (pp. 8–9).
It is not difficult to see how this exemplar of the adaptation and
augmentation of transmission modes and settings within a single
instrumental tradition is related to the changes in transmission that are
occurring around Irish traditional music. Waldron and Veblen (2008) trace
the developments in transmission modes, means, and settings, from informal
face-to-face aural learning through a range of resources and settings that are
complex combinations of informal, nonformal, and formal.5 These include
the early published tune and “fake” book collections, tutors accompanied by
recordings (to which could be added videos, CD-ROMs, and DVDs), web-
specific learning tools including notation and MIDI files, online lessons,
play-along sites, YouTube videos, wiki sites, private lessons via Skype, and
live internet interactive group lessons.

DIGITALLY BASED MUSICAL INSTRUMENT LEARNING

This brings us to a more detailed discussion of aspects of digitally based
musical instrument learning. Digital tools are raising questions important to
music education, such as “where being ‘a musician’ and gaining musical
skills begin and end” (Green, 2009, p. 123), and what constitutes ensemble
musicianship. Regarding the former, consider the YouTube clip Amateur, by
Lasse Gjertsen, popular in 2006.6 Gjertsen, who has videoed himself playing
drum kit and piano, employs stop motion editing and split screen of both the
audio and visual content to create and present himself as a musician
(accompanied by himself). The clip ends with the on-screen printed
“disclaimer” “I can neither play the drums nor the piano” (Gjertsen, 2006).
Asynchronous ensemble performance occurs in the virtual choir associated
with composer Eric Whitacre7 and the YouTube orchestra associated with
composer Tan Dun,8 where prospective ensemble members video themselves
playing their parts and submit these for audition. Individual performances of
the various parts are selected and then edited and mixed to provide a finished
“performance product.” Such settings require adapted forms of musicianship
skills on the part of the performers and the video/audio editor.
Digitally based transmission settings also raise questions that are being
considered within music education. Let us now examine in some detail
issues surrounding virtual learning environments that have the potential to
provide the learner with both support and autonomy in the learning process.

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

When considering learning to play an instrument in a virtual learning

environment we can differentiate asynchronous and synchronous
communication. Asynchronous communication occurs outside “real” time
(for example, email); synchronous communication takes place within “real
time” (for example, Skype and MSN Messenger), where there is no time
delay between participants’ responses. It should also be noted that both one-
to-one conversations (such as individual emails) and “conference”
communications (via Skype and multiple chatrooms) are possible.
Currently available technology enables instrumental tuition to take place
in a virtual learning environment (VLE), in particular within a one-to-one
master-apprentice framework. Lesson text, illustration, audio and/or audio-
visual material can be easily made available for download by individual
learners. If the learner requires no support from a teacher this is a simple
way of receiving instrumental tuition in a VLE, which is similar to
purchasing and working from a course with accompanying CD/DVD. In a
VLE teacher support can be provided through email. The teacher sends
feedback to the learner asynchronously, commenting on recordings made by
the learner and subsequently sent to the teacher.
Seddon and Biasutti conducted a study (2009) for which they created a
pseudo-collaborative asynchronous VLE where beginners could learn to play
a 12-bar improvised blues on keyboard with support from bass and drum
“backing-tracks” and keyboard “guide-tracks.” These “guide” and “backing”
tracks were prepared using a music sequencing package made available to
the participants, and were intended as substitutes for the support and
guidance usually provided by peers in a face-to-face collaborative peer
learning setting. In the example in Figure 13.1 the bass and drum tracks
comprise a “backing” and the piano and chord tracks provide “support” for
the learner by demonstrating what they should play with right and left hand
parts separated. The learner plays on “Your track,” copying the
demonstration piano part by ear until the piano part is learnt. The “backing”
and “guide” tracks support learners until they are sufficiently confident in
their performance to “mute” the “guide” track and still play in time with the
“backing” track.
Learners were able to record and save all rehearsals and performances and
send these by email to an online tutor, who was available for the kinds of
advice and support usually provided by peers in a face-to-face collaborative
peerlearning environment. The researchers believed this application of the
technology constituted a pseudo-collaborative asynchronous VLE, offering a
type of peer support rather than an exclusively master-apprentice learning
environment.
Results of the research demonstrated that all the participants were able to
play an improvised 12-bar blues with both hands together on the keyboard,
after having completed the six blues lessons. In addition, five learning
activities—“instruction,” “copying,” “practicing,” “playing” and
“evaluating”—were identified from the research (Seddon & Biasutti, 2009).
The ways participants interacted with the online tutor varied in relation to
the extent to which each required clarification, advice, and reassurance. It
was found that variations in participant interactions with the online tutor
were related to their preferred learning styles. Participants generally seemed
to regard the online tutor more as a facilitator than a teacher. Participants
also indicated that they would have preferred to collaborate directly with
other participants rather than work alone with the technology and the online
tutor. They reported that this possibility would have improved their learning
experience.

Figure 13.1 Example of “guide” and “backing” tracks.

Providing collaborative access between learners is relatively simple if

undertaken in an asynchronous VLE, and only slightly more complex if
synchronous collaboration is required. More synchronous collaboration
between students learning to play a musical instrument could take place via
Skype conference calling; however, adequate musical sound quality and
performance synchronicity is currently difficult to achieve in this
environment. It is technically possible for musicians to play together online
in a synchronous mode through websites such as eJamming Audio;9
however, the providers of this service acknowledge that it is not yet
technically possible to completely eliminate latency (the delay between
when audio is sent from the program and when you actually hear it)
associated with this type of synchronous online communication. Latency
makes it difficult for all but very experienced musicians to compensate in
performance for this delay in the sound, but technological developments will
likely eradicate latency in the future.
 Although cost and security issues need to be addressed, technology will
soon make it possible to create a VLE where students can log in and choose
to communicate asynchronously or synchronously with peer learners,
teachers, facilitators, and experts. Such an approach holds great potential for
formal, nonformal, and informal learning settings. Within this proposed VLE
students could choose to work individually or collaboratively, with or
without the presence of a teacher. They could have access to a data bank of
video demonstrations, suitably catalogued by instrument, level of difficulty,
and learning style, that could be viewed online or downloaded to the
learner’s computer in a format that requires either no additional software or
software available as a free download from the internet.
Selected aspects of this kind of VLE have been in use for some time in
informal, peer-directed settings. Koh, for example, studied the learning
pathways of beatboxers in Singapore, and describes how one “recorded short
clips of his beats and sounds through his computer before sending it to
friends online, through MSN Messenger,” in order “to get real-time feedback
on his progress and performances” (Koh, 2010, p. 11). Further, some of the
features of the VLE proposed above are already common to asynchronous
pop and rock music learning websites such as Nowplayit,10
Showmehowtoplay.com (which uses a downloadable multiplayer),11 and
Humanbeatbox.com (which features Standard Beatbox Notation, a new form
of notation developed specifically to assist in the online transmission
process).12 What we are describing, however, draws together and streamlines
these features (transmission means, tools, settings). The proposed VLE
would also employ interactive software, allowing generic music sequencing
and multitrack audio and MIDI recording, enabling live collaborative
performance without latency. The only requirement for learners’ computers
would be an internet connection. Within such a VLE, instrumental learning
could be undertaken in a range of modes, from the formal master-
apprenticeship mode to the informal, collaborative peer-learning mode.
Many of the lessons freely available on the internet, particularly on
YouTube, contain excellent demonstrations of how to play a wide range of
instruments in a variety of musical genres (see Rudolph & Frankel, 2009).
These cater for beginners as well as intermediate and advanced learners.
Frequently, however, the lessons offered do not allow learners to make an
informed decision regarding where they should begin, nor do they offer
support and advice from a specialist teacher during the learning process,
which poses problems for the beginner learner in particular. In any learning
environment, virtual or “real,” synchronous or asynchronous, individual or
collaborative, the majority of learners require a suitably trained and flexible
teacher-facilitator who is able to respond to the preferred learning style of
the learner. Too often, instrumental tuition is provided by expert performers
who teach every student in the same way they were taught to play their
instruments, without regard for the learner’s ability, aspirations, and
preferences. This situation can lead to motivational problems for the learner,
who may respond by ceasing to learn to play altogether.

NEW KINDS OF INSTRUMENTAL ENSEMBLE IN MUSIC EDUCATION

We now turn to a discussion of new kinds of musical instrument ensemble

that are finding their way into music education. The view presented is
general, covering formal settings at all levels as well as nonformal and
informal settings, and various kinds of learner involvement with ensembles,
direct and indirect. We consider innovation pathways in the realm of
instrumental ensemble education, which seem to travel from less formal to
more formal settings and from outside to inside music education practices.
Instrumental ensemble models from around the world are challenging the
hegemony of the military-industrial models common in music education
contexts (see Campbell, 2004). Impetus for change has come through the
channels of folk music studies and ethnomusicology (see for example, Solis,
2004), the influence of multiculturalism policies, and as a consequence of
the increasing availability and affordability of digital gadgets and
technologies. We examine three aspects of new ensemble developments—
strategies, features, and benefits (to an extent these fields overlap)—from the
points of view of what is already taking place in music education as well as
potential developments.
Strategies employed are either the adaptation of existing ensemble models
or the importation of new models. An example of the former is the Allegro
Orchestras of Orange County, New York.13 This learning program of four
string ensembles catering for different skill levels engages its performers,
often through collaborative performances, with music from outside the
standard string orchestra repertoire, such as traditional Irish music14 or
challenging arrangements of popular music styles. Composers, including
members of BCM International consortium, have also contributed to
reconceptualizing existing ensembles. Jim Bonney’s Chaos Theory, for
example, is a concerto for electric guitar and wind orchestra.15 The potential
of this approach for music education can be seen in professional ensembles
such as Respectable Groove, which combines early music and jazz;16
Fireworks Ensemble, a classical chamber ensemble that includes electric and
bass guitar and plays the music of Frank Zappa, Stravinsky, Johann Strauss,
and the Bee Gees;17 the Dirty Dozen, Rebirth, and Youngblood Brass Bands
(and numerous related groups such as Groove Hammers Brass Band in
Moscow and Men in Blech in Germany, and the trombone shout band
originating in the African-American church); and the Kronos Quartet, which
has redefined the string quartet, in terms of instrumentation, repertoire, and
playing techniques.
An example of importing a new model is the now widespread
incorporation into education contexts around the world of West African
drumming ensembles and (to a lesser extent) marimba ensembles based on
southern African models. African drumming tuition offerings are nearly
ubiquitous, with all manner of workshops and even drum-learning tourism
opportunities becoming popular. As they deliver this tuition West African
musicians in the diaspora grapple with pedagogical issues dictated by the
new settings within which they are working (see for example, Corney, 2007).
Educators working in Australia who have either developed their own
marimba variants, music, and musical arrangements (or even notation forms)
include John Madin, Gerard Van De Geer, and Linsey Pollak (whose
Humarimba and Big Marimba have been employed, the former extensively,
in nonformal settings).18
The commercially successful Blue Man Group and Stomp shows have had
some impact on popularizing found object ensembles in music education
settings. A forerunner was the more sophisticated and experimental New
Zealand ensemble From Scratch, which drew some inspiration from Pacific
Island musical cultures. The potential of found object ensemble music-
making is as yet largely unrealized within music education, however.
Australian instrument designer and educator Steve Langton, for example,
has over many years conceived, developed, and successfully implemented
extremely imaginative instrument-based learning programs, both in Australia
and overseas, including ones for very young children and the aged. His
innovations (documented on his website Hubub Music)19 hold considerable
potential for music education worldwide yet remain underrecognized.
Electronica musician Amon Tobin’s soundtrack for the video game
Infamous indicates some of the digital possibilities of the approach for the
enterprising and imaginative teacher.20 With software such as MixCraft or
GarageBand it is possible to record and mix found sounds into compositions
and to align these with video footage. The Netherlands’ Max Vandervorst
(composer of Symphony for Abandoned Objects—see his MySpace page)
collaborated with African musicians to form the ensemble PatAfrica in early
2010. PatAfrica combines often extremely simple or basic homemade
instruments with musical process such as hocketing, ostinati, rhythmic
grooves, and basic blues-based melodic improvisation to produce organic-
sounding ensemble music that has the potential to involve musicians of a
range of technical abilities. Such ideas could be used as a source of
inspiration for establishing a unique school instrumental ensemble.
Ethnomusicology (as noted) has generally led the way in bringing world
ensembles into universities and colleges; schools have been slower to follow
the trend. An interesting phenomenon is the incorporation into education
settings of new kinds of nontraditional multicultural ensemble (a sort of
blending of our two strategies). Harvard University’s Dudley House World
Music Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble are examples.21
Another example of the two strategies overlapping is the Baltimore Consort,
which offered an innovative way of combining historically informed
performance with folk music. Helicon, a trio formed by some Baltimore
Consort members founded in 1986, played an early form of world/traditional
chamber music, another approach not yet capitalized on within music
education.22

An Example from Practice

In the late 1990s, one of us (Webb) established a world music ensemble at
the school where he had been teaching for several years. The ensemble,
named Worldview, was formed with a number of senior students who were
technically and expressively competent instrumentalists (and who could
also sing). The aim was to bring together instruments and sounds that had
counterparts in many musics of the world (recorders, steel and nylon string
guitars, violin, double bass, flute, clarinet, trumpet, percussion). This
instrumentation provided the ensemble with a degree of flexibility of sound
and repertoire. The group’s repertoire was based on the teacher’s (and
ensemble members’) original transcriptions and arrangements of various
folk and traditional music pieces. Taking into account players’ motivation
as well as audience interest, the repertoire came to include items of
Klezmer, Congolese, Armenian, Bosnian, Irish and English folk,
Senegalese, Algerian, South American, Asturian, Brazilian, and Aboriginal
music. In the early stages we arranged some pieces from a published
collection by the ensemble Helicon (Bullock, Norman, & Kolodner, 1995).
We worked from our own transcribed scores, and these were usually fairly
basic and mainly melodic, with harmony parts (including chords), ostinati,
and rhythms sketched in as a reminder. We endeavored to memorize our
repertoire. The young players had to pay close attention to musical nuance
in learning to perform such a diverse range of music. In the process they
became musically flexible and exercised considerable imagination.
Worldview players made steady progress toward learning new ways to
produce vibrato, new kinds of ornamentation, new ways to bend notes,
ways to modify their tone and new ways to blend (in order to sound like an
accordion, for example), how to improvise, how to arrange for the
ensemble, how to transcribe music, new tuning systems, and in the case of
our flautist and our violinist, how to play a new instrument: the Irish flute
and the fiddle, respectively.23

Music education could more fully explore the ongoing global reinvention
of the Klezmer ensemble as well as nonethnic specific models such as the
chamber folk-pop-minimalist ensemble Penguin Café Orchestra (now
performing as Music From Penguin Cafe),24 and Australia’s Spaghetti
Western Orchestra, which theatrically combines film score and foley.25
“Composer ensembles” (or bands) are another model flexible in
instrumentation with potential for music education. Examples of these
include the ensembles of Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Steve Martland,
Geoff Smith, Combustion Chamber (the Netherlands), the Sunwrae
Ensemble (Melbourne), and Topology (Brisbane).
The three general features (or results) of new ensembles being drawn into
educational settings are an extending of the range of musical genres
represented in educational and learning settings, the increased presence of
blended (and the blending of) musical genres and pedagogies within
education, and the increased use of digital technology and multimedia in
such settings. In addition to the more conventional kinds of classical, light
classical, and popular music ensemble common in formal educational
settings, as we have seen, ensembles from a variety of musical cultures and
genres are becoming established in schools and colleges. More common
examples now found around the world include Trinidadian steel band,
Mexican mariachi band, and Indonesian gamelan (Balinese, Javanese, or
other) ensembles. In Australia the taiko drum ensemble TaikOz has
successfully built a comprehensive educational program operating in a
number of formal and nonformal settings.26
The Musica Viva in Schools program in Australia conveys an idea of the
kinds of musical ensemble genre blending now making its way into
education (see the Musica Viva website performers’ menu).27 These kinds of
musical hybrid ensembles are not yet common as student ensembles within
Australian schools; rather, they are a feature of musical life more generally
and an indication of how musical developments flow into education settings
through visiting performer workshop programs. Regarding ensembles and
digital technology and multimedia, at the technically and technologically
advanced end of a spectrum is the University of Michigan’s Digital Music
Ensemble;28 at the more generally achievable (yet nonetheless resource- and
skill-intensive) end is the Deep Blue Orchestra (another example of the
adaptation of an existing ensemble model mentioned above), developed in
Queensland, Australia.29
Opening up instrumental ensemble possibilities in music education offers
the benefit of greater inclusivity both from a cultural point of view and in the
ways proficiency requirements and even motivation, for example, are
challenged as barriers to entry and involvement. Capitalizing on the rising
popularity of the smartphone, Ge Wang established a mobile phone orchestra
(MoPhO) at Stanford University. MoPhO invites involvement at multiple
levels. In addition to performing, ensemble members are engaged in
designing components of the instruments (such as wearable speakers), as
well as planning interactions between musicians and instruments, and
composing and improvising.30 Composer Jakub Ciupinsky and the
Metropolis Ensemble have also explored the democratizing possibilities of
making music with smartphones and laptops while challenging definitions of
audience-performer roles.31 New ensembles or ensemble approaches offer
other benefits as well: they challenge musical elitism (but can also replace
old with new elitisms), offer possibilities for music therapy settings (the
gamelan has been successfully used this way, for example see Loth, 2006),
offer an alternative to jazz ensembles as a context for improvisation, and
contribute to ongoing redefinitions of musicianship.

EXPANDING CONCEPTIONS OF MUSICIANSHIP

As noted, music genre and pedagogical mode are so strongly linked that it
can almost be asserted that genre and pedagogy are mutually constitutive. In
this section we explore the nexus of musical genre, pedagogy, and
musicianship, in the context of musical instrument ensembles and creative
music-making more generally. This relatedness is instantly grasped when
one considers the ensemble pedagogy of Nordic folk musician and educator
David Kaminsky. Kaminsky states that with “many Nordic tunes, learning
the correct rhythms from sheet music alone is a technical impossibility”;
hence his ensemble students learn tunes aurally (Kaminsky, n.d.). “In nearly
all folk music traditions, it is the traditional way of learning,” he explains,
and teaching this way “improves general listening skills, which have other
applications with respect to musicality and arrangement.”
Russell (2004) observes that when we “negotiate the borders of our many
[musical] worlds [we] remain open to alternative definitions of music and
musicianship.” Under conditions of musical and pedagogical pluralism, an
expansion of musicianship can occur as Kaminsky’s practice suggests. This
is the potential inherent in Aubert’s “new order” noted at the outset, the key
characteristic of which is pluralism. Best sees pluralism as the route to “true
learning”: “All true learning,” he explains, “requires that inquiry be made
into multiple options,” teaching beyond what is “already believed in, known,
or personally pleasurable while ignoring, not tolerating, or even ridiculing
the opposites” (1993, p. 69). Certainly, we can move beyond the simplistic
binaries of “classical” and “popular” (and of either standard or “extended”
musical techniques) that has characterized much of music education practice
in the recent past.
Musical pluralism—border negotiation—can be embarked on by
following various musical pathways. At the global level, composer Tan Dun,
a leading classical music figure internationally, states, “I want to develop a
cross-cultural idea that brings nature and classical music, ancient and
modern, together” (quoted in Mangum). The Kronos Quartet, as another
example, has forged an expanded musical language, working from the
contemporary art music of George Crumb, for example, to embrace a wide
range of musical genres and a variety of contemporary musicians, including
minimalism, contemporary African art music, Jimi Hendrix, Icelandic rock
band Sigur Rós, Thelonius Monk, Bollywood film music, the blues of Blind
Willie Johnson, Mexican folk music, the popular music of Ramallah
Underground and Amon Tobin, and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tangiq.
Developing their musical language has involved working with both new and
old musical instrument technologies (including simulating the blues slide
guitar, or using effects pedals) and forging new conceptions of rhythm, pitch,
and timbre.
At the local level, music education has much to learn about fruitfully
operating within and around the complex musical realities characteristic of
the present and immediate future from the practices and thinking of
Australian musician Linsey Pollak,32 who works mostly in nonformal
education contexts. In terms of composition, Pollak’s extensive engagement
with Macedonian and other eastern European music systems has led him to
develop a personal musical idiolect characterized by his employment of
drones, modes, and “invented” scales, additive meters and textures,
heterophony, hocketing, ornamentation, improvisation, microtones, and a
sense of musical groove influenced by jazz and popular music.
Pollak works within what might be called a world-and-folk musical
framework; at the same time, he organically integrates digital technology
into his performances, compositional processes, and educational work. In
one example of the latter he educates about species diversity by way of an
interactive sound sculpture installation he calls Squirt. Audience members
are invited to trigger sound samples of native frog calls against a background
loop groove, by variously (and rhythmically) squirting 12 large two-
dimensional fluoro acrylic frogs with water.
Linsey Pollak’s music performances are experimental and inventive,
skeptical of purism, often based around found or everyday objects, and
strongly theatrical, employing lighting, costume, and performance personas.
There is also a democratic and nonspecialist concentration on creativity and
skills development in much of his work. With the ensemble QWERTY, for
example, he has pioneered performance improvisation as a way of
challenging audience perceptions of human disability by incorporating
spontaneous songwriting with a lyricist who cannot communicate by
speech.33 Through 30 years of research, musical instrument invention,
performance, teaching, composing, and music publication, Pollak has pushed
himself to expand his musical skills and musicianship, and is an exemplar
musician of the global digital age.

CONCLUSION

The widespread accelerated cultural and technological change of the current

era offers music education a spectacularly diverse and potentially
bewildering range of options for the developments and innovations
necessary to meet the needs of emerging student populations. Music
education is directing its efforts toward understanding both pedagogy (see,
for example, the website Music Futures)34 and musicianship (see, for
example, Leong, 2003; O’Flynn, 2005; Webb, 2008). In this chapter we have
provided one account of the sorts of changes taking place in the realm of
musical instrument pedagogy, both in global musical life generally and in
music education more specifically. Various types of pedagogical bricolage
(where any of a range, and even all, of the available and known means of
transmission are being alternated and combined) are now employed to
motivate and meet the needs of today’s students. This development is taking
place within the broader arena of musical pluralism. The related flow into
music education of new kinds of instrumental ensemble is presenting
opportunities for the expanding of current conceptions of musicianship.
Music education is at another critical crossroad, and we need to be
resourceful in transmitting intact the treasured cultural heritage of our
diverse musical traditions even as we train the creators of future traditions.

REFLECTIVE QUESTION
 1. Is it ever really possible to successfully adapt transmission modes specific to one genre or style
of music to another and at the same time preserve the unique character and “feel” of that music?
(Think: informal learning applied to classical music; classical music transmission modes applied
to popular music.) Discuss examples of the results for music in school settings when this has
been attempted in a sustained way.
2. Search for several examples of how digital tools are stretching conventional definitions of the
musician and of musical skills. Consider some of the implications of this redefining process for
music education.
3. Bernadette Colley refers to the prevailing paradigm in ensemble education of band, orchestra,
and chorus, which we inherited from the military, aristocracy, and church, respectively, as “the
trilogy.” Think of a range of sound educational, social, and cultural reasons why it might now be
productive to transform this trilogy, as she puts it.

KEY SOURCES

Campbell, P. (2003). Teaching music globally: Experiencing music, expressing culture. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Colley, B. (2009). Educating teachers to transform the trilogy. Journal of Music Teacher Education 19,
56–67.
Cottrell, S. (2007). Local bimusicality among London’s freelance musicians. Ethnomusicology, 51(1),
85–105.
Finney, J., & P. Burnard. (2007). Music education with digital technology. London & New York:
Continuum International.
Wade, B. (2008). Thinking musically: Experiencing music, expressing culture. (2nd ed.). New York:
Oxford University Press.
 NOTES

1. We borrow this usage of the term “transmission” from ethnomusicology, to convey “a

concentration not on place but on the passing of musical knowledge from one person to another”
(Stock, 2003, p. 139), since we are discussing some of the ways traditional music education has
begun (and is likely to continue) to benefit from considering a wide range of learning and teaching
settings beyond its common locations.
2. See http://thereallyterribleorchestra.com/wordpress/about/about-us/
3. See http://weekendwarriors.org.au
4. See http://oldtownschool.org/classes/adults/ [accessed November 21, 2017].
5. Webb (2008, pp. 19–21, 36–39) attempts something similar (albeit less detailed and less nuanced)
at the level of overview.
6. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzqumbhfxRo [accessed November 21, 2017].
7. See http://www.choralnet.org/view/234978 [accessed November 21, 2017].
8. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC4FAyg64OI&feature=channel [accessed November 21,
2017].
9. See http://ejamming.com/ [accessed November 21, 2017].
10. See http://www.nowplayit.com/about/
11. See http://www.showmehowtoplay.com/home.php Showmehowtoplay claims to be “expanding
into the classical market [and] Secondary Schools music curriculum” (see http://frdm.co.uk/show-
me-how-to-play/ [accessed November 21, 2017].
12. See https://www.humanbeatbox.com http://www.humanbeatbox.com/tips/p2_articleid/231
[accessed November 21, 2017].
13. See http://www.allegrofestivals.com/ (retrieved February 19, 2010).
14. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2QEFvewS_c [accessed November 21, 2017].
15. See http://jimbonney.com
16. See http://respectablegroove.co.uk
17. See http://fireworksensemble.org
18. See http://linseypollak.com/wordpress/?page_id=193 [accessed November 21, 2017].
19. See http://www.hubbubmusic.org/ [accessed November 21, 2017].
20. See http://www.wired.com/video/events/e3/10178242001/amon-tobin-and-beans-make-infamous-
music/24993155001 (retrieved February 22, 2010).
21. See http://www.silkroadproject.org/Education/EducationOverview/tabid/170/Default.aspx
22. See the Helicon album, The Titan: Traditional Music from Around the World. Dorian DIS-80115.
23. A version of this account appeared in Webb (2008, p. 29).
24. See http://penguincafe.com
25. See http://www.spaghettiwesternorchestra.com/
26. See http://www.taikoz.com/ [accessed November 21, 2017].
27. See http://www.musicaviva.com.au/education/performers [accessed November 21, 2017].
28. See http://www.music.umich.edu/current_students/perf_opps/dme/index.html [accessed November
21, 2017].
29. See http://www.deepblueorchestra.com/ [accessed November 21, 2017].
30. See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/technology/05orchestra.html [accessed November 21,
2017].
31. See https://metropolisensemble.org
32. See http://www.linseypollak.com/ [accessed November 21, 2017].
33. A radio documentary, In the key of carrot, based on Linsey Pollak’s work is available for audio
download at (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic/stories/2009/2694389.htm [accessed
 November 21, 2017]. Also the episode, “First get a goat,” of the Internet resource, Pure Drop
(http://thepuredrop.com.au/ep_goat/ [accessed 21 February, 2010]).
34. See http://www.musicalfutures.org/ [accessed November 21, 2017].

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Campbell, P. (2004). Teaching music globally: Experiencing music, expressing culture. New York:
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Music Education, 20(2), 135–145.
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http://www.musicalfutures.org.uk/resource/27457.
 CHAPTER 14

THE ROLE OF BODILY MOVEMENT IN

LEARNING AND PERFORMING
MUSIC: APPLICATIONS FOR
EDUCATION

JANE W. DAVIDSON

Musical instrument performance requires complex physical and mental

control and fluency. In addition to the execution of the music, there is a
substantial expressive knowledge requirement: a meaning that needs to be
shared between coperformers and then communicated to the audience. The
different layers of skills require refinement through the development of
musical knowledge and performance skills brought about by good teaching
and learning and focused practice. Indeed, it has been established that
reaching professional proficiency on the Western classical violin needs to
be supported with somewhere in the region of 10,000 hours of amassed
practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993), usually undertaken
with extensive support from teachers, parents, and peers (Davidson, Howe
& Sloboda, 1997).
This chapter explores the fundamental role of bodily movement in the
development of musical knowledge and performance skills. In particular,
how the body can be used to understand expressive musical material and to
communicate that meaning to coperformers and audience. Since this
volume is focused on music education, the relevance to the educator is
explored (whether working with a child or adult beginner or more advanced
learner). The chapter is divided into six main sections, tracing the role of
body movement skill in music production, expressive musical performance,
developing learners to play their musical instruments with technical and
expressive appropriateness, coperformer coordination, and projection for
audience perception. The work builds on a growing interest in the embodied
nature of musical experience, and concludes with case study observations of
practical insights and applications for the teacher.

PHYSICAL SKILLS ACQUISITION

The musician provides a physical realization of musical ideas that is

achieved either by reproducing something previously heard and translating
it into actions on a musical instrument, or by generating outputs in an
improvisation, or, as experienced most typically in Western classical music,
reading information from a score and translating it into performed action on
the musical instrument. To achieve these ends, performers develop mental
representations (motor plans) that translate information into performed
action. As learners develop and progress, motor plans are constructed, are
strengthened, and become integrated into memory over time.
Understanding how these motor plans are organized—owing to a vast
potential array of bone, muscle, and nerve impulses that creates actions—
has been an ongoing source of challenge to researchers, especially in terms
of how and why certain combinations occur. Pioneering research by
Bernstein (1967) theorized that motor programs operate for classes of
movements. Since these initial ideas, many researchers have attempted to
account for movement systems, with ensuing models ranging from the brain
operating as a central executive to control movements, to ideas where
movements are themselves self-organizing (see Dahl, 2006). To date, there
are no definitive answers for how these models may best represent motor
programs function. Best available knowledge for music educators is that
motor programs take time and effort to embed into memory, and finding
strategies to optimize their acquisition is necessary.
Embedded strategies permit fluency of movement, with the resulting
performance movements seeming effortless, owing to the automaticity of
the elaborated motor plans. A high degree of automation can only be
achieved through extensive practice, and when this occurs, the performer’s
conscious thought is relatively “free” from motor control management to
deal with moment-by-moment modifications that may be necessary as the
music is being performed (see Lehmann & Davidson, 2002, for further
detail).
Generating and embedding motor programs in memory can be enhanced
through good learning and practicing techniques, aiming for the
development of technical skill, which ideally minimizes extraneous
movement or the forming of bad postural habits. Such habits can either lead
to physical health problems and injury or the development of unappealing
physical “tics” that can be distracting to both audience and coperformers
alike. The techniques need also to impart core musical skills such as being
able to read notation, and to imagine musical sound in advance of execution
to facilitate musical factors such as good intonation and accurate rhythmic
pulse.
Owing to the complexity of the physical and intellectual tasks, the efforts
of the beginner, for example the violinist, are cumbersome. Actions are
slow, demonstrating the high level of conscious effort necessary to
coordinate the physical and mental operations required to hold the
instrument in position, place the left hand on the fingerboard in a manner
that can enable the depression of the strings, and manage the right hand and
arm in a manner to support the weight and movement of the bow. The
beginner’s conscious thoughts are fully occupied with the management of
the instrument, so there is limited cognitive capacity available for any other
moment-by-moment matters such as expressive interpretative work (see
Lehmann, Sloboda & Woody, 2007).
Finding ways for teachers to enhance learning processes for musicians is
crucial. In this volume, including this part, much advice is offered about
appropriate teaching styles and practice techniques as well as ways to
stimulate learner motivation necessary for the extended practice required.
Making learning enjoyable and sufficiently stimulating is a key to success,
equipping the learner to leave the lesson or coaching session able to invest
in the time required to develop and refine his skills—often through
carefully distributed and highly focused practice. Factors influencing the
learner’s capacity are his stage of physical and intellectual development;
capacity to concentrate in order to learn; overall anatomy (whether long and
lean or short and stocky); and the instrument being learned (cello versus
flute, for instance, which also influences learning progress). Thus, teaching
and practice approaches may result in a quicker positive result for one
individual learner over another, while some instruments are easier to
progress on than others. So, in aiming for bodily skill in music learning, the
teacher needs awareness of the many layers contributing to this process. In
addition to aiming to achieve an ideal posture. optimal physical technique
and control, and developing the capacity to either improvise, or read,
understand, and play from music notation (where appropriate), the teacher
needs also to be able to provide the learner with the capacity to play with
musical expression: the often subtle deviations from the strict metrical
pulse, dynamic, and intonation inflexions that give the music its
individuality and provide a key to the communicative aspect of
performance. This expression provides affective information for the
perceiver. To achieve an expressive performance, knowledge of the body is
of central importance.

EMBODYING MUSICAL EXPRESSION

To gain an understanding of musical expression, Henry Shaffer undertook

pioneering work in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. His focus was on
piano performance, owing largely to the emergent technology developed
through Seashore’s (1969) light-sensor piano keyboard and translated into
the midi keyboard that was developed in the Yamaha digital grand and
upright piano available in the 1980s. Through digital recording, Shaffer
(1982, 1984) was able to record the loudness and duration of key presses
and thus explore musical dynamics and deviations in timing from a strict
pulse. Shaffer (1984) found that two elements of motor programming
coexisted in piano performance: profiles directly related to simple
execution, and deviations in timing and dynamics for musically enhancing
effects. The same principles have been found to apply to different
instruments and styles of performances (Lehmann, Sloboda & Woody
2007).
Returning to the classical piano, where the majority of expressive
performance research is still focused, a detailed study of Schumann’s piece
“Träumerei” (Repp, 1992) reveals that factors such as the structure of the
work, including location of an upbeat, phrase direction, and cadence points,
all shape where expressive variation is incorporated within a performance.
Aiming to pinpoint expressive similarities and differences between 28
performances of the famous piano work by 24 pianists who all performed
internationally and who recorded the work commercially during the period
1935–88, Repp found a very strong relationship between musical structure
(hierarchical grouping structures of the work) and expressive possibility.
There was, of course, individual variation, with Alfred Cortot and Valdimir
Horowitz being the most individualized in their interpretations. Repp found
one overarching stylistic variation over time: the performances from the
1930s were faster than the more recent ones. In other words, there had been
a shift in cultural taste about what constituted an ideal duration for the
work.
Subsequent work by Todd (1992, 1995) and Friberg and Sundberg (1999)
has shown that the slowing associated with “good expression,” particularly
that which features toward the end of a musical phrase, can be linked to the
properties of the deceleration associated with adults slowing down and
stopping after running. This type of finding clearly links the trajectory of
timing expression used over a musical phrase to basic human movement
trajectories such as increasing pace, maintaining it, slowing, and stopping.
So it is not surprising, as the following section will demonstrate, that
pedagogues have drawn on techniques including human locomotion to
impart understanding of how to achieve and communicate expressive
melodic line and effects such as rubato.

TEACHING MUSIC THROUGH MOVEMENT

It has been commented on that we tend to use movement metaphors to offer

advice about shaping phrases and playing musically. In fact, pedagogically,
excellent techniques have developed to aid such learning, with the work of
Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950) being at the core of even the most
recent music education work. In a reinterpretation of the original proposals,
where musical concepts and movement are combined, Dell (2010) works on
developing strategies to embody musical understanding and execution in
physical exercises for learning violinists. To develop both rhythmic
concepts and bow grip, she encourages beginners to sway rhythmically to a
slow beat and pass a bow around a group, each person taking the bow in a
precise and accurate hold and within the framework of the music. This is an
adaptation of Dalcroze’s ball bouncing and passing game, in which the
control is determined by the group—in this case a shared embodied
rhythmic pulse that is established as the ball bounces or is passed from
individual to individual around the group.
Another practical strategy Dell discusses in her paper is David Frego’s
Alphabet Game (in Dell, 2010, p. 32), which encourages students to walk
continuously through space while working on a steady beat, to strengthen
movement coordination and musical rhythm patterns. For example, a
student may begin with left hand on left shoulder, then stretch out the left
arm with the palm of the hand facing up, and say “A.” They then do the
same with the right arm, saying “one,” and so on up to the end of the
alphabet and up to the count of 26. The student does this walking at a set
speed and moves her arms as if imitating the piston and wheel connectors of
a train. After these exercises, the game is elaborated through modifications
to timing groupings, changing both the rhythms and the movements and
movement directions of the participants. A variation to the game is for the
learner to use arms and fingers as if she were playing her instrument, but
keeping the overall body movement constant.
It is certain that Dalcroze and his followers did not and have not used
objective means to analyze the physical relationship between the timing
trajectory of a musical phrase and that of a runner accelerating, maintaining
a speed, and then slowing to stop. But the games described above do link
well with the observation that there is a relationship between human
movement trajectories and musical expression. The success of pedagogical
work that incorporates physical skills and musical concepts can be said to
account for the fact that music has a core expressive component that is
necessarily communicated in human action.
It is important to stress, however, that technical fluency and expressive
goals relating to the communication of structure are not the only roles of
bodily movement in musical performance.

EXPRESSIVE GRAMMARS

Studies of different musicians and their use of expressive movements (see

Davidson, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2006) reveal that some
movements that are used in high-level performance have a function similar
to the range of physical gestures that accompany speech. For example, a
violinist may use a rotational swirl of shoulders and upper torso during the
course of a phrase and then terminate the phrase with a strong down-bow
action with accompanying head nod. The expressive gesture is incorporated
into the movement program required to play the phrase. The shoulder
rotation, torso swirl, and head nod seem to “contain” the musical phrase,
emphasizing its statement. This occurs just as we may use a hand gesture to
contain/delimit a topic we are referring to in speech. Thus, emphatic
meaning is brought to the phrase owing to the bodily gesture used in its
production. This is evidently a two-way process: the movement by the
performer is used to generate meaning for him, and this in turn has a
representational meaning for a spectator viewing the performance.
Gestures also enable communication and coordination between
coperformers. Davidson and Good (2002) investigated the movements of a
string quartet and noted that nods and glances were used strategically to
regulate the performance: to coordinate entries, to direct a player to lead a
section. Clayton (2007a, 2007b) found the same in classical Indian music,
but in this instance, gestural signs such as appreciative head shaking and
rising hand gestures from the audience were used to direct and encourage
the performers.
Gestures are evidently crucial parts of human communication systems,
and research shows that they are in part common across all humans, but
heavily socially and culturally determined. So just as in speech Italians are
found to gesticulate more than Finns, so in pop music, performers are found
to make specific types of expressive gestures that differ from those of
classical musicians. Detailed research of both classical and pop singing
(Davidson, 2001, 2006) found that popular music performance included
more display and audience-focused gestures than classical singing. The
classical singing was more directly related to the communication of the
narrative content of the song or technical control of the voice. Studying
herself in classical solo vocal performance, Davidson found that she used
(1) emphatic hand and head gestures to bring strength of meaning to the
sung text and containment to musical phrases; (2) illustrative gestures, such
as using her hand to represent the action of her soft palette lifting as she
approached a high note; and (3) emblematic gestures, such as placing her
right hand onto the left side of her chest, to represent her “heartfelt
emotion” in a particularly tender phrase. The pop musicians used such
devices, but also display gestures, serving the function of showing their
status on the stage—large gestures with both arms outstretched, appealing
for audience gaze and applause, arms lifted and stretched out toward the
audience, as if directing the energy of the song toward them. We know from
history that in earlier times opera singers were also more inclined to use
such display techniques.
As well as variations in musical genres and cultural traditions, individual
style couples with teaching methods to influence bodily practices in music
performance. Indeed, in certain types of performance it is possible to state
what type of movement-focused instruction has been given. Anecdotally,
for instance, I have been able to identify the students of my colleagues by
the way not only they hold their instruments, but by the expressive gestures
employed. One violin teacher trains the students to bounce as they play, to
prevent their knees from locking and causing tension and stiffness in the
body that could transfer into the sound. The students are highly
recognizable when observed in class or on stage.
In order to demonstrate the relevance of information provided above to
practical contexts, three vignettes follow that describe lessons and/or
practice: one with a child beginner being trained to play the clarinet; one
with a young adult of advanced technique undertaking solo practice; and a
piano duet in rehearsal and performance.

VIGNETTES

Vignette 1
Ruby, nine years old, clarinetist studying at school in a one-on-one lesson.
Length of time playing: 11 months.
As Ruby finishes playing through a piece she was given in her last lesson,
the teacher is sitting on a chair close to Ruby, watching and listening to this
first play-through for the teacher. The simple piece falters in places and is
played generally loud, but possesses rhythmic rigor and is communicated
with bold confidence. Ruby sits back on her chair as she plays, swinging
her left leg to and fro in time with the music. After her play-through
finishes, Ruby listens and watches attentively as the teacher does several
things. (1) She demonstrates without speaking a centered seating posture
with both feet on the floor. The sitting position favored by the teacher keeps
the buttocks firmly on the center of the chair, with the legs and knees
forming a 90-degree angle to the floor, legs hip-width apart and the feet in
parallel, firmly planted on the floor. (2) The teacher also corrects a note by
pointing to it in the score, and then demonstrating “an accurate version” by
playing it herself and clearly modeling a fingering of it. After this, the
teacher gestures to Ruby to “go again.” Ruby thinks for a second or two and
then, in silence, wiggles into a better sitting position and presses the key
combination for the new note. She then scans the score, and counts herself
in. As she plays and approaches the note to be corrected, her eyes dart
between the score and her fingers until she hits the note; it squeaks, and so
she stops playing. The teacher gently suggests that Ruby should just play
the note a few times. Ruby adjusts her sitting position again, shuffling and
altering her posture to sit even more upright—like her teacher—then plays
the note carefully, four times in a row.
Next, the teacher suggests that Ruby might like to help the teacher know
how to perform the phrase by “conducting the piece with arm movements
that follow the shape of the music.” Ruby does this three times. The first
time, the teacher sings the phrase; the second time the teacher plays the
phrase—both performances are quite restrained, reflecting Ruby’s small
gestures. The third time, the teacher asks Ruby to show her the shape of the
phrase as clearly as she can in this sort of sign language of conducting. This
time the phrase is given a shape moving from soft (small and smooth
movements) through a crescendo (larger movements created with a more
jerky arm production) to a ralentando toward the final note. Both laugh as
they finish, Ruby being especially pleased with the result. They then swap
conductor/player roles twice. Ruby now plays the phrase accurately,
expressively, and in good physical alignment.

Commentary
It is evident that the teacher was able to introduce technical and musical
matters with some very simple but engaging physical movement. She was
also able to correct the sloppy posture with a minimum of fuss. The social
interaction in the leading and following conducting game helped to
establish a new stage in Ruby’s grasp of the piece. It also offered a key idea
about musical phrasing more generally. It was evident from the start of the
vignette that Ruby was trying to think in sound, listening through the piece
in her head before starting to play, and trying the new motor program
(fingering arrangement) before having to put it into action within the far
stricter parameters of the musical rhythm.
In this vignette we see two kinds of body movement work in action:
movements to secure technical and sound, and movements to enhance
musical effectiveness.

Vignette 2
William, 24 years old, and a university graduate studying clarinet, is
undertaking solo practice for a forthcoming public chamber music recital of
Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire.” Length of time playing: 14 years.
William is standing a good 1.5 meters away from his music stand and score.
He is playing the Waltz de Chopin from the first section of the famous work
for chamber ensemble and reciter. In this movement, the clarinet has a
soaring solo. William focuses on the piece’s climax: a repeated rising
arpeggiated passage that builds in momentum on each repetition until the
clarinet bursts out high over the top of the instrumental ensemble. As he
plays, the bell of his clarinet rises and swings out in an increasingly wild
rotation, he sways in clockwise motion, sometimes smoothly, sometimes in
an urgent forward surge. His body is highly active, knees bending and
straightening, arms and elbows moving forward, as if ready to fly. The
musical impact is highly impressive: a burst of energy within the precise
timing structure of the music, and following the score dynamic indications
precisely. When asked to comment about his performance, he notes: “My
teacher is much stiller than me in practice and performance, but he’s a
different sort of guy. He tells me that I move a lot, but he’s cool with what I
do. I like to get into the music, bring it to life through my body. I seem to
need that sort of total commitment to make it work. I moderate the extent
and type of movement I do according to the style of the work I’m learning
and performing. In this piece, the musical material is so gestural and
physical, I just go with it. I love the feeling of making this music work for
me.”

Commentary
The energy and commitment displayed in this practice session was
mesmeric, the overall movements strengthening the musical gestures.
However, William was moving a lot, and he was also standing to play. In
the ensemble context, he would be sitting and be much more part of a
collective, and so forced to be stiller, as the display of individualism would
not be so appropriate. We could ask whether such a degree of movement is
“necessary,” and in line with the idea of a technical smoothness. The answer
might be no. But William wanted to foreground his own sense of who he
was as a performer and how important movement was for his interpretation:
he allowed his movements to be free/wild/spontaneous so as to infuse his
playing with energy and intensity and a sense of fresh newness. The
vignette demonstrates that there is a degree of personal freedom in the
decision to use movement for expressive effect and that decisions are
context dependent. He would not perhaps have made such lavish strong
gestures in a work based on slow legato pianissimo and composed during
the baroque period. It is also important to note that Vines et al. (2005a,
2005b) and Wanderley et al. (2005) have noted that clarinetists are prone to
make these circular type movements. Davidson (2002) has hypothesized
that this is because they use their fulcrum as a point around which they
generate their expressive body movement, and a circular swaying motion is
in fact the most natural and efficient way to do this.

Vignette 3
Alasdair and Richard are pianists playing piano duets together. They are
young, highly advanced players. They are encountered at first rehearsal;
five weeks later at their final rehearsal immediately before their
performance; and in their lunchtime concert. The work focused on is
Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5 in a duet arrangement.

First Rehearsal
The rehearsal has been running for about an hour when the pianists pick up
the Brahms score. They exchange a few pleasantries about how much they
both like the work. Alasdair, playing primo, looks at Richard and makes
small pulsing movements with his right hand in a conducting position.
Richard nods, and they start playing. Without stopping but with a few
hesitations here and there, they sight-read through the work, occasionally
laughing as they bump into one another’s shoulders, in an attempt to adapt
to the close-proximity sitting. There is little conversation afterward, simply
comments like “We’ll need to sort out one or two glitches with tempo
changes.” “Not too bad to read.” They do not consider bodily movement or
their interactions, but it is clear that they are conscious of one another in the
space as they play. There is very little interaction as they play through.

Week 5: Final Run-Through

In run-through, there is a huge change. Alasdair, the generally stiller pianist,
shows a clear change in his playing manner. He is moving much more, now
in a side-by-side action with Richard: two moving as one. There is also
evidence of head nods, raised hand gestures, and glances being used to
synchronize the playing as they make micro tempo changes and adjust to
the dynamic variations they are monitoring though the course of the piece.

Week 5: Performance
In addition to the tightly coordinated movements that synchronize both
technical and expressive goals, the two now display additional movements:
the biggest gestures, with more hand raises, swaying, leaning toward the
audience. It is evident that the audience’s presence is also influencing how
they are moving and how they are using their bodies to project the
performance to the spectators.
The two players are asked about the process of working from the first
rehearsal to the performance, and both are aware of the increasing physical
synchronization, the mutual tuning in to one another’s bodies, styles of
playing, and nonverbal codes of communication.

Commentary
This longer case study, with its snapshots of preparation for performance,
shows how bodily movement assists players to coordinate and
communicate. Here, the two players adapt to one another through a physical
accommodation. Note also that audience communication concerns lead to
different styles of movement than purely coperformer coordinative
concerns. Research by Davidson (2001, 2006) into pop performances shows
that performers do indeed “project” and use “display” gestures specific only
to audience contexts. In addition, audiences are very good at reading
performance codes, and bodily movements assist their enjoyment of the
music and the overall spectacle of the performance (see also work on
classical violinists, Davidson, 1993).
 CONCLUSIONS

The literature explored and the examples given in this chapter demonstrate
how bodily movement plans (motor programs) are necessary to learn and
develop instrumental skills. The research discussed has shown how
technical and expressive elements become cospecified in the motor
programs. In addition to the specification of musical information, there are
also communicative concerns and bodily gestures that provide crucial
sources of perceptual information between coperformers and between them
and the audience.
Examples from music learning techniques of educators, such as those
founded by Dalcroze, demonstrate ways teachers can use bodily movement
actively in the development of musical concepts and the production of a
fluent body to deliver the technical and expressive aspects of playing,
including collaboration. Movement metaphors and analogies can be used to
train learners to play with musical expression.
The vignettes given explore the complex interaction of production and
perception concerns and touch on matters such as the individual stage of
skills development, the role of body movement and gesture in teaching, as
well as coperformer and audience communication. The example of William
shows how personal taste can account for variation in quantity and style of
movement, even when shaped by broader musical structural concerns,
social etiquette, and preferred musical styles of a specific cultural context.
The music educator occupies a powerful role, one in which she can shape
the learner’s approach to music technique, expression, and communication
for understanding and preference in music performance contexts. Equipped
with knowledge of the role of motor programs and their integrative
technical and expressive nature, and an understanding of the power of
bodily movement in coordinating and communicating information, the
music educator should make judicious decisions about how to teach in order
to make best use of the full range of possibilities that bodily movement can
afford.
Here are some ways such ideas can be explored in the studio or
classroom (see also Davidson & Correia, 2002).
 INSTRUMENTAL TECHNIQUE: OPTIMIZING THE BODY

1. Developing effective body alignment, especially in areas of the body where tension can build
owing to how the instrument is held: shoulder, arm, neck, and back. Recommended overall
body techniques for physical alignment: yoga, tai chi, Alexander technique.
2. Aiming for movement fluency and control—physical monitoring for balance of movement,
applying best practice technique on instrument along with some of the physical alignment
techniques listed above. Yoga, tai chi, and Alexander technique are taught in many towns and
cities, and registered teachers can be readily found.

STRUCTURAL/EXPRESSIVE CLARITY USING THE BODY TO IMPROVE

COMMUNICATION

1. Clarifying musical phrase shape—use hands moving in the air to trace the “curve” of the
musical phrase; dance out the musical phrase to feel it in the body.
2. Expressive timing effects without affecting the overall pulse—getting the learner to march in
time with the beat and then dance over the top of that to experience the ebb and flow of the
phrase as it rises and falls and quickens and slows.
3. Dynamic effects—using large (open arm) and small (head nods) gestures and physical
movements such as skips and jumps and experimenting with the student to apply these in
differing degrees of weight in overall movement, and then applying this to the musical context.
4. Exploring the expressive parameters—exaggerating/underplaying movements in order to find
the right level of physical engagement to achieve an optimal musical communication.

COMMUNICATIVE AFFECT USING THE BODY

1. Clarifying coordination between coperformers—explaining/demonstrating the role of

coordinating gestures such as nods and sways to align performers in the same musical time
frame.
2. Heightening the dramatic climax/tension of a musical moment—exploring the role and function
of expressive “display gestures,” such as using a movement flourish or an open-armed gesture
to the audience.

This chapter has illustrated that armed with knowledge of what types of
experimentation can be undertaken, the creative teacher can help the
individual or groups of students being taught to maximize their alignment
and expressive potential of the music performer through the use of an
engaged body.
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. How might body movements related to production of musical sounds be optimized?

2. How might musical expression be optimized using body movement?
3. What role does body movement have in the coordinative and collaborative concerns of
performers?
4. What might you do to aid the student in developing fluent and expressive body movements?

KEY SOURCES

Davidson, J. W. (2006). “She’s the one”: Multiple functions of body movement in a stage
performance by Robbie Williams. In A. Gritten & E. King (eds.), Music and gesture (pp. 208–
226). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Davidson, J. W. (2005). Bodily communication in musical performance. In D. Miell, D. J.
Hargreaves, & R. Macdonald (eds.), Musical communication (pp. 215–238). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Davidson, J. W., & Goodman, E. (2004). Strategies for ensemble performance. In A. Williamon (ed.),
Musical excellence: Strategies and techniques to enhance performance (pp. 105–122). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Davidson, J. W., & Correia, J. S. (2002). Body movement in performance. In R. Parncutt and G. E.
McPherson (eds.), The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for
teaching and learning (pp. 237–250). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

REFERENCES

Bernstein, N. (1967). The coordination and regulation of movements. New York: Pergamon.
Clayton, M. (2007a). Time, gesture and attention in a khyal performance. Asian Music, 38(2), 71–96.
Clayton, M. (2007b). Observing entrainment in music performance: Video-based observational
analysis of Indian musicians’ tanpura playing and beat marking. Musicae Scientiae, 11(1), 27–60.
Davidson, J. W. (1993). Visual perception of performance manner in the movements of solo
musicians. Psychology of Music, 21, 103–113.
Davidson, J. W. (1994). What type of information is conveyed in the body movements of solo
musician performers? Journal of Human Movement Studies, 6, 279–301.
Davidson, J. W. (1995). What does the visual information contained in music performances offer the
observer? Some preliminary thoughts. In R. Steinberg (ed.), Music and the Mind Machine:
Psychophysiology and Psychopathology of the Sense of Music (pp. 105–114). Heidelberg:
Springer.
Davidson, J. W. (1997). The social in musical performance. In D. J. Hargreaves & A. C. North (eds.),
The Social Psychology of Music (pp. 209–228). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davidson, J. W. (2001). The role of the body in the production and perception of solo vocal
performance: A case study of Annie Lennox. Musicaie Scientiae, 5(2), 235–256.
Davidson, J. W. (2002). Understanding the expressive movements of a solo pianist.
Musikpsychologie, 16, 9–31.
Davidson, J. W. (2006). “She’s the one”: Multiple functions of body movement in a stage
performance by Robbie Williams. In A. Gritten & E. King (eds.), Music and gesture (pp. 208–
226). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Davidson J. W., & Correia, J. S. (2002). Body movement in performance. In R. Parncutt & G. E.
McPherson (eds.), The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for
teaching and learning (pp. 237–250). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davidson, J. W., & Good, J. M. M. (2002). Social and musical coordination between members of a
string quartet: An exploratory study. Psychology of Music, 30, 186–201.
Davidson, J. W., Howe, M. J. A., & Sloboda, J. A. (1997). Environmental factors in the development
of musical performance skill in the first twenty years of life. In D. J. Hargreaves & A. C. North
(eds.), The social psychology of music (pp. 188–203). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dahl, S. (2006). Movements and analysis of drumming. In E. Altenmüller, M. Wiesendanger, & J.
Kesselring (eds.), Music, motor control and the brain (pp. 125–138). New York: Oxford
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Dell, C. (2010). Strings got rhythm: A guide to developing rhythmic skills in beginners. Music
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Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Romer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the
acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 363–406.
Friberg, A., & Sundberg, J. (1999). Does music performance allude to locomotion? A model of final
ritardandi derived from measurements of stopping runners. Journal of the Acoustical Society of
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Lehmann, A. C., & Davidson J. W. (2002). Taking an acquired skills perspective on music
performance. In R. Colwell & C. Richardson (eds.), The new handbook of research on music
teaching and learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press: New York.
Lehmann, A. C., Sloboda, J. A., & Woody, R. (2007). Psychology for musicians: Understanding and
acquiring the skills. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Repp, B. H. (1992). Diversity and commonality in music performance: An analysis of timing
microstructure in Schumann’s Träumerei. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 92(5),
2546–2568.
Seashore, C. E. (1969). The psychology of music. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Shaffer, L. H. (1982). Rhythm and skill. Psychological Review, 89, 109–122.
Shaffer, L. H. (1984). Timing in solo and duet piano performances. Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 36, 577–595.
Todd, N. P. M. (1992). The dynamics of dynamics: A model of musical expression. Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America, 91, 3540–3550.
Todd, N. P. M. (1995). The kinematics of musical expression. Journal of the Acoustical Society of
America, 97, 1940–1949.
Vines, B. W., Krumhansl, C. L., Wanderley, M. M., Dalca, I. M., & Levitin, D. J. (2005a).
Dimensions of emotion in expressive musical performance. Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, 1060, 462–466.
Vines, B. W., Nuzzo, R. L., Levitin, D. J. (2005b). Quantifying and analyzing musical dynamics:
Differential calculus, physics and functional data techniques. Music Perception, 23(2), 137–152.
Wanderley, M. M., Vines, B. W., Middleton, N., McKay, C., Hatch, W. (2005). The musical
significance of clarinettists’ ancillary gestures. Journal of New Music Research, 34(1), 97–113.
 PART 3

ENSEMBLES

Part Editor
JERE T. HUMPHREYS
 CHAPTER 15

COMMENTARY: ENSEMBLES

JERE T. HUMPHREYS

Music ensembles are made up of musicians who make music together in

groups. Descriptions and visual depictions from ancient times portray
groups of musicians who appear to be performing together. The
reintroduction of modern musical notation in western Europe during the
second half of the Middle Ages led to the development of harmony and
larger musical forms. These developments in turn led to the assemblage of
relatively large groups of musicians whose purpose was to perform the
larger musical works. That the organizational structures of the music
ensembles in Renaissance- and Baroque-era churches and courts bore
strong similarities to the monarchial social and political structures of
western Europe at the time can hardly have been coincidental. Coincidental
or not, the orchestral, choral, and wind groups fulfilled utilitarian as well as
aesthetic purposes.
The focus of this volume is on music education, defined here as the
teaching and learning of music, a utilitarian purpose in and of itself. The 11
authors of the seven chapters that comprise this part of the handbook
provide a range of perspectives on the phenomenon of music education as it
is practiced through the medium of performing music ensembles. They
describe, give rationales, and provide alternative strategies and paradigms
for the employment of music ensembles as a teaching medium. The entire
enterprise should be examined periodically because the ensembles have
been adapted from what were originally performing units with strong ties to
the community; hence, their purposes and modes of operation have changed
over time. The authors in this section, like all capable scholars, raise at least
as many questions as they answer.
 Several authors focus on ensembles in North American schools and
universities, where bands, choirs, and orchestras have played major roles
for approximately a century, something Allen Britton (1961) called “an
American specialty.” The earliest iterations of these school-based
ensembles were adapted, respectively, from military, professional, town,
and eventually jazz bands; church choirs and choral societies; and
professional and community orchestras. Authors John Richmond, William
Lee and Michael Worthy, and Steven Morrison and Steven Demorest
address issues related to school-based wind and jazz bands, choirs, and
orchestras in their chapters. Don Coffman and Lee Higgins, and Margaret
Kartomi, write about traditional and nontraditional ensembles that serve
various types of constituencies outside the formal school curriculum. Carlos
Xavier Rodriguez, and Robert Burke and Sam Evans, address, respectively,
popular music and indigenous music ensembles in educational contexts.
Excepting these two chapters on popular and non-Western musical styles,
the remaining five chapters in this part of the volume are about ensembles
that perform Western classical art music or music with roots in those
traditions. Most of the content in this section concerns education-oriented
music ensembles in North America and Australia, but there is some
coverage of programs in South America and mentions of examples in
several other parts of the world. Finally, some authors focus on sociology
and policy (Richmond) and history (Lee and Worthy), some largely on
organizational and administrative issues (Coffman and Higgins, and
Kartomi), and others on methods of teaching and learning (Morrison and
Demorest, Rodriguez, and Burke and Evans).
There are some commonalities among the musical activities described in
this section in addition to the primary orientation of the ensembles toward
education. One is the nearly total absence of discussion on tangible
outcomes from the ensemble activities. Nevertheless, information provided
by the authors on numbers of participants—and on attitudes of the
participants, parents, and teachers and other leaders of the ensembles—
implies the perception of highly positive outcomes for participants on the
part of the individuals most closely associated with the ensembles.
Another commonality is the fact that all, or nearly all, of the ensembles
described in this part of the volume rely on voluntary participation from
their members. This is true even for ensembles housed within schools and
other institutions for which attendance is required, including even prisons.
Music educators tend to take voluntary participation for granted, but the
success of the types of ensemble programs described in this chapter may be
due in significant part to their voluntary participation policies, as opposed
to the compulsory attendance and participation laws and policies in place
for elementary and secondary education throughout the Western world. In
other words, one reason for the perceived positive outcomes for participants
in these ensembles could be the absence of coercion to participate, statutory
or otherwise (Humphreys, 2010b).
Voluntary participation notwithstanding, only in recent years has the
teaching of democratic values and practices in music ensembles, and the
reputed lack of such teaching, become a topic of discussion within the
music education profession. I find these discussions ironic for three reasons.
First, John Dewey (1916) is often invoked in the discussions for his
promotion of the teaching of democracy in general education, but Dewey’s
was a time of high levels of immigration in the United States. Moreover,
millions of the new immigrants were from places other than the traditional
origination countries of Great Britain, Germany, and Holland, and thus the
idealized “melting pot” needed help in carrying out its work of assimilation,
or “Americanization.” This was especially true because, much as there is
today in many developed countries, there was strong public opinion against
immigration, assimilation, and even the immigrants themselves
(Humphreys, 2010b). In roughly the same period, music ensembles were
featured in U.S. federal government schools to help “civilize” Native
American students (Handel & Humphreys, 2005). The politically
conservative atmosphere throughout much of the Western world today,
exacerbated by immigration and immigrant populations, may be a
motivating force behind the desire to “democratize” students. This is ironic
because a far larger proportion of the world’s people live under at least
quasi-democratic governments than ever before in history (Fukuyama,
1992).
The second reason the characterization of music education in ensembles
settings as undemocratic seems ironic is that some of these ensemble types
were associated with democracies from the very beginning of modern
democratic governments (e.g., the role of bands in the French Revolution),
and some of them are still viewed as for and by the middle class. Music
ensembles have long enjoyed positive associations with loyalty toward
schools and towns, nationalistic patriotism, and even general positive,
wholesome feelings of “good” (Humphreys, 1992).
The third reason I find the characterization ironic is because democracies
tend to work through representatives, with people voluntarily working
together in groups under leaders, as opposed to individuals functioning
independently or, at the other end of the continuum, individuals attempting
to operate in utopian, socialistic groups. Historically, music ensembles have
been part of the democratic fabric in democratic countries, such as in three
of the world’s longest standing and arguably strongest democracies, starting
with the United States and followed by France and Great Britain. Put
another way, humans are social beings whose primary organizational
structure is tribal. Historians generally agree that for millennia the overall
trend has been toward more and more egalitarianism in the political, social,
and other organizational structures of the Western world. All this implies,
on the one hand, some degree of equality among members of the tribe,
which leads to the ability and willingness to work together; on the other
hand, some hierarchical structure remains. In other words, autocratic
structures continue to weaken, but utopian, so-called pure democracies have
met with little success on either the macro or micro levels (Humphreys,
2010a).
In this part of the volume there are also discussions of the “identities” of
the teachers of music ensembles in educational settings. Identity is a
popular topic today in psychology, sociology, education, and other fields,
meshing as it does with certain postmodernist ideologies. The topic’s
popularity likely also comes from rapidly changing demographics resulting
from the mixing of ethnic, racial, religious, and other groups. John
Richmond discusses the small body of research on music teacher identity,
which suggests that pre- and in-service music teachers see themselves more
as musicians than as teachers. He also discusses the desire of some
commentators for music educators to identify more as teachers than as
(performing) musicians. My own research suggests that pre-service music
educators may not see themselves more as musicians than teachers, and that
in any event music educators’ strong backgrounds in their “subject matter,”
relative to other educators, and their consequent identity as musicians might
be an important factor in the success of school music ensembles
(Humphreys, 2011).
 A useful line of research might be to dig more deeply into the question of
whether, and when, pre- and in-service music teachers begin to see
themselves more as teachers and less as musicians, as well as the more
fundamental question as to the desirability of music teachers in essence
turning their backs on their identities as musicians, since most have been
engaged in musical (largely performing) activities since their upper
elementary or middle school years, at least in North America. Identities of
students in performing ensembles is another topic in need of additional
study.
Other possible points for discussion related to the compelling arguments
made by the authors in this part of the volume relate to the “third
environment,” that is, student-led music-making that occurs without adult
instruction or even supervision. Students with minor legal status cannot be
left in unsupervised school situations, and the number of students who
engage in collaborative music-making activities outside schools appears to
be relatively small, certainly in comparison to the number engaged in music
listening activities. Nevertheless, student-led collaborative music
performance activities could be encouraged by the music education
profession, and research on the topic has already led to important insights
on how music and music performance can and is being learned (e.g., Green,
2001).
Today, formal education worldwide increasingly employs corporate-type
models with top-down controls. If education systems ever move in the
eminently more sensible direction of decentralization, however, with more
flexibility in curriculum and other aspects of schooling, music ensembles
could become a key component, maybe the key component, of an ideal
music curriculum. Some of the authors in this part of the volume describe
ensembles outside formal school systems that already work according to
what could become models for formal education. Schools could add
additional elective ensemble offerings to those we call traditional
ensembles. Some schools already offer rock bands, gospel choirs, mariachi
bands, and country music groups, and others, such as cellphone orchestras,
could be added. Other types that we cannot imagine will likely appear in the
future. This could become a more productive model for music education
than a one-size-fits-all compulsory general music curriculum.
Music ensembles in schools, universities, communities, and other settings
could continue to grow and expand along with other components of society,
as predicted by Alvin Toffler (1970) in Future Shock, adding more and
more variations to an already successful model. Another outcome is that
ensembles could wither from lack of expansion, giving way to alternative
school schedules, the testing mania, electronically produced sounds, or
music activities other than performance, including modes that require less
practice, less instruction, and less collaboration with other students.
However, a well-known parody of the school music teacher suggests that
educational music ensembles are very much part of the culture, especially
in North America. The fictitious Westview High School band director Harry
L. Dinkle, “The World’s Greatest Band Director,” continues to survive, and
in his own ways flourish, decade after decade in the ever-evolving comic
strip Funky Winkerbean. The instructional music ensemble is probably here
to stay, in schools and in the community, albeit in continually evolving
forms. The authors in this part of the volume provide much new food for
thought.

REFERENCES

Britton, A. P. (1961). Music education: An American specialty. In P. H. Lang (ed.), One hundred
years of music in America (pp. 211–229). New York: Grossed & Dunlap.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New
York: Macmillan. Reprint, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2004.
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The end of history and the last man. New York: The Free Press.
Green, L. (2001). How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. Aldershot, UK;
Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Handel, G. A., & Humphreys, J. T. (2005). The Phoenix Indian School Band, 1894–1930. Journal of
Historical Research in Music Education, 26, 144–161.
Humphreys, J. T. (1992). Instrumental music in American education: In service of many masters. In
M. L. Fonder (ed.), The Ithaca Conference on American Music Education: Centennial Profiles (pp.
25–51). Ithaca, NY: Ithaca College. [Reprint, 1995. Journal of Band Research, 30(2), 39–70.]
Humphreys, J. T. (2010a). Political, economic, and technological changes resulting from
modernization: Implications for music education. Keynote speech at 1st International Conference
on Music Education. Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. http://hdl.handlSe.net/2286/R.A.96192.
Humphreys, J. T. (2010b). United States of America: Reflections on the development and
effectiveness of compulsory music education. In G. Cox & R. Stevens (eds.), The origins and
foundations of music education: Cross-cultural historical studies in compulsory schooling (pp.
121–136). Continuum Studies in Educational Research. London and New York: Continuum
International Publishing Group; 2nd ed. (in press) [Nov 2016]: London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc. Also a Chinese (Mandarin) translated (reprint), Beijing University of Peking Press by
arrangement with Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (London), January 2016.
Humphreys, J. T. (2011). Observations about occupational identity among public school music
teachers: Past and present. In P.M. Ward-Steinman (ed.), Advances in social-psychology and music
education research (pp. 127–138). London: Ashgate. [Reprint: New York: Routledge, Taylor &
Francis.]
Toffler, A. (1970). Future shock. New York: Random House.
 CHAPTER 16

THE SOCIOLOGY AND POLICY OF

ENSEMBLES

JOHN W. RICHMOND

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss music ensembles from two

complementary perspectives, sociology and policy, within the context of
music education. I begin with a discussion of the reciprocal influences of
individuals on groups and of groups on individuals–the sociological
perspectives of the music ensemble experience–with particular focus on
questions of identity formation and meaning in music ensembles settings.
It is not difficult to intuit important connections between identity and
music ensemble experiences in educational contexts. Music ensembles are
populated by persons assuming, or assigned to, various
teacher/learner/performer roles, be it first-chair flute, conductor, soprano
section leader, or drum major, for example. These roles shape the identity of
each individual who occupies them, while at the same time the persons
occupying these roles shape the collective identity of the music ensemble.
Such interactive influences are influenced further by other important
contributors to identity formation (e.g., age, sex, gender, race, religion,
socioeconomic status, geography), as well as by the diverse settings in
which ensemble education takes place (e.g., in school during the school day,
in school after the school day, in a place of worship, in a garage).
Examining ensemble education through a sociological lens clearly invites a
consideration of identity formation, as the discussion below suggests.
Students and teachers engage in ensemble experiences because they are
meaningful in important ways, both intrinsically and extrinsically.
Important scholarship has emerged in recent years on how teachers and
students experience meaningfulness in their ensemble engagements, as well
as how these engagements might be enriched.
This chapter also contains an examination of policy formation and
evolution as they pertain to ensembles. While many of the policy questions
that follow relate to the United States, I attempt to draw connections to
international contexts wherever possible. Particular attention is given to
matters of equality of opportunity, tort liability, and copyright compliance.
To summarize, I will examine music ensembles through the lenses of
sociology and policy, with music education as the context. These
parameters are important because the relevant scholarship in the fields of
the sociology of music education and music education policy is too large to
examine in a single chapter. Therefore, the sources selected were chosen
expressly to address this narrowly conceived set of concerns.

SOCIOLOGY OF ENSEMBLES

Identity and Music Students

Perhaps the most familiar scholarship on music student identity in ensemble
settings concerns relationships between gender and music ensemble
involvement. For example, there are approximately two dozen studies from
the last 30 years on gender and music instrument selection/assignment in
schools. In a review of these studies, Abeles (2009) examined whether
patterns of gender correlation and gender bias in music instrument
selection/assignment had remained constant over the previous three
decades. Given the rise in feminist scholarship and activism during that
period, it seemed reasonable to expect a decline in gender stereotyping.
Surprisingly, however, the results remained stable, with most girls
continuing to play flutes, violins, and clarinets, and most boys continuing to
play drums, trumpets, and trombones. Abeles did report a change in
instrument gender stereotyping in wind bands, however, where girls were
somewhat more likely to play “nonconforming” instruments than were
boys. Abeles recommended additional research on relationships between
parental influence and student ethnicity on the one hand and gender-related
instrument selection on the other.
 Gender research related to music ensembles is not limited to instrument
selection. Barber (1999) examined gender participation in high school jazz
bands. McKeage (2004) later expanded the scope of this research, looking
at both high school and college jazz bands in terms of gender and
participation. Both studies documented gender imbalance in the form of far
more males than females participating in jazz ensembles in high school and
college. These findings are consistent with the findings on gender bias and
instrument selection/assignment during students’ earlier years in that
instruments selected by girls (e.g., flute, violin, clarinet) are not common in
jazz ensembles, whereas boys typically play trumpet, trombone, and drums
(all common in jazz ensembles). Barber and McKeage also found higher
attrition rates for females than for males in the transition from high school
to college jazz bands. Not surprisingly, women perceived the college jazz
band rehearsal environment as less inviting and more threatening than did
men, whereas men identified more with the jazz band experience.
Gender issues surface in choral music education as well, although in
reverse. More girls than boys enroll in choirs in schools, churches, and
community groups. Notable exceptions include the single-gender choirs,
such as the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop
Quartet Singing in America and the Sweet Adelines (the women’s
barbershop singing organization). The successes of these single-sex choirs,
coupled with U.S. policy initiatives in support of a single-sex curriculum as
a strategy to improve K–12 public schools, have given rise to gender-
specific choral curricula—that is, a move from mixed choirs to all-boy
choirs and all-girl choirs. Jorgensen and Pfeiler (2008) reported that when
the school administration at a Midwest high school enlisted the choral
program to provide leadership in the development of single-sex curricula,
there was a threefold increase in the enrollment of boys in the choral
program with no loss of enrollment in the girls’ choir by the end of the first
year.
Hoffman (2008) examined identity issues in middle school bands. She
focused on the experiences and reflections of a small group of six students
in a sixth-grade band class, considering both intergroup processes and role
identities. She found that these students enrolled in band due to the
encouragement of significant others (i.e., friends, family, teachers). Once in
band, students assumed various roles in which they then perceived
themselves as successful (and affirmed) or unsuccessful (and rejected).
Affirmed students continued in the band, while rejected students left to
enroll in other courses. Over time, the influences of the significant others
gave way to the students’ own perceptions of affirmation or rejection in the
band itself. In other words, the locus of social reference and identity shifted.
Green (1999) identified gender as a central feature in the interplay of
student identity and music study in school settings. Based on extensive
interviews and focus group discussions she conducted with British students,
she reported that students associate musical styles with a “delineated”
gender identity:
classical music takes on delineated meanings that correspond with its practices–that is to say,
classical music in schools to a large extent delineates femininity, and more radically, effeminacy.
By the same token, popular music, and practices such as playing the drums and electric guitar,
delineate masculinity, and beyond that, machismo. (p. 166)

Green also identified emerging music technologies as delineating

masculinity more than femininity. Critiquing the actions of well-meaning
teachers’ efforts to break down these acquired gender delineations to make
music instruction more inclusive, Green noted that students are often quick
to resist such efforts:
girls do not necessarily wish to “act like boys” and may not feel comfortable engaging in
musical activities that consciously or unconsciously are generally regarded as masculine within
their peer group, just as boys do not wish to engage in activities which are seen as “feminine.”
(p. 166)

Green (1999) likewise noted patterns of school music involvement,

including ensemble involvement, that appear to identify with some social
classes and ethnicities more than others. She reported, for example, that
middle-class students were more likely than working-class students to play
orchestral instruments in school, or to continue music studies beyond the
secondary level. While all school-age children report listening to music,
ethnic background often shapes the music styles the children seek out. For
example, “South Asian children in parts of London listen to quite a lot of
Asian popular music, whereas children in all-white rural schools may never
have heard any of it” (p. 165).
O’Neill (2002) observed an important relationship between young music
students’ professed self-concepts and their estimates of their own musical
abilities. Some students believed that musical achievement was a reflection
of innate musical talent—a fixed attribute largely unaltered by effort and
practice—while other students believed that musical achievement was a
reflection of effort and resolve rather than a function of aptitude. O’Neill
referred to the former group as “helpless” as a reflection of the students’
sense of themselves and their beliefs about the fixed, predictive nature of
music aptitude. She then observed a relationship between these two
different self-concepts and belief systems, and the different levels of
motivation toward musical achievements exhibited by both types.
“Helpless” students exhibited less tolerance of failure and less persistence
toward overcoming initial obstacles in their musical engagements. Their
interpretation of initial failures was that these were a playing out of the
relatively small innate (fixed) musical capacity they possessed. These
students tended to achieve less and were less likely to continue their music
studies than were “mastery-oriented” students. The “mastery-oriented”
students, by contrast, interpreted initial failures as natural obstacles to be
overcome and mastered through effort and tenacity. These students
exhibited much higher rates of persistence and tended to achieve more
musically over time. These results obtained despite the fact that the early
musical achievements of the two groups were comparable and that, in some
instances, the most clearly observable characteristics of high music aptitude
were exhibited by students who viewed musical abilities as “fixed” and thus
thought they were “helpless” to achieve beyond their own perceived, innate,
threshold abilities.
Hargreaves and Marshall (2003) examined the evolving identities of
music students and teachers in the United Kingdom, both in and out of
school. They pointed to the dichotomy between school music enrollments,
which seemed quite low at the secondary level, and elective involvement in
musical activities outside school. In reviewing earlier research studies, they
reported that
only approximately 7% of all pupils opt for music at GCSE (public examinations taken at the
end of compulsory schooling), and that many teachers and pupils are unhappy with the teaching
of music in the National Curriculum in England. This is very surprising given that listening to
pop music is easily the most common leisure activity of most teenagers: surveys in the UK, in
Scandinavia and elsewhere consistently show that the typical 13-year-old listens for
approximately 2–3 hours per day, far longer than time spent on any other leisure activity. (p.
265; emphasis added)

Hargreaves and Marshall (2003) also pointed to the distinctions between

music outside school and in the home, as contrasted with outside school and
outside the home, be it in the garage, basement, or any place where formal
musical activity and adult supervision are absent. They argue that this “third
environment,” that is, outside the school and home, is important because it
imbues students with autonomy and authority in the music-making process,
qualities generally absent in the other two settings, where either teachers or
parents serve as supervisors. In this “third environment,” students determine
what musical styles and genres will be performed/listened
to/composed/critiqued, and they engage in activities they find useful in
accomplishing goals they set for themselves (p. 266).
In a survey of English students enrolled in secondary school music,
Hargreaves and Marshall (2003) observed higher levels of satisfaction in
school music instruction than had been documented earlier. They attributed
these gains to the introduction of music technology into the music
classroom, as well as an increased willingness of teachers to select
repertoire in a more balanced way, choosing popular and ethnic music in
addition to traditional classical music. Students also mentioned their
enjoyment of composition and interactions with professional musicians as
well as playing instruments and singing.
Before closing this discussion of identity in ensembles, it is important to
examine pop/rock groups, which are commonly found outside the schools,
at least in the United States. Green (2001) reported important distinctions in
the journey to musical identity and expertise when comparing popular
music learning to classical music learning. First, young pop musicians view
their learning as largely self-directed, aligning well with the “third-
environment” discussion of Hargreaves and Marshall (2003) above.
Students learn by engaging in musical exploration with their instruments or
voices, seeking the sounds they want and acquiring the required techniques
through self-discovery. They seek help from a variety of sources, including
persons they perceive to be more accomplished, whether adult or peer.
Second, popular musicians place considerable emphasis on listening as an
essential aspect of their learning regimen. Reference to exemplary
recordings is an essential aspect of musical growth from the very beginning
of a pop musician’s development. Imitation of these recordings is an
understood and lauded approach to the study of musical expression and
technique.
According to Green (1999), young pop/rock musicians engage in at least
three different kinds of musical listening. She calls the first of these
“purposive listening,” with a particular performance or compositional goal
in mind. The purpose may be to “find” a particular chord on a guitar, to
replicate a certain percussive riff, or to explore a particular distortion on an
amplifier; whatever the goal, the listening is focused, goal-directed, and
“purposive.” The second kind of listening, “attentive,” is no less focused
than purposive listening, but it is not as goal-directed, particularly with
respect to the performance or compositional ambitions of the pop learner-
listener. The third kind of listening Green calls “distracted listening,” the
sole purpose of which is enjoyment or entertainment. The learner-listener
sometimes is attending in a conscious way, but may drift in and out of
musical attention. The point here is that pop musicians identify themselves
as critical listeners, and they identify with the master artists they seek to
emulate. Listening is not merely an optional or peripheral enhancement of
musical study; it is at the very core of who they are and what they do.
This focus on listening as a pervasive strategy for musical growth
contrasts with the predominant strategy in school bands, choirs, and
orchestras, where students rehearse as an ensemble by playing or singing.
While pop music students identify with master practitioners in a given
popular style by having heard, and often memorized, certain landmark
recordings, there is little evidence that band, orchestra, and choir students
acquaint themselves with, much less identify with, master practitioners in
those genres or their landmark recordings. One might be able to make a
case for jazz education as an exception among school-based ensemble
pedagogies.
Re (2004) found that jazz education in schools once relied heavily on the
practice of transcription of celebrated recorded jazz improvisations as a
teaching/learning technique for the development of improvisation skills.
Over time, however, other methodologies replaced transcription in jazz
education. Re recommended that jazz educators return to this more
listening-based, aural culture as a way to improve jazz education, especially
improvisation instruction, and that they reintroduce what he calls “aural-
imitative procedures.” This discussion of jazz education raises the question
of the likely socialization to which pop/rock instruction may be subjected as
it migrates from the garage or basement, where students enjoy autonomy
and decision-making authority and where “purposive” listening is central to
students’ learning strategies, to the school, where autonomy diminishes and
pedagogical approaches tend to become more “academic.”
Identity and Music Teachers
The central question to emerge in the professional literature regarding
music teacher identity is this: Does the music teacher have the self-image of
a musician who teaches or of a teacher whose subject is music? That is,
does the musical identity or the teacher identity dominate? Other questions
arise from this central one. Does this sense of identity change over time? Is
it subject to the usual forces of secondary socialization? Does the grade
level at which one teaches (elementary, secondary, postsecondary) influence
this sense of identity?
Several preliminary observations seem important as a preface to this
discussion. Most music teachers in schools were once music students
studying in schools. This means that students enrolled in university music
education programs begin the first day of a university education with rather
vivid images of what it means to be a music teacher. Some estimates
suggest that music students will have spent up to 15,000 hours observing
music teaching and learning before their university education begins
(Woodford, 2002). In fact, it seems reasonable to suggest that many music
education students pursue a career in music education at least in part
because of the strong influences of the music teachers with whom they
studied. Conversely, many students deeply engaged in musical pursuits
outside schools, in the “third environment,” are less likely to matriculate as
music education majors, have less vivid images (if any) of what music
teaching in the schools is like, and are less likely to encounter implicit or
explicit encouragement to pursue music education as a career.
Woodford (2002) reported that music teacher identity is shaped first
through “primary socialization” early in life at the hands of a student’s
significant others such as parents, siblings, teachers (classroom and/or
studio), and friends. Interestingly, music education majors are likely to have
had at least one musical parent, and their parents are likely to have been
supportive of the students’ musical pursuits. This is also the case for
students involved in pop/rock music (Green, 2001). In either case, parental
encouragement tends to be directed toward performing, composing
(especially for the pop/rock students), and practicing. There is little if any
evidence that the shaping of music identity includes teaching.
This pattern of reinforcement for music performance and composition,
with little opportunity to reinforce music teaching proficiency, continues
during secondary socialization. University music schools focus on
performing and composing. Music education majors are shaped by the
perceived social stratification in the university music unit. Citing Roberts
(1991), Woodford (2002) notes that “undergraduate music education majors
lacked any sense of teacher identity at all, except in the form of ‘musician’
as ‘teacher’ ” (p. 681). Role models for these undergraduates include
applied teachers, ensemble directors, and former secondary ensemble
directors. Seldom are music education professors among this set of role
models.
This sense of “musician” identity continues beyond the undergraduate
years as music teachers assume faculty positions in schools. This seems
especially pronounced for ensemble teachers, who assume roles as
performers (i.e., conductors) with their students. Moreover, the summative
“assessments” of ensemble classes are, in fact, performances. While
pervasive, however, Abramo (2009) observed a somewhat more balanced,
nuanced sense of identity in a recent examination of the lives and work of
three practicing instrumental music teachers. While performance was an
important component of identity formation for these teachers, Abramo also
found a teacher identity when the pedagogy shifted from conductor
orientation to what she called student-centered, creative approaches to
music learning.

MEANING AND MUSIC ENSEMBLES

Contemporary discussions of musical meaning often trace to Meyer’s book

Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), where the author suggested that the
sonic materials of music present the conditions of emotive life by way of a
twofold process. First, music establishes a set of musical tendencies or
expectations in the mind of the listener. This presumes, of course, a certain
familiarity with a given musical style such that musical expectations are
possible. Then, the expectations are inhibited as the music departs from
them.
More recent philosophies of music have questioned the notion of musical
“works” per se, and advanced the idea of music as a set of human practices
or behaviors–that is, the idea of music as a verb more than music as a noun.
Christopher Small’s Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening
(1998) attempts to situate all music-making as socially constructed acts.
Small’s theorizing is argued through the deconstruction of a symphony
concert; this, while related, is not an attempt to speak to musical meaning in
ensemble contexts situated in educational settings.
Hylton’s (1981) research, by contrast, focused squarely on musical
meaning in school music ensemble contexts, specifically in choral
ensembles. Hylton defined meaning as “a psychological construct with
cognitive and affective aspects, manifested overtly through behavior,
reflecting an individual’s evaluation and valuing of an experience” (p. 288).
Using factor analysis on data from a survey of almost 700 high school
choral students, Hylton identified six discrete constructs of musical
meaning:

• Psychological—Statements relating to development of self were

included in this category. Choral experience is meaningful insofar as
one achieves personal satisfaction and growth from it in an existential
way. Statements in this category indicate that choral experience is
meaningful in that it helps to make one aware of one’s identity.
• Communicative—Statements in this category involve reaching out to
others. These statements concerned the expression of ideas and
feelings to an audience.
• Integrative—Statements in this group reflect a desire to participate in
and interact with the group. This category reflects the social aspects of
choral participation. Statements were included that indicated that
choral participation fulfills a need to be with others.
• Musical-Artistic—Statements in this category involved musical
growth. Development of self occurs through the drawing in of musical
knowledge. Choral participation is meaningful insofar as it affords
opportunities for musical growth and development.
• Spiritualistic—These statements reflect religious reasons for choral
participation. Statements in this category reflect a feeling that singing
and communication with an audience are religious and spiritual
experiences, or ways of expressing spiritual thoughts or feelings. (p.
290)
• Achievement—Statements that loaded highly on this factor were
reflective of a need on the part of students to “try, succeed, and get
better.” Music provides opportunities for achievement in
noncompetitive situations. (p. 296)
 For Hylton, the important finding was that meaning in choral ensembles
is multifaceted. While respondents confirmed aesthetic experience as an
important feature of meaningfulness in choral experience, there were other
powerful sources of meaning as well.
More recent studies of the choral experience confirmed several of these
contributors to musical meaning in education ensemble contexts. Kwan
(2007) utilized Hylton’s survey (translated into Chinese) as a part of a
broader study of musical meaning and motivation for almost 500 middle
and high school students in Hong Kong. Her findings aligned partially with
Hylton’s for three of his constructs: integrative, psychological, and
musical/artistic. Sugden’s (2005) study of more than 800 middle and high
school choral students also utilized Hylton’s survey and produced findings
that aligned even more closely with Hylton’s original work, producing four
factors of musical meaning in choral ensembles: musical-artistic,
communicative, psychological, and integrative. The factor of achievement
was aligned in part, and free response items in the survey suggested
evidence of Hylton’s spiritual factor.
There have been few studies on meaning in school music ensembles
other than Hylton’s (1981, 1985–86) and those that utilized his Choral
Meaning Survey. Mills (1988) found that statements of meaning correlated
inversely to levels of marching activity in a survey of high school band
students. Carlisle (2008) contrasted the meaningfulness of traditional
ensemble experiences in secondary schools with nontraditional curricula,
arguing that students’ sense of ownership, autonomy, and empowerment is
enhanced by departing from the usual power relationships and diminished
social justice embedded in typical large ensemble experiences. Her
arguments were supported by her own case study of three secondary
schools in southern Ontario.

SUMMARY OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF ENSEMBLES

There appear to be correlations between students’ ensemble involvements

and matters of gender identity. The range of these gender-related
correlations spans matters of instrument selection/assignment to ensemble
type and musical style. Identity for students likewise is informed by locale
(in or out of school) and autonomy (supervised or not). Music teachers
appear to identify more as “musicians” than as “teachers.” Undergraduate
music education programs do little to expand this sense of identity to
include both “musician” and “teacher.”
Musical meaning in ensemble settings appears to cluster around
constructs we may label psychological, communicative, integrative,
musical-artistic, spiritual, and achievement. Students attach a strong sense
of importance to these and appear not to prioritize intrinsic meanings over
extrinsic ones, at least according to the large survey studies that have
explored these issues.

POLICY OF ENSEMBLES

Equal Educational Opportunity

Discussions of education policy research often begin with the topic of
“equal educational opportunity” (EEO). It is possible to summarize the
history of EEO in the United States via descriptions of three landmark U.S.
Supreme Court decisions: (1) Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), (2)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), and (3) San
Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973).
The legal basis for all three cases lies in the “Equal Protection Clause” of
the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “No State shall deny to
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” In
Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court considered a challenge to the
nineteenth-century practice of providing racially segregated railway
passenger cars. The Court declared that the Equal Protection Clause was not
violated by this practice so long as the segregated railway cars were
“substantially equal.” The impact of this decision reached far beyond mass
transit and shaped public education policy across the United States. Many
school districts designated certain schools for white children and certain
others for black children, and enforced a strict policy of segregated schools.
These school districts had to affirm that their schools were “substantially
equal” in order to comply with the Plessy decision. Those who challenged
this decision in the following decades argued that these segregated schools
for black children were not “substantially equal.”
 Almost six decades later, the Supreme Court reversed the Plessy decision
in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), declaring that “separate
educational facilities are inherently unequal,” and mandating nationwide
school desegregation. As with the Plessy case, the Brown decision extended
far beyond the public schools and touched many aspects of American
society. Many court cases followed in which plaintiffs grieved the strategies
the school districts employed to accomplish court-ordered desegregation
(e.g., busing). Many urban school districts witnessed “white flight” as white
families moved from the cities to the suburbs, in part to avoid school
desegregation, taking their property wealth with them.
Because most states relied on local property taxes to fund public
education, this migration of property wealth resulted in substantial
differences in funding between school districts. The case of San Antonio
Independent School District v. Rodriguez challenged the use of the property
tax as a means of funding public education, in that this approach resulted in
the substantial disparities in per-pupil spending between districts. In its
decision, the Supreme Court ruled that (1) education is not a fundamental
right under the terms of the U.S. Constitution, and therefore (2) the
financing system for public education was not subject to what the Court
called “strict scrutiny.” Consequently, the Court affirmed the use of the
property tax as a constitutionally permissible way to finance public schools.
Several policy observations follow from these court cases. First, statutory
school segregation is now unconstitutional in American schools. Second,
families seeking to avoid court-ordered desegregation often moved to
suburban districts, and in so doing relocated property wealth from urban to
suburban districts. Third, education is not a fundamental right under the
provisions of the U.S. Constitution. Fourth, disparities in property tax
revenues and their resultant disparities in per-pupil spending are
constitutionally permissible.
Families dissatisfied by the Supreme Court’s stance on public education
finance, and its resulting school funding disparities, subsequently changed
their litigation strategies and asked state courts for relief. Utilizing what is
known as the “Rodriguez Syllogism,” plaintiffs created an argument
drawing on the language of the Rodriguez decision to lead courts to what
was hoped would be a reversing decision, as was the case from Plessy
(1896) to Brown (1954). A syllogism is a deduction consisting of a major
premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion, and thus the “Rodriguez
Syllogism” resulted in the following deductive structure: “Public education
is not a fundamental right because it is not required specifically in the US
Constitution. All state constitutions do require education specifically,
however. Therefore, public education is a fundamental right under the equal
protection clauses and education mandates of some state constitutions”
(Richmond, 1990, p. 311). This argument has prevailed in 17 of 43 cases
where it has been attempted (Swenson, 2000). In the 26 states in which the
property tax has been affirmed as a means of funding higher education,
however, the courts often noted that because state constitutions mention
many aspects of public life, the mere mention of education in the state
constitution does not, in itself, raise the matter to the level of a fundamental
right.
What do these court cases mean for school music ensemble policies?
Most notably, it is that the funding to provide for school music programs
varies widely, largely due to differences in the property tax bases of
individual school districts. These revenue differences have resulted in the
disparate provision of music education opportunities in schools. Chronicled
nowhere more vividly than in Kozol’s (1991) Savage Inequalities: Children
in America’s Schools, the current approaches to school funding give rise to
remarkably different educational opportunities for the children of a state’s
richest and poorest districts. For example, at the time Kozol’s survey
(1988–89), per-pupil funding for the Niles Township (Illinois) High School
was approximately 78% larger than funding for the Chicago Public Schools
(average of all grade levels). A study (2006–2007) of those same districts
confirmed higher spending in both districts, but a nearly identical disparity
of some 77% in favor of the Niles Township school (Education Intelligence
Agency, n.d.).
These per-pupil spending differences inevitably translate into substantial
differences in music education opportunities between the two districts.
Consider, for example, the New Trier Township High School District, a
suburban district neighboring the Niles Township District north of Chicago,
where per-pupil spending is slightly higher than in the Niles district. The
New Trier High School provides 10 music educators for this single high
school with an enrollment of 4,150. The school also employs two staff
accompanists and two staff departmental assistants for the music program
(New Trier Township High School Music Staff Roster, 2012). Such
abundant resources to support music education programs are unimaginable
in most U.S. public school settings and certainly so in the nation’s poorest
urban districts, where music instruction has been all but eliminated.
Equal educational opportunity continues in the rhetoric of American
public education politics, but it is not realized policy. Resources to support
music education, including ensemble education, are similarly disparate. The
ruling that public education is not a fundamental right differs dramatically
from policies in many other developed nations. UNESCO has declared
public education a “fundamental human right” for its member nations. The
specific language of the UNESCO Right to Education is remarkable in its
breadth and clarity. A portion of it reads as follows:
Education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights.
It promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits.
Yet millions of children and adults remain deprived of educational opportunities, many as a
result of poverty.
Normative instruments of the United Nations and UNESCO lay down international legal
obligations for the right to education. These instruments promote and develop the right of every
person to enjoy access to education of good quality, without discrimination or exclusion. These
instruments bear witness to the great importance that Member States and the international
community attach to normative action for realizing the right to education. It is for governments
to fulfill their obligations both legal and political in regard to providing education for all of good
quality and to implement and monitor more effectively education strategies. (UNESCO, 1995–
2011)

Given that the United States is a member nation of UNESCO and that all
50 states make explicit provision for K–12 public education, the United
States certainly can claim to make provision for comprehensive education
for all children residing within its borders, yet public education is not a
“fundamental human right” as per federal policy. This disconnect between
professed values and operational policies remains one of the great
challenges in American education policy. The resultant inequalities in
resources for public schools predict inevitable, and perhaps even “savage,”
inequalities in opportunities for public education, including music
education, in American schools.

OTHER POLICY ISSUES FOR MUSIC EDUCATION ENSEMBLES

Performance
National U.S. policy documents that guide music ensemble education,
either in or out of school, tend to be one of two types. There are voluntary
guidelines, such as the National Standards for Music Education (Music
Educators National Conference, 1994). The second type is documents that
pertain to compliance with federal laws about which states have discretion,
depending on their desire to maintain eligibility for federal funding under
the provisions of the statute, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) or the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Compliance
with these federal statutes normally does not rest with music educators.
Professional organizations attempt to address the need for policy
guidance by way of policy recommendations. The National Association for
Music Education’s booklet Guidelines for Performances of School Music
Groups: Expectations and Limitations (Music Educators National
Conference, 1986), provides guidelines for K–12 schools on performances
of bands, choirs, orchestras, and other ensembles. It contains
recommendations on numbers of concerts, competitions and adjudications,
and trips per year, and on concert length and sacred music programming. It
also includes a code of ethics concerning the appearance of school groups at
civic events. It even suggests ways to avoid liability exposure when
planning ensemble tours.
In addition to the National Standards for Music Education, which sets
forth curricular content in music for K–12 schools, MENC also published
Opportunity-to-Learn Standards for Music Instruction: Grades PreK–12
(Music Educators National Conference, 1994). This set of policies lists and
describes the resources needed to provide music instruction, including
ensemble instruction. The recommendations address four levels
(prekindergarten and kindergarten, and elementary, middle, and high
school) and four sets of infrastructure concerns (curriculum and scheduling,
staffing, materials and equipment, and facilities).

Liability: Tort Law and Copyright Compliance

The two areas of the law that affect school music ensemble education and
that require careful policy management to protect music programs from
predatory litigation are tort law and copyright law. Tort law pertains
primarily to facets of civil law in which individuals or institutions sue one
another for breaching an agreement or duty. This area of the law is
particularly important, inasmuch as parents entrust to schools the
responsibility for the safety and education of their minor children. The
Latin term “in loco parentis” (“in the place of the parents”) refers to the
quasi-parenting duty of schools for minor students. Under civil law it raises
the standards for “duty of care” that schools must provide for the children in
their charge, and concurrently exposes schools to greater liability for these
children during the school day (for more information, see Richmond, 2002,
pp. 41–42).
Tort liability lawsuits can arise when students are injured while
participating in ensemble activities such as rehearsals, concerts, and tours.
Courts understand that accidents happen but also understand that policies
should be in place and steps taken to prevent accidents. When the courts
conclude that insufficient care was exercised in managing risks, they tend to
support plaintiffs’ claims and award judgments, often at considerable cost
to the defending teacher or school. MENC provided information about tort
liability issues and management over three decades ago (Hazard, 1979a,
1979b), but little attention has been paid to these policy concerns since.
Copyright compliance remains among the most discussed legal/policy
issues in the music education literature (Richmond, 2002). Its growing
importance coincided with emerging technologies like photocopy machines
and portable audio recorders in the public schools. The feverish pace of
more recent technological innovation through computers, video recorders,
mp3 players, smartphones, and so on has increased the challenges of
copyright enforcement. It has also inspired the publishing and broadcast
industries to redouble their efforts to seek copyright compliance and to
pursue alleged copyright infractions aggressively.
While the music education profession has attempted to aid music
educators in understanding the copyright laws, there is little evidence that
compliance by the profession has improved or that ignorance of the
provisions of copyright law is the reason for noncompliance. On the
contrary, one research study suggests that music educators are sufficiently
acquainted with the provisions of copyright law in most instances, but that
they choose not to comply (Hilliard, 1998). The Music Library Association
provides guidelines and frequently asked questions that cover many of the
most common concerns of ensemble educators (Music Library Association,
2009).
 CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of selected issues

related to the sociology and policy of ensembles in education settings.
Recent sociological studies related to issues of identity formation and
meaning generation in music ensemble settings for students and teachers
were described, in settings ranging from the schools to private homes to the
“third environment.” Meaning emerged as important in both intrinsic and
extrinsic ways. Most of the large survey research studies reviewed here
focused on the choral experience, which could be broadened to include
other types of ensembles in educational settings. Teacher identity has
aligned with “musician” more often and more powerfully than with
“teacher” in a manner that invites continued research, for a more balanced
sense of self surely would allow music educators to contribute to the life of
the schools more organically and comprehensively.
Policy research related to music ensembles continues to be wide-ranging
and diverse. The core question of equal educational opportunity offered a
framework to enhance the reach of music education opportunities within
and beyond the schools. The persistent disconnect between political rhetoric
related to professed core beliefs in equal opportunity and the “savage”
inequality of educational opportunity current educational policies make
available to American children offer both frustration and enormous
opportunity for improvement and progress. While U.S. courts commonly
examine educational disparities in terms of variations in per-pupil spending,
the real metric of educational equity should tie those per-pupil expenditures
to learning opportunities—the instructional programs available to students
—which constitute the true essence of equitable educational opportunity.
Because U.S. education policy is so decentralized, national policy
documents offering guidance for such issues as music performance come
not from ministries of education, but from professional music education
organizations. This chapter considered several of the more conspicuous and
helpful attempts at providing such guidance to practicing music educators.
Discussions of policy evolution, driven/guided by efforts to manage/avoid
tort and copyright litigation, drew this chapter to a close.
This chapter provides a glimpse of selected topics from fields that are
becoming more robust, sophisticated, and penetrating as time goes by.
Perhaps this chapter can best serve as an invitation to the profession to
continue this scholarship in ways that will provide ever-deepening
understandings of music education.

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 CHAPTER 17

NORTH AMERICAN SCHOOL

ENSEMBLES

WILLIAM R. LEE WITH MICHAEL D.

WORTHY

Large performing ensembles are a striking feature of North American music

education. Almost every educational institution, from middle school to
higher education, has an organized band and choir, and many have an
orchestra as well (Britton, 1961; National Center for Educational Statistics,
2002a). There are perhaps 3–5 million student participants and up to 50,000
specialists in ensemble teaching spread across the continent, almost half
with master’s degrees (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2002a;
2002b). These specialists are supported at the state, provincial, and national
levels by a network of teacher training institutions, professional
organizations, and commercial enterprises. North Americans have made
teaching music in large groups a conspicuous specialty.
This chapter addresses the development of Canadian and U.S. school
ensembles from the early twentieth century to the present. It identifies
patterns of historical growth and speculates about larger successes and
failures. In both countries, early school ensembles were regarded as a
necessary part of an expanding secondary curriculum, emerging as they did
in the midst of a reformist ethos positively disposed toward music. U.S. and
Canadian ensemble culture produced strong local leaders and administrators
who saw value in school ensembles in the education of children, and who
worked with persistence and evangelical fervor to establish them in schools.
School groups in several Canadian provinces resemble the U.S. model
and have been highly influenced by developments south of the border in all
aspects of ensemble teaching and support, with Canadians often struggling
to develop a separate identity in the shadow of their larger neighbor. With
decentralized education systems and geographical separation in both
countries, ensemble inclusion has varied widely, though with greater
differences in Canada (Green & Vogan, 1991).
School ensembles in North America are school-community blends, with
function, size, and musical emphases peculiar to their community and
region. In general, they have strong connections to the community, and
intense group values predominate. School ensembles have become part of
popular culture, with only desultory relationships with classical art music.
At the high school level, they play an important role in local youth
subcultures (Adderly, Kennedy, & Berz, 2003; Green & Vogan, 1991; Lane,
2008).

SPONSORING INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

School support for ensembles in North America is often modest, usually

consisting of a certified teacher and space for rehearsal provided through
tax revenues. Sheet music, tour expenses, and the most expensive
instruments are normally purchased through community fund-raising or
fees assessed to parents. Large ensembles in colleges and universities are
usually supported by the institutional budget.
Participation in music groups often numbers in the hundreds, supported
by organized curricula, several music teachers, and parent support
organizations. Fine arts credit is granted for ensemble membership in many
areas, but participation remains largely voluntary (Humphreys, 1992).
Individual states or provinces may provide curricular or legal
encouragement, but support remains largely local and community-based.
On the national level, publishers, manufacturing concerns, and other
businesses have had historical connections to school ensembles (Britton,
1961).

TYPES OF ENSEMBLES
Bands, orchestras, and choirs are the primary ensembles in schools. Bands
consist of woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments. Arguably, the
term “wind band” may be the best description, but it is not often used. In
most North American institutions “band” indicates either a marching band
or a concert band, with marching bands performing at athletic events. In
large school systems and universities, marching bands can number more
than 200 students. Concert bands can number from 35 to over 100
members. Jazz bands, indoor contest units involving percussion and visual
support, and a variety of other small ensembles are common.
School orchestras are found mostly in suburban and metropolitan areas,
in ethnic enclaves where string music is valued, and in special arts schools
within public school systems. Full orchestras and string orchestras are most
common, with “strolling strings” and mariachi groups found in some
communities. Though small ensembles that engage string players are
sometimes available, orchestra teachers have been much less effective, until
recently, in organizing a variety of activities for string players, and
participation remains smaller in orchestras than in bands (Britton, 1961;
Turner, 2001).
School choirs are approximately equal in popularity to bands. Secondary
school choral programs often consist of multiple groups, and, like bands
and orchestras, audition-only and nonaudition organizations may exist.
Soprano-alto-tenor-bass (SATB) choirs are most common, but a variety of
combinations may exist. Ancillary groups have been organized based on
particular styles of music. Show choirs involving popular music plus
choreography and gospel choirs are common throughout North America
(Weaver, 2001).

HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS

Choirs, bands, and orchestras were organized sporadically in North

American secondary schools after 1900, especially in the U.S. Midwest and
in Canada four to five decades later. Bands began to appear in numbers in
the United States just before World War I, and greatly outdistanced both
choirs and orchestras after 1920. The numbers of ensembles grew with the
student population in secondary schools. From 1900 to 1940, general
attendance in high schools rose from 11% to 73% of 14- to 17- year-olds.
Patterns of growth were similar in Canada, with the primary increase
coming after World War II (Wasiak, 1996). This growth involved the
construction of buildings, development of curricula, and organization of
supporting educational structures, including teacher training units in higher
education (Hampel, 1986). The building of specialized performance areas in
new high schools in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and in Canadian high
schools in the 1960s, constituted one of the largest efforts in history to
house music instruction and performance in public facilities.
Ensemble growth after 1900 was accompanied in both countries by a
belief in a cluster of political, social, and educational ideas called
progressivism. These ideas manifested themselves in schools through the
progressive education movement, which in turn was led by philosopher-
educator John Dewey. The idea of blending schools and community, the
development of social skills or “we-ness” in schools and community, and a
sense of public service were central tenets of progressivism (Howey, 2003;
Krug, 1964). School music groups fit the progressive agenda ideally
(Humphreys, 1992).

CHOIRS

Vocal ensembles were the first ensembles in high schools in larger towns
and cities. The most common music activity was school-wide informal
group singing led by musically untrained teachers. Music in schools
evolved from a tradition of singing schools dating from the eighteenth
century in New England and continuing in the southern states to the present
time. School music in Canada in the twentieth century was influenced by a
strong choral tradition that evolved throughout the country in the late
nineteenth century. Except in regions adjacent to New England, singing
schools were never strong in Canada (McGee, 1985).
Vocal part-singing began in late nineteenth-century U.S. high schools
largely as a result of a consuming emphasis on music reading. There were
few instructional books compiled with high school students in mind. The
High School Choralist, by Charles Aiken, an early secondary school music
teacher in Cincinnati, was a seminal publication for this level that came out
in 1866 (Kegerreis, 1964).
 Singing instruction was sometimes a part of a weekly, noncredit school
“assembly” or “chapel.” In urban educational systems, itinerant music
specialists were often employed for this instruction, especially after 1900,
and they gravitated naturally to organizing ensembles. Practices varied, but
in a few large school systems students were organized into large oratorio
choruses to sing the works of Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Gounod, and
others. Oratorio performances in both high schools and colleges often
involved community soloists and required professional accompanists, a
practice that continued into the 1930s and beyond (Kegerreis, 1964).
By 1900, glee clubs were being organized in a few large high schools,
usually as extracurricular activities based on the college model. These
groups, often completely male or completely female, sang short, light,
entertaining pieces. Groups were sometimes combined for relatively
complex works, especially for highly visible graduation ceremonies and for
community oratorio productions. Up to the 1920s, many large urban
schools, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, organized a required
“chorus class” through which the entire student body received some light
instruction. Oratorio presentations and the “chorus class” declined in the
1920s with the rising popularity of glee clubs, operetta productions, and
eventually a cappella choirs in larger schools (Van Camp, 1980).
Several factors helped establish choral music in schools. In the United
States, the community music movement just before and during World War I
greatly affected music education at all levels and brought the value of
choral music to the attention of the public and to college and secondary
school administrators. In the progressive spirit of community-school
cooperation, leaders in the United States, such as George Oscar Bowen in
Flint, Michigan, were employed to organize high school as well as
community- and factory-related choruses and glee clubs (Spurgeon, 1990).

College Vocal Groups

Vocal groups existed in higher education from the late nineteenth century
and were important models for high school groups. Many of these were glee
clubs, usually student-organized groups similar to extracurricular student
literary societies, which sang short, light works for entertainment purposes
(Van Camp, 1980). After 1900, choir sponsorship was gradually transferred
to newly organized music departments. Glee clubs in colleges and in the
new high schools began to sing larger works under the direction of qualified
conductors. At Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Hollis Dann
organized large community-university festivals that included oratorio
performances replete with outside soloists and accompanists.
College choral programs grew from the 1910s. When college and
university administrators realized the cultural, public relations, and fund-
raising advantages of choral groups, choral ensembles were strongly
encouraged (Keene, 2009). Especially noteworthy was the work of Peter C.
Lutkin at Northwestern University, Archibald C. Davidson at Harvard
University (Van Camp, 1965), and Hollis Dann at Cornell University and
later New York University (DeJarnette, 1940).
Choral programs in U.S. high schools did not grow as robustly as
instrumental programs in the 1920s, possibly because they lacked the
intense commercial and administrative backing given instrumental music.
Vocal music educator George Oscar Bowen, president of the Music
Supervisors National Conference (MSNC), appointed the Vocal Affairs
Committee in 1926 to address the problem (Spurgeon, 1990). Hollis Dann
became a national leader, serving on the new committee from 1929 to 1936
and conducting the first National High School Chorus in 1928 (DeJarnette,
1940).
High school choral directors were inspired by other developments in the
late 1920s. The rise of high school vocal contests, following the example of
the high school band, was an important spur to growth (Kegerreis, 1966).
Another was the a cappella choir movement that began in higher education
in the 1920s and spread to high schools. Leaders included Lutkin, John
Finley Williamson of Westminster Choir College, and especially F. Melius
Christiansen of St. Olaf College. The select groups directed by these leaders
sang unaccompanied choral works from memory in a precise way and made
annual tours (Van Camp, 1965). Their success inspired similar groups in
larger high schools, especially in the Midwest during the 1930s. Most
notable was the a cappella choir at Flint (Michigan) Central High School
under the direction of Jacob A. Evanson, which sang at the MSNC meeting
in 1928 and sparked widespread interest in the possibilities of a cappella
choral music at the secondary level (Van Camp, 1965).
Most pioneering and successful a cappella choirs were led by former
instrumentalists, and the movement likely owed much to pressure from the
developing band movement of the late 1920s. A cappella choirs were often
developed in large midwestern high schools with successful instrumental
programs and strong community support. The popularity of these choirs
contributed to the decline of the school-community oratorio (Kegerreis,
1966).
The narrowness of a cappella repertoire, the fact that resources were
being spent on a minimal number of students, and the romantic and sacred
nature of programming were pointed criticisms (Kendel, 1932). The
emphasis on a cappella choral music as the highest ideal largely ended by
the 1940s, but the effect of achieving a stronger place in the curriculum for
school choirs had been achieved. By the 1950s, most select choirs, whether
labeled a cappella or not, sang accompanied music (Kegerreis, 1966).
The MSNC, later the Music Educators National Conference (MENC),
served as a catalyst for the growth of secondary ensembles of all kinds, as
well as an inspiration for the development of specialized professional
organizations devoted to individual ensemble types since the 1930s.
Secondary choral directors have looked to universities and colleges for
exemplars and to the leadership of particular conductors. “Schools” of
choral singing that emphasize various aspects of vocal production have
coalesced around the work of John Finley Williamson, William J. Finn, F.
Melius Christiansen, Fred Waring, Robert Shaw, and others (Decker &
Herford, 1973).
Today, organized choral festivals involving thousands of high school
students are sponsored by music associations throughout Canada and the
United States. Though choirs have largely held their own in the curriculum,
problems attracting and keeping males have continued (Gates, 1989). In
addition to select mixed choirs and all-male and all-female groups, other
types of choral ensembles have enjoyed popularity in some schools. In a
few southern U.S. districts, especially, “gospel” choirs have been organized,
though sometimes outside school hours. Some schools have added jazz-
oriented show choirs. Widely popular, especially in the U.S. Midwest and
West Coast regions, show choirs perform popular-style music involving
complex choreography. The activity has been criticized for emphasizing
entertainment values, for limited time spent on standard literature, and for
physical demands on immature voices (Weaver, 2001).

Support Patterns
The development of early choirs was supported by the efforts of music
publishers, especially C. C. Birchard (Kegerreis, 1966). Outside the MENC,
the primary organization for secondary choral directors and teachers has
been the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), founded in 1959.
The central purpose of the ACDA has been to elevate choral music in
American culture and to promote excellence in choral music. It sponsors
advocacy and research programs and encourages technological engagement.
It has aligned itself closely with school groups. The Association of
Canadian Choral Communities, founded in 1980, serves a similar function
in Canada.
Emphasis on choral music in secondary schools varies widely across the
continent, depending on regional or ethnic culture and religious or
philosophical orientation. School choral ensembles developed most strongly
in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest due to historic group-oriented emphasis
in village settlements. They developed later in the largely scattered and
rural South, which early on manifested a different musical polity.

Teacher Training in Group Methods

Vocal ensembles were found in early teacher training institutions, colleges,
and universities from the late nineteenth century. Vocal methods were often
taught, but specialized education in conducting and choral teaching did not
become common until the 1910s (James, 1968). Specific band methods
were taught less frequently than orchestra or choral methods until the
1920s. Those seeking to become band directors attended institutions like the
Conway Military Band School in Ithaca, New York, into the late 1920s, or
took correspondence courses (Fonder, 1992). Degree programs designed for
ensemble teachers were developed in the 1930s (Maddy, 1932).
Canadian higher education, influenced by European models of
instruction, especially the conservatory model, were slow to embrace music
education, which contributed to a shortage of instrumental music educators.
Though British and French culture encouraged strong choral traditions from
the late nineteenth century, British culture was more ambivalent toward
instrumental music (Golby, 2004). In contrast, many U.S. colleges and
universities established music education programs to build their institutions
and in response to the demand for public school music teachers. U.S.
institutions responded faster than Canadians to the demand for secondary
music teachers in the late 1920s and 1930s.
Though the content of public school musical instruction for performance
continues to improve, the scope of instruction has changed little since the
1930s. Instruction in music composition and history is minimal. The music-
as-aesthetic-education movement, comprehensive musicianship efforts, and
development of the national standards have had minimal impact on
ensemble practices, often because the development of related teaching
materials for use in the schools has not followed high-minded
pronouncements. University curricula continue to exclude standard school
literature in music history and theory classes, creating serious
disconnections between what is taught to university students and what they
will need as teachers in the schools.
There are hopeful signs. Since the late 1990s, for example, an ongoing
series of books that examines the pedagogical, theoretical, and historical
aspects of elementary and advanced literature for each type of ensemble has
been developed by GIA Publications in Chicago. It is being used widely by
ensemble teachers.

BANDS AND ORCHESTRAS

The flexibility of the band in its dual capacity as an outdoor and indoor
ensemble, and its special relationship to both classical art and vernacular
music, has made it extremely popular with students and solidified its
support with the public. The marching band, connected to sports, especially
American football, has made for a level of continuity unprecedented in
American education (Humphreys, 1992). Many school systems have
developed programs with multiple teachers, carefully sequenced curricula,
and attractive tours, contests, and festivals for students, typically beginning
in the sixth grade.
The wind ensemble movement, which began in the 1950s, has had only a
nominal impact on the high school band, because it has been less practical,
involving a smaller number of select students with solo capabilities, a
flexible personnel structure, and performance without doubling on various
parts (Hunsberger, 1994). Requirements for the wind ensemble often
conflict with the instrumentation, size, and democratic emphases of the high
school band.
Contemporary field pageantry has been strongly influenced by
developments in drum and bugle corps, and includes the glide step,
specialized brasses, and expanded percussion, including the sideline “front
ensemble” and ancillary groups using highly choreographed flag or dance
routines. Much of this stems directly from the influence of the major drum
and bugle corps organization, Drum Corps International.
Many bands in the U.S. Midwest and South associated with Bands of
America use extensive props and story lines or themes. Such complex work
involves specialized arrangers, drill designers, percussion instructors, and
choreographers, usually financed by parent support organizations. Many
secondary schools, especially in the Midwest, retain a simpler but exciting
“Big-Ten” orientation. A style found in many traditionally African-
American universities in the southern United States, known as “show band”
style, combines elements of marching styles with extreme athleticism.
Exceptional crowd participation and loyalty are characteristic of shows by
bands such as those from Grambling State University and Florida A&M
University, an ethos imitated by many southern high school bands.
High school bands have looked to universities for exemplars and
leadership, whereas school orchestras have looked to professional
organizations for models. School orchestra directors have tended to be more
conservative and less flexible in the types of organizations and
programming offered students, with some exceptions (Britton, 1961;
Turner, 2001). Though the string orchestra and full orchestra are still the
primary instrumental organizations, some schools have added fiddling
groups as well as strolling strings. Mariachi bands are common in some
regions, and bluegrass-style string bands are not unknown.

History
School bands and choirs have benefited from community relationships.
From the early nineteenth century bands have been a valued part of
community life, particularly in the northern United States and in Canada.
Town bands, made up mostly of brasses, were numerous and usually
provided functional or patriotic music in their communities (Humphreys,
1989). As the southern United States became industrialized, factory-
supported bands served a community function. Lowell Mason, the putative
founder of music education in the United States, worked with a community
band early in the nineteenth century and called the clarinet “his” instrument
long before he was known for his vocal work (Pemberton, 1985).
Professional orchestras were primarily an urban phenomenon and
developed mostly in the late nineteenth century due to the efforts of
dedicated pioneers like Theodore Thomas (Horowitz, 2005). The heartland
of school orchestras and other ensembles until the late twentieth century
was the U.S. Midwest (Fonder, 1983). From the start, orchestras had served
as tools of a European high culture, especially German, and performed less
vernacular North American music than did bands (Horowitz, 1987, 1994;
Humphreys, 1992).
Scattered school bands and orchestras were organized beginning in the
late nineteenth century. Several conditions generated interest in school
ensembles, not the least of which was that from the 1890s through the
1940s music was regarded as a source of social amelioration (Humphreys,
1989; Lee, 2007).
From 1900 to 1920, school orchestras were organized in several urban
school systems in the northern and western United States, including such
diverse places as Chelsea, Massachusetts; Rochester, New York; Richmond,
Indiana; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Oakland, California. In many ways
this period was the heyday of the school orchestra (Humphreys, 1989).
Many of the earliest orchestras were small “pick-up” groups with
nonstandard instrumentation. There were exceptions, like the orchestra with
standard instrumentation organized by Will Earhart at Richmond, Indiana.
Earhart was a national leader in music education and an articulate defender
of instrumental music in the curriculum from the 1920s (Birge, 1937;
Gordon, 1956).
Bands grew more slowly than orchestras until the late 1920s, largely
because of a dearth of literature and uncertainty about instrumentation. As
school enrollments grew and progress on instrumentation and literature
issues occurred, many school administrators began to see bands as
advantageous for school and community life. Like its community
predecessors, it was first valued as a public service organization, but with
the growth of the wind literature, its educational aspects were emphasized.
The development of the school band was strongly tied to the growth of
school sports and shared many of the same socially ameliorative goals
(Spring, 1974). By the 1930s, band programs had far outdistanced orchestra
programs in numbers (Dykema & Gehrkens, 1941), a sequence of events
that was replicated in Canada in the 1950s (Green & Vogan, 1991).
The orchestra and band movement was strongly boosted by the
development of class teaching methods. Charles Farnsworth, a professor at
Teachers College, Columbia University, visited Maidstone in England and
reported on large numbers of violinists being taught in groups. Following
Farnsworth’s report, Albert G. Mitchell of Boston visited Maidstone and
subsequently (1914) published his Public School Class Method for the
Violin. This was followed in 1923 by a pioneering publication, Universal
Teacher for Orchestra and Band Instruments, by T. P. Giddings and Joseph
E. Maddy, which facilitated the teaching of multiple types of instruments in
a single class, a simple but revolutionary idea (Birge, 1937; Dykema &
Gehrkens, 1941).
Over the next decades numerous class method books were published
(Birge, 1937). Instrumental instruction of all kinds was hugely popular, and
not just for bands and orchestras. Pianos taught in classes and rhythm bands
in elementary schools (with the uniforms and imagery of professional
bands) were organized. The period 1900–1940 was a time of intense
experimentation in instrumental music. Various possibilities were explored,
including fretted instrument groups, rhythm bands, and harmonica
ensembles (Mathis, 1969).
Marching bands in North American schools become a feature of school
and community life in the twentieth century. A leader in the early marching
band movement just after 1900 was Austin A. Harding at the University of
Illinois. Later, others, including Mark H. Hindsley and A. R. McAllister,
made significant contributions. Early marching bands were patterned on
groups whose function was to play for military units and that were mostly
male (McCarrell, 1971).
By the early 1930s, the band and orchestra movement in the schools was
recognized as a significant phenomenon in American national life. The
decision to develop school ensemble programs was often made by local
school superintendents. They did this for many reasons, but school control,
aesthetics, school “spirit,” vocational considerations, school consolidation,
and socialization of students were common reasons given (Morgan, 1926;
President’s Research Committee on Social Trends, 1933). Because school
officials were deeply concerned about discipline and social control, many
early bands were organized for the purpose of the social control of male
students. Further, music in the schools was seen as positive cultural uplift
and a means of developing strong civic consciousness (Hansen, 2005;
Morgan, 1926)—ideals that appealed to male service clubs and to the
powerful women’s civic and arts associations that encouraged or helped
support early school music groups in both the United States and Canada
(Green & Vogan, 1991; President’s Research Committee on Social Trends,
1933; Ravitch, 2000).
The public during this period had an almost mystical regard for music,
likely boosted by public enthusiasm for the phonograph and radio. It was
helpful that John Philip Sousa, Theodore Thomas, Walter Damrosch, and
other music professionals had developed a positive image with the public
(Harris, 1983; Horowitz, 1994, 2005). In the interwar period, a strong
“culture of performance” in music emerged among the general public
(Horowitz, 2005) and with it a strong consensus for ensembles in schools.
Books aimed toward administrators mentioned vocational possibilities,
vocational emphases being much on the minds of educational leaders
during the interwar period (Dykema & Cundiff, 1939; Giddings & Baker,
1922). The need for musicians in movie theatres, dance orchestras, and
circuses still existed into the 1930s (Snyder, 1934). The possibility of
playing in jazz orchestras, which included strings and winds, was
mentioned in Maddy and Giddings’s early manual for teachers (1926),
which also included methods for the organization of jazz orchestras. School
jazz groups existed from the 1920s and played a role in attracting students
(Humphreys, 1992). Some schools offered credit toward graduation for
band, choir, and orchestra in schools from the 1910s (Simmonds, 1916).
Joseph E. Maddy and others soon became leaders in the orchestra and
band movement. Maddy became the first supervisor of instrumental music
in the United States, in Rochester, New York, in 1913. Like many of the
pioneers in school ensembles, Maddy believed in competition, outstanding
performance, and strong public relations. Maddy, Giddings, J. W. Fay, and
Russell V. Morgan, among others, contributed decisively to the instrumental
movement as members of the MSNC Committee on Instrumental Affairs,
which effectively encouraged instrumental music for two decades (Birge,
1937).
Instrumental Affairs worked through organizations established by
instrument manufacturers, such as the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music, to launch a series of instrumental contests in the
1920s that had a profound effect on music education, especially bands, and
on music education organizations at the state level (Koch, 1990). Contests
initiated by Frank A. Beach in Kansas in the 1910s had been extremely
successful (Gordon, 1956).
 Wind instrument manufacturers were aggressive in promoting school
bands directly to administrators and were a strong factor in the development
of the movement (Krivin, 1961). Exemplary bands, like the famous Joliet
(Illinois) High School Band under A. R. McAllister, became one of the
model contest bands of this era for both Canadians and Americans (Hash,
2009). Cross-border contests and festivals became a factor in the
development of ensembles in Canada (Green & Vogan, 1991).
Under Maddy’s leadership and the sponsorship of the MSNC, the
National School Orchestra performed at the 1927 superintendents’ meeting
of the National Education Association in Dallas. The performance was a
dazzling success and secured an endorsement of credit for high school
music experiences from national leaders in education, one of the most
important milestones of the century for music education. Subsequently,
Maddy and Giddings founded the Interlochen Music Camp, and gave
instrumental music education a high profile through radio broadcasts in the
1930s. These leaders secured help from music professionals such as Sousa
and Toscanini, and kept the profile of instrumental music education high for
two decades (Boal, 1998).
By the 1950s, state organizations affiliated with the MENC had been
organized across the United States, and students in school choirs, bands,
and orchestras could attend festivals in their states. Many of the earlier
problems with ratings were ameliorated, and today most states and
Canadian provinces work under what some called the “Kansas Way”
(Fuller, 1931), or similar rating systems that measure ensembles against a
standard instead of against each other.
School bands and orchestras in Canada and the southern United States
were not organized extensively until after 1950. In Canada, the sequence of
inclusion in the curriculum followed the U.S. pattern, often delayed by two
or three decades. Competition-festivals and the rise of exemplary programs
and teachers were important factors in Canada, as in the United States, but
the delayed organization of specialized music teacher programs in higher
education and the independent educational policies pursued by the various
provincial governments resulted in uneven development (Green & Vogan,
1991). Nevertheless, bands have emerged as the predominant type of school
instrumental group in Canada, growing from a deeply embedded
community and military band tradition. In its early stages, the school band
movement relied on teachers trained in the United States (Green & Vogan,
1991; Wasiak, 1996).

Leadership in Bands and Orchestras

Several professional organizations of school instrumental conductors have
influenced the direction of school ensembles. The American Bandmasters
Association and the College Band Directors National Association serve to
improve the artistic status of the band, but are not specifically concerned
with the advancement of secondary school groups.
The primary organizations for school instrumental teachers have been the
National Band Association, American School Band Directors Association,
and American String Teachers Association. The focus of these
organizations has been the development of performance proficiency and
repertoire. Similar organizations exist in Canada, such as the Canadian
Band Directors Association, though many Canadians belong to U.S.
organizations as well. Some U.S. organizations have Canadian membership
categories.

JAZZ ENSEMBLES

Probably the most common small instrumental ensembles in North America

are school jazz groups. Jazz originated in the United States, and university
groups have played an important part in its development from the 1910s.
Significant work at several predominantly African-American colleges is
especially notable, such as W. C. Handy’s teaching before World War I at
Teacher’s Agricultural and Mechanical College at Normal, Alabama
(Kennedy, 2002).
Two MSNC presidents involved in instrumental music education played
in or organized jazz orchestras during the 1910s and 1920s: Joseph Maddy
and Russell Morgan (Boal, 1998). Maddy and T. P. Giddings’s pioneering
Instrumental Technique for Orchestra and Band, published in 1926,
contained an appendix on the jazz orchestra and jazz style. Canadian
schools have exhibited an extensive commitment to jazz at all levels since
the 1970s (Murphy, 1994).
 Typical school ensemble types include big bands, combos, and jazz
choirs. Students who participate in school jazz groups are usually
participants in the large school ensembles. School jazz groups may be a
curricular offering, or they might meet outside the regular school day.
Although the large jazz ensemble is predominant, smaller combos are
becoming more common in public school settings. The inclusion of
improvisation and composition/arranging in the U.S. national standards
may have contributed to the inclusion of small combos in curricular
offerings.
School jazz band instrumentation is modeled after professional big bands
and typically includes five saxophones (two altos, two tenors, one baritone),
four or five trumpets, four or five trombones, and a rhythm section that may
include piano, guitar, bass, drums, and auxiliary percussion. The
instrumentation, though standardized, is somewhat flexible. Members of the
saxophone section are often required to double on other woodwind
instruments (flute, clarinet, bass clarinet), and flugelhorns may be specified
in trumpet parts. Use of straight, cup, and plunger mutes for brass
instruments is common. Jazz combos may be as small as a trio or as large as
a septet, octet, or nonet. A combo typically includes rhythm section
instruments and one to three wind instruments, and may feature a vocalist.
Jazz choirs, like jazz bands, typically feature only one performer to a part.
While the “jam session” has retained an integral role in jazz education,
the availability of recordings and transcriptions allow students access to the
artistry of jazz masters. Play-along recordings of rhythm section
accompaniment, particularly those by Jamey Aebersold, have advanced the
study of jazz improvisation among generations of aspirants. Other
pedagogues who have published important works on jazz improvisation
include David Baker and Jerry Coker.
Since jazz has been more commercially viable than some music genres
found in school settings, there has long been industry support for jazz in
schools from recording companies, publishing companies, and instrument
manufacturers. Many companies sponsor jazz artists and make them
available as resources for jazz students and educators (Worthy, 2011).

Jazz Teachers and Their Education

While many colleges and universities offer degrees or other types of
specialization in jazz studies or jazz pedagogy, unlike traditional music
education degrees, these programs do not lead to public school teaching
licensure. Instead, public school jazz groups are led by educators licensed to
teach instrumental music, vocal music, or both.
The organization and teaching of jazz groups, including both strings and
winds, was mentioned in the earliest manuals for school instrumental
groups, and the importance of jazz to youth was recognized from the start
of the instrumental movement (Maddy & Giddings, 1926). Jazz became
more common as jazz-trained service personnel returned from World War II
and entered the teaching profession. Some colleges and universities began
offering formal study in jazz in the 1940s. Jazz education began to
proliferate during the 1960s and has continued to the present (Murphy,
1994).
The International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) provided support
and leadership in developing curricula and organized clinics, festivals, and
symposia, and published the Jazz Educators Journal from 1968 until the
organization’s demise in 2008. Many state associations formerly associated
with the IAJE are still in operation and coordinate festivals, contests, all-
state ensembles, and educational workshops. Since 2008 two organizations
have emerged to support and promote jazz education: the MENC Society
for Jazz Education and the Jazz Education Network. Many universities
include jazz pedagogy in their music education curricula, a trend that bodes
well for jazz education.

PROSPECTS FOR ENSEMBLES

North American school ensembles continue to prosper. Bands especially

have set an enviable standard for public and administrative support, student
enthusiasm, and organizational efficiency in both Canada and the United
States (Britton, 1961; Wasiak, 1996). With other school ensembles, they
have given music education a positive public identity (Kegerreis, 1964;
Spurgeon, 1990). Bands in particular have remained focused on
performance as music education, an emphasis the public clearly
understands and values (Humphreys, 1992). There is little question that the
band contest and festival system that began in the 1910s and 1920s
continues to have a significant effect on music education in North America.
 The U.S. model has had an influence outside North America. U.S.-type
instructional strategies and materials, especially for band, are now found
worldwide. They have been very successful in Asian countries—most
notably in Japan and increasingly in Europe. Students from outside North
America now study music education in U.S. and Canadian universities.
Yet serious problems remain with the system. Demands on ensemble
teachers have intensified. Unremunerated time expended to achieve high
performance levels and the span of musical skills demanded by a variety of
ensemble types have placed serious demands on teachers. Universities, with
curricular limitations and limited funding, have failed to keep pace with
developments in ensemble teaching on the clinical level.
Changes in the contest-festival orientation of teachers have been
minimal. Ensemble directors are employed by the schools but are judged
publicly by their peers and the community (Humphreys, 1992). Ensemble
directors have often balanced the demands of community and adjudicated
performances admirably; however, the tug of peer-reviewed music events
has sometimes contributed to a disconnection with local communities and
made attention to larger educational goals more problematic. Missteps in
educational philosophy and misuse of community resources are not
unknown.
Outside the work of Humphreys (1992), scholars have failed to develop a
proper diffusion theory that explains how music ensembles became such an
integral part of schools. In the past, the drive to organize ensembles in
schools was characterized by professional unity and an evangelical
commitment by administrators and music leaders. Ensembles were almost
universally regarded as a “good thing” for children, and music itself was
seen as positive, redemptive, and melioristic (Lee, 2007)—attitudes that
seem less widespread today, at least within the field of music education.
Efforts to offer ensembles at the secondary level and build audience
support have been neglected by many music teacher organizations.
Specialty band organizations, particularly, have expended their resources on
recognizing leaders and commissioning new works rather than on
expanding their base of support in the schools. Advocacy efforts often have
been directed at influencing political power centers at the expense of
convincing the general public of the value of music performance for young
people. This lack of focus, the dissolution of the IAJE, and directional
changes in MENC/NAfME herald a realignment of professional goals and
loyalties in an era when there seems to be a serious loss of national
consensus about the worth of music in the schools.
There are reasons to be hopeful, however. Though ensemble programs
have sometimes contracted or expanded depending on economic, social, or
demographic factors, the basic structure that has been in place for a century
remains intact. Most music educators continue the progressive ideal of
relating school ensembles to communities and school activities, perhaps
shielding programs to some extent from economic, social, and educational
vicissitudes. In most North American schools, students continue to
participate actively and voluntarily, producing a vibrant and enthusiastic
school ensemble culture (Humphreys, 1992).

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. What is known, unclear, or presumed about the history of school ensembles that might help in
policy decisions about music education? Suggest examples.
2. Speculate about the historical contributions of school ensembles to individual, social, and
cultural identities.
3. What types of school ensembles seem to have been most adaptable to changing social,
educational, and economic conditions?
4. Consider the advantages or disadvantages of connecting school ensembles with national or
regional identity.
5. What have been the benefits for individual students in connecting school ensembles to
communities? Of what have these connections consisted?

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Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Prouty, K. E. (2005). The history of jazz education: A critical reassessment. Journal of Historical
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 CHAPTER 18

ONCE FROM THE TOP: REFRAMING

THE ROLE OF THE CONDUCTOR IN
ENSEMBLE TEACHING

STEVEN J. MORRISON AND STEVEN M.

DEMOREST

He is many things: musician, administrator, executive, minister,

psychologist, technician, philosopher and dispenser of wrath. . . . Above all,
he is a leader of men. His subjects look to him for guidance. . . . He has but
to stretch out his hand and he is obeyed. He tolerates no opposition. His
will, his word, his very glance, are law. (Schonberg, 1967, p. 16)

Gendered language aside, this description captures the classic image of the
ensemble conductor as an individual of larger-than-life musical and personal
magnitude. Although Schonberg’s words specifically referred to the
professional symphony orchestra conductor, the school ensemble teacher has
inevitably—and perhaps in some cases willingly and enthusiastically—
inherited the mantle of semi-mythologized musical leadership. The aura of
mythology is not overstated. Within the three traditional spheres of school
ensemble directing—band, choir, and orchestra—the conductor’s historical
antecedents easily lend themselves to elevated stature.
In the orchestra realm there is the maestro (literally the “master”), a
powerful and perhaps eccentric figure whose sometimes self-absorbed
genius rests on complete mastery of musical knowledge. This figure often
seems distant, so thorough is his (it is usually a man) understanding of music
and so intimate is his almost supernatural relationship with the classical
pantheon. So well-known is this figure that no explanation is necessary when
Bugs Bunny appears as “Leopold” or the cast of Seinfeld meets Bob Cobb,
a.k.a. “The Maestro.”
The historical band director (or bandmaster), in contrast, does not so much
commune with the muse as with the military. This is a figure whose
authority is rooted in traditions of precision and discipline. Where the larger-
than-life personalities of the orchestral conducting world carry an air of
artistic revelation, those in the band conducting world reveal a scrupulous
devotion to detail. The tuxedos of the orchestra, exuding an intriguing
juxtaposition of both elegance and servitude (Nettl, 1995; Small, 1998), give
way to the uniforms of the band, reflecting a history of parades, formations,
and defense of the homeland. In popular culture the historical band director
is personified in the character of Harry Dinkle, the earnest and perpetually
uniformed high school band director in the comic strip Funky Winkerbean.
While the band director is decidedly of this earth, the choral director is an
individual more closely associated with the spiritual world. Far from
appearing militaristic, the choral director is a pastoral figure whose attire has
at times recalled the vestments of the clergy. And indeed, as many of the
great choral conductors lead or have led choirs associated with churches or
church schools, it is easy to sense the connection between director and
divinity.

THE CONDUCTOR IN THE SCHOOL

These historical archetypes were not forged in schools, yet they have been
imported into the classroom context. The tradition of the professional
conductor—tails, epaulets, and robes included—has been adopted by and
adapted to the music teaching profession. Although school ensemble
teachers have direct counterparts in the “real world,” this cannot be said of
other curricular areas. Is there another instructional role in the school that
carries such a tradition of dominance and authority? One might point out the
athletic coach (but not the physical education teacher) or the theater director
(but not the drama teacher); however; these roles tend to exist on the
periphery of the school day, outside the formal curriculum.
The traditional autocratic model of the school conductor appears to be in
direct opposition to contemporary educational thought, where a priority is
placed on students constructing their own understanding of subject matter
through authentic problem-solving experiences (Allsup, 2003, 2012;
Broomhead, 2005, 2009). The teacher’s role in this model is one of problem
setter, not problem solver. In an outcomes-based music education
environment, learning is measured not by the excellence of the group’s
performance, but by the progress of each individual within the group toward
clear musical goals (approaches that are happily not mutually exclusive). In
the United States, the goals of such school-based instruction are detailed in
the National Core Arts Standards (National Coalition for Core Arts
Standards, 2014). Proficient students can perform on their major instrument
a wide variety of repertoire with technical and expressive accuracy, can read
music, can write and create their own music, are responsive critical listeners,
and are able to connect knowledge of history and culture as it relates to
music. In short, they can demonstrate musical independence.
Given the broad range of individual musical skills outlined by the Core
Music Standards, one could make a compelling argument that large
ensemble classes are not the optimal settings for developing musical
independence. Though it might be tempting to call for the abandonment of
the large ensemble and for school music teachers to vacate the role of
conductor, there are strong arguments to be made in support of retaining this
instructional context. First is simple economy. There is no other format in
which so many students can be engaged in guided music-making all at the
same time. A conductor working with a choir of 80 voices is not only
feasible but desirable. Similarly, large bands and orchestras gathered during
specific hours of the school day are symptomatic of a healthy school music
program. In no other curricular area can so many students be served so
efficiently. Small group opportunities—chamber groups, jazz combos, rock
bands—often struggle within formal school settings that carry expectations
of minimum enrollment thresholds and constant teacher supervision.
A second strength of the current school ensemble model is the opportunity
it provides for students to perform music that can only be realized by a large
number of musicians. While it may be possible for a group of students to
gather independently as a quartet or a garage band, it is unlikely that enough
young musicians would converge to muster a performance of Holst’s Second
Suite in F. Larger communities may feature independent organizations in
which students may enroll, such as girl choirs or youth symphonies.
However, these groups are often tuition based, limiting access to those with
the means to subscribe and, in many cases, to supplement the experience
with private tutoring. Related to the power of the large ensemble is its
quality. Data suggest that students may demonstrate a higher level of
performance achievement collectively than when considered individually
(Broomhead, 2001; Demorest, 1998; Demorest & May, 1995; Henry &
Demorest, 1994). An ensemble is more than the sum of its parts. While these
data underscore the need to attend to the individual achievement of each
student and may be viewed as the basis of an argument against the ensemble
instructional context, they also make the case that students, when brought
together in a large performing group, can achieve more than they might
alone.
A third crucial characteristic of the large conducted ensemble is the
opportunity it affords students to participate in an established community
that features both musical and social dimensions. When speaking of their
experiences as band, orchestra, and choir members, students cite their
membership in the ensemble’s “culture” as a crucial part of their decision to
join and continue participation (Abril, 2013; Adderley, Kennedy, & Berz,
2003). Note that students “join” the school ensemble—in contrast to other
classes that they simply “take”—suggesting a fundamental difference in
their perception of music enrollment as compared to that in most other
subject areas. Indeed, a report examining the implementation of instrumental
instruction in British primary schools noted that students who had the
opportunity to study in large or whole-class groups tended to express the
desire to continue instruction past completion of the pilot program (Office
for Standards in Education, 2004).
So how can we align the benefits of individual music learning with the
enjoyment and interest provided by large group performance? One way is to
examine the current role of the ensemble conductor in schools and determine
to what extent that model leads to independent musicianship. If deficiencies
in that model are identified, then we may wish to consider reframing the role
of the conductor in such a way that those goals can be achieved through the
school ensemble. Before that, however, it may be useful to briefly examine
characteristics of modern school conductors, including who they are, how
they got there, and what they do.

MAKING THE MODERN CONDUCTOR

In some educational traditions, music teachers find themselves assigned to
the role of conductor by simple virtue of schedule availability or music
experience, however limited (Hebert, 2005). In most music education
programs in the United States, music teachers step into their role as
ensemble conductors after an extended period of training. Prospective
conductors are most often young people who have spent years as members
of school ensembles. While future doctors, lawyers, and business people
may emerge from a variety of secondary school experiences—including
those that feature only limited exposure to the study of health, law, or
economics—it is rare that ensemble teachers emerge from backgrounds that
do not feature many years of ensemble membership. In this way, ensemble
teachers not only lead groups of school children in musical activity; they
also perpetuate the traditions and practices of the ensembles they teach,
passing on the school ensemble culture to a younger generation (Morrison,
2001).
The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) offers specific
guidelines for U.S. programs leading to teacher licensure. The study of
conducting is generally considered an integral part of music teacher
preparation programs.1 In the area of conducting (listed as “Conducting and
Musical Leadership”) NASM (2015) stipulates that
the prospective music teacher must be a competent conductor, able to create accurate and
musically expressive performances with various types of performing groups and in general
classroom situations. Instruction in conducting includes score reading and the integration of
analysis, style, performance practices, instrumentation, and conducting techniques. Laboratory
experiences that give the student opportunities to apply rehearsal techniques and procedures are
essential. (p. 117)

In addition, conductors in the individual areas of vocal or instrumental

teaching should possess pedagogical knowledge of the voice and the various
string, wind, and percussion instruments and familiarity with performance
curricula and materials, as well as experience as a solo and ensemble
performer.
Conducting study itself generally begins with fundamental skills of pulse
consistency and beat patterns before advancing into more complex areas of
tempo variation, cueing, and left/right hand independence. Ultimately, these
various gestural elements are combined and utilized as a means of visually
depicting musical ideas as dictated by the ensemble score. Built into this is
the assumption that the act of conducting enhances the effectiveness of the
ensemble director’s teaching, with the implication that “better”—more
technically precise, more gesturally fluid, more visually evocative—
conducting facilitates better teaching.
While there is some evidence that students may respond more positively
(Price & Winter, 1991) or more musically (Sidoti, 1990) to better
conducting, equally compelling data suggest the link between a conductor’s
expressive or technical prowess and an ensemble’s performance achievement
is tenuous (Price & Chang, 2005; Price, 2006). On the other hand, there is
evidence to suggest that the visual element of conducting plays a role in how
individuals outside the ensemble—the audience—experience and evaluate
the group’s performance (Kumar & Morrison, 2016; Morrison et al., 2009).
The act of conducting may have both more and less consequence than we
imagine and assume.
The very notion of conducting expertise as it relates to technique and
gesture is difficult to pin down. Though certain fundamental gestures (such
as those depicting particular dynamic changes or articulations) appear to be
commonly employed and understood even among very inexperienced
performers (Sousa, 1988), expert conductors are best characterized by
diversity—both by the degree of variation observed within any individual
conductor’s movements and the range of approaches observed across
multiple conductors (Byo & Austin, 1994). Considering that much of formal
conducting study is concentrated on technique and mechanics, such diversity
suggests that expertise brings with it the ability and knowledge to adapt
fundamental technical skills to a highly personalized vision of musical
movement and gesture. As visually different as expert conductors may be
from one another, much greater consistency can be observed in the role and
function that these conductors play—that of musical and instructional leader.
Clearly, many of the specific outcomes identified by teacher preparation
programs are intended to support a vision of the teacher as an expert in choir,
orchestra, or band. It stands to reason, then, that the expert conductor is well
equipped to facilitate the development of proficient—or even expert—choir,
orchestra, or band students. However, given that in some curricula the
ensemble class is often a student’s only formal music study during any given
school year, the charge of music educators is not to simply raise classes of
good ensemble members, but to facilitate the development of well-rounded,
independent young musicians. How might the expert ensemble conductor—
historically the consummate musical leader—guide the development of
young people whom we wish to be more than simply musical followers?

THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL ENSEMBLE CONDUCTOR

For the conductor-educator, the exact nature of his or her role can vary from
hour to hour, even from moment to moment. It is the challenge of the school
ensemble teacher to navigate a range of identities that are responsive to the
needs of the student musicians. Let us start by exploring a brief slice of the
activities of two exemplary school ensemble conductors, Ms. Richter and
Mr. Christiansen:
During her Monday morning planning period Ms. Richter, the band teacher at the local secondary
school, decides to take some time to prepare one of the scores she has selected for the senior-
level band. Ms. Richter chose this particular piece for several reasons: the construction of the
extended melodic lines is particularly interesting, even more so when set against the dense, dark
chordal backdrop; her students have not yet had the opportunity to play music from this tradition
—the piece is a setting of a Russian choral work from the late nineteenth century—and this piece
is an outstanding example of the style; and, on a more practical level, the trumpet parts are fairly
conservatively scored while the horns are featured prominently—a useful contrast since the
trumpet players are still working on fundamental performance skills while the horn players are
quite advanced and will respond well to the added challenge. Still, Ms. Richter thinks the flute
part is a bit high, overpowering the lower voices and not a good representation of the original
orchestration, so she has rewritten several passages to be truer to the composer’s scoring.
Ms. Richter listens to a recording of the band she made at the end of Friday’s rehearsal. She
notes that, compared to the recording by the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, the group’s sound is
bright and detached, technically not incorrect but an inappropriate interpretation for this style of
music. Playing a particularly chromatic chord progression on the piano, she notices that the low
woodwinds are making a few note errors that she will point out during that day’s class. She sings
the melody and decides that, in light of the original text, several breaths are occurring in the
wrong place and breaking the sense of line. To reinforce this she adjusts her conducting
throughout these passages to convey the continuity of sound across the offending bar lines. In a
few spots the rhythmic precision is breaking down, a common problem in such a slow piece.
However, she decides this issue is best kept for tomorrow’s rehearsal and more technical matters
will be addressed today. Having made a few additional notes in her score, Ms. Richter gathers her
materials and walks into the music room, where the first few students are arriving ahead of the
class bell.

This scenario depicts a model preparation session. The teacher is using a

broad array of knowledge and skills to enrich her knowledge of this piece
and to determine instructional approaches that will assist the students in
performance preparation. From knowledge of form and other compositional
elements, to critical listening, to awareness of historical and cultural context
and its implications for stylistic interpretation, Ms. Richter is applying the
lessons gained from years of professional preparation to this task.
Admittedly, it is also ideal in that such opportunities for extensive and
intensive study are not easy to come by in a teacher’s busy schedule.
As Ms. Richter continues her study and preparation, the responsibility
given to the students is largely one of practice. It is their task to pay attention
in rehearsal, then to learn and refine the parts not yet mastered. This usually
occurs outside the school day, indeed outside the school building. The
amount of “musical thinking” brought to bear up to this point has been
considerable but largely carried out by the conductor. Figure 18.1 depicts
this distribution of labor across time. The stage is set by the teacher, whose
task it is to select literature and prepare instructional units (rehearsal plans)
that facilitate student achievement. Among the best teachers, these rehearsal
plans are the product of reflective listening and careful attention to the
students’ achievement contrasted against the ideal musical realization of the
repertoire being studied. Such planning requires knowledge of the repertoire,
the students, and technical demands particular to the performance medium—
the very skill set that comprises the bulk of music teacher preparation
programs. The students, based on feedback from the teacher and (in the best
cases) self-awareness of parts not yet mastered, engage in an ongoing cycle
of rehearsal and practice during which they learn their roles for the
culminating performance.

Figure 18.1 Applying musical thinking to performance preparation.

Now we look in on a choral rehearsal of Mr. Christiansen, a veteran high

school choral teacher:
 Mr. Christiansen (or Mr. C. as he is known to his students) has the group stand and checks for
good singing posture, asks them to be sure their chests are high and shoulders relaxed. He asks
them to exhale all their air and then breathe in for four counts and out for eight on an s. They
repeat several variations of this. At several points the conductor comments on keeping the stream
of air very steady and highlights a tenor who has particularly good posture. Then the conductor
models and the students sing a five-tone descending exercise (sol-do on a hum). They move up
by half steps as the director checks for relaxed jaw and asks students to check for resonance by
putting their fingers on their cheeks to feel the vibration. As they go up they move to singing on
“mu” and “mi,” with the conductor checking for tone and breath support. They move to a range
exercise and a chord exercise, with the conductor modeling and then commenting on student
efforts, occasionally having them add a movement or change a vowel to improve tone.
He has them look at a simple four-measure melody on the board and asks students to raise their
hands when they know the time signature, key signature, and starting solfége syllable of the
exercise. When a number of hands are up he calls on individuals and answers their questions. He
then asks students to review the rhythm and identify any challenging or repeating spots. The
students identify that bars 1 and 3 have the same rhythm patterns. He directs the students to speak
through the rhythm on counts and provides feedback as needed. He then asks them to do the same
with the pitch information. After reviewing their responses, they tune up in the key on solfége,
set a tempo, and sing through the exercise a cappella. Once they have finished, he points out a
shaky pitch on fa-re and asks them to look at the dynamics. They sing again on solfége and
correct those issues.
Mr. C. says, “Take out Annie Laurie” and begins to play the first few bars of the Parker/Shaw
arrangement of this folk tune on the piano. This is a new piece, so he asks students to sing
through their parts for the first verse on the syllable “du” while he doubles on piano. Then he
asks everyone to sing the melody together on “du” while he doubles. After correcting the notes,
he gives them a technique for negotiating the frequent octave leaps while maintaining a
consistent tone. Once they are able to sing consistently on “du” they add the text and sing the
melody again. He asks which word is the most important in the first phrase, “Maxwelton’s braes
are bonny as early fa’s the dew.” The consensus is “bonny,” so they sing again and emphasize
that word followed by a decrescendo to the end of the line. They continue through the remaining
phrases. He cautions then to maintain solid breath support through the end of each phrase to
support tone and intonation, and they sing once again, this time going on to the end of the verse.
They review the places where they must carry over breath and check their vowels on “dew,”
“Annie Laurie,” and “doon and dee” for uniformity. They sing one more time to reinforce the
phrasing and melodic intonation. He gradually adds in the bass, alto, and tenor parts against the
melody by doubling, occasionally stopping to fix a problem spot through modeling or repetition
and reinforcing tone and phrasing. Then he tries the full four-part texture and asks students to
think about uniform vowels and phrasing even though they are singing different lines. He has to
stop four more times to review tuning the notes in the opening chord, the bass Bb in measure 3,
the alto part in measures 9–12, and the tenor part in measures 14–16. He checks vertical tuning
several times by having the students stop on particular chords, and then moves on to work on the
blend of the final unison Db by having the men sing down to it in falsetto and then approach
again from their parts. Satisfied, he asks them to look at verse 2 for tomorrow.

This snapshot is typical of the role of the conductor in many choral

rehearsals. Indeed, Mr. Christiansen’s rehearsal might be seen as exemplary
for his frequent specific feedback, his knowledge of vocal technique, his use
of modeling on piano and voice, his teaching of music reading, his quality
repertoire choice, and a carefully thought out sequence that emphasizes
musicality from the beginning of rehearsing a new piece. Based on this
description, we would assume that Mr. Christiansen has a very successful
choral program.
These two scenarios describe in some detail how expert ensemble
conductors go about the business of producing consistently outstanding band
and choir performances. If we examine these scenarios from the standpoint
of developing independent musicians, the picture is somewhat different. Do
the students in the ensembles described here have opportunities to
demonstrate independent musicianship? In both scenarios students are being
exposed to excellent repertoire, specific ideas about good technique, and
clearly articulated musical challenges, but we have no way of knowing
whether they can apply that information in the absence of the conductor.
Their voice appears to be missing from the rehearsal process. Duke and
Simmons (2006) suggest that successful studio teachers have a clear vision
of their students as accomplished performers. Likewise, it would seem
equally advisable for the ensemble teacher to have a clear vision of students
as educated independent musicians.
In forming our vision of the educated independent musician, one point of
departure might be the skills of the conductors themselves. If musical
independence involves the ability to choose appropriate repertoire (select
worthwhile musical challenges) and then guide the development of a high-
quality performance (confront these challenges with creative and well-
informed strategies), then it would appear that only one individual in each of
these settings is consistently demonstrating those outcomes: the teachers
themselves. So how would our expert conductors need to adjust their
teaching styles to develop the outcomes associated with independent
musicianship? Let us review the outcomes mentioned above and see how a
traditional band or choir conductor might reframe his or her role in rehearsal
to provide students with better individual learning opportunities.

REFRAMING THE CONDUCTOR’S ROLE

Considering the first outcome, choosing repertoire seems perhaps the most
impractical potential outcome of school ensemble instruction. In both
scenarios conductors with years of experience carefully chose repertoire that
fit both the skills and educational needs of their students. Repertoire is
typically viewed as the curriculum of the ensemble class and therefore is
clearly under the teacher’s purview. If this is true, then when do students
begin thinking intelligently and independently about repertoire? If repertoire
represents the content of the music class, then knowledge of repertoire
would be a prerequisite for students wishing to continue their education and
involvement beyond their secondary years. In addition, research on
motivation in music learning has found that music students demonstrate
higher motivation for practicing music when they have had a role in
choosing the repertoire (Renwick & McPherson, 2002).
It is interesting to note that while the school library is intended as a study
resource for the use of the entire school community, the ensemble library is
typically off limits to everyone except the conductor and possibly the few
students appointed to distribute, collect, and refile pieces selected for
performance. In this way it more closely resembles the science storeroom
than a library. Might there be a way to add a dimension to this resource that
would allow it to play a role in students’ musical development?
While it is not practical for an ensemble of 80 students to each be making
independent repertoire choices, there are opportunities for students to
exercise judgment in this area. One of the most obvious settings is choosing
repertoire for solo or chamber work. Many conductors encourage students to
participate during the year as soloists or members of a small ensemble. This
is an opportunity to teach students about the factors that go into choosing
appropriate literature. Conductors can offer students a library of solo and
chamber literature, ideally with recordings, and give them a set of criteria to
employ in choosing the repertoire they wish to perform. While such a library
may take time to build, it can then be used throughout the year to offer
students opportunities for independent small group music-making.
It might be interesting to apply a similar process to choosing repertoire for
the large group. Imagine an online literature library that includes scores and
quality recordings. Students are encouraged either individually or in groups
to explore this library and choose a piece or pieces they think would be
suitable for the ensemble.2 Each student who chooses a piece is asked to
research its background, study the score and identify challenges and learning
opportunities for the ensemble, and make a case for his or her choice based
on existing repertoire and musical outcomes. In this format stylistic,
historical, and cultural knowledge can precede work on any specific piece,
for instance in a case where students are given the task of finding a short
single-movement dance-like piece of early classical style. Contextual
knowledge can guide literature selection rather than specific literature
dictating contextual information. Conductors could choose the piece or
pieces for which the best case is made. In the process students can engage in
many of the activities associated with independent musicianship, including
critical listening, score study, and repertoire choice, while being exposed to
good recordings of quality literature.
The second outcome is to foster musical independence, to support a
learner who has the tools and motivation to guide his or her own
development. Many conductors would argue that they already promote
independent learning in their ensembles through music reading instruction,
practice logs, and other techniques, but we should look closely at both the
extent and quality of such learning as it takes place in the ensemble. In our
choir scenario Mr. C. is taking over many of the duties we would want our
independent learner to be able to handle, from teaching the parts on piano to
error detection to determining the expressive shape of the line. Likewise,
Ms. Richter has made many of the decisions about what learning will take
place that day prior to rehearsal. This not only seems reasonable, but
necessary if the teacher is doing a competent job. However, if our goal is to
give students the tools to become self-sufficient learners, then something
must change.
Perhaps the issue is not the learning that takes place in the ensemble, but
whether the techniques teachers employ for intelligent and efficient
rehearsals are being transferred to the students’ approach to their own
learning. Day after day teachers demonstrate how to listen critically, identify
a problem, isolate the problem, and then apply multiple strategies to solve
the problem, finally returning the problem area into the context of the larger
section or work as a whole. However, much of this is done covertly; students
observe the results of musical thinking but not the thinking itself. This may
be reflected in research that shows students demonstrating a wide variation
in the personal practice strategies they employ (McPherson & Renwick,
2001), strategies that often bear little resemblance to the kind of deliberate
guided practice they experience in rehearsal. The goal for the conductor
concerned with musical independence is to help students transfer the kinds
of techniques they experience in rehearsal into strategies they can employ
independently.
 One possible path to that goal is to engage students in those rehearsal
processes as a provider rather than a recipient of musical guidance. Let us
review part of Ms. Richter’s process:
Ms. Richter listens to a recording of the band she made at the end of Friday’s rehearsal. She notes
that, compared to the recording by the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, the group’s sound is bright
and detached, technically not incorrect but an inappropriate interpretation for this style of music.

To involve students in the rehearsal process the conductor might record a

piece from rehearsal, post it online, and ask students to identify two issues to
work on in the next rehearsal, one related to their own section and one
related to the ensemble as a whole. At first, it may not be likely that students
reach the same conclusions Ms. Richter reached about the differences in
ensemble sound, but over time students could be guided to more and more
detailed and mature judgments. The assignment could vary between
technical and expressive issues as the conductor sees fit. These critical
listening assignments are directly related to the kinds of musical thinking
required by curriculum guidelines and could be an important part of the
learning process. We might be surprised at the depth of our students’ musical
knowledge if we give them the means to demonstrate it. The benefit of using
recordings is that students can move at their own pace and use multiple
hearings as opposed to the kind of “on the spot” judgments we often make in
rehearsal.
This process could also be transferred to a student’s own practice. Once
such a sequence has been developed for ensemble practice, teachers could
ask students to do the same with their individual practice. Modern
technology has made the possibility of reasonably high-quality recordings
much more accessible through digital recorders and smartphone microphone
attachments. For Ms. Richter’s students the question is not only how often
they practice, but how well. Teachers may set up expectations for
instrumental home practice (e.g., students are required to practice 30 minutes
every day as recorded on time sheets, verified by parent signatures) without
offering students the requisite knowledge to engage in practice that is
appropriately deliberate or creative. Repetition without critical listening or
knowledge of results can sometimes do more harm than good as students
lock in wrong notes or poor technical habits. Some even suggest that
students at the beginning level should not practice at all until they have
demonstrated mastery of key fundamental skills. By incorporating
technology, conductors can give students guidelines for recording their
practice efforts, critiquing what they hear, and offering goals and solutions
for the next practice session. This sequence is a part of what researchers
have termed deliberate or structured practice, where students learn to
approach practice as “goal oriented, structured and effortful” (Hallam, 2009,
p. 267), much the same way conductors approach their rehearsals. Students
who regularly engage in such practice far outstrip their peers in musical skill
development. More important, they begin to demonstrate self-efficacy—a
belief in their ability to perform at a certain level and the persistence to
achieve that goal (McPherson & McCormick, 2006).
In contrast to the instrumental example, many choir programs discourage
students from taking their music home because of fears over lost music and
folders. Why is home practice not an expectation of choir students? The
answer can be found partly in understanding the process of vocal learning
and partly in the background of many vocal students. Learning a part in
vocal music is not a matter of pushing buttons or keys; thus it can be
difficult for students to even get started without some means of obtaining
and checking their pitch. In the past this meant having a piano in the home
and someone with the ability to play it well enough to review parts. More
recently part recordings are a popular option, having become a staple of
many All-State festivals and other choral events. The recordings can be
produced in MIDI or by having a singer recorded on the part. However, part
recordings only transfer musicianship responsibility from the teacher to the
person who made the recording, while students are still asked only to follow
along and learn by rote. Indeed, students are so proficient at this type of
learning that woe is to the festival conductor whose part recordings contain a
wrong note or different tempo.
Many secondary choir students, unlike their instrumental counterparts,
may be participating in their first music class when they enter the high
school choral ensemble. Choral directors focus primarily on the sound of
someone’s voice in choosing their choir members, but often tolerate a wide
range of musical ability within a single ensemble because vocal learning can
often be done successfully by rote. How can the choir teacher create a
culture of home practice within the ensemble while giving students of
different abilities the tools to be successful on their own? For example, Mr.
C. is teaching his students how to read music in rehearsal, a crucial skill for
musical independence. Let us review the process he employs:
 • Identify the crucial metric and tonal information.
• Scan the rhythmic patterns of the piece and then read the rhythm.
• Scan the pitch patterns of the piece, tune up in the key, and sing the
example.
• Review and critique any problem spots.

Our goal would be for the students to employ this strategy independently,
but the research on group versus individual achievement in music reading
makes it clear that such transfer does not happen automatically (Demorest &
May, 1995; Henry & Demorest, 1994), that it must be developed. One
method that has been found to improve individual skill development is to
incorporate regular assessment into the curriculum (Demorest, 1998). For
students to be successful in those individual assessments, they need a way to
practice on their own. From a teaching standpoint, conductors must offer
students concrete strategies for learning new music, such as a music learning
sequence for singers like the one in Figure 18.2. This sequence is similar to
the one guiding Mr. C.’s approach, but with more detail. By teaching the
general sequence to students as a group and then providing a detailed
blueprint of the sequence to each student, skills learned in the group can be
brought home for individual practice.
However, choir students portrayed in this scenario are still left with no
way to initiate or evaluate their practice, because they lack a means of giving
or checking their pitches unless they already read music on piano and have
one at home. Once again, this is where technology can bridge the gap.
Teachers can provide online sight-reading examples that can supply tempo
and starting pitch information via sound files for reading practice; iPhones
have free apps that include a mini piano to play starting pitches. Software
like Smart Music goes beyond pitch giving to provide custom exercises that
can be listened to, practiced, recorded, and submitted online to the teacher. If
the student uses teaching materials preloaded with the software, the program
can even provide accompaniment and provide feedback on pitch accuracy.3
Today’s choral conductor has the means to release the choir folders from
their storage slots and send them home for meaningful part practice. In
addition, recordings (audio and video) of vocal exercises with age-
appropriate models can give students the tools to evaluate their own vocal
development outside of rehearsal.
 How to Approach a New Song
What follows is the outline of the steps you need to take to read a piece of
music at sight. In rehearsal, your director may do a lot of these steps for
you or at least direct you to answer questions, but many of these steps can
be done individually if you have a basic knowledge of meters, keys and
solfege/numbers.
Rhythm—first get a sense of the rhythmic shape of the piece

• Identify the meter and starting beat—You will need this information
to set your tempo and perform with proper emphasis. Pitch mistakes
in sight reading are often the result of rhythmic errors.
• Scan for difficult and repeating patterns—I cannot emphasize enough
how important this step is. Difficult patterns or small rhythmic values
can determine how fast a tempo you wish to set. Awareness of
repeating patterns can make your job a lot easier by cutting down on
the new material.
• Set a steady tempo and chant the rhythm while keeping the beat—
You need to practice setting your own comfortable tempo and
keeping a clear steady beat. This, more than anything else, will lead
to successful rhythm reading.
• Evaluate—You only sight read a piece of music once. It is just as
important to learn from your mistakes the first time through.

Pitch—Once you have a sense of the rhythm, you can concentrate on

adding pitches to the framework.
 • Identify the clef, key signature, tonality, and starting syllable—these
pieces of information are crucial to success.
• Clef—Even college students sometimes forget to check the clef
before they begin reading, that will throw off everything.
• Key Signature—The key signature indicates which major or minor
key you are working with and helps you to find your tonal center (do
or la, 1 or 6). We often learn key signatures in relation to major keys,
but you need to determine whether the piece is in a major or minor
tonality.
• Tonality—Starting & ending pitches and accidentals are a good clue
to tonality.
• Starting syllable/number—Once you’ve found the tonal center figure
out what scale step your piece begins on.
• Scan for difficult and repeating patterns—same reasons as rhythm.
For pitch, if you can identify difficult skips or sequences, you can
speak & sing through those in your head before sight reading them.
• Establish sense of key through tuning up, perhaps sing difficult
patterns—Singing through the basic triads or scales helps to set the
key prior to reading. A common example is d-m-s-m-d-f-l-f-t,-r-s-t,-d
(1-3-5-3-1-4-6-4-7,-2-5-7,-1).
• Set a steady tempo and chant or sing solfege/numbers in rhythm—for
difficult pieces, chanting through the syllables before singing can
help avoid errors. For simpler pieces, just go right to singing.
• Evaluate—same as above.

The ability of students to guide their own development through individual

practice is a crucial component of musical independence, but this ability can
be further refined within the “real time” context of the ensemble rehearsal in
ways that also promote independence and self-efficacy. The most common
form this takes is to allow students to take on leadership roles. Section
leaders may have organizational responsibility for a section of the ensemble,
but actual musical responsibility may only occur infrequently and without
formal guidance and mentorship. Setting aside a regular section rehearsal
time during the ensemble class period, complete with rehearsal goals
determined in advance by the section leader, would allow students both to
contribute to the progress of formal in-class learning and to engage in the
kind of musical leadership that contributes to interest in pursuing music
teaching opportunities later in life (Bergee & Demorest, 2003).
Rather than sending students off on their own and hoping for the best, the
conductor may wish to occasionally sit in on these section or small group
rehearsals to model teaching strategies, to offer both teaching and
performance feedback, and to listen to the individual progress of the
musicians. This would also be an opportunity for other student leaders to
step in and lead the remaining group members “from the podium” while the
conductor is engaged. Taking this one step further, one might consider
whether all rehearsal time needs to be under the direction of any conductor
at all. Considering this possibility from one direction, the informal peer
teaching that often occurs during those few minutes at the beginning of class
before the conductor steps up to the podium might be extended and built in
as a regular segment of rehearsal. Looking at “conductor-less” learning in
another way, the occasional absence of a physical focal point might
encourage students to concentrate on the sounds happening around them,
making them responsive to the music being made by their colleagues
without the visual mediation of the conductor. What an odd notion that the
ultimate goal of the conductor-teacher might be to minimize or eliminate the
need for his or her very presence!

CONCLUSION

One of the shortcomings of the traditional approach to ensemble rehearsals

where the conductor (and only the conductor) identifies the problem and
then applies a solution is that there is often a lack of transfer when a similar
situation comes up in the future. Indeed, the lack of transfer for certain skills
or ideas between pieces is a frequent complaint of ensemble conductors. If
students are challenged to find problems and apply solutions they have
learned, they are more likely to remember the connection in the future. As
the proverb states, “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve
me and I understand.” As conductors we must look for ways to involve our
students in the rehearsal process and provide opportunities for them to
exercise their budding musicianship and enrich their musical understanding.
Rehearsals can be a context in which students actively engage rather than
simply follow directions, something that happens because of them rather
than something that happens to them. Within this framework, the role of the
conductor expands to become the role of the collaborator—an expert and
professionally trained collaborator, to be sure, but one who works with rather
than simply works on younger and less experienced musicians. Once,
musical knowledge and skill were seen as coming from the top. Today, we
see the knowledge and skills of ensemble members as growing from within,
through confronting musical challenges, solving musical puzzles, and
making musical decisions.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. Thinking about your own experience as an ensemble member, what skills did you learn very
effectively through the ensemble and which were better learned on your own? Did your
conductor have strategies for fostering independent musicianship?
2. Could you rewrite Ms. Richter’s or Mr. C’s scenario to reflect a greater focus on individual
student learning and independence?
3. How would you assess some of the musical outcomes mentioned in this chapter? Choose one
skill and design an assessment that would measure individual student learning.
4. Are there other creative ways to incorporate current technology into the ensemble experience
that would make it more constructive and engaging?

KEY SOURCES

Allsup, R. E. (2003). Mutual learning and democratic action in instrumental music education. Journal
of Research in Music Education, 51, 24–37.
Allsup, R. E. (2012). The moral ends of band. Theory into Practice, 51, 179–187.
doi:10.1080/00405841.2012.690288
Duke, R. A., & Byo, J. L. The habits of musicianship: A radical approach to beginning band.
http://cml.music.utexas.edu/Habits/HabitsOpener.htm. [accessed November 21, 2017].
McPherson, G. E., & McCormick, J. (2006). Self efficacy and music performance. Psychology of
Music, 34, 322–336. doi:10.1177/0305735606064841.
Price H. E., & Byo, J. L. (2002). Rehearsing and conducting. In R. Parncutt & G. E. McPherson (eds.),
The science and psychology of music performance: Creative strategies for teaching and learning
(pp. 335–351). New York: Oxford University Press.

WEBSITE

Smart Music:http://www.smartmusic.com/ [accessed November 21, 2017].

 NOTES

1 Interestingly, while the role of conductor seems so central to the identity and development of music
teachers, it is a skill often not studied by music students at large. Conversely, the usual “core”
areas of music study—theory, history, analysis, ear training, piano skills—are the very traits least
often addressed in the ensemble class.
2 To some extent this is already happening in an unstructured way as some ensemble students share
YouTube videos of pieces they found online with their conductors.
3 While the pitch accuracy feedback for instrumental learning is excellent, the voice recognition tools
are less reliable, though improving.

REFERENCES

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New York: Oxford University Press.
Adderley, C., Kennedy, M., & Berz, W. (2003). “A home away from home”: The world of the high
school music classroom. Journal of Research in Music Education, 51, 190–205.
Allsup, R. E. (2003). Mutual learning and democratic action in instrumental music education. Journal
of Research in Music Education, 51, 24–37.
Allsup, R. E. (2012). The moral ends of band. Theory into Practice, 51, 179–187.
doi:10.1080/00405841.2012.690288
Bergee, M. J., & Demorest, S. M. (2003). Developing tomorrow’s music teachers today. Music
Educators Journal, 89(4), 17–20.
Broomhead, P. (2001). Individual expressive performance: Its relationship to ensemble achievement,
technical achievement, and musical background. Journal of Research in Music Education, 49, 71–
84.
Broomhead, P. (2005). Shaping expressive performance: A problem-solving approach. Music
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individual testing. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46, 182–192.
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 CHAPTER 19

COMMUNITY MUSIC ENSEMBLES

DON D. COFFMAN AND LEE HIGGINS

The purpose of this chapter is to contextualize what community music

ensembles mean, and then to provide examples of them in practice. Using a
theoretical framework that suggests three uses of the term “community
music,” we align ourselves with one “definition” and select illustrations of
practice accordingly. In conclusion, we suggest that participating in these
community ensembles is much more than just music-making—it can have
life-changing effects.
The notion of what constitutes a community music ensemble can be quite
broad. Veblen and Olsson (2002) categorize community music groups into
seven types. Three types are closely tied to formal educational institutions:
(1) community music schools, such as those belonging to the National
Guild of Community Schools (United States), (2) “associative
organizations,” such symphony orchestras that partner with schools to form
youth orchestras, and (3) college and university outreach efforts, which
include ensembles for pre-university youth or university/community
ensembles involving university students and members of the local
community. The other four types are typically not connected with formal
education: (4) community performance organizations, such as groups in the
Western tradition including (but not limited to) brass bands, concert bands,
orchestras, mixed choirs, and barbershop-style choruses for men and for
women;1 (5) ethnic/preservation groups, including Mexican mariachi bands,
Celtic folk groups, Scottish bagpipe bands, Japanese taiko drums, Trinidad
steelpan drum orchestras, Indonesian gamelan orchestras, and Brazilian
Capoeira Angola groups; (6) religious groups, including African-American
gospel choirs, the Sacred Harp singers (U.S.), Ismaili Muslim choirs, and
South African Christmas bands; and (7) “informal, affinity” groups such as
drum circles, recorder groups, and blues jam bands.2 In Western cultures
community performance groups are most commonly thought of as amateur
or semiprofessional vocal or instrumental ensembles that typically perform
music based in Western art forms. Ethnic/preservation, religious, and
affinity music groups seek to preserve musical, cultural, and religious
traditions of specific people groups and musical genres.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

In concert with other community music chapters in this volume

(specifically, Book 4: chapter 8 [Higgins] and chapter 14 [Veblen &
Waldron]) we propose three broad perspectives of community music: (1)
community music as the “music of a community,” (2) community music as
“communal music-making,” and (3) community music as an active
intervention between a music leader or leaders and participants. While it is
possible for a given musical group or event to display more than one of
these perspectives simultaneously, we believe that clarifying the differences
between the perspectives permits a better understanding of the multiple
occurrences of community music-making around the world.
The first two perspectives describe music made by any community at any
time. Both perspectives point to the expression, through music, of a
community’s local identity, traditions, aspirations, and social interactions.
We suggest that “music of the community” and “communal music-making”
perspectives are ways of describing and understanding music in culture
with a particular emphasis on its impact on those who participate. The first
perspective uses the term “community music” as a descriptor for a musical
identity of a particular group of people. Consider, for example, Samba
Reggae or Drum Damba, both of which could be described as “music of the
community.” Samba Reggae is the “community music” of particular Afro-
Brazilian communities of Salvador Bahia, in Brazil, and Drum Damba, an
annual New Year’s festival, is the “community music” of the Dagbamba
people of Ghana, West Africa.
The second perspective, community music as “communal music-
making,” is closely aligned to the first statement but has a different
emphasis. Whereas the first perspective identifies and labels a type of
music, the second perspective describes being part of, or exposed to, that
music. For example, an Irish music session in Dolan’s bar in Limerick,
Ireland, or RiverSing, a public singing event on the banks of the Charles
River in Boston, Massachusetts, both involve musicians and participants
drawn from the communities where the music is made. They are
“communal music-making” events because they strive to bind people
together through performance and participation. The community
performance organizations and ethnic/preservation groups in Veblen and
Olsson’s (2002) typography could be viewed as examples of “music of a
community” and “communal music-making.” In these musical contexts, it
has been our experience that musicians mostly identify themselves as
musicians rather than as community musicians. They have a very strong
sense of place and a deep rootedness in the people they perform with and
for.
The third perspective, “community music as an active intervention
between a music leader or leaders and participants,” is the perspective of
community music in this chapter. As used here, the term “intervention”
signifies an intentional interjection, a “coming between” the participants
and the music they are making or wish to make. In other words, we are
highlighting music ensembles that have an identifiable music leader who
facilitates group music-making experiences. In this context, the term
“facilitate” connotes open dialogue among different individuals with
differing perspectives in a manner similar to a learner-centered (as opposed
to a teacher-centered) approach to education. Facilitators aid and serve so
that the ensemble participants are empowered. Facilitating leaders
(community musicians) are sensitive to issues of participation, context,
equality of opportunity, and diversity. Musicians working in the field of
community music seek to create relevant and accessible music-making
experiences for participants who choose to be in the group. Many musicians
and music educators throughout the world work in these ways. What we
have found is that in this musical context, musicians will actively identify
themselves as community musicians if they have had connection to local,
national, and international organizations that support, advocate, and name
this perspective as community music. If this is not the experience, these
music leaders will identify themselves in other ways, such as music
educator, music teacher, conductor, cultural development worker, musician-
in-residence, or music outreach worker.
This third perspective should be understood as an approach to active
music-making and musical knowing outside formal teaching and learning
situations. By formal we mean music experiences delivered by
professionals in schools, colleges, and other statutory organizations. Other
chapters in this part of the volume focus on these educational community
music groups (chapter 17, Lee & Worthy and chapter 20, Kartomi).
Informal settings (either learner-initiated activities such as hobbies or self-
help efforts or incidental learning implicit in interacting with others) are
perhaps most closely aligned with the first two perspectives. Nonformal
teaching and learning settings (systematic and deliberate instruction, either
existing outside formal institutions or as extracurricular activities in
schools) are perhaps more closely aligned with this third perspective—
community music as an intentional intervention. Referring to the work of a
community musician as an “intervention” emphasizes the importance of a
facilitating leader and embraces a broad array of outcomes beyond
educational and entertainment outcomes.
In this theoretical framework, community music ensembles encompass a
vast array of musical genres and performance media, draw from the
community at large, and yet are delineated through the self-conscious
identification of the leaders or facilitators as being community musicians.
This perspective of community music and of community musicians is
rooted in activist developments in the United Kingdom dating back to the
1960s and has been promoted globally by the Community Music Activity
(CMA) commission of the International Society for Music Education
(ISME). The vision statement of the ISME CMA reads:
We believe that everyone has the right and ability to make, create, and enjoy their own music.
We believe that active music-making should be encouraged and supported at all ages and at all
levels of society. Community Music activities do more than involve participants in music-
making; they provide opportunities to construct personal and communal expressions of artistic,
social, political, and cultural concerns. Community Music activities do more than pursue
musical excellence and innovation; they can contribute to the development of economic
regeneration and can enhance the quality of life for communities. Community Music activities
encourage and empower participants to become agents for extending and developing music in
their communities. In all these ways Community Music activities can complement, interface
with, and extend formal music education structures. (https://www.isme.org/our-
work/commissions-forum/community-music-activity-commission-cma)
 We acknowledge that in some countries, such as the United States,
community music ensembles are recognized as simply existing outside
educational institutions, even though they may operate similarly when they
rely on authoritarian leadership and selective admission through auditions.
In these cultures, a “community orchestra” is readily recognized, yet the
concept of a “community musician” is unfamiliar. Community music
practice typically involves a leader (community musician) who facilitates
active music-making, which can include improvisation, songwriting,
drumming, singing, and musical invention. These activities often take place
within a “workshop” setting (Higgins, 2008b), and the workshop
participants can sometimes assume complete responsibility for their own
learning and direction (Veblen, 2008). Yet the hallmarks of the community
musician’s “attitude”—an emphasis on hospitality, accessibility,
participation, and diversity—can be observed in larger ensembles as well.
For instance, an open admissions policy is a common characteristic of
community music ensembles as we describe them. We suggest that defining
community musicians and community music ensembles from this third
perspective will acknowledge this emerging global conceptualization of
community music.3 We illustrate with examples from around the globe in
the sections that follow.

SAMBA BANDS

Samba drumming is a thriving and vibrant activity in many parts of the

world, most noticeably Austria, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Sweden,
the United Kingdom, the United States, and of course Brazil. In this section
we focus on the UK samba scene and take a close look at one of its
ensembles. (Our understanding of the word “scene” is drawn from Will
Straw [1997, p. 494], who suggests that a musical “scene” “is a cultural
space in which a range of musical practices coexist.” The notion of a
“scene” generates interactivity and difference in ways that cultural heritage
often resists.)
In 1998 Higgins estimated that there were 79 active community samba
groups in the United Kingdom. Four years later Daniel Bernstein (2002)
estimated that there were approximately 300 active samba bands in the
United Kingdom and calculated around 7,500 sambistas (a Brazilian term
for a person who plays percussion in a samba band or dances the samba).
What is remarkable about this figure is that the constituent members of a
UK samba band are predominantly people who would not have necessarily
thought of themselves as musicians before their involvement with this
activity. An outstanding feature is that such interest exists for Brazilian
music, especially in a country that does not have a large immigrant
Brazilian population. This issue is made more remarkable when one
considers that samba is so strongly associated with particular cultural traits,
as Antonio Adolfo (1996) suggested: “The Brazilian phrasing is linked to
the Brazilian culture—the nature, the sun, the way we talk, play football,
dance, etc.” (p. 33). From experience in the field, we suggest that this style
of music generates participatory interest within a variety of cultures because
of its high energy and a musical structure that provides accessible pathways
for active musicking.
Professional workers within cultural sectors promoting participatory
development, such as community music animateurs (derived from the
French animation socio-culturelle) and local arts officers, were all in part
responsible for the growth of samba in the United Kingdom. Examples of
those active in this work are organizations such as RedZebra, Ecodecor, and
the Carnival Collective, as well as individuals such as Gavin Lombos,
Graham Surtees, Mally, Anthony Watt, Ian Holmes-Lewis, and Mat
Clements. Fueled by local, national, and international samba aficionados,
plus touring percussion ensembles such as Inner Sense Percussion
Orchestra (later renamed Inner Sense), active in the 1980s and 1990s,
carnival street drumming took root in the United Kingdom. Professional
cultural workers recognized that the musical structures indicative to samba
gave rise to opportunities for participatory music ensemble development. A
large number of the samba groups maintain a participatory ethos and
regularly welcome new members. In line with community music ethos
outlined above, the activity often has a strong social element, and this
hospitality is extended through the music, where a communal atmosphere is
often encouraged. In this way, a drink with fellow sambistas becomes as
important as the playing itself. Participants in the London School of Samba
suggest that samba schools are as much about socializing and having fun as
they are about the business of dancing and playing music. The Sunday
workshops have become a great way of meeting people who have a shared
interest in music and performance (http://londonschoolofsamba.co.uk/).
The spectrum of people playing in community drumming ensembles is
surprisingly diverse. For example, a Samba ensemble in the east of England
included a taxi driver, a teacher, a potter, a full-time mother, a telephone
engineer, and those out of work. As these multioccupational groups extend
their membership, the internal range of skills increase, creating an effective
infrastructure that supports the music activity as well as organizing social
events, fundraising promotions, and music workshops. Run sensitively and
skillfully, diverse mixtures of people can form a formidable, hardworking,
cooperative team. They can provide a safe and supportive environment for
current members and offer a welcome to potential participants. During the
initial growth of the UK samba scene, the majority of people taking part
had not previously been exposed to street drumming music of this kind.
This issue may have contributed to the reasons that such mixes of musical
abilities are found effectively learning and performing together. In
situations such as these, everyone is a beginner, whether or not one chooses
to call oneself a musician.
The Peterborough Community Samba Band (PCSB) is located in
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The original objectives for this
community ensemble, established in 1993, were to create a welcoming
space for adults to come together through music and for this to spill out into
their social worlds. These intentions were consolidated through the band’s
constitution in the form of four key aims: to provide regular opportunities to
explore and experiment with music from varied cultures; to provide regular
opportunities for improving these skills to performance level; to create a
framework for the performance of live music by members of the
community; and to encourage community membership. The PCSB regularly
performs in a variety of situations, including carnivals, festivals, and special
events such as lord mayor’s parades, charity events, sporting occasions, pub
gigs, and workshops. They have also performed alongside DJs, rappers,
opera companies, symphony orchestras, rock and pop acts, and other world
music ensembles. Performance became more frequent as the members grew
in confidence and pride in their achievements. To fulfil many of these
diverse performance obligations the PCSB needed to own instruments. This
was particularly necessary as the band considered presenting workshops of
its own, an initiative that flourished successfully in later years and
continues today.
Like the PCSB, community drum ensembles are generally initiated by:
(1) one or two musicians with a passion for this particular type of music, (2)
community musicians who understand that it can be an effective vehicle for
collaboration, or (3) policy-makers who see its potential for community
capacity building. Quite often the instigators of Samba bands represent a
mixture of all these things. What is significant for this chapter is that these
leaders often champion an equal opportunity and a desire to create a
performing environment that is accessible for those who wish to try their
hand at samba drumming. Therefore, it is possible to say that the leaders of
these ensembles play an active role in establishing music-making
frameworks that promote the characteristics of community music listed
above, again, whether or not they refer to themselves as community
musicians.

NEW HORIZONS ENSEMBLES

The growth of the New Horizons International Music Association

(NHIMA) bands, orchestras, and choirs for adults demonstrates that making
music is for all ages. What began with one band in 1991 in Rochester, New
York (U.S.) (Ernst & Emmons, 1992), has swelled to over 200
organizations across the United States, Canada, Iceland, and Ireland. Adults
(generally age 50 and up) in these groups either learn to play a musical
instrument or relearn an instrument they played in their youth. NHIMA
organizations are organized autonomously, devising their own rehearsals
and performances, although they share a newsletter and website
(http://www.newhorizonsmusic.org), and some groups host music camps
and invite players from afar to come for a few days of intensive music-
making. These amateur musicians rehearse once or twice per week in senior
citizen centers, music stores, schools, or churches. They are similar to
school music ensembles in providing pedagogy within a group context, and
they are similar to other community performance groups in providing
concerts. However, they differ philosophically and functionally from other
amateur community music groups, because they do not simply rehearse
music for an imminent performance and do not require previous musical
experience or an audition for membership. NHIMA group leaders accept
participants regardless of skill level and are dedicated to teaching
participants how to improve their playing.
NHIMA participants report musical and nonmusical benefits of
participation—in particular positive emotional well-being, physical well-
being, cognitive stimulation, and socialization benefits (Coffman, 2008).
These benefits exemplify the rewards that Robert Stebbins (1992, pp. 6–7)
has observed among amateurs engaged in what he has termed “serious
leisure” pursuits. Stebbins asserts that serious leisure activity is typified by
a significant effort to acquire knowledge and skill, perseverance, the
development of a subculture identity (ethos), and a resulting strong
identification with the activity.
NHIMA group leaders, many of whom are retired school music teachers,
often need to adjust their leadership style for adult participants. While the
pedagogy of skill development is similar for youth and adults, NHIMA
directors report that while adult participants often have higher commitment
levels than youth, directors need to be sensitive to adults’ preferences and
skill limitations or face losing their participation in these volunteer
ensembles (Coffman, 2009). Adults can be more self-directed learners than
youth and engage more often in metacognitive reflections about their
learning. The Iowa City, Iowa (U.S.), program includes several member-
initiated small ensembles that organize their own rehearsals and concerts
and select or arrange their own literature.
NHIMA groups exemplify our conceptualization of community music
ensembles—an intentional activity (intervention) involving skilled music
leaders who facilitate group music-making to empower participants. In this
conceptualization, the group directors are viewed as community musicians
who facilitate the experiences of participants (the performers). Like the UK
Samba groups, the directors emphasize accessibility and hospitality.
NHIMA groups are not simply nonformal extensions of formal music
education practice into the community; they are catalysts for enhancing the
musical and social life of participants and for enriching the cultural life of
the community at large. Participants’ personal growth is evident through
improved skills and knowledge. Social interactions in rehearsals often lead
to new friendships (and sometimes marriage). NHIMA groups with
directors who display the hallmarks of community music principles (i.e.,
hospitality, accessibility, participation, diversity) thus diverge from other
community music performance ensembles because they recognize that there
is more to music-making than public performances.

PRISON ENSEMBLES

Community musicians can challenge the notion of who is part of a

community. For instance, at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center for
women in Eagle River, Alaska (U.S.), there are two string orchestras
(beginning and intermediate) and an optional string chamber class
(Warfield, 2010). Instruments are provided free of charge, and three string
teachers provide the leadership. Participants attend weekly rehearsals and
are allowed to practice their instruments on their own or with other inmates.
Most (90%) of the funding for the program comes from concert ticket sales
(one public concert annually) and sales of arts and crafts made by inmates.
Most of the music ensembles operating in correctional facilities are
choirs. Some ensembles are inmate-led, while others are led by volunteer
leaders from outside the prison. A few choirs combine inmate with
noninmate singers. Directors of these groups face singers with little musical
experience, underdeveloped skills, varying interests, strict rules inherent in
such controlled environments, and less than ideal facilities.
Directors observe that the social interactions help inmates explore their
emotions, improve self-esteem, develop a sense of group responsibility, and
find a sense of purpose. The ensembles are safe havens that allow inmates
to build trust with others and become receptive to the emotional aspects of
music. Elvira Voth, who influenced the formation of four choirs in Kansas
(U.S.) correctional facilities, has observed that because inmates “lived
‘cemented in,’ they acted cemented in,” and were slow to respond to the
emotional content of the songs (Cohen, 2008, p. 325). Yet some inmates
have written songs and other music to express their feelings, sometimes
including their remorse. Noninmate choir participants have reported a shift
in their attitudes toward inmates, viewing them with less fear and feeling
more hopeful about the rehabilitation process.
Silber (2005) proposes that a prison choir can have incidental therapeutic
effects, even when the goal is educational. She notes that as choir members
work to produce aesthetically pleasing performances, they can transcend the
prison context, creating an alternative community that allows them to take
risks interpersonally, because choir members must navigate social
relationships as they work with a conductor and other singers toward a
mutual goal. Successful performances in turn build self-esteem and a sense
of mastery. Thus, choirs are important communities for learning and
reinforcing noncriminal behavior.
Some prison choirs use their music experiences to address societal
problems. Roma (2010) notes that the UMOJA4 choir at the Lebanon
Correctional Institute (Lebanon, Ohio, U.S.) has recorded two CDs and
contributes the income to local and national social service agencies. One of
their projects involved composing and rehearsing music for a film project
called “Peer Pressure,” which was designed to steer youth away from drug
abuse and violence and to promote responsible sexual behavior.
Like Samba bands and New Horizons ensembles, prison ensembles
demonstrate the social and personal benefits of making music in a group.
Not only do members learn about music and how to perform, they learn
about themselves and each other, improving their quality of life.

BRAZILIAN COMMUNITY BANDS

Community bands (wind and percussion concert bands) in Brazil are the
only sources of instrumental music education in many villages, providing
instruction and contributing to the cultural life of the community. The
majority of them are civic organizations, while others are associated with
the military, some are maintained by governmental agencies, and a few are
connected to schools and nonprofit nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs). Barbosa (2009) describes the efforts of three projects in the
Subúrbio Ferroviário sector of Salvador City, Bahia, Brazil, an area of high
social vulnerability and oppression, low income, and high unemployment:
(1) the Sociedade Primeiro de Maio (NGO) partnership with the School of
Music of the Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA) to develop the
Filarmônica Ufberê wind band; (2) the Orquestra da Juventude de Salvador
(OSJS) orchestra, financed and coordinated by the Municipal Secretary of
Social Development (SEDES) and the Fundação Gregório de Matos (the
Municipal Secretary of Culture; and (3) the School of Music Maestro
Wanderley, financed by the NGO Casa das Filarmônicas.
 Professors and students from UFBA provide instruction to young people,
who subsequently are able to earn money by performing for dancing shows,
anniversaries, and weddings, or teaching privately. Some students are able
to advance sufficiently to participate (and receive pay) in the state youth
orchestra. Barbosa observes that these groups provide more than
instruction, because they contribute toward emancipating youth from the
social oppression they experience:
Through the direct contact with the university professors and students and public authorities, in
addition to the participation in significant events and important places, the community student
understands the world deeper, beyond his community. He goes into prestigious places and
events where his parents have never had the chance to enter. He gets to know people who
ascended socially and financially and the way they did it. He sees the possibility of ascending as
well, or he sees himself already ascending through the participation in the music group by using
and improving his talents. His vision of community and society and his perspectives and
paradigms of living expand. He comprehends that he, with and within the music ensemble, has
cultural and artistic values that may serve as capital to negotiate with the richer communities
from which he used to feel excluded. Now he knows that he can be an important part of the
society, playing a worthy role in it. When he understands this, he also sees the necessity of
making his capital to be worthier, looking for ways to improve his musical abilities (going to the
university, for instance). (Barbosa, 2009, p. 99)

These bands exemplify the intentions of many of the community

musicians who seek to bring social uplift and economic regeneration to
marginalized or disadvantaged populations. In such instances, the social and
personal well-being of participants becomes as important as learning to
make music.

YUI JAPANESE DRUMMING CLUB

Community music ensembles can be found within education-based contexts

when they rely on the nonformal learning approach advocated in this
chapter. For instance, involvement in extracurricular club activities is
encouraged for all Japanese students. University clubs are called “circles”
and are run by students. The Yui Japanese Drumming Club of Tokyo’s
Gakugei University (Shiobara, 2009) is a self-sufficient circle of members
who have developed their repertoire of traditional Japanese music as well as
a system of learning and teaching each other by rote. Senior members use
oral instructions and demonstrations to teach younger members how to play
drums, flutes, and gongs, as well as sing and dance. Some members travel
to specific regions to learn from local musicians and subsequently share
their learning with other members of the circle. Circles such as these reflect
community music principles of hospitality and accessibility (see Book 4,
chapter 8 [Higgins]). Shiobara reports an unspoken expectation that senior
members should be the first to offer assistance to younger learners. Circle
members observe each other, write observations on a chalkboard, and enjoy
discussing their observations within the group.

AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY MUSIC ENSEMBLES

The Sound Links research project of the Australian Music Council carried
out a two-year project, developing six case studies of community music
programs across mainland Australia, with a goal of identifying models of
community projects and school-community music collaborations that
benefited the community at large (Bartleet et al., 2009). Among the criteria
for inclusion as a case in the research project was evidence of groups that
acknowledged mutual responsibility and a commitment to the well-being of
others and were “owned” by the community, having a board elected from
within that community (p. 49). These community programs, such as the
Dandenong Ranges Music Council (DRMC), facilitate an array of formal,
nonformal, and informal music-making experiences. The DRMC operates
out of the Community Music Centre, on the campus of a high school, which
provides organization infrastructure, rehearsal facilities, a music library, and
storage facilities. Examples of nonformal community music ensembles
(systematic and deliberate instruction, existing either outside formal
institutions or as extracurricular activities in schools) include the DRMC’s
support of an adult orchestra, a swing band, men’s and women’s choirs, an
adult beginner’s band, and a youth string ensemble. The DRMC has a
history of coordinating community groups, such as during the Fire Cycle
Project, an educational effort developed after a series of fires in the
community. The project brought together musicians and the local fire
brigade and included songwriting workshops, visual arts, dance, production
of a music CD, a concert, and a parade.
In the McLaren Vale region, community ensembles include the Never
Ever Ever Too Old (NEETO) Orchestra, the Coast and Vines Club beginner
concert band, the Southern District Pipes and Drums, and the Sisters of
Abundance Choir. Groups are formed to meet perceived needs, such as the
“Nobodies” drumming group, an all-male ensemble with no official leader
(perhaps best categorized as informal education). The intent of the group is
for members to be viewed as equal, so they sit in a circle and keep verbal
instruction to a minimum, allowing members to initiate drumming, enter
and exit the room freely, and converse during rehearsal.
The value of the social interactions within these groups is reflected in this
comment from a community orchestra member who participated in one of
the research focus groups:
The reason why I’ve done it is to switch off from my work. For the first time in five years I’ve
actually come here on a Wednesday night and I haven’t thought about my job. And it’s just
magnificent. And I’m actually going to be devastated when it stops because I’ve just loved it. I
go home and my husband says to me, “You look a different colour.” [Everyone laughs.] “You
actually look alive again.” (Bartleet et al., 2009, p. 83)

Bartleet et al. also note the importance of community and school

collaborations and cite the annual community carols concert in McLaren
Vale—multiple groups (orchestra, men’s, women’s and children’s choirs, a
taiko drum ensemble, a ballet troupe), and multiple ages (e.g., three
generations in some families) join forces under the leadership of school
teachers and community members to stage the event.

SUMMARY

Because humans are such social creatures, the need for human
connectedness and belonging is strong. Music is primarily a communal
activity, and therefore plays an important role in our lives. While it is true
that musicians may isolate themselves to create or rehearse music, these
behaviors usually lead to sharing within a group. In The Anthropology of
Music Alan Merriam (1964) asserted, “music is clearly indispensable to the
proper promulgation of the activities that constitute a society; it is a
universal human behavior—without it, it is questionable that man could
truly be called man, with all that implies” (p. 227). The examples in this
chapter show that community music ensembles can provide a complex and
rich experience for personal and societal growth.
 The community musicians leading the types of ensembles illustrated
above encourage dialogue between themselves and their participants that is
open, honest, and respectful. For example, NHIMA members, perhaps
because they typically pay a fee to participate, can be quite outspoken and
will express satisfaction and dislike freely. Because groups are comprised of
volunteers, directors do not have “captive audiences” and must therefore
attend to group needs and interests. These ensembles operate within
environments established through an approach to practice most often
described as facilitation. While there is a concern for quality musicianship
and performance, the act of facilitation often emphasizes and places a
higher value on the process that leads to a performance. Another distinctive
feature of community music ensembles is that there is a genuine reception
for both experienced and inexperienced musicians. It is often the case that
many potential participants have not been given, or have not taken up, the
opportunity to play music. For example, Coffman (2008) reports that nearly
30% of NHIMA members had no prior experience on their instruments. The
leaders are generally delighted to welcome new participants, offering a
greeting that extends beyond those who are already ensemble members.
Coffman (2009) observes:
Bands and orchestras are by definition group endeavors, and group members come because the
experience is social, an environment conducive to forming friendships. NHIMA groups often
have beverages and refreshments before, during a break, or after rehearsal, because the NHIMA
philosophy makes socializing a goal. One director succinctly made this point: “Adults thrive on
the ‘social-ness’ of music . . . we rarely allow or encourage the same level of social interaction
with youth . . . this is a huge lesson.” (p. 236)

The act of hospitality inherent in community music becomes significant in

these instances.
Although all music-making groups are to some extent context-bound,
community music ensembles are particularly conscious of themselves as a
community and of their relationship to their local community. For example,
members of the Peterborough Community Samba Band (PCSB) celebrate
their diverse membership by having parties and consequently creating
networks of friends who otherwise would not “hang out” together. Small
groups from the Iowa City New Horizons band regularly perform in local
retirement centers, and some members perform annually with a nearby high
school whose small band lacks a sufficient number of key instrumentalists.
The UMOJA choir reaches out to others by producing a CD with a message
for those at risk.
Community music ensembles are constantly challenged with the difficult
task of balancing an existing identity with the desire for growth through a
policy of access. In some instances the populations are transient, and in
others they are stable. Whatever the demographic, maintaining continuity
while promoting an active welcome is difficult for both the leader and
participants. To achieve a solid foundation through which the ensemble can
function appropriately, a set of ground rules, or more formally a
constitution, is often developed. For example, the PCSB draw up such a
document with two broad reasons in mind—independence and funding. By
articulating its mission—to provide regular opportunities to explore and
experiment with music from varied cultures; to provide regular
opportunities for improving these skills to performance level; to create a
framework for the performance of live music by members of the
community; and to encourage community membership—the PCSB has
been able to enjoy self-sustainability over and beyond the original
leadership. Establishing a group identity helps create the ensemble’s sense
of purpose, reflecting the group’s aspirations and intentions. The significant
aspect of this activity is that, to some extent, everyone contributes to its
development and therefore its implementation. Similarly, some New
Horizons groups acquire nonprofit legal status to help them manage
expenses and revenues. This involves electing leadership from within the
group and sometimes establishing “booster” (support/fundraising)
organizations.
Operating from the principles of hospitality, accessibility, participation,
and diversity enables community ensembles to flourish through
accumulative personal interactions, because human interaction is viewed as
paramount. Community music ensembles can lead to new friendships and
foster deeper relationships between old acquaintances. Community
ensembles can open new social doors and a whole new outlook on life as
people interact with others outside their regular social and economic
groups. Participating in community ensembles is much more than just
music-making—it can have life-changing effects.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
 1. What are the distinctive features of a community music ensemble?
2. Where are the community music ensembles in your area? How does an ensemble’s identity
reflect its local context?
3. What specific skills are needed to establish a community music ensemble? How are these skills
similar to or different from those of a music educator who works within formal settings?

KEY SOURCES

Bartleet, B.-L., & Higgins, L. (Eds.). (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Community Music. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Coffman, D. D. (2009). Voices of experience: Lessons from older adult amateur musicians. In J. L.
Kerchner & C. R. Abril (eds.), Musical experience in our lives: Things we learn and meanings we
make (pp. 331–346). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Higgins, L. (2012). Community music: In theory and in practice. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Higgins, L., & Willingham, L. (2017). Engagement in Community Music: An introduction. New
York: Routledge.
Veblen, K., & Olsson, B. (2002). Community music: Toward an international overview. In R. Colwell
& C. Richardson (eds.), The new handbook of research on music teacher and learning (pp. 740–
753). New York: Oxford University Press.

WEBSITES

International Society for Music Education, Community Music Activity

Commission:https://www.isme.org/our-work/commissions-forum/community-music-activity-
commission-cma.
Sound Sense:http://www.soundsense.org/.
New Horizons International Music Association:http://www.newhorizonsmusic.org/.
London School of Samba:http://londonschoolofsamba.co.uk/
Brass Bands Consulthttp://www.ibew.co.uk/.
Community Concert Bands and Orchestras:http://www.community-music.info.
Barbershop-style Choruses:http://www.barbershop.org and http://sweetadelines.com.
 NOTES

1 For information about brass bands consult http://www.ibew.co.uk/; for community concert bands
and orchestras see http://www.community-music.info. For information about barbershop-style
choruses see http://www.barbershop.org and http://sweetadelines.com. Less typical groups
include Mummers String bands, banjo bands, accordion orchestras, bluegrass music, and so forth.
2 Veblen and Olsson rely on Slobin’s definition of affinity groups as “charmed circles of like-
minded music-makers drawn magnetically to a certain genre that creates strong expressive
bonding” (2002, p. 732, quoting Slobin, 1993, p. 11).
3 For extended overviews of community music, see Higgins (2012) and Veblen (2008). (see key
sources and reference list).
4 Umoja is a Swahili word for “unity.”

REFERENCES

Adolfo, A. (1996). Rhythmic music education in Brazil. In J. O. Traasdahl (ed.), Rhythmic music
education: Jazz-rock-world music (pp. 30–37). Copenhagen: Danish Music Council.
Barbosa, J. (2009). Music education projects and social emancipation in Salvador, Brazil. In D. D.
Coffman (ed.), CMA XI: Projects, perspectives, and conversations: Proceedings from the
International Society for Music Education (ISME) 2008 Seminar of the Commission for
Community Music Activity (pp. 95–101). Nedlands, Western Australia: International Society for
Music Education.
Bartleet, B.-L., Dunbar-Hall, P., Letts, R., & Schippers, H. (2009). Soundlinks: Community music in
Australia. Brisbane: Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University.
Bernstein, D. (2002). Samba groups: A snapshot as part of the National Carnival Policy
Consultation Document. London: Arts Council of England.
Coffman, D. (2008). Survey of New Horizons International Music Association musicians.
International Journal of Community Music, 1(3), 375–390. doi:10.1386/ijcm.1.3.375/1.
Coffman, D. (2009). Learning from our elders: Survey of New Horizons International Music
Association band and orchestra directors. International Journal of Community Music, 2(2 & 3),
227–240. doi:10.1386/ijcm.2.2&3.227/1.
Cohen, M. L. (2008). Conductors’ perspectives of Kansas prison choirs. International Journal of
Community Music, 1(3), 319–333. doi:10.1386/ijcm.1.3.319/1.
Ernst, R. E., & Emmons, S. (1992). New horizons for senior adults. Music Educators Journal, 79(4),
30–34. doi:10.2307/3398527.
Higgins, L. (1998). Carnival street drumming: The development and survival of community
percussion ensembles in the UK. In C. Van Niekerk (ed.), Ubuntu: Music education for a humane
society: Conference proceedings of the 23rd World Conference of the International Society for
Music Education (pp. 251–257). Pretoria, South Africa: ISME.
Higgins, L. (2008b). The creative music workshop: Event, facilitation, gift. International Journal of
Music Education, 26(4), 326–338. doi: 10.1177/0255761408096074.
Higgins, L. (2012). Community music: In theory and in practice. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Merriam, A. P. (1964). The anthropology of music. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Roma, C. (2010). Re-sounding: Refuge and reprise in a prison choral community. International
Journal of Community Music, 3(1), 91–102. doi:10.1386/ijcm.3.1.91/1.
Shiobara, M. (2009). Different ways of learning in community music activities: Cases of Japanese
university students learning traditional music. In D. D. Coffman (ed.), CMA XI: Projects,
perspectives, and conversations: Proceedings from the International Society for Music Education
(ISME) 2008 Seminar of the Commission for Community Music Activity. (pp. 217–225). Nedlands,
Western Australia: International Society for Music Education.
Silber, L. (2005). Bars behind bars: The impact of a women’s prison choir on social harmony. Music
Education Research, 7(2), 251–271. doi:10.1080/14613800500169811.
Slobin, M. (1993). Subcultural sounds: Micromusics of the West. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University
Press.
Stebbins, R. A. (1992). Amateurs, professionals, and serious leisure. Montreal and Kingston, CA:
Magill-Queen’s University Press.
Straw, W. (1997). Communities and scenes in popular music. In K. Gelder & S. Thorntone (eds.),
The subcultures reader (pp. 494–505). London: Routledge.
Veblen, K. K. (2008). The many ways of community music. International Journal of Community
Music, 1(1), 5–21. doi:10.1386/ijcm.1.1.5/1.
Veblen, K., & Olsson, B. (2002). Community music: Toward an international overview. In R. Colwell
& C. Richardson (eds.), The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning (pp. 740–
753). New York: Oxford University Press.
Warfield, D. (2010). Bowing in the right direction: Hiland Mountain Correctional Center women’s
string orchestra programme. International Journal of Community Music, 3(1), 103–110.
doi:10.1386/ijcm.3.1.103/7.
 CHAPTER 20

YOUTH ORCHESTRAS

MARGARET KARTOMI

Youth orchestras are central to the music education of tens of thousands of

children and teenagers throughout the world, yet studies of their social
function, cultural significance, and pedagogical value remain largely
unexplored. Even if students receive their principal musical training through
individual lessons and school ensembles, participating in a separate youth
orchestra can be a life-changing experience for many musicians. This
chapter defines youth orchestras in an international context and then
articulates and measures the pedagogical value of them in one particular case
study: the ethos and educational outcomes of the Young Australian Concert
Artists program of the Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO).

THE YOUTH ORCHESTRA DEFINED

A youth orchestra may be broadly defined as an orchestra that provides

educational and performance opportunities for its young members. Typically,
it has a membership policy (often including a mission statement as part of its
corporate identity) and an established schedule of orchestral auditions and
rehearsals at least twice a year. A youth orchestra largely comes in one of
two types: freestanding or institutional. A freestanding youth orchestra
draws its players by audition from several secondary or tertiary educational
institutions and other organizations across a nation or nations. An
institutional orchestra, as its name suggests, picks its members from within a
single educational institution. In the United States, some freestanding youth
orchestras have informal or loose ties to a professional parent orchestra,
which usually provides its young ensemble with access to its own
professional programs, the use of its facilities, and help in publicity and
fundraising. Most institutional orchestras, on the other hand, rely on public
or private sector funding, or both, but they also rely on membership fees and
fundraising to survive. The freestanding orchestras audition players within a
specific age range.
Some surveys exclude institutional orchestras from the youth orchestra
category. The reasons for their exclusion are that they have different
constituents from those of freestanding orchestras. However, it could be
argued that this is illogical, given that the activities and ages of the players
are similar in both types of orchestras. For example, in most youth orchestras
the ages range from 12 to 25 years, though some have older and younger
players. Moreover, both types of orchestras organize camps, concerts, tours,
and social outreach. However, institutional youth orchestras have different
histories and reputations. For example, the orchestra at the Sibelius
Academy in Helsinki has, arguably, a greater musical reputation than the
freestanding ones in Finland. Of course it is difficult to measure intangible
issues such as reputation, but many believe that a youth orchestra’s
reputation is influenced by a variety of factors, including the status of the
teaching and conducting staff, published reviews of its concerts, and the
status of its concert venues, both locally and on tour, nationally and
internationally.

SUBTYPES OF YOUTH ORCHESTRAS

Youth orchestras may be divided into seven subtypes, as defined in detail

below. While some orchestras select their players from a group or federation
of nation-states, others recruit players from within a nation-state, a state, or a
province within a state. Still others draw their players from a given region or
rural area, or a city, a small metropolitan or suburban area, or a school or
other educational institution. The nature and size of the pool of players
auditioned—and the related degree of competitiveness for entry—is often a
strong determining factor in the perception of the orchestra’s performance
reputation. For example, the European Union Youth Orchestra, which is able
to select more near-professional players than most other youth orchestras,
has a greater musical reputation than that of the Stuttgart Youth Orchestra
(despite its fine quality), due to its much larger pool of potential applicants,
some 27 countries of the European Union.

Nation-States Subtype
This first subtype of youth orchestra recruits players from across a cluster of
nation-states and organizes international youth orchestras that tend to
advocate idealistic sociopolitical as well as musical goals. An example of
this subtype is Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI), founded by
UNESCO in 1945, to “enable young people to develop through music across
all boundaries” (www.jmi.net, November 23, 2009). JMI set up an
information exchange network to act as a clearinghouse and advocate for its
member youth orchestras, while scheduling camps, competitions, concerts,
and festivals. Funded by the European Union and the Spanish and Belgian
governments and member subscriptions, JMI can partially rely on assistance
from its national branches.
Another orchestra that operates in a cluster of nations is the West-Eastern
Divan Orchestra. This orchestra auditions players in Israel, Palestine, and all
the Arab countries and at the time of writing is resident in Spain. The West-
Eastern Divan was established by Daniel Barenboim in conjunction with
Edward Said, and its first camp was held in Weimar, the city of Goethe, the
writer who, inspired by his interest in Persian poetry, wrote a poem using the
phrase “West-Eastern Divan.” The orchestra brings together young people
from Israel and the Arab countries to hear and recognize the legitimacy of
each others’ lives, in the belief that there is no military solution to the
current Israeli-Palestine problem (Beckles Willson, 2009; Etherington,
2007).

National Subtype
Orchestras that draw players from a pool of young musicians across a
nation-state comprise this subgroup. Like national sporting teams, these
orchestras are often called on to serve as ambassadors for their countries. In
Australia, the Australian Youth Orchestra Inc. and its top ensemble, the
Australian Youth Orchestra, enjoys this flagship status, and is employed by
the federal government on some important national occasions. Some national
youth orchestras are situated within the infrastructure of a professional
orchestra, for example, the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra. Other
national youth orchestras are part of a national networking association, for
example, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, founded in 1948,
while others strive for social, political, or altruistic good, for example the
recently formed National Youth Orchestra of Iraq.

State or Provincial Subtype

The third subtype draws its players from a state within a nation-state, such as
the Queensland Youth Orchestra in the Australian state of Queensland
(Collett, 2007) or the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in the United
Kingdom. Some state-based orchestras look beyond their borders when
recruiting. For example, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra forms
parts of the Cleveland Orchestra but is comprised of about 100 musicians
from approximately 51 communities in northern Ohio and Pennsylvania. The
San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, founded in 1981, is another
example of a state or provincial type of youth orchestra. It has a partnership
with the San Francisco Symphony and the Atlanta Symphony Youth
Orchestra.

Regional or Rural Area Subtype

Youth orchestras in regional or rural areas usually benefit from the loyalty of
the local community, yet funding and location can be problematic. Many
orchestras have little or no funding and thus require in-kind support or some
form of sponsorship, and participants have to travel great distances to
participate. Schafer (1982) reported that some students had to travel between
22 and 40 miles to weekly rehearsals of youth orchestras in Pennsylvania.
Schafer also found that some other youth orchestras in Pennsylvania sourced
their players from a regional or rural area (e.g., the Erie Philharmonic Youth
Orchestra), or a county within the state (e.g., the Delaware County
Community Orchestra).

Metropolitan Subtype
This subtype of youth orchestra sources its players from across a
metropolitan area or comprises a network of youth orchestras in a larger city
for young, preprofessional orchestral players, for which parents and families
play a particularly crucial role. Normally, such orchestras operate on larger
budgets than their regional and rural counterparts and often employ some
part-time salaried as well as nonsalaried staff but possess greater potential to
raise money and obtain civic support. As a city-based orchestra can normally
draw on a larger group of players than a regional or rural orchestra, its
playing is likely to be of a higher standard, though there are exceptions.
An example of a city-based orchestral training orchestra is the Toronto
Symphony Youth Orchestra, which has had the advantage of an association
with the Toronto Symphony for more than 30 years. It draws its faculty and
celebrity performers from the Toronto Symphony, and the faculty members
offer master classes to its members. The Chicago Youth Symphony
Orchestra is another example; it fosters three other orchestras: the Chicago
Youth Prep Strings, the Chicago Youth Debut Orchestra, and the Chicago
Youth Concert Orchestra. The Chicago Youth Prep Strings acts as a “feeder”
to the other orchestras, thereby establishing a cohesive pedagogical
structure.

Suburban Subtype
This subtype draws its players mainly from one or more suburbs of a city.
One example is the Robertson Youth Orchestra (RYO) in Heidelberg, a
suburb of Melbourne. Managed by Heidelberg Orchestras Inc., a nonprofit
community umbrella organization, the RYO grew out of the original
Heidelberg Youth Orchestra, founded in the 1970s. Its string players can also
audition for the Junior Strings of Banyule. RYO members who wish to can
eventually become part of the nonprofessional Heidelberg Symphony
Orchestra

Institutional Subtype: Tertiary, Secondary, or Primary School

This subtype of youth orchestra, one that is attached to an educational
institution, is the nonfreestanding type. This type divides into further
subtypes according to whether it selects its players from the body of students
enrolled in: (1) a national or state territory institution, such as a university or
a tertiary-level conservatorium; (2) a primary or secondary school, whether
state or privately funded (or both); or (3) a specialist music school for
talented children attached to a tertiary, secondary, or primary school.
Some orchestras do not fit this taxonomy. For example, some orchestras
may be distinguished by their ethnicity, such as the Toronto Chinese Youth
Orchestra; by gender, such as the Girl Orchestra of Auschwitz during the
Holocaust; by instrumentation, such as the Melbourne String Ensemble; or
by repertoire, such as the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, Cleveland, which
plays only new music.

PEDAGOGICAL IDENTITY OF YOUTH ORCHESTRAS

Identifying the pedagogical aims of youth orchestras is sometimes difficult

because the aims are not always articulated clearly. Of course some
orchestras, such as the West-Eastern Divan, do not have an explicit
pedagogical program because their mission is largely altruistic, not
pedagogical. The mission statements and brochures of many youth
orchestras often reveal little about explicit pedagogical outcomes. More
often than not the orchestra describes itself as offering orchestral and
professional training, implying a pedagogical framework, but not stating one
explicitly. The emphasis on participation often appears to be more on
concerts, camps, and tours, but this is not surprising since youth orchestras
have to make an appealing pitch to students and their families. A student is
arguably more likely to want to join an orchestra if its advertising material
promises lively social activities over a strict regime of teaching and learning.
Yet youth orchestras are sites of education and learning. As Daniel
Barenboim (2007) has written, “youth orchestras are a fundamental part of
many musicians’ education; they are part of the humanising process. They
give young people the chance to improve their musical skills and refine their
aesthetic sensibilities” (p. vii).
There are many challenges for music educators, including the task of
measuring and quantifying the pedagogical results of youth orchestras when
neither the aims nor results are clearly defined. Other scholars are
encouraged to take up some questions explored in this chapter, including: To
what extent is a youth orchestra a fundamental, or supplementary, part of
orchestral training? Is the “evidence” of educational outcomes anecdotal and
a perception generated by mission statements, websites, and other publicity
material? Do students perceive a youth orchestra as a training ground for a
future career or as an extension of their school education? What do parents
think—do they pay registration and fees out of a desire to improve their
children’s education, or is the motivation sometimes born of a desire to
increase their social cachet though an association with an elite and privileged
social class? Moreover, no one has yet measured the financial costs and
benefits to society of the various sub-types of youth orchestras. Similarly,
there have there been no studies on the perceived negative aspects of youth
orchestras, for example, the hothousing of talented students. To what extent
do competitiveness, jealousy, peer and parental pressure, and demanding
practice and rehearsal schedules play a part in students’ decisions to leave
youth orchestras midstream? And to what extent are youth orchestras the
domain of the privileged? Do they perpetuate existing inequalities in the
educational infrastructure within a particular demographic? These are just
some of the questions that future researchers could seek to answer.
Despite the difficulties faced in measuring and assessing pedagogical
outcomes in youth orchestras, it is still possible to undertake such a study by
analyzing a particular program’s philosophical framework as well as its
ethical and educational aims and logistics. The case study here is the Young
Australian Concert Artists (YACA) program of the Australian Youth
Orchestra and two issues it faces in the delivering of its program: (1) how to
assist individual preprofessional young musicians to enter their desired
career path, and (2) how, in the interests of social justice, to provide access
to music-educational opportunities for young people in areas of relative
geographical remoteness and cultural isolation.
As one of a group of programs that the AYO designed after it received
substantially increased perennial state funding in 1993, YACA has been
presented on an average of three times a year since it was piloted in 1999.
By 2009, AYO had presented a total of 32 YACA projects in five Australian
states.
Despite the national government’s stated aim to achieve equality of access
to education across the population, young people of whatever ethnic origin
in rural areas are undeniably exposed to fewer music educational
opportunities than city dwellers. Many young people growing up in country
towns and rural areas are excluded from the social, economic, and
educational mainstream, in some cases resulting from their parents’ inability
to provide basic music training due to their relative poverty (Harding et al.,
2006). The YACA program offers a partial remedy to such educational
deprivation in the area of music performance, but its effects to date have
been limited by the fact that AYO’s funding levels have allowed it to offer
projects in only a relatively small number of locations. So far, only a few
young Aboriginal musicians have taken part in activities at regional
conservatoriums. This is a reflection of the history of Australia’s structural
discrimination against Indigenous people and the nonequitable provision of
the school music education systems in Australia’s states and territories. A
similar situation pertains in the United States (see, e.g., Clements, 2006).
The YACA program involves advanced instrumentalists who are selected
to form a chamber ensemble, and who participate in a period of intensive
tuition with professional musicians and educators. With their tutors, the
chamber ensemble travels to a regional area to present a series of workshops
and rehearsals with musicians from the local community. This interaction
between the chamber ensemble and the regional community is the key
feature of the program, which culminates in a combined public performance.

YACA’S THREE PREMISES AND THE RESULTING PROGRAM STRUCTURE

YACA’s educational philosophy is based on three premises implicit in their

publicity statements and reports. The first premise is that by putting selected
preprofessional young musicians through an intense, demanding chamber
ensemble rehearsing and concert performing experience assisted by
professional mentors and role models, and requiring the young musicians in
turn to act as mentors and tutors to the students of a music center in a
selected regional town, the program can significantly boost the development
of the participants’ professional music careers. Another premise is that by
training the ensemble interaction competence of a larger group of local
young musicians in a regional area to a concert performance standard, the
orchestra can contribute significantly to the processes of enculturation and
socialization in the general musical life of the community. The third premise
is that by combining the two procedures into one two-stage program, the
learning of both types of ensemble may be accelerated and the social
benefits increased in an equitable and cost-effective manner.
AYO sees itself as working for the public good through the AYO’s YACA
and other programs (AYO Program, 2006). Opportunities that YACA
provides for training young people in ensemble playing contributes to their
enculturation into the society in which they are growing up and acts as a
socializing force that can benefit the particular community of which each
individual is part.
Aspects of the educational philosophy are reflected in some of the
terminology used to describe YACA’s aims in its documents and publicity.
There, one reads that the YACA program “seeks to build on the musical
strengths of the country’s regional centers,” and accepts “aspiring young
artists” with “talent and commitment” into its ensemble-playing projects to
develop their “musicality,” and that these projects “complement their current
instrumental tuition.” Whether the young musicians compete for entry by
national audition or gain admission to a program through their regular music
school channels, the program provides them with exposure to professional
and preprofessional musicians who work with them to increase their skills
and knowledge base and prepare them for the challenge of public ensemble
concert performance.
Do the terms “talent” and “musicality” adequately reflect YACA’s
educational philosophy? In recent decades, some educationists and other
scholars have reexamined the Western notion of talent, which has been
defined as a special aptitude of birth, or a gift divinely or genetically
bestowed on certain rare individuals. However, some scholars have asserted
that the term “musical talent” needs to be reviewed, arguing that its meaning
is diametrically opposed to the widely held view that all normal human
beings, not just the so-called talented ones, are capable of learning to
perform music at a high level. Kingsbury (1988) made a critical examination
of the Western concept of musical talent in the American conservatory
system and found that its use often led to undesirable results: that to be
attributed with talent can be “an albatross strung across [one’s]neck.”
Teachers and others may disagree about whether a particular student “really
has talent,” and if so, how much; moreover, to say that a student from a
small pool is “talented” is usually meant as a compliment and a mark of his
or her remarkable individuality, but it becomes a mark of similarity in a
larger pool of students at a conservatorium, where all are regarded as
“having talent” (p. 14). Increasingly, music education scholars are using the
term “musical competence,” either to broaden the concept of talent or to
replace it altogether:
Talent and competence are related but separable phenomena: a young musician may be talented
[by whatever standard one wishes to apply] and yet not fully competent; conversely an older
person may be an experienced, knowledgeable, and capable musician without being perceived as
exceptionally talented. Arguments about the nature and measurability of talent need not cloud the
discussion of competence which denotes “the knowledge and abilities that can engender good,
excellent, and superlative performances, rather than the potential for knowledge. (Brinner, 1995,
p. 2)
 Another term that is useful to contemplate in the YACA context of
providing education in ensemble playing as a musical and social activity is
“musical interaction.” As Brinner (1995) argues,
the interactive knowledge and skills that musicians use in performing together constitute a central
part of competence that is complexly entwined with other modes of social interaction.
Furthermore, it is primarily in the interaction between musicians that competence is attained,
assessed and altered. . . . More aspects of competence are foregrounded in ensemble than in solo
performance: differences of degree and type of competence as well as questions of authority,
control, and relative independence are all of immediate concern. (pp. 3–4)

Thus, the term “musical interaction” encompasses “all the kinds of

knowledge and skills that a musician may need,” including a knowledge of
the inner workings of a particular musically inclusive tradition, making
informed aesthetic judgments, assessing progress in preparing for a musical
performance, and an advanced capacity for ensemble interaction (Brinner,
1995, p. 3).
To be fully competent, however, a musician must possess multiple musical
competences, including aural skills, a broad palette of musical performance
skills, performance leadership ability, teaching skills, and an ability to make
excellent judgments about his/her own and others’ musical interpretations
and resulting performances. These multiple competences are understood not
as special “gifts” or “talent” (though they may be seen to result from
heredity and environment) but as a quality of “musical authority” that they
exude. Based on their accumulated experience, musicians who possess
multiple musical competences have a well-developed ear, a quick musical
learning aptitude for pitch, rhythm, meter, tempo, dynamics, and so on, and
honed interpretative skills, abilities that constantly stand them in good stead
in their music-making.
Another useful term for the discussion of skills that YACA aims to
provide is “music-ensemble interaction,” which designates the processes and
results of the interplay between musicians when performing together. Unlike
in solo performance with orchestral or other accompaniment, interactive
ensemble playing entails each player closely listening to and getting to know
the others’ performance styles and interpretative propensities. It also implies
leading or following the other players as appropriate but never allowing the
ego or any soloistic tendencies to take over, the aim being to learn to
communicate and play together with a single musical voice. “Ensemble
competence includes not just what an individual knows but how much he or
she acts on it in the company of others, leading with authority, influencing
more subtly, or following meekly or with uncertainty” in a “musically
inclusive tradition,” that is, one in which methods and standards of making
music within consensual practical and theoretical frameworks are shared
(Brinner, 1995, pp. 3–4). Members of an ensemble need to get to know each
other musically so that they can continue to communicate as a team while
playing. Although musical interaction differs from “social interaction,” the
latter is, nevertheless, a necessary prerequisite for musical interaction and is
“complexly intertwined” with it (pp. 3–4). Ensemble players need to have
sympathy for each other as social individuals as well as musicians in order to
meet the desired outcomes of YACA’s educational philosophy: attaining high
levels of musicianship and collegiality.
While “talent” is a controversial term for some, most writers and
institutions—including AYO—find the term “musicality” acceptable. In
some music educational literature, musicality is defined as a sense of one’s
musical abilities; as “a part of one’s most elevated sense of self and identity,”
even “a drive, like sex” (Kingsbury, 1988, p. 5). It has been defined more
recently as the result of “collections of encounters and choices: pastiches of
performances [that people] have experienced, the lessons they have taken,
the people with whom they have played, the other musicians they admire,
other musics that they play or enjoy, and the technical and cognitive
limitations of their own musicianship” (Rasmussen, 2004, p. 225).
In addition to musical and social competence and a high order of
ensemble interactive ability, the young preprofessional musicians in a YACA
ensemble arguably need to aspire to a condition of what Rasmussen (2004)
calls “musical maturity” (p. 218), a quality normally accumulated only by
individuals in ensembles who have played together for years, or individuals
who have a great deal of musical experience and can lead their own
successful lives in the profession without direction, independently of others.
Although it stands to reason that members of AYO ensembles who play
together for only a few weeks rather than years cannot reach a high level of
musical maturity, their exposure to mature professional musicians as tutors
and mentors gives them a glimpse of its full meaning.
The YACA program further aims to provide young musicians with
ensemble experience that is qualitatively different from that provided by
their regular teachers and institutions. As indicated above, it aims to
“complement their current instrumental tuition.” Within each YACA project,
the young preprofessional ensemble members learn the “ins and outs” of life
as a professional musician from their tutors, who double as mentors and role
models, and whose approach to teaching naturally differs from that of the
students’ regular solo instrumental, ensemble, and classroom teachers of
music, whether in private practice or in secondary or tertiary music
institutions. The tutors give them the kind of personal attention that
institutional course teachers cannot always provide, including guidelines and
tips on how to succeed in their auditions and in securing professional
employment. YACA tutors also teach the advanced ensemble members how
to coach the children from regional areas to help them acquire the varied
auditory, interpretative, and social skills needed to play in a local orchestra,
band, or other ensemble. Children in the local ensemble learn, in turn, how
to respond to the words and movements of a professional conductor.
Through his or her directions they learn to play orchestral or other ensemble
scores with coordinated articulation, phrasing, dynamics, and tempo. In
rehearsal, the conductor periodically stops the young players to tell them an
interesting story about the piece they are playing, such as about its
composer’s life and era. This entertains and relaxes them, enabling them to
play more stylishly and confidently. Not the least of the results of their
experience of playing a variety of repertoire together are the students’
increased motor, auditory, and reading skills, to say nothing of their
emotional intelligence and intellectual development, the fruits of which are
transferable to other spheres of their lives.
For the nationally auditioned, preprofessional ensembles to achieve high
standards of musical competence and musicality, it is crucial that
opportunities be given to their members to spend considerable rehearsal and
social time together so they can begin to acquire a degree of musical
maturity, the kind that is not typically experienced under a conductor’s baton
or at rehearsal “but is accumulated in individual or group experience without
waiting for directions from anyone” (Rasmussen, 2004, p. 218).

DEVELOPING A MODEL FOR ASSESSMENT

How can a program such as YACA be profiled? How well has it contributed
to the training and mentoring of young ensemble musicians from all over
Australia, ranging from near-beginners to those who aspire to professional
careers as performing musicians? To what extent has YACA been able to
enliven existing regional music programs and bring together young
musicians from neighboring regional areas, young people who would not
otherwise have come together?1
The programs are designed to be intensively self-monitoring, not least
because of the requirement of accountability to government and other
sponsors for their continued funding to AYO.2 The company insists on each
program being carefully reviewed from one day and one weekend of each
program to the next. At the end of each program, the tutors, the AYO
administrator, and the regional center director are asked to write artistic
reports on the effectiveness of each AYO ensemble and regional YACA
orchestra, band, or other ensemble, and to make recommendations for
improvements. The self-monitoring assessments of the regional music
school directors who host the programs are important for their own survival,
because their enrollments and a program’s financial viability are accountable
to their donors in the public and private sectors.
Incomplete archival holdings do not permit a systematic assessment of the
various facets of the program as a whole. However, the available responses
of the six stakeholder groups (designated in fig. 20.1 by the letters A–F) in
each program suggest that a broad model for assessment can be developed,
which could arguably be quantified in future assessment exercises when
sufficient data have been collected.
Moving counterclockwise from the top left in the proposed pentagonal
Assessment Model, the AYO (designated A) nationally auditions and selects
a high-caliber preprofessional chamber group (B), which meets and
rehearses new repertoire under professional tutors (C); moving clockwise
from the top right, the regional music center (D) brings together and
augments its existing ensemble (E), which also rehearses new repertoire
under the professional tutors (C); moving horizontally from both ensembles
on the left and right toward the center, both ensembles present concerts that
enhance regional musical life and build up audiences (F).
What are the broad success factors delineated by these six groups of
stakeholders? For the AYO head office (A), success lies partly in its
educational and performance effectiveness, and in the efficient and cost-
effective operation of each YACA project as expressed in reports from the
tutors and regional music center directors. Success for the company is also
measured by career advancement by members of its preprofessional chamber
music group in professional orchestras and other music institutions, and by
reports of any follow-up performance activity and lasting effects of the
project on the musical life of young regional music-makers and regional
audiences.

Figure 20.1 Proposed Assessment Model for the Young Australian Concert Artists Program.

For the preprofessional ensemble (B), a program is gauged to be

successful if its members perceive that the tutored rehearsals and chamber
concert performances have resulted in improved personal playing
techniques, interpretative ability, and ensemble interaction skills. All the
students I interviewed believed that these benefits had accrued to them. All
of them also valued the opportunities to get to know their tutors, whom they
saw as role models because they befriended them, and showed them how to
audition for professional orchestral positions and offered other valuable
career advice. Most students said they would have preferred to have had
more weeks of rehearsal together before presenting their concerts, citing the
fact that experienced chamber groups take years to learn to play together in
unity; however, they realized that AYO’s financial restraints make this
impossible. Some valued the process of socializing with each other, while
the more retiring participants said they did not benefit from the socializing,
even musically.
 While some participants took it in stride and simply viewed it as a
welcome additional experience, others found the requirement that they tutor
regional students in ensemble playing to be a challenging experience, which
is not surprising given that they came from secondary or tertiary music
performance-oriented institutions and had limited teaching experience. In
fact, the YACA experience differs in several respects from that offered by
tertiary-level institutions, including the Australian National Academy of
Music (ANAM), which was founded in 1993 by the Labour government to
establish an institution to train preprofessional musicians in solo
performance. Although both bodies offer advanced training for
preprofessional musicians, ANAM does so within the one institution in
isolation, while YACA requires the same preprofessional musicians to
engage in a range of activities, including some held in regional communities
located far away from their urban-based institutions. Thus, it includes
intensive, tutored ensemble learning in a tight time framework similar to
what they may expect in a professional career.
The tutors (C) reported that they gauged the success of the preprofessional
ensemble’s activity according to the improvements they observed in the
students’ multiple musical competences, especially ensemble interaction and
rapport as they rapidly learned and interpreted new works for concert
performance. Factors contributing to success include the choice of repertoire
(whether appropriate to their competences and sufficiently varied in style);
the timing of tutoring classes and rest periods throughout the day to optimize
learning; the decision as to how many days after the first rehearsal week they
should rehearse before presenting their first concert; how students improved
their ability to manage the stress involved in rapidly learning repertoire for
an imminent concert; and how the members of the newly formed ensemble
managed to get to know each other personally, for example by cooking a
meal and socializing with each other.
For the regional music center (D), the success of a program meant that it
had attracted a relatively large number of students from its regional town,
other nearby towns, and rural areas, and included students of various ages;
that both the preprofessional and the regional students’ concerts were
presented smoothly; and that the parents had reported that their children had
benefited from the whole experience. In their reports, some directors
suggested that certain improvements should be made in operational matters,
but above all they hoped they could host other YACA projects, preferably
every few years, in the interests of long-term effectiveness and stimulus for
the local and regional community.
For the regional ensemble (E), success was gauged by observable
improvements in the individual students’ multiple competences and their
increased ability to interact with each other in rehearsal and performance
under the guidance of their visiting professional and semiprofessional tutors.
Success was also measured by the continuing effects of a project in the
community, including follow-up ensemble activity by the large regional
ensemble or by smaller offshoot ensembles that continue to rehearse and
perform on their own. For example, a small string ensemble emerged from
the 2004 Coffs Harbour YACA project and won a prize at a local
competition (Carol Hellmers, 2004, personal communication). However, as
regional music center leaders keep asserting, YACA programs need to be
repeated every few years for there to be really lasting effects.
For the regional community, including concert audiences (F), the success
of a YACA project was assessed partly by the extent to which it met music
education needs and societal conditions of the region involved, including the
competences of the networks of regional music teachers, increased musical
abilities of the student ensemble, and encouragement by the YACA tutors to
students to persevere in music and even to consider a career as a musician or
music teacher. Success was also measured by any evidence of increased
music learning and music-making activities spawned by the YACA
experience, especially in the communities that are relatively deprived of
music educational opportunities. Success for regional audiences was
measured by their members’ enjoyment from hearing young musicians
playing in concerts, which are much rarer than in the cities, especially in
small country towns, thereby contributing to the transmission of musical
culture across the generations in their area.
Naturally, each YACA project is also assessable according to how it
manages to fulfill the demands set by the program’s educational premises.
The first premise—that the preprofessional young musicians’ career
prospects can be boosted by putting them through the demanding training
program—has resulted in more than 30 documented instances in AYO files
of former YACA students obtaining places in professional orchestras and
performance teaching positions in Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom,
and North America, including members of the AYO String Quartet
mentioned above. Success regarding the second premise—that professional
and preprofessional tutoring culminating in concert performance increases
the regional ensembles’ performance standards and the musical life of their
communities—is supported by many examples in the files perused and
interviews conducted (see, e.g., Kartomi, 2008). The third premise—that by
combining the two procedures into one program, the learning of both the
preprofessional and regional ensembles may be accelerated in a cost-
effective and efficient manner—has been fulfilled in each program, as is
shown overwhelmingly by the available evidence that the design of the
programs is found in practice to be eminently practical, administratively
effective, and financially sound. This does not mean that improvements are
not always sought and made in each YACA program, as problems are always
encountered in implementing the design; however, it does mean that the
combination of the two educational constituencies in the one program has
been found to be workable and cost-efficient.

CONCLUSIONS

The YACA program’s practice of selecting highly competent young players

from a national pool to form an elite chamber group, providing them with
professional musician-mentors to train them rapidly to learn challenging
repertoire for concert presentation, and requiring them to help their tutors
train a regional orchestra for public performance has served on the whole as
a significant boost to the students’ musical and personal development and
musical or other career advancement. By providing professional tutors to
train young ensembles in regional areas to concert level, the program has
also contributed to the regional students’ musical and personal development;
indeed, the repercussions of a project in a country town can in some cases be
felt in the entire regional community. On the whole, the rehearsal,
performance, and social experiences offered by the YACA program enhance
the advanced and regional students’ multiple musical competences,
musicality, and social self-confidence.
Although each YACA project has been governed by the same educational
philosophy and social rationale, each one has assumed an identity of its own
as it responded to local conditions and solved the unique mix of problems
characteristic of the local center and its hinterland. In each case the success
of the two ensembles involved has been determined by the musical and
personal qualities of the student players, their multiple musical competences
and musical interaction ability, the particular instrumentation of the
ensemble, the choice of repertoire, the role played by the tutors, the
effectiveness of the group rehearsals, and the locales of the urban and
regional concerts.
As a publicly and privately funded institution, AYO has a range of
responsibilities to promote the public good. Given the widespread
recognition of the notion that music is as significant in a child’s development
as academic learning and sports, there is an undoubted need for government
and the private sector to continue to fund, indeed to expand funding for,
music programs such as YACA that assist and promote the career prospects
of future professional musicians and help fulfill the charter of providing
equity of music educational opportunity across the whole population of a
nation, including—and especially—in the poorer communities.
Finally, is the flexible concept and structure of YACA transferable from
Australia to other countries? Some nations, such as the Republic of Ireland,
are currently exploring ways to spread music education and performance in
isolated and deprived areas of the country (as leaders of its various youth
orchestra organizations explained to me in 2005). While to my knowledge
no program like YACA operates outside Australia, international comparisons
suggest that the need to reconcile political and artistic priorities, including
the nurturing of future young professional artists on the one hand and the
provision of equity of access to youth music programs on the other, are
presented to the music education communities everywhere. Arguably, then,
the YACA idea is potentially applicable in countries that need to find ways
to promote future professional musicians and music education opportunities
in regional areas, whether their policy is to promote classical and
contemporary Western music as their major tradition (as in European, North
American, Australasian, and some other countries), whether as a supplement
to their major local ethnic musical traditions (as in Palestine, India, and
Indonesia and beyond), or whether as a supplement to the popular music
performance sphere, as is found in virtually every country of the world.

SUMMARY
Youth orchestras have become major institutions in the twentieth century.
Supported and financed by a range of stakeholders, their players are drawn
from a variety of educational and performance programs. Youth orchestras
also play a far-reaching role in the musical life of the communities they
serve and respond to the needs of their demographic, or to the mission
statement defined by their parent orchestra, administrative team, or board of
directors. The aims and pedagogical goals of youth orchestras vary,
depending on their type, size, demographics, and mission. The task of
studying and quantifying these programs is an area ripe for future research,
as suggested by the questions posed at the beginning of this chapter.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. What are some of the difficulties researchers face when trying to identify the aims of youth
orchestras?
2. What role does altruism play in the identity and function of youth orchestras?
3. To what degree can the stated desires of some youth orchestras, such as their desire to strive for
peace or improve international understanding, be realized in the real world? Why, or why not?
4. What are some of the criteria by which the quality of youth orchestras can be measured? How
objective are they?
5. Imagine you establish a youth orchestra in your own neighborhood. What would your
pedagogical aims be, and why? How would these aims be different if you set up a youth
orchestra in a different demographic?
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Research for this chapter was funded by my Australian Research Council

(ARC) Industry Linkage Grant at the School of Music-Conservatorium, at
Monash University, with the Australian Youth Orchestra Inc. (AYO) as
industrial sponsor. I wish to thank the ARC and AYO’s Board, its current
chief executive officer, Colin Cornish, and its former general manager, Tony
Grybowski, for their generous support and for allowing access to AYO’s
reports and archival records. My thanks are also due to AYO’s
administrative staff, especially to Simon Rogers (past artistic administrator),
to Alison Harbert and Bronwyn Lobb (past and present assistant artistic
administrators of the YACA program), to Sue Lyons and Pamela Thornton of
AYO, and to interviewees, including Virginia Henderson (former chair, AYO
Board) and Board members Anne Gilby and Leonard Amadio. Finally,
thanks to my research associate Paul Watt for his valued contribution.

KEY SOURCES

Beckles Willson, R. (2009). Whose utopia? Perspectives in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Music
and Politics, 2, http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicandpolitics/archive/2009
2/beckles_willson.html.
Kartomi, M., & Dreyfus, K., with Pear, D. (eds.) (2007). Growing up making music: Youth orchestras
in Australia and the world. Special issue, Australasian Music Research, 9.
Kartomi, M. (2008). A response to two problems in music education: The Young Australian Concert
Artists Programme of the Australian Youth Orchestra. Music Education Research, 10, 141–158.
 NOTES

1 For a comprehensive assessment of one of YACA’s projects—a music camp held in Coffs Harbour
in 2004 for string players aged 7–18 years—see Kartomi (2008).
2 The Assessment Model was developed by the AYO stakeholders and participants (including their
mentors). In my fieldwork I checked responses of students whose own assessments did not differ
substantially from the AYO’s own self-assessment. Generally, the students’ responses
substantiated AYO’s model of self-assessment of the program.

REFERENCES

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Brinner, B. (1995). Knowing music, making music: Javanese gamelan and the theory of musical
competence and interaction. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
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 CHAPTER 21

POPULAR MUSIC ENSEMBLES

CARLOS XAVIER RODRIGUEZ

The presence of popular music in the lives of humans is increasing, fueled

by the digital revolution that has made music and music-making more
accessible, convenient, and affordable than ever before. The previously
independent roles of music listeners, composers, and performers have
consolidated into a single musical experience that transcends much of the
organization, content, and learning processes of traditional public school
music ensembles. Consequently, young people are creating their own
learning environments at an increasing rate. While some students remain
satisfied with their participation in traditional school ensembles, there is
also disparity between what at least some students want and need to know
and what school music instruction offers them (e.g., Kratus, 2007). While
music education programs in the United States have historically
acknowledged the sociocultural influence of popular music by including it
in the curriculum (albeit cautiously, and when it supports the goals and
objectives of the existing music program), there is still resistance to the idea
that popular music and culture belong in formal music education. The
United States trails the educational systems of Canada, Scandinavia,
Australia, and the United Kingdom to the extent these countries and regions
have made use of popular music in public school music instruction.
However, the United States is responding to global trends in music
education, evidenced by the growing presence of popular music in basal
music textbooks, and an increasing number of school-based nontraditional
ensembles that showcase popular music styles, instruments, and activities.
In addition to supporting the goals and objectives of existing programs,
popular music ensembles increase interest and student participation in
school music instruction. Some ensembles are small and selective, used as a
privilege for the leading performers in larger, traditional school ensembles.
Conversely, other popular music ensembles are much larger in size, for
instance guitar ensembles, since they are attractive to students who lack
background in traditional instruments, yet still allow students to gain
experience playing in large ensembles.
Popular music ensembles are praised by advocates as authentic learning
contexts because they invoke and nurture the same learning processes that
occur outside school as a natural process of expressing oneself through
music, called “vernacular musicianship” (Woody, 2007, p. 35). Such
processes allow students to engage directly in artistic communication of
their own musical ideas, called “critical musicality” (Green, 2008, p. 14).
These outcomes signal a significant departure from the traditional
expectations for formal musicianship in the United States, which revolve
around the use of notation, tonal, and rhythmic materials derived from
common practice, and highly structured, conductor-led ensembles. The
fundamental difference between the goals of traditional music instruction
and popular music instruction is one of music literacy, which begs the
question: what constitutes a musically literate person? Is it someone who
preserves and practices the western European canon of notational skills and
historically accurate renditions of classic literature, or is it someone who
has developed an aurally based musicianship to explore and develop
personal expressive needs?
Arguments for and against the use of popular music in music education
are well articulated and long-standing (e.g., Hebert & Campbell, 2000;
Rodriguez, 2004). To summarize, arguments for popular music include the
widespread preference for popular music by students, the amenability of
popular music to meet the traditional goals and standards of music
education, the strong parallels between informal learning and best practices
in education, and the comparatively close connection between in-school and
out-of-school activity. Arguments against popular music include the lack of
connection with the skills and knowledge provided by other courses in the
music curriculum, the unsuitability of many lyrics for public school
instruction, the inappropriateness of popular music role models for public
school students, and the general lack of preparation of many new music
teachers to teach popular music.
 What the profession currently needs is a more detailed account of how
and why popular music is increasingly being used in the schools. This
chapter is devoted to identifying and describing core values that underlie
teaching and learning in the most prevalent types of popular ensembles in
the United States and globally, as they occur within more traditional music
curricula in public schools, and the implications of these emerging
ensembles for music teacher education. Examples of specific programs that
illustrate these core values in action are cited.
Before proceeding with the core values that serve as focus and advocacy
points for popular music in the schools—creativity, musical expression, and
self-identity—it is necessary to provide a working definition of the term
“popular music.” While there are numerous criteria for determining whether
music is popular (Rodriguez, 2004), the term is used here to encompass any
music that has broad and pervasive appeal to the general listening public at
any given time, and is influenced by current artistic, cultural, and
technological trends. For this reason, it is necessary to accept that what is
popular music to one generation will inevitably differ from what is popular
music to future generations. Consequently, in this chapter the term “popular
music” refers to contemporary popular music.

CORE VALUES UNDERLYING POPULAR MUSIC ENSEMBLES

Creative Thinking and Popular Music

Of all the shortcomings of traditional music education approaches in the
United States, perhaps the most unfortunate is the failure to engage students
in certain forms of creative activity. Although the National Standards for
Music Education include composition and improvisation skills, these
activities are routinely overlooked in general music classrooms (Campbell
& Scott-Kassner, 1995). As a consequence, school music activities and
repertories are not sufficiently engaging for students because their ability to
experiment and problem-solve with sound is severely restricted, although it
should be mentioned here that this tendency may be partly due to the
erroneous belief that composition and improvisation are the only creative
activities in the music classroom (Humphreys, 2006). Popular music is
attractive to people for the very reason that most of the restrictions to
creative involvement are not present: it is, by definition, “their” music.
Popular music offers students substantial freedom to develop creative
musical ideas through composition, improvisation, listening, analysis, and
performance. When students are encouraged to exercise full creative control
over their work, they are encouraged to simultaneously invoke everything
they understand, know, and feel about music. Students at every educational
level have demonstrated the ability to be creative if given the opportunity,
ensuring student-centered, engaging, artifact-producing learning consistent
with best practices in education. In general, creative thinking processes
motivate and improve future learning in a broad range of disciplines
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).

Musical Expression and Popular Music

Musical expression is cited as one of the most critical aspects of musical
sound in a broad spectrum of literature, including perception (Kendall &
Carterette, 1990), philosophy (Scruton, 1980), education (Gordon, 1965),
and psychology (Seashore, 1938). The term is often used synonymously
with “interpretation” in music scholarship. An interpretation is what one
thinks and feels are the most relevant qualities of an object or experience; in
the case of music, it involves decisions as to what are the most salient
attributes of the music from one moment to another. For example, Scruton
(1980) defined musical expression as “those elements of a musical
performance that depend on personal response and which vary between
different interpretations” (p. 327). Thus, to interpret music is to make
decisions about sound, mediated by the resources and challenges at hand,
and to communicate musical ideas to others. Interpretation is essential to
cognition in the arts because it requires exercising, modifying, and refining
these communication skills.
One important reason why popular music is so enticing to performers,
listeners, and creators is that personal expression, that is, interpretation and
communication of ideas, is its foundation because it allows performers to
personally control all the tonal, rhythmic, and literary parameters of the
music. Singers, instrumentalists, and songwriters are considered successful
to the extent they can extend their personalities through their instruments
and music (Rodriguez, 2004)—in other words, to produce reliably
recognizable interpretations.
Self-Identity and Popular Music
We are only beginning to understand the ways and degree to which students
perceive and define themselves in relation to music. The relatively new
literature on this topic ranges from ethnographic narratives (Campbell,
1998) to research-based essays (MacDonald, Hargreaves, & Miell, 2002). It
makes much intuitive sense that musical experience, being highly
individualized, can intensify and reflect one’s sense of self, and that music
can be used to socialize the experience of personal identity. These points are
more likely true in cases of students consuming and producing music of
their own choosing, which is, by definition, music that is popular with those
students. Insofar as different students may like the same kinds of music and
form friendships based on these preferences, music is valuable in the
formation of social identity as well. It has been suggested that individual
and social identity formation and growth need not be contingent on
extended involvement in music, but that living in an abundantly musical
world is sufficient (Mueller, 2002). Identity formation can then comprise
perception of oneself as a musical person, or perception of oneself as a
social being through music (MacDonald, Hargreaves, & Miell, 2002).
Student membership in a guitar ensemble may reveal more social
information about a student than membership in a concert choir; similarly,
membership in a school rock band could say more about a student’s social
characteristics than membership in a concert band or orchestra. The reason
is that popular music ipso facto is individualized music, articulating the
identities of its performers through words, sounds, and gestures. Popular
music provides a rich learning medium for students as they negotiate their
identities in terms of individuality and conformity (Mueller, 2002), perhaps
because the ensembles are smaller, student-led, and do not rely on notation
skills. Frith (2007) believes that young people find musical patterns more
satisfactorily reflective of social realities than do either visual images or
discourse, and concludes that “music just matters more than any other
medium” (p. 205).

POPULAR MUSIC ENSEMBLES

Guitar Ensembles
The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments in the world, so it
is not surprising that guitar-based ensembles are becoming increasingly
widespread in the United States and abroad. These ensembles typically
appear in middle and high schools, since the instrument requires a level of
physical dexterity that usually develops by the later elementary school
years. The first guitar ensembles attempted to support traditional music
program goals such as reading standard notation, playing with a conductor,
and playing in parts. Such skills could be taught with a guitar primer such
as Aaron Shearer’s Classic Guitar Technique, volume 1 (Shearer, 2009), a
carefully sequenced method for learning the notes on all strings in first
position. A more recent trend has students learning to read chord charts and
tablature, a repertory of beginning finger picking patterns and strums, and
first-position guitar chords, all of which greatly helps them “figure out”
songs on their own. This trend is evident in individual and group guitar
books such as Jerry Snyder’s Guitar School, Method Book 1 (Snyder, 1998).
All these basic materials illustrate the question posed earlier regarding the
nature of musicality—whether performing by note or by ear is the purpose
of instruction. Guitar ensembles seem to support both purposes.
The most commonly used instrument in guitar ensembles has been the
“folk classic” guitar, since it possesses features that are amenable to
beginning players, including nylon strings, wide string spacing, low tension,
and wide frets. However, increasingly steel string acoustic guitars and
electric guitars are being used, since these instruments have become more
accessible and are stylistically more suitable for much modern popular
music.
As of January 1, 2008, the Music Educators National Conference
estimated that more than 728 schools in the United States housed guitar
programs. Some programs were highly structured, offering year-long,
multiple-ability-level classes, and utilized specially designed materials. One
such program is at Leon High School in Tallahassee, Florida, led by Ed
Prasse, a program with an enrollment of over 165 students. Another
example is the guitar program at Whitney Young Magnet School in
Chicago, led by Jeffrey Peek, where there are four Guitar 1 classes and one
Guitar 2 class, indicating the incipient status of this program. Next year,
each guitar class will advance to the next level, with four new Guitar 1
classes. A new Guitar 3 class will introduce students to jazz improvisation
and offer opportunities to perform with the school jazz band. Both schools
described above aim their first-level classes at beginners, an attractive
opportunity for the many students who are interested in music-making but
do not choose (or lack the requisite notational skills) to participate in the
band, choir, or orchestra.
Guitar classes in the public schools of Australia have increased
dramatically over the last 20 years, largely due to the increase in degree
programs in popular music in Australia’s universities. Hannan (2000)
reported that 8 of the 37 universities in Australia offered popular music
degree programs by the year 2000, compared to no programs in 1985. Much
of the public school work available for guitar teachers is part-time and in
the form of semiprivate lessons for elementary school students, but these
positions are becoming more numerous and well paid as the guitar increases
in popularity.

Rock Bands
There are at least two different types of rock bands present in public
schools. One type accompanies a choir, vocal ensemble, or show choir,
standing behind the group for purposes of sound balance. The second type
of rock band arises endemically from a classroom situation, in the context
of learning activities involving original compositions produced through
group collaboration.
The first type, the “accompaniment” rock band, is common in schools
that feature other types of popular music ensembles that need
accompaniment. Typically, they are rehearsed by the school’s choral or
instrumental instructor, but occasionally by a parent, other community
member, or paid consultant. These bands consist of guitar, bass, keyboards,
drums, and occasionally brass instruments. These groups typically rehearse
the music from a score that includes notated keyboard and drum parts as
well as chord symbols for the guitarist and bassist. Music publishers
provide accompanying CD recordings with these scores to facilitate the
aural learning of the guitar, bass, and drum parts, much like what they
would be in a real-life rock band scenario. Thus, this type of popular music
ensemble requires both playing from notation and by ear, a point reinforced
by music performance differences between the CD recordings and the
respective scores.
The second type of rock band is found in music courses involving
original, collaborative musical rehearsal and production between students.
They tend to focus on creative activities such as songwriting, improvisation,
and other informal learning practices. These “classroom rock bands” are
typically small and still relatively rare in the United States but have been
common for many years in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden,
Finland, and Australia. Unlike larger popular music ensembles, these
smaller ensembles usually do not perform formal concerts or reproduce
established repertories. Instead, they provide laboratory experiences for
students to learn pieces by ear, copy solo material, compose original songs,
and “jam,” a colloquial term for improvising, generating new material, or
simply performing fluidly in a small group context. These ensembles most
closely recreate the conditions, materials, and procedural aspects of playing
in garage bands outside school, and for that reason are seen as authentic
learning experiences. Researchers who have studied the interpersonal
dynamics in these ensembles have noted high levels of critical thinking,
cooperation, sharing, and motivation for improvement (Green, 2008;
Jaffurs, 2004).
Another example similar to “classroom” rock bands but with a more
active performance profile is the “school rock band,” in which a single
ensemble rehearses and performs for the entire school and community. One
such program is a 13-member rock band at Moreno Valley High School in
Angel Fire, New Mexico, taught by Gary Yamane. The band plays pop and
rock classics at school concerts and is active in the community, as
evidenced by their joint concert with 30 violinists from the Santa Fe Suzuki
Violin School. Yamane allows the participants considerable freedom in
selecting and arranging the music, making the class quite different from
traditional secondary music ensembles.
In Australia, there are numerous initiatives designed to bring popular
music into the public schools in response to increasing demand for it in
primary, middle, and lower secondary levels. One program, entitled “Rock
and Pop for Schools Music Program,” is sponsored by Learning Music
Australia, which has the following goal statement:
 The Rock and Pop for Schools music program educates students about modern music and how it
is performed through various teaching methods that are specific to the modern music industry—
such as use of tablature and “learning by ear/aural development,” whilst also being instructed on
how to use traditional notation and theory as tools to develop as modern music performers.
Aspects of traditional “classroom” music teaching methodology are also used to enhance the
course delivery. Children are also educated in professional vocabulary relevant to the modern
music industry, and are exposed to various aspects of music technology, including songwriting.
(Carlson, 2007)

The program promotes creativity through interpretation and composition,

which is evident in the distinction drawn between “cover” and “original”
bands, both of which are taught in the program. The “Rock and Pop for
Schools Music Program” fulfills requirements set forth by the South
Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework produced
by the Government of South Australia’s Department of Education and
Children’s Services. Teachers receive training and screening, and teach sets
of nine 30-minute lessons to groups of six students. Each class has two
music teachers, one experienced and one in training. The curriculum
consists of learning experiences in singing, guitar, keyboard, and drums.
Institutions of higher education have played a major role in disseminating
principles and practices of informal learning, which are directly associated
with rock or “garage” bands, to public schools in many countries. For
example, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Guildhall School of
Music and Open University in the United Kingdom have greatly influenced
the adoption of popular music study and ensembles in the public schools.
The Institute for Contemporary Music Performance in London’s Kilburn
district provides degree programs in popular music that include courses in
theory, songwriting, arranging, performance, studio lessons, and recording
technology. It produces graduates who are highly functional popular
musicians. The spirit of these influences is captured by Odam’s (2004)
reminder that what can be learned through popular music is more valuable
than what can be learned about it.

Hip-hop Ensembles
Hip-hop is an originally Hispanic and African-American practice of dance,
singing, and dress that has been one of the most widely consumed popular
cultures since the late 1970s. While some of the other popular ensembles
described here are grounded in traditional, that is, western European,
harmony, notation, and instruments, hip-hop is decidedly an oral/aural
genre. In the past it has made use of unusual instruments, such as dual
turntables manipulated by hand, “beatboxing,” or imitating the sound of
percussion instruments with the voice, hands, and body, and “rapping,” the
rapid recitation of rhymed verses incorporating contemporary
colloquialisms. While the term “rap” has previously been used
synonymously with the term “hip-hop,” it is more accurately a technique
that is subsumed by the more encompassing culture of hip-hop. In a concise
condensation of the characteristics of hip-hop culture, Ibrahim (1999)
recounted these as music, clothing, attitudes, language, walking, hairstyles,
and treatment of cultural artifacts, which converge among participants in
“moments of identification” (p. 351).
Hip-hop groups are flexible in number of performers. In most groups,
vocalists are backed by instrumentalists, with individual vocalists taking
turns at center stage while other vocalists may add percussive
accompaniments or chant-like refrains. Lyric content is directed toward the
African-American experience, including issues of social class, sexuality,
violence, and other themes viewed through the lens of urban contexts. Berry
(1990) studied the musical behavior of low-income black adolescents for
two years and concluded that hip-hop culture helped her subjects
understand and cope with their reality. She observed that the success of hip-
hop artists in the popular media was empowering to them, since they
practiced and perfected the same performance techniques as their favorite
artists.
Given this highly evolved and ethnic-specific practice, it is remarkable
that hip-hop has spread among students of all ages and ethnicities
throughout the world, albeit more in form than content. The Academy of
Music and Dance in British Columbia in Canada offers hip-hop classes for
students from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Tanzanian youth have
been jamming to American hip-hop beats for decades, and have created a
unique genre, bongo flava. It dominates the music activity of teenagers and
is an expected feature at school and community functions. Participants use
the genre to express feelings and viewpoints about political oppression,
poverty, HIV, and other social problems. To explain the sudden and
unexpected popularity of hip-hop culture among Danish boys, Torp (1986)
speculated:
 Can the whole-hearted adoption of the Hip Hop dances by so many [boys] in Denmark and other
West European societies be explained by an absence in the traditional repertoires of these
societies of expressive and powerful dances in which it is permissible for the male to show off
physical strength and masculinity? (p. 29)

Torp viewed hip-hop as a liberating phenomenon in Danish culture in

light of music teachers’ reports that boys were suddenly willing to place
themselves in situations of rehearsed music and dance performance in front
of large crowds, in the school and in the community. It appears that hip-hop
has influenced the global community of music-makers, even if the original
contexts and contents of the genre usually do not survive the transition.

CONCLUSION

The previous descriptions of popular music ensembles have included

explanations of how the groups assemble, rehearse, and perform, the
specific roles of the ensembles within the larger curriculum, and the
responsibilities and qualifications of popular music ensemble directors.
These descriptions illustrate that popular music ensembles are an emerging
presence in the United States and especially abroad, and tend to be a more
welcome addition to music education programs in some countries than in
others. Tagg (1998), commenting on Sweden’s educational system, has
speculated that popular music education is more prevalent in countries that
lack strong competing school music traditions, while Väkevä (2006),
writing about Finland, cites a national concern for educational theories that
support using the natural activities and interests of students as instructional
media. He participates in the music education degree program at the
Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, which makes extensive use of popular music
and culture as learning media.
In the United States, Boespflug (1999) suggests that embracing popular
music pedagogy may be as straightforward as acknowledging the
interchangeable roles of consumers, performers, and creators. In response to
a growing need for music in worship, Boespflug developed an
undergraduate degree program at Biola University in La Mirada, California,
that helps students acquire relevant musicianship skills from professional
musicians, including notational skills balanced with a strong aural
component. The Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern
California (USC) has developed a bachelor of music degree in popular
music performance, allowing students to specialize in pop/rock, folk/rock,
and Latin/salsa. The program allows students to concentrate on small
ensemble performance and recording. While the programs at Biola and
USC are intended for students seeking careers as professional musicians,
some efforts are being made at other institutions to better prepare public
school music teachers for popular music teaching and learning. The
University of South Florida has revised its music education curriculum to
include experiences in creative musicianship, performing and composing by
ear, and performing and recording in small ensembles. However, despite
these exemplary programs, the fact remains that American universities
focus almost entirely on western European classical music. This was the
finding of a study in which a single music program accredited by the
National Association of Schools of Music (thus likely representative of
most university programs) was found to include a negligible amount of
study in non-Western and popular music (Wang & Humphreys, 2009). In
this sense, the United States trails many other countries in accepting
popular music as a valid learning medium in music teacher education
programs, even as incipient efforts to include more popular music in the
general undergraduate curriculum appear to be succeeding.
As early as the mid-1970s, Scandinavians realized the importance of
popular music repertories and practices, and included popular music skills
and knowledge as a significant portion of the public school music
curriculum. It appears as though the United States may be slowly warming
up to what much of the rest of the world already knows—that popular
music ensembles provide students with opportunities to develop self-
expression, creativity, and a sense of connection to themselves and their
world that makes public school instruction more meaningful to their lives.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
 1. The National Association of Schools of Music has provided guidelines for degrees in jazz
studies that outline the basic competencies needed for teaching in this area. Given the
emergence of degree programs in popular music, what are the most practical guidelines for such
degree programs?
2. How might we address the challenge of relating popular music more relevantly to other types of
music used in the traditional school curriculum? Are there underlying principles of music
experience that transcend stylistic and cultural differences that may be used as a basis for music
curriculum?
3. What are the implications of popular music ensembles for music teacher education? How might
we accommodate the increasing diversification of the music teaching profession in our
undergraduate methods courses?

KEY SOURCES

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UK: Ashgate Publishing Company.
Rodriguez, C. X. (ed.) (2004). Bridging the gap: Popular music and music education. Reston, VA:
MENC: National Association for Music Education.

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 CHAPTER 22

PATHWAYS TO LEARNING AND

TEACHING INDIGENOUS AND WORLD
MUSIC ENSEMBLES

ROBERT BURKE AND SAM EVANS

This chapter explores ensemble teaching models by using the learning

experiences of the Monash University World Music Orchestra (Australia) as
an example. Both indigenous and world music in an ensemble setting are
discussed and defined. Included in this chapter are definitive processes for
the teaching of both indigenous and world music ensembles, an investigation
of teaching and learning challenges, and solutions for teachers. Learning and
teaching principles and methods that facilitate multiple approaches toward
the acquisition of skills and knowledge are discussed in an ordered teaching
plan. Challenges, strategies, and solutions are central to the analysis, and use
case studies as a guide.
The learning and teaching of indigenous music in an ensemble setting, as
distinct from music that crosses cultural boundaries (world music), requires
different approaches and presents different challenges for both teachers and
students. Indigenous music that has remained relatively untouched by time
or circumstance is a rare commodity; very little music can completely escape
some form of foreign musical influence. Along with food and language,
music, instruments, and songs have always migrated along trade routes
throughout the world; this is especially evident in the music and instruments
moving from the Middle East to India. Multiculturalism is indeed a very old
phenomenon, and thus the idea of a completely pure, untouched indigenous
music can be considered as only relative to music of today.
In an ensemble setting, a respectful approach toward the musical culture is
paramount at all times during the learning and teaching of indigenous music.
Our research in this area suggests that a combination of indigenous
musicians and Western practitioners who are highly trained and skilled in an
indigenous music may provide the highest quality of cultural education for
students. Trained Westerners may act as cultural translators, or “culture
bearers” (Campbell, 2004), and speed the process of understanding a foreign
music. Indigenous musicians may pass on broader aesthetics, meanings, and
cultural underpinnings of the music.
Defining the terms “world music” and “cross-cultural” is essential to
pedagogical process and student comprehension, as it will assist in clarifying
the nature of the music. Cross-cultural music may be defined as music that
has embraced a number of cultures to produce what is now commonly
termed “world music.” Although this term may be problematic due to the
multiplicity of definitions that have been used in the past, “world music” has
become an accepted term in Western musical culture for cross-
cultural/multicultural music. It should be noted that early ethnomusicologists
referred to the traditional music they had studied from non-Western cultures
as “world music.” While there is yet to be an authority on such terms, it may
be argued that traditional or indigenous music has begun to be known by its
country of origin, that is, Indian or Japanese music, and the term “world
music” has begun to represent the cross-cultural music of the world.
In ethnomusicological circles, world music is considered to be an
acculturated art form rather than a hybrid of various musics. The most
obvious example of musical acculturation is jazz, where European concepts
of melody, harmony, and to some extent form have been integrated with
African notions of rhythm as an underlying and vital element of the music to
produce an art form that clearly has its own identity. However, given the
highly diverse and individualistic characteristics of much of the music
created in this age, where the idea of style has become so blurred, applying
the word “style” to any contemporary music is difficult. Indeed, the term
“world music” is a case in point. If the term “world music” is used to
represent the combining or joining of a variety of musical cultures
throughout the world, not just the Western world, it may indeed be a
representative term: the music of the world. The term “world music” is used
in the remainder of this chapter to define cross-cultural and acculturated
music.
Teaching ensembles to perform world music requires a different set of
skills from those required for the teaching of indigenous music. Ideally,
teachers should have knowledge of the origins of each musical tradition as
well as its social and musical place in the culture. For reasons of time or
circumstance, developing in-depth expertise in the performance of each
music, which has diverse musical components, may not be possible. Leading
ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood (1980) notes that “in the course of a
lifetime, the scholar-researcher can hardly be expected to master more than
two or three musical cultures, including closely related ones” (p. iv). What is
important is that teachers are open to the constantly changing nature of
world music and consequently remain in touch with current and potentially
new sounds and ideas.
Perhaps the most important issue in successful teaching and learning in
both indigenous music and world music ensembles is the expertise of the
teaching staff. Teaching indigenous music requires personal involvement and
detailed knowledge of the music, society, and culture. The teaching of world
music demands a broad, but not necessarily detailed, knowledge of the
cultural origins of the various musics. Using imagination to create
possibilities within set instrumentation may also be a factor in the creation of
world music ensembles. These skills are quite different from those required
to teach indigenous music. Briefly, the methodologies applied in music
education when dealing with these two quite distinct types of music are as
follows.
Indigenous music:
• Cultural awareness: a careful, comprehensive study of cultural
protocols.
• Fieldwork: firsthand experience of the culture and roles of music
within that culture. Listening to the music and musicians in the
traditional environment.
• Communication: informal musical conversations and possibly formal
interviews with people from within the culture.
• Music lessons: how to play the instruments or how to apply the
musical systems on the performer’s current instrument from
performers and teachers entrenched in that musical culture.
• Music education: Educators should be conscious of the traditional
ways of teaching information, which may be applied as far as possible
in the “artificial” environment of a teaching institution and may well
contain new and useful techniques.
• Literature: reading relevant literature and consulting current
researchers in the field.

World music:
 • Research: researching the specific history and current musical trends
relating to world music.
• Communication: talking with and learning from experts on relevant
instruments.
• Materials: compiling a substantial collection of recordings, both audio
and visual, as the principal teaching and learning tools in the study of
music based in an aural tradition.
• Language: developing a musical language that can be applied to music
with various components from diverse cultures. The instruments used
in any particular group can drive the development of this language in
terms of melody, harmony, and rhythm and their relevant importance in
the construction of a piece of music.
• Listening: research within the genre to find world music pieces that are
appropriate and manageable within the teaching and learning
environment, as well as an openness to finding a balance between the
original music and a musical outcome that ensembles are capable of
producing successfully.
• Identifying individual musical elements: the above research should
enable teachers to identify a limited number of musical systems
specific to that culture that may be applied within the pieces to be
performed. This will allow the ensemble to change parts of the music
to suit the ensembles’ needs, while maintaining the key elements
within the original music.

LEARNING AND TEACHING APPROACHES TO INDIGENOUS AND WORLD

MUSIC ENSEMBLES

The principles and approaches of teaching indigenous and world music

ensembles may be an amalgam of current methodologies in music education
and generally accepted teaching processes. These may be adapted
specifically to the practical study of performance in indigenous and world
music ensembles.
The fundamental element of this approach will be the aural
comprehension of materials and structures of the music played, supported by
ongoing research and discussion. The evidence supporting this approach will
be based on recorded (and filmed) documentation of performance
workshops, including teacher and student forums in ongoing research and
performance evaluations.
Bloom’s taxonomy is a classification of learning objectives that has been
widely applied in music education (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). This
model can assist in articulating the structured teaching and learning
processes applied to indigenous and world music ensemble education (see
fig. 22.1).

Figure 22.1 Bloom’s taxonomy adapted to the teaching and learning processes of an indigenous
or world music ensemble.

Level 1: Research—Listening
The creation of a positive learning environment is paramount if students are
to comprehend given information. As students are required to absorb a large
amount of differing musics from around the world, developing a listening
list is integral to the students’ understanding and aesthetic choice in the
relevant music. Included below is a list of recordings, including indigenous
and world music examples. Students should collate their own listening lists
as part their study programs for this subject/ensemble. Students will most
probably source recent recordings and styles, which should be encouraged
because it indicates their initial motivation and is relevant to the style of
music they want to play.
Researching traditional musics entails the student discovering
compositions or performances that are appropriate for the ensemble at
different levels. The student needs to be able to differentiate between and
evaluate the different musical genres within the tradition to find an
appropriate piece of music. For example, if the ensemble is performing
Indian music, are they seeking to perform a piece of Bollywood music, a
devotional bhajan,1 or a piece of Indian classical music? Each of these
genres will have different instrumentations, musical emphasis, structures,
lengths, and levels of improvisation. In general, traditional music that
involves large amounts of improvisation within a particular style, such as
Indian classical music, will prove difficult to arrange for an ensemble whose
members have little understanding of the genre. It is important for the
researcher to understand something of the nature of the music, and to ask
such questions as:

• Is the music religiously sensitive, wedding, or funeral music?

• Have issues such as language, pronunciation, and translation been
considered?
• How appropriate is the instrumentation for the given ensemble?

Level 2: Analysis
The analytic process can take on many systematic approaches. There should
be a study of the content of the composition that includes such issues as:

• Historical events that affected the musical culture

• Rhythmic Organization
• Possible history of the construction of the modes/scales
• Historical background to the harmonic structure
• Form/structure

This analytical process should assist learners in understanding the stylistic

interpretation, structure of the composition, and research/performance
outcomes. Applicable performance/research questions can then be asked
about:
 • Geographical locations of the music
• Musical traditions
• Identifiable cultural groups
• Social meaning
• Authenticity
• Cultural integrity

These topics can then be researched by organizing a relevant reading list.

Level 3: Adaptation
The creation of a world music ensemble that may function as a performing
group with set goals and realistic musical outcomes requires a willingness on
the part of the teacher and performers to adapt the music to be played to the
given ensembles’ instrumentation, skills, and abilities. These goals and
outcomes may be approached with the alteration of: (1) the ensembles’
instrumentation; (2) the composition.
These alterations can be applied to an ensemble attempting to perform
music that is beyond the technical facility of the members, which can create
complications and frustrations for the teacher and students. While
challenging performers’ skills is an integral component of ensemble
participation, the compositions to be learned and performed should be within
the ensembles’ abilities; it is the task of the ensemble leader to appropriately
assess these limitations. It is worth noting that ensemble leaders are required
to balance a variety of musical and cultural considerations in presenting a
world music ensemble, something Marcus describes as “the often delicate
task of balancing communal sensibilities, entertainment and education”
(2001, p. 211).
For the successful adaptation of a piece of music, whether it is traditional
or not, participants of the ensemble must take on musical roles. For example,
if the ensemble is playing a Brazilian samba, the performers will need to
replicate the sudo2 pattern. This pattern, which is a fundamental element of
the music, could be played on the kick drum of the drum-kit. Melodies can
be adapted for instrumental or voice parts. The saxophone is well known for
its flexibility of sound and can play melodies (lead lines) or counter lines
imitating the voice. Other members of the ensemble can play percussion
instruments that follow the different rhythmic patterns of the samba style of
music, including the all-important clave pattern.
 With this in mind, an ensemble attempting to perform music that relies
heavily on musical features that cannot be represented in the given
instrumentation may also face difficulties. Compositions with a musical
focus on the use of quartertones are especially difficult to reproduce in an
ensemble with instruments of fixed intonation such as piano and saxophone.
One suggestion is for the main melody to be played by instruments that can
produce quartertones, such as vocalists and guitars. Ensemble leaders should
be aware that the use of quartertones in an ensemble that includes harmonic
instruments requires special consideration because of the tempered tuning of
many instruments.
Compositions that may at first be appealing to the researcher or student
need to be assessed according to the ensembles’ limitations. For example, to
reproduce a performance/composition that includes a professional Indian or
Egyptian singer and simple arrangement/accompaniment may not be as
successful without the singer. A composition with a complicated Indian tabla
rhythmic feel may not be effective if performed without the aesthetic nuance
of the tabla. For a performance to remain ‘successful’ without the original
performers and instrumentation, the fundamental components of the
composition should be maintained. With this in mind, the selection of
appropriate music for the orchestration of the ensemble is a key element for
preparing a world music ensemble.
Once a composition is chosen, the transcriber will usually need to find a
balance between what is played in the original recording, what is
manageable for the ensemble, and what is possible to write in Western
notation. Our experience in teaching world music, particularly microtonal
Eastern music such as Indian music, has shown that a certain level of
openness and creativity toward the music is required to achieve an effective
performance outcome. The use of gamaka and meend (sliding between
notes), a technique used in almost every phrase in Indian music, is very
difficult to reproduce effectively in medium and large ensembles without
compromise. The lengthy improvisations within raga3 forms may be
shortened into a notated section for a particular player to learn. This will
provide the student with deeper insights into the character of the
improvisation and allow the music to be performed. Solo sections, forms,
beginnings, and endings are all areas of the original piece that may be
approached creatively by the ensemble.
Level 4: Rehearsal
The rehearsal procedure consists of several important components:

• Adaptation of historical and cultural information

• Understanding technical information
• Nomenclature
• Organization of the arrangement
• Performance practice: “jamming” and analysis of rehearsal
• Sectional rehearsal

Inviting experts on particular instruments and styles to rehearsals and

performances can offer many benefits to the learning process. These experts
can be invited to talk about the historical content of the styles as well as to
perform with the ensemble. The classes can be part of the rehearsal process
and, furthermore, can take the form of a seminar, where students can stop the
rehearsal process and “discuss and ‘learn about’ the music” (B. Harris,
quoted in Berliner, 1994, p. 38). Berliner adds, “in addition to exchanging
knowledge among peers, many artists also develop apprenticeships with
veterans” (p. 39).
The nomenclature should be organized so that the ensemble understands
the musical language used and so that it is standard practice within the
ensemble. There are two possible methods of learning the selected
repertoire: (1) aurally; (2) notated.
Both these learning processes provide benefits. As the ensemble is part of
a musical learning process, students not fluent in reading music notation
would be advised to work on the notated format, while the student who
mostly reads music should be advised to learn the compositions aurally.
Ultimately, it is beneficial for the musicians to perform the music without
sheet music or scores.
An essential component of musical development, for students and
professionals, is assessment by analysis of the rehearsal or performance
through reflective practice. Relevant questions can then be asked about how
the performance can be improved. Reflective practice results in high-
achieving and effective rehearsals. It may be necessary for the teacher to
provide students with knowledgeable, valid, constructive feedback that is in
accordance with their development, whether it be musical, technical, or
related to their learning skills. A flexible teaching and learning approach
may be employed with such questions as:

• How did it sound?

• Was it true to the indigenous music or was it an original idea
influenced by other musical cultures?
• Which elements of the performance could be improved, and how?
• If the quality of performance was of a high standard, what techniques
need to be employed to attain this standard on a regular basis?

Level 5: Performance
One of the greatest difficulties in the creation of a world music ensemble is
organizing students to perform unfamiliar music. Recreating music of a
familiar musical culture, such as a jazz or rock ensemble, is benefited by the
fact that most students are familiar with the sounds, moods, and musical
norms of the style. This musical comprehension is a result of years of
listening and performing regularly in a particular style. Often the technical
skills and stylistic understanding of the music are attained subconsciously. In
an educational setting it is not possible to devote years of study to these
important issues, but there are ways of increasing the rate of learning. As
mentioned previously, listening and transcription tasks have proven to be
effective learning tools in this area, but perhaps the most effective method is
to employ a performer of traditional music to rehearse and educate the
ensemble for some time. Employing a musician who has specialized skills
within a tradition can enhance the ensemble members’ awareness of the
broader aspects of the music to be performed, as well as create the
appropriate mood and feel of the music, which may not be conveyed through
written scores. This aspect often eludes musicians who are unfamiliar with
the style, but it is an important element in creating a convincing performance
of the music.
Sectional rehearsals are important to the success of an indigenous/world
music ensemble. Weekly sectional rehearsals may be used to practice parts
in isolation to:

• Clarify
• Refine
• Organize the specific section
 The sectional rehearsal may also be a format for discussing and creating
ideas for possible arrangement changes. These sectionals may be split into
groups such as:

• Vocals
• Horns—melodic instruments
• Rhythm section
• Percussion—(if a large percussion section is used)

Case Study 1: The Role of the Indigenous Performer

In 2008 Monash University invited Indian classical guitarist Pandit Debasis
Chakroborty, an All India Radio and Television A Grade Artist, to be an
artist-in-residence for three weeks. This gave the students a firsthand
experience of someone highly skilled in traditional Indian music, which
resulted in a greater understanding and overall comprehension of North
Indian music than was possible through music examples (see fig. 22.2).
The ensemble initially researched the history and current musical
practices of North Indian music, with a focus on Hindustani classical music.4
The main areas of study were:

• Stylistic traits and musical norms

• Compositional forms and instrumental roles
• Indian socio-musical culture
• Current performers, including musical examples

Through the research, students learned that the composition they would
perform is traditionally an early morning raga that is now commonly
performed as a concluding item of an Indian classical music concert. As a
concluding item, raga bhairavi is often played in a folk or “light classical”
style. The shorter structures, restricted improvisation, and ostinato-based
percussion parts of the “light classical” style made the adaptation of
compositions to a large ensemble easier than the “classical music” structures
used in North Indian music. Students also learned that while raga bhairavi
may be used to express a wide range of emotions, the dominant emotion is
that of separation from a loved one. The notes of the raga are as follows:
tonic, minor second (major second may also be used), minor third, perfect
forth, perfect fifth, minor sixth, minor seventh. These notes are referred to as
sa, re (komal, “flat,” or shuddha, “natural”), ga (komal), ma, pa, dha
(komal), and ni (komal) in the Indian system of sargam.5 The composition
was set to a common tala6 of North Indian music, tintal. Tintal is cycle of 16
matras7 that is subdivided into four vibhags,8 each four beats in duration: 4
+ 4 + 4 + 4.

Figure 22.2 Bhairavi. Composition title: “Bhairavi.” Style: raga. Performer: Monash University
World Music Orchestra.

The orchestration used for this piece was as follows:

 • 5 female vocals
• Drum kit (standard)
• Tabla
• 3 x percussion
• 2 x guitar
• Piano
• Bass guitar
• Flute
• Violin
• Tenor saxophone

In organizing the music for the ensemble to perform, the students began
by establishing the three main elements of North Indian music: raga, tala,
and drone. (Modal music of North India relies heavily on the drone supplied
by the tambura.) To create the drone (using the tonic and the fifth), the role
of the tambura was shared among the musicians at different times during the
composition. The vocalists sang a drone at the beginning of the piece. At the
conclusion of the piece, the entire ensemble sang the drone.

THE REHEARSAL PROCESS

The first exercise was for all students to learn the melody. This was followed
by improvisation exercises where students improvised over the mode in 16–
beat sections while attempting to emulate the specific phrasing of the raga.
This helped students understand the form, feel, and melodic phrasing of the
composition.
The next main element was to establish the tala within the composition.
To achieve this element it was necessary for the entire ensemble to
understand the structure, accents, and overall feel of the rhythmic cycle,
including the percussionists playing their parts in accordance with the tabla
part.
The rhythmic devices of sam9 and khali10 were created in the percussion
parts and explained to the group as accented and non-accented beats within
the rhythmic cycle. In a traditional setting there is a strong improvisation
component in the tabla part. This type of improvisation is performed within
a set of complicated structural rules and stylistic confines. With the given
time constraints, it was not possible for the percussionists to learn this type
of improvisation, so a short section of improvisation on the tala was
arranged. This written form of the tala included idiosyncratic phrases and
feels used by tabla players, including gamak11 in the bass notes, cyclical
rhythmic phrasing such as the tihai,12 treble notes only during the khali
(unaccented) section of the cycle, as well as notes and phrases that
insinuated the light classical tala, referred to as kehava tala,13 to add a
“groove” to the composition.
The main melody of the composition required as much adaptation as the
rhythmic part. While meend and gamak (sliding between notes, glissandos,
and ornamentation) are an integral element of Indian music, it proved
difficult to have the entire ensemble perform this element in unison without
the music sounding out of tune. The ensemble decided to omit this element
except when the musicians were playing solo in the composition. Indian
music does not use chordal (diatonic) harmony, so the chordal instruments in
the ensemble took on different roles in the modal sense. The singers and
wind parts were sung or played in unison. Where possible, the melodic
phrases were performed by different instruments to add variety and color to
the aesthetic.
As per the tradition, singers used solfége vowels of North Indian music
known as sargam. The notes of the scale in order were: sa, re, ga, ma, pa,
dha, ni. This had the advantage of avoiding linguistic and pronunciation
issues while assisting in learning the melody. As part of the research process,
the students discovered that percussionists are the bass players in North
Indian music, and in a traditional setting of this composition the bass part is
played by the tabla player. With this in mind the ensemble experimented
with having the bass guitar play a bass melody, but found it drew a strong
sense of harmony to the music that tended to create a feeling of a one-chord
song rather than a modal composition. Figure 22.3 shows that the basic
structure of the form was an area that the ensemble creatively rearranged.
The basic outline of the form included:

• Introduction
• Main melody of two sections
• Melodic solos
• Percussion solos
 Using the Indian tabla vocalizations, the ensemble was given the freedom
to change the structure and form of the music to suit their own creative
needs.
Chakroborty taught the students traditional Indian compositions that
focused on an invaluable level of detail and subtlety. The performance
outcome included:

• Chakroborty performing a variety of pieces with the World Music

Orchestra, orchestrated to suit the musical makeup of the ensemble
• Compositions played with a smaller selection of students in a
traditional musical environment (indigenous)
• Chakroborty performing contemporary world music compositions that
were part of the repertoire of the world music orchestra - compositions
that had been learned before his arrival

This combination of workshop, rehearsal, and performance with a skilled

artist of a traditional music proved to be very successful as an education tool
as well as enjoyable for the students. It brought the music of another culture
to life and into the students’ reality.
 Figure 22.3 Tsarka. Composition title: “Tsarka.” Composer: Rabih Abou-Khalil; arr. Sam
Evans.

Case Study 2: World Music

Arabic oud players Anouar Brahem and Rabih Abou-Khalil have written
world music with strong melodic content that may be well suited to the types
of instrumentation found in music departments. As part of the curriculum at
Monash University, students were required to select and transcribe a piece of
music from a list of composers that included Brahem and Khalil.
Following the transcription process was the task of arranging the music
for the given ensemble. The arrangement was approached with two main
strategies in mind:

• A full arrangement of the composition scored for the ensemble

• The composition written out in the form of a lead sheet

The use of lead sheet allows the ensemble the flexibility to create a
suitable arrangement of the composition through trial and error during
rehearsals. This method enhances students’ listening skills and their ability
to perceive musical form, and allows for a level of musical creativity within
the piece.
World music played by a non-traditional ensemble may act as a bridge for
musicians and audience members to learn about the tradition from which the
music originated by presenting traditional musical elements in a familial
musical format. In doing so, non-traditional ensembles may actively assist in
the growth of a traditional music.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL EDUCATION

As globalization continues, the world grows increasingly smaller. If current

environmental predictions prove to be correct, developed countries will
almost certainly experience an influx in the number of immigrants over the
next century, creating an increasingly multicultural society. Any change
within our society brings with it opportunities and obligations; it may be that
the sector of cultural awareness and cultural education will soon play a role
of greater importance within music education. Bennett (1986) suggests that
“multicultural competence may soon become one of the basic skills that
schools are required to teach” (p. xv). Music is, of course, one of the most
accessible areas of cultural education, so Bennett’s predication may well be
realized. Music ensemble leaders may become “culture bearers” (Campbell,
2004): people living within the community who are passing on music-
cultural traditions.

APPROACHES AND CONTEXTS

The approach described in this chapter could be easily adapted for both
primary and secondary levels of music education, with modification of the
relevant level of skill (practical and aural) required of participants, and of the
expected depth of understanding of sociological and cultural issues.
Importantly, it would require teachers not only with the passion to participate
in these areas of music but who possess reasonable skills in, and
appreciation for, the art of musical improvisation (or at least musical
performance without printed notation), which is at the heart of many
indigenous and cross-cultural musics.

SUMMARY OF KEY PRINCIPLES AND APPROACHES

Successful performance of indigenous music requires:

• Understanding of, and respect for, the culture and music being taught
• Willingness to undertake fieldwork
• Willingness to talk to those who have researched the music and culture
• Willingness to have direct and personal contact with indigenous
musicians and members of indigenous communities
• A teaching team with musical performance skills
• Indigenous musicians, or skilled performers of indigenous music, on
the teaching team where possible
• A library of recorded and filmed indigenous music

Successful performance of world music requires:

 • An understanding of the terminology applied to world music (cross-
cultural music)
• An understanding the key elements of the musical cultures
• A willingness to undertake fieldwork
• A willingness to talk with those who have researched the music and
culture
• A teaching team with musical performance skills
• Indigenous musicians, or skilled performers of indigenous music, on
the teaching team where possible
• A library of recorded indigenous and world music
• A creative and flexible approach to forming ensembles
• A creative and flexible approach to the adaptation and arrangement of
music for a performance outcome
• Experimentation of cultural music and instruments

Benefits and Implications

Benefits of a music program that embraces these two areas of music include:

• The development and broadening of aural comprehension through the

introduction of new sounds/instruments
• The development of new ideas in composition and musical language
• An appreciation of the music, society, and culture of indigenous
peoples
• Placing one’s own common musical languages and idioms in the
context of other musics in the world

Thoughts for Readers

• Hopefully, readers will be inspired to investigate musics, societies, and

cultures other than their own; one of the consequences might be that
they gain new perspectives on how music meets the needs of a society,
along with a greater appreciation of musics less familiar to them.
• Readers may become aware of and seek out musical activities that
embrace indigenous and world music within their own environment
where they can either observe or become actively involved.
• Indigenous and world music embrace other art forms that may inspire
insight into other performing arts and their connection with music.
 REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. How does the creation of a world music ensemble that adapts musical content from indigenous
traditions assist or inhibit the growth of the indigenous music in our society?
2. Does the creation of world music ensembles act as a bridge to traditional cultures or do they
serve to damage indigenous music?
3. What proportion of your own culture is influenced by another culture, and how does that
compare with the music that you listen to?
4. What is cultural purity? Are there any cultures in the world that do not change and adapt to
survive?
5. When analyzing composition and performances of both indigenous and world musics can you
identify cultural influences?

KEY SOURCES

Abou-Khalil, Rabih. (1992). Blue Camel. Enja Records.

Brahem, Anouar. (2000). Astrakan café. ECM 1718.
Campbell, P. S. (1991). Lessons from the world: A cross-cultural guide to music teaching and
learning. New York: Schirmer Books.
Reimer, B. (ed.) (2002). World musics and music education: Facing the issues. Reston, VA: MENC:
National Association for Music Education.
Solis, T. (ed.) (2004). Performing ethnomusicology: Teaching and representation in world music
ensembles. Berkeley: University of California Press.
 NOTES

1. Bhajan is a type of devotional music of North India.

2. Sudo is a large drum used in Brazilian music.
3. Raga is the melodic aspect of Hindustani music.
4. Hindustani music is the classical, or art music, of North India.
5. Sargam are solfége names in Indian music that refer to the notes within an octave.
6. Tala is a metric cycle that is characterized by a series of notes on the tabla drums and a series of
subdivisions known as vibhags. Tala may also be referred to as tal.
7. Matra refers to individual beats in Indian music.
8. Vibhag is a subdivision, or a subsection, of a tala.
9. Sam is the first beat of any cycle in Indian music; this beat also acts as the final beat, sometimes
spelled sum.
10. Khali is the unaccented section of a rhythmic cycle in Indian music.
11. Gamak generally refers to ornamentation; in the tabla part it may refer to the glissando of the
lower pitched drum, known as the bayan.
12. Tihai is a cyclical rhythmic phrase that is repeated three times and calculated to finish on the sam,
the first beat of the cycle.
13. Kehava tala is an eight-beat rhythmic cycle used in North Indian music.

REFERENCES

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. (eds.) (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A
revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
Bennett, C. I. (1986). Comprehensive multicultural education: Theory and practice. Needham
Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Berliner, P. F. (1994). Thinking in jazz: The infinite art of improvisation. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Campbell, P. S. (2004). Teaching music globally: Experiencing music, expressing culture. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Hood, M. (1980). Foreword. In E. May (ed.), Musics of many cultures: An Introduction (pp. ix–x).
Berkeley: University of California Press.
 INDEX

A
accompaniment rock bands, 340
acculturation/enculturation
instrumental music, 108, 109
See also indigenous and world music
achievement, 255
acoustics
hearing one’s own voice, 38–39
room, 35–36
in vocal pedagogy, 3
in vocal tract configuration, 12–16
actuator (energy supply), 11
Adolescent Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Scale (AMPAS), 196, 198–199
adolescent singing voices, 52–57
adult soloists, 10–30
affect, communicative, 237
aging
acceptance of, 66
impact on capacity to sing, 61–64
New Horizons ensembles, 306–308
older singers, 60–75
psychological aspects of, 64–67
AMPAS (Adolescent Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Scale), 196, 198–199
amplifiers, 26–27
anatomy
bodily conditions weakening with age, 60–64
See also physiology
anemia, 64
anxiety, musical performance, 186–189
Adolescent Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Scale (AMPAS), 196, 198–199
strategies for coping with, 188–189, 193–195
appoggio, 12–13
apprenticeship, 149–151, 155
arthritis, 64
articulation
idealized positions of tongue and jaw for, 14
for singers, 14–15
Assessment Model (proposed), 327–330
auditions, 23–24
auditory-oral musical intelligence, 18
Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO), 322–323, 323–326, 330–331
authority, musical, 324
autocratic conductor model, 284
automaticity, 110–111
autonomy
for psychological fulfillment, 65
skill acquisition, 17
See also independent learning

B
bands and orchestras
generally, 272–276
Brazilian community bands, 309–310
conductors. See conductors
indigenous and world music ensembles, 347–363
leadership, 276
North American school ensembles, 266, 267
rock bands, 340–342
Samba bands, 304–306
youth orchestras, 317–334
See also ensembles
behavior
behavioral anxiety symptoms, 187
music as a set of human practices or behaviors, 255
musician, 165
“belly-in” and “belly-out,” 12
belt voice, 23, 24
biomechanics, 3
Bloom’s taxonomy, 350, 351
bodily conditions, 60–64
body alignment
optimizing, 236
for singers, 12–13
for vocal health, 83, 84
for young singers, 48, 49, 55
body function. See physiology and body function
body movement
communication with, 237
embodying musical expression, 228–229
in learning and performing music, 226–239
optimizing, 236
structural/expressive clarity with, 237
teaching expression through, 229–230
vignettes, 232–235
See also dance and choreography; sensorimotor skills
brain development and function
cerebrovascular disease, 64
instrumental music, 103, 110, 112
memory. See memory
metacognitive skills. See metacognitive skills
and musical expertise development, 109
 neurological dysfunction, 64
vocal pedagogy, neuromuscular evidence in, 3
Brazilian community bands, 309–310
breath management
in singers, 12–13
in young singers, 48–49, 55

C
cancer, 64
casting, 23–24
casual learning. See informal playing and learning
CCM (contemporary commercial music), 26, 51, 52
CDs (compact discs), 26–27
cerebrovascular disease, 64
chamber music, vocal, 25–26
chest voice, 47, 51, 53, 54, 56
child singing voices, 44–52
choirs. See vocal and choral music
choreography. See dance and choreography
chorus effect, 39–40
city school districts, 257–259
classification
Bloom’s taxonomy, 350, 351
German Fach System method of vocal classification, 20–23
solo voice pedagogy, 16, 23–24
vocal registers, 4–9, 17
classroom learning, 165–183
classroom rock bands, 340–341
class system, 251
cognitive anxiety symptoms, 187
cognitive rehearsals, 132
cognitive skills. See metacognitive skills
collective musicianship, 174
college vocal groups, 269–270
commercial music, 26–28
communal music-making, 302
communication
with body, 237
musical meaning constructs, 255
communications technology, 152–154
See also technology
communicative affect, 237
communities of practice, 154–155
community fundraising, 266
community music ensembles
generally, 301–316
Australian ensembles, 310–311
Brazilian community bands, 309–310
carnival street drumming, 305
 Community Music Activity (CMA) commission of International Society for Music Education
(ISME), 304
cultural perspectives, 302
Dandenong Ranges Music Council (DRMC), 310–311
definitions, 302, 303
formal, 303
informal, 303
as intervention between leaders and participants, 302, 303
New Horizons ensembles, 306–308
Samba bands, 304–306
theoretical framework, 302–304
Yui Japanese Drumming Club, 310
compact discs (CDs), 26–27
compensation, 278
competence, musical, 324
computer technology. See technology
concentration: strategies for, 130–131
concerts. See performances
conductor-educators, 288–291
conductors
generally, 283–300
autocratic model, 284
classic image of, 283, 284
conductor-educators, 288–291
goal-oriented, structured and effortful practice, 294
learning without, 296
military, 284
modern guidelines for, 286–288
outstanding band and choir performances, consistently, 291
part recordings, 294
problem-solving, 284, 297
reframing traditional roles, 291–297
rehearsal and practice cycle, 289
rehearsal plans and techniques, 287, 289–291, 293–297
repertoire choice, 291, 292
school, 284–286
spiritual, 284
and student musical independence, 292–295
technique and gesture, 287
consonants: intelligibility of, 14–15
constructivist approaches, 113
contemporary commercial music (CCM), 26, 51, 52, 56–57
content learning, 210
contextual learning, 170
coping strategies, 188–189, 193–195
copyright compliance, 260–261
creative thinking, 337
cricothyroid (CT) muscle, 14, 15, 16
cricothyroid (CT) muscle activity (head voice), 47–48, 51, 54, 56–57
critical musicality, 336
critical thinking
autonomous skill acquisition, 17
motivation research for, 156–158
popular music ensembles, 336
See also metacognitive skills
cross-cultural music
definitions, 348
See also indigenous and world music; international contexts
CT (cricothyroid) muscle, 14, 15, 16
CT (cricothyroid) muscle activity (head voice), 47–48, 51, 54, 56–57
cultural education
community music ensembles, 302
impact on one-to-one instrumental pedagogy, 152
importance of, 360
See also acculturation/enculturation; cross-cultural music; indigenous and world music
cyberspace settings, 210–212
See also Internet

D
dance and choreography
music theater training, 23–24
singers’ talents in, 26, 41
structural/expressive clarity, 237
See also body movement
Dandenong Ranges Music Council (DRMC), 310–311
deliberate practice, 126–130
democracy in education
ensembles, 257–259
instrumental music, 220–221, 257–259
learning opportunities, 117
technology influences, 152–154, 220–221
development. See identity, development, and engagement
diabetes, 64
diction. See articulation
diet impairments, 64
digital age issues
digitally based musical instrument learning, 212
for music ensembles, 209–225
for popular music ensembles, 335
See also technology
digital sound reinforcement, 26–27
drumming
Samba bands, 304–306
Yui Japanese Drumming Club, 310

E
ears. See hearing, sense of
EEO (equal educational opportunity), 257–259
effort, 251
elderly
 New Horizons ensembles, 306–308
older singers, 60–75
emotion and emotional development
musical performance anxiety (MPA), 186–189
sonic materials presenting, 254
See also psychology and psychological demands
employment opportunities, 116
enculturation. See acculturation/enculturation; indigenous and world music
energy supply (actuator), 11
engagement. See identity, development, and engagement
ensembles
generally, 241–363
bands and orchestras, 272–276
Brazilian community bands, 309–310
choirs. See vocal and choral music
community music ensembles, 301–316
conductors, 283–300
global and digital age issues, 209–225
guitar, 339–340
hip-hop, 342–343
indigenous and world music ensembles, 347–363
jazz ensembles, 276–278
liability issues, 260–261
meaning and, 254–256
New Horizons ensembles, 306–308
North American school ensembles, 265–282
orchestras. See bands and orchestras
policy issues, 260–261
popular music ensembles, 335–346
prison ensembles, 308–309
prospects, 278–279
singing. See vocal and choral music
social dimensions of, 285
sociology and policy of, 248–264
types of, 266–267
U.S. model, 278
world music. See indigenous and world music
youth orchestras, 317–334
Yui Japanese Drumming Club, 310
equal educational opportunity (EEO), 257–259
errors: correcting, 173
ethnic identities. See indigenous and world music
evaluation
Assessment Model (proposed), 327–330
self-evaluation, 173–174
strategies for instrumental music, 134–135
experimentation, 176, 177
experts
characterization of expert musicianship, 171
development of expertise, 108–125
 indigenous and world music experts, 354, 355
mentoring by, 156, 158
modeling by, 174–175
at rehearsals and performances, 355
expression
musical, 228–229, 337–338
teaching, through movement, 229–230
expressive clarity, 237
expressive grammars, 230–232
external aural references, 135

F
facilitators. See experts
feedback
constructive, 354
instrumental music, 153, 168
real-time, 41, 153
for singers, 19
Feldenkrais methodology, 90
"fight or flight" reflex, 187–188
folk classic guitar, 339
formant cluster, 15
formations, 35–39
fusion, 153

G
garage bands, 341–342
gastrointestinal disorders, 64
gender differences, 114
gender policy, 249, 250–251
genres
in indigenous and world music, 351
singers, 19–28
German Fach System method of vocal classification, 20–23
gestures
conductors, 287
See also body movement
globalization
instrumental music issues, 209–225
See also international contexts
goal-oriented practice, 294
goals and aims, 116–119, 126, 157, 158
grammars, expressive, 230–232
group methods, 271
groups. See ensembles
guitar ensembles, 339–340

H
habit, 255
habit formation, 172
harmony, 18
head voice, 47–48, 51, 54, 56–57
health and well-being
singing for, 67–68
suggestions for health maintenance, 195
health promotion, 192–193, 195
hearing: sense of
auditory-oral intelligence, 18
auditory safety, 92
See also brain development and function
hearing loss, 63
hip-hop ensembles, 342–343
historical perspectives
antecedents of North American school ensembles, 267
bands and orchestras, 273–276
holistic learning
instrumental music, 133, 150
older singers, 66
home practice, 294
hormones and hormone therapies, 63
hypertension, 64
hyperthyroidism, 63
hypothyroidism, 63

I
identity, development, and engagement
musical expertise development, 108–125
music student identity, 249–253
music teacher identity, 253–254
self-identity, 338–339
See also brain development and function
imaginary rehearsals, 132
imitation, 26
implicit knowledge and learning, 108
improvisation
ensembles, 253
instrumental music, 102
income stratification, 251
incontinence, 64
independent learning
instrumental music, 117–119, 157, 158
student musical independence, 292–295
See also critical thinking
indigenous and world music
adaptation for ensembles, 352–353
analytic process, 351–352
definitions, 348, 349–350
ensembles
generally, 347–363
adaptation of music for, 352–353
 approaches and contexts, 360–361
Bloom’s taxonomy adapted to teaching and learning processes of, 351
case studies, 355–357, 358–360
importance of, 360
inviting experts to rehearsals and performances, 354, 355
learning and teaching approaches for, 350–357
methodologies for, 350–357
performances, 354–355
rehearsals, 353–354, 357–360
genres, 351
improvisation in, 351
listening lists, 350, 351
nomenclature, 354
notation, 354
research, 350–351
structured teaching and learning processes applied to, 351
transcription, 353, 355
See also cross-cultural music; international contexts
individually tailored approaches, 18
individual tuition-based learning
benefits of, 146–149
concepts of, 149–151
difficulties of, 147
instrumental music, 145–164
strengths of, 146–147
informal playing and learning
community music ensembles, 303, 311
instrumental music, 210–212
nonformal cyberspace settings, 210–212
information processing, 109
injuries, playing-related, 134, 184–208, 260–261
innate talent, 251
institutional youth orchestras, 317, 318, 321
instrumental music
generally, 101–239
advantages and disadvantages of different learning contexts, 106
anxiety manifestations, 187
applied knowledge, 108
apprenticeship, 149–151, 155
asynchronous and synchronous communication, 213
attrition in, 166, 167
automaticity, 110–111
behaving like musicians, 165
bodily movement in learning and performing, 226–239
building musicianship in classrooms, 165–183
classroom learning, 165–183
cognitive or imaginary rehearsals, 132
collective musicianship, 174
communities of practice, 154–155
concentration, 131
conceptual change, 112–113
constructivist approaches, 113
cultural change impact on, 152
cyberspace settings, 210–212
deliberate practice, 126–130
development of musical expertise, 108–125
digital age issues, 209–225
effective practice, 135–136
employment opportunities, 116
enculturation process, 108, 109
enjoyment vs effort, 129
ensembles. See also bands and orchestras
equal educational opportunity (EEO), 257–259
global and digital age issues, 209–225
new kinds, 216–220
error detection and correction, 135, 173
evaluation strategies, 134–135
expanding conceptions of musicianship, 220–221
experimenting with sounds, 176, 177
expertise development, 108–125
expert musicianship, 171
expressive grammars, 230–232
external aural references, 135
feedback, 168
fundamentals of playing and performance, 171–172
gender differences in instrument preference, 114
global and digital age issues, 209–225
goals and aims, 116–119, 126, 157, 158
habit formation, 172
implicit knowledge, 108
improvisation, 102
information processing, 109, 110
injuries from playing, 184–208
instrument choice, 190
interpretative position, 113
learning, 108–125, 157, 158, 210
advantages and disadvantages of different contexts, 105
contextualized application of fundamentals for, 170
global and digital age issues, 209–225
individual tuition-based, 145–164
movement in, 226–239
sequencing experiences for, 176–181
learning to learn, 103, 112
mastery goals, 157, 158
mastery of fundamental skills, 170–171, 172
mental practice, 127, 131, 133
mentoring, 156, 158
metacognitive skills, 103, 112
modeling, 174–175
motivation for, 103–104
motivation research, 156–158
movement in learning and performing, 226–239
musical performance anxiety (MPA), 186–189
new kinds, 216–220
new understandings of musicianship, 220–221
nonformal cyberspace settings, 210–212
notation, 102
occupational hazards, 184–208
partitioning of music, 133
pedagogy, 104–106, 210–216
performance, 185
fundamentals of, 171–172
movement in, 226–239
performance anxiety, 186–189
performance goals, 157, 158
phases of engagement in acquisition of expertise, 114–116
physical practice, 127, 131
physical skills acquisition, 227–228, 228–229
physiological demands of learning, 189–193
planning and practice, 130
playing-related injuries, 134
pluralism, 220–221
practice, 103, 126–130, 131, 154–155
generally, 126–144
compartmentalized, 172
effective, 135–136
independent learning, 117, 118
vs. making music, 126
mental practice, 133
partitioning of music, 133
planning, 130
and process of learning, 110, 112, 114, 115
reflective, 156
suggestions for, 195
procedural planning, 130
psychological demands, 184–185
psychological profile of performers, 185
recording technology, 153
refinement of skills, 178–181
reflections on progress, 134
reflective practice, 156, 158
rehearsal strategies, 132–134
repertoire choice, 102, 178
repertory work and technical work, 130
rules of sensorimotor skill acquisition and maintenance, 191–192
scales, 103
self-directed learning, 117–119, 157, 158
self-evaluation, 173–174
self-monitoring, 134–135
sequencing learning experiences, 176–181
 setting for learning, 210–212
skills acquisition, 227–228, 228–229
skills learning, 111, 118, 170–171
skills refinement, 178–181
solo voices as instruments, 11–16
stages of development, 116
strategies for motivational preparation and concentration, 130–131
suggestions for coping with musical performance anxiety, 193–195
suggestions for health maintenance, 195
suggestions for practice, 195
suggestions for teachers, 196–203
teaching, 119–120, 167
technical skills, 103
technique, 236
technology effects, 152–154
for transformative learning, 158
transmission mode learning, 210
tuition-based learning, 102–103, 145–164
vignettes, 232–235
virtual learning environments, 213–216
voices as instruments, 11–16
intelligence, 157
interaction, musical, 324, 325
international contexts
ensembles in education settings, 249
ensembles outside North America, 278
See also globalization; indigenous and world music
International Society for Music Education (ISME), 304
Internet, 154
cyberspace settings for instrumental music, 210–212
See also technology
interpretative position, 113
interpreters, 26
interventions, 302, 303
iPods. See technology

J
jazz ensembles, 276–278
See also ensembles
jazz teachers, 277–278

L
language, 18
larynx
height and tilt, 12
laryngeal function, 13, 14
in older singers, 62–63
lateral cricoarytenoid (LCA) muscle, 15
leadership, 276
learning
 conductor-less, 296
as development of expertise, 110–111
effective experiences for, 173
individually tailored approaches, 18
instrumental music, 103, 112–113, 119–120
to learn, 112
musical instrument, 210–212
self-directed, 156–158
sequencing experiences, 176–181
transformational, 157–158
legit voice, 24
liability issues
ensembles, 260–261
See also negligence and liability
linguistic intelligence, 18
listening lists, 350, 351
lung volume, 12
lyrics, 336

M
master-apprentice tradition
instrumental music, 149–151, 155
See also experts
meaning, 254–256
memory
anxiety affecting, 187
automaticity effects, 109, 110–111
brain processes, 109
and motor programs, 227–228
and music competency, 130, 133
older persons, 60
relative pitch information, 46
song learning, 17–18, 269
tonal memory, 46
mental practice, 127, 131, 133
mentoring, 149–151, 156
instrumental music, 156, 158
See also experts
metacognitive skills
in instrumental music, 103, 112
See also critical thinking
metropolitan youth orchestras, 320
microphones, 24, 26–27
military conductors, 284
mistakes: correcting, 173
mobile applications. See technology
modeling
instrumental music, 174–175
for singers, 19, 26
monitors, 26–27
motivation
instrumental music, 103–104
for older singers, 61
strategies for preparation and concentration, 130–131
vocal and choral music, 61
motivation research, 156–158
motor skills. See sensorimotor skills
movement. See body movement
MPA (musical performance anxiety), 186–189
Adolescent Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Scale (AMPAS), 196, 198–199
strategies for coping with, 188–189, 193–195
multicultural competence, 360
multitrack recording programs, 26–27
music
communal music-making, 302
language and, 18
partitioning into meaningful parts, 133
as set of human practices or behaviors, 255
musical acculturation. See acculturation/enculturation
musical authority, 324
musical behavior. See behavior
musical competence, 324
musical expertise
development of, 108–125, 109
See also experts
musical expression, 228–229, 337–338
musical identity, development, and engagement. See identity, development, and engagement
musical instruments
learning, 210–212
See also instrumental music
musical interaction, 324, 325
musical interventions, 302, 303
musicality, 324, 336
musical meaning
discrete constructs of, 255
and music ensembles, 254–256
See also identity, development, and engagement
musical memory. See memory
musical notation. See notation
musical performance anxiety (MPA), 186–189
Adolescent Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Scale (AMPAS), 196, 198–199
strategies for coping with, 188–189, 193–195
musical talent, 324
musical "works," 255
music classrooms. See classroom learning
music ensembles. See ensembles
musicianship
building, 165–183
expanding conceptions, 220–221
global and digital age issues, 209–225
 vernacular, 336
music specialists. See experts
music teacher identity, 253–254
music theater, 23–24

N
National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), 286
National Core Arts Standards, 285
national youth orchestras, 319
negligence and liability
ensembles, 260–261
playing-related injuries, 134
neurological dysfunction, 64
New Horizons International Music Association (NHIMA) ensembles, 306–308
nomenclature, 354
North American school ensembles
generally, 265–282
bands. See bands and orchestras
community fundraising, 266
contests and competitions, 267, 269, 272, 275, 278
funding limitations, 278
historical antecedents, 267
orchestras. See bands and orchestras
progressive education movement, 279
sponsoring institutions and organizations, 266
support patterns, 270–271
types of, 266–267
unremunerated teacher time, 278
U.S. model, 278
notation
indigenous and world music, 354
instrumental music, 102

O
observation and imitation
of great singers, 26
See also modeling
occupational hazards
with instrumental music, 184–208
with vocal music, 76–78
older populations
New Horizons ensembles, 306–308
older singers, 60–75
one-to-one instrumental pedagogy, 152
one-to-one relationships, 147–149
one-to-one tuition, 145–164
online spaces
cyberspace settings, 210–212
See also Internet
opera voices, 19–23
orchestras
bands and orchestras, 272–276
youth orchestras, 318–335
osteoporosis, 64

P
part recordings, 294
peer teaching, 296
performance(s)
applying musical thinking to preparation for, 289
choirs, 35–39
competitive nature of, 185
ensembles, 260
evaluating, 197–203
goals, 157, 158
indigenous and world music ensembles, 354–355
inviting experts to, 354
psychological and physiological aspects of learning to perform, 184–208
as purpose of instruction, 339
recitals, 25–26
sensorimotor demands on, 189
singers’ recitals, 25–26
performance anxiety, 186–189
Adolescent Musicians’ Performance Anxiety Scale (AMPAS), 196, 198–199
strategies for coping with, 188–189, 193–195
performance spaces, 35–39
personality types, 63
phonation, 13, 14
physical practice, 127, 131, 133
physiology and body function
assessing susceptibility to problems, 196
bodily conditions weakening with age, 60–64
demands of instrumental learning, 189–193
of learning to perform, 184–208
prerequisites for instrument choice, 190
for singers, 3, 12–16
skills acquisition, 227–228, 228–229
pitch, 296
planning, 130
pluralism. See democracy in education
policy of ensembles in education settings, 248–264
popular music
hip-hop. See hip-hop
singers, 26–28
popular music ensembles
generally, 335–346
core values underlying, 337–339
and digital revolution, 335
guitar, 339–340
hip-hop ensembles, 342–343
 performance as purpose of instruction, 339
rock bands, 340–342
practice
communities of practice, 154–155
deliberate, 126–130
effective, 135–136
goal-oriented, 294
home practice, 294
instrumental music, 103, 126–130, 135–136, 154–155, 156, 195
reflective, 156
for singers, 17–18
suggestions for, 195
See also rehearsal
preparation, motivational, 130–131
primary school orchestras, 321
prison ensembles, 308–309
problem-solving, 284, 297
See also critical thinking
procedural planning, 130
professional singers, untrained, 70–71
progressive education movement, 267, 279
provincial youth orchestras, 319–320
psychology and psychological demands
approaches for older professional singers, 65–67
assessing susceptibility to problems, 196
of instrumental music, 184–185
of learning to perform, 184–208
musical meaning constructs, 255
musical performance anxiety (MPA), 186–189
performer profiles, 185
of vocal music, 3
puberty, 52, 53
pulse
body movement, 228, 230
conductors, 287

R
rap, 342
recitals, 25–26
See also performances
recording industry, 26–28
recordings, part, 294
recording technology, 153
sound reinforcement, 26–27
refinement, 178–181
reflective practice, 156
regional youth orchestras, 320
register of singers, 4–9, 15–16
rehearsals
adjustment to optimize health, 84
 cognitive or imaginary, 132
conductors’ plans and techniques for, 287, 289–291, 293–297
indigenous and world music, 353–354, 357–360
instrumental music, 132–134
inviting experts to, 354
ongoing cycle of, 289
vocal and choral music, 84
See also practice
repertoire
conductors’ choice, 291, 292
group and ensemble vocal music, 32–34
instrumental music, 102, 178
singers, 27–28
resonance, 14–15
resonator, 11
respiratory system, 62–63
rhythm, 296
ringing quality, 15
rock bands, 340–342
room acoustics, 35–36
rural youth orchestras, 320

S
Samba bands, 304–306
sambistas, 305
scale analysis, 191–192
scales, 103
school districts, 257–259
school orchestras, 321
school rock bands, 341
secondary school orchestras, 321
self-awareness, 90
self-concepts, 251
self-directed learning, 156–158
self-esteem
generally, 53, 65, 68, 309
musical performance anxiety (MPA), 186–189
vs performance, 185
self-evaluation, 173–174
self-identity, 338–339
self-monitoring, 134–135
self-to-other ratio (SOR), 38, 39
sensorimotor skills
rules of acquisition and maintenance, 191–192
for singing, 17–18, 47
sequencing learning experiences, 176–181
singers and singing
directivity, 36–37
ensembles. See vocal and choral music
German Fach System method of vocal classification, 20–23
 nonclassical, 26
older singers, 60–75
sound reinforcement, 26–27
speaking and singing, 18
young singers, 44–59
skilled music leaders. See experts
skills learning
instrumental music. See instrumental music
metacognitive skills. See metacognitive skills
sensorimotor skills. See sensorimotor skills
social class, 251
social media. See technology
sociology and policy of ensembles
generally, 248–264, 285
class delineations, 251
effort in, 251
equal educational opportunity (EEO), 257–259
ethnic delineations, 251
gender delineations, 249, 250–251
"helpless" students, 251
improvisation instruction, 253
innate talent in, 251
international contexts, 249
"musicians," 253, 254
music student identity, 249–253
music teacher identity, 253–254
school districts, 257–259
spending differences, 258
student accidents and injuries, 260–261
teacher influences, 253–254
software. See technology
solo voice pedagogy
generally, 10–30
actuator (energy supply), vibrator, and resonator, 11
adult soloists, 10–30
anatomy, physiology, and acoustics, 12–16
appoggio, 12–13
articulation, 14–15
associative skill acquisition, 17
auditions, 23–24
auditory-oral intelligence, 18
autonomous skill acquisition, 17
"belly-in" and "belly-out," 12
"belt" voice, 23, 24
body alignment, 12–13
breath management, 12–13
casting, 23–24
chamber music, 24–25, 25–26
cocreators, 26
cognitive skill acquisition, 17
 commercial music, 26–28
consonant intelligibility, 14–15
contemporary commercial music (CCM), 26
cricothyroid (CT) muscle, 14, 15
formant cluster, 15
genres, 19–28
German Fach System method of vocal classification, 20–23
Fach chart, 20–23
grounded on accurate evidence, 3
harmonic information, 18
idealized positions of tongue and jaw, 14
imitation of great singers, 26
instrument, voice as, 11–16
interpreters, 26
laryngeal function, 13, 14
lateral cricoarytenoid (LCA) muscle, 15
"legit" voice, 24
linguistic intelligence and, 18
lung volume, larynx height and tilt, and tracheal pull, 12
microphones, 23, 27
modeling and feedback, 19
music theater, 23–24
"nonclassical" singing, 26
opera, 19–23
phonation, 13, 14
physical bases, 12–16
popular music, 26–28
practice and song learning, 17–18
recitals, 25–26
recording industry, 26–28
registers, 4–9
registration, 15–16
repertoire choice, 27–28
resonance, 14–15
ringing quality of singing voices, 15
sensorimotor skill, 17–18
solo song recital with piano, 25–26
sound reinforcement, 26–27
TA/CT activation ratios, 16
thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle, 14, 15
"up-and-in" and "down-and-out," 12
vibrato, 15
vocal folds, 13, 14
vocal registers, 4–9, 15
voice classification, 16, 23–24
vowel production, 14–15
zwischenfach voices, 20
SOR (self-to-other ratio) in vocal and choral music, 38, 39
sound production, 176–177
sound reinforcement, 26–27
speaking, 18
specialists. See experts
spending differences, 258
spirituality
conductors’ association with, 284
musical meaning constructs, 255
sponsoring institutions and organizations, 266
spontaneous chanting, singing, and instrumental play. See informal playing and learning
state youth orchestras, 319–320
stepping and swaying. See body movement
stereotypes, 249
stroke, 64
student identity, 249–253
suburban school districts, 257–259
suburban youth orchestras, 320–321
surgical interventions, 70
synchronous communication, 213

T
talent, 324
TA (thyroarytenoid) muscle, 14, 15, 16
TA (thyroarytenoid) muscle activity (chest voice), 47, 51, 53, 54, 56
teachers
conductor-educators, 288–291
demands on, 278
influences students, 253–254
jazz teachers, 277–278
unremunerated time, 278
teaching
effective practice, 135–136
individually tailored approaches, 18
instrumental music, 119–120, 196–203
through movement, 229–230
peer teaching, 296
suggestions for teachers, 196–203
technical skills, 103
technique
conductors, 287
instrumental, 236
technology
digital age issues, 209–225
digital sound reinforcement, 26–27
influence on instrumental music, 152–154
popular music ensembles and, 335
See also Internet
theater productions, 23–24
thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle, 14, 15, 16
thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle activity (chest voice), 47, 51, 53, 54, 56
thyroid disease, 63
thyroid function, 63
tort law, 260–261
tracheal pull, 12
tradition, 155, 291–297
transformational learning, 157–158
tremors, 64
tuition-based instrumental music learning, 102–103
individual or one-to-one, 145–164

U
"up-and-in" and "down-and-out," 12
urban school districts, 257–259

V
verbal explanations, 167
vernacular musicianship, 336
See also popular music
vibrato, 15
vibrator, 11
virtual learning environments (VLEs), 213–216
See also Internet; technology
vision loss, 64
visiting artists. See experts
VLEs. See virtual learning environments (VLEs)
vocal and choral music
generally, 1–97
absorption and reverberation of sound, 35
accuracy, 47
acoustics, 36–39
adolescent singing voices, 52–57
adult soloists, 10–30
Alexander Technique, 90
articulation, 50, 51
audiation, 46
auditory safety, 92
aural acuity, 46
block sectional formations, 38
bodily conditions weakening with age, 60–64
body rhythms as source of musical rhythm, 90
bowing, 62, 70
breath management, 48–49, 55
child singing voices, 44–52
classic, cultural, and popular singing styles, 50–52, 56–57
classroom acoustics, 91
column sectional formations, 38
conductors. See conductors
contemporary commercial music (CCM), 51, 52, 56–57
cracking, 49
cricothyroid (CT) muscle activity (head voice), 47–48, 51, 54, 56–57
daily maintenance of vocal function, 83
Dalcroze eurhythmics, 90, 91
ensembles and groups, 31–43, 268–271
absorption and reverberation of sound, 35
acoustics, placement of singers, 36–39
block sectional formations, 38
column sectional formations, 38
conductors. See conductors
direct sound, 35
early reflections of sound, 35
flutter, 40
formations, 37, 38
full choirs, 39
matching pitch, volume, timbre, vowel, and timing, 31
mixed SATB quartets, 38
"operatic ring," 37
performances, 35–39
radiation of sound, 36
repertoire choices, 32–34
reverberation radius, 35
self-to-other ratio (SOR), 38, 39
small vocal groups, 39
theatre and opera stages, 40, 41
vibrato, 40
visualizations of voice production, 41
voice analysis software, 41
epidemiology, 77
feedback, 46
Feldenkrais methodology of self-awareness, 90
flutter, 40
formations, 37, 38
full choirs, 39
head voice, 47–48, 51, 54, 56–57
for health and well-being, 67–68
hearing one’s own voice, 38–39
high risk groups, 77, 78
holistic integration of elements of good singing, 66
home environment, effect of, 47
kinesthetic awareness, 90
maturation of physical structures, 45
memory demands, 66
motivation, 61
motor development, 47
occupational hazards, 76–78
older singers, 60–75
bodily conditions weakening with age, 60–64
"bowing," 62, 70
choral singers, 71
definitions, 60
memory demands, 66
motivation, 61
newcomers, 61
 novice, 68–69
respiratory system and larynx, 62–63
rest for, 66
senescence, 60
singing for health and well-being, 67–68
soft, breathy voice, 62
speech-language pathologists, 69
stamina demands, 66
surgical Interventions for, 70
untrained professional singers, 70–71
voice cosmesis, 69
voice instability, 62
"voice lift," 69
voice therapy, 69–70
voice training, 67–70
operatic ring, 37
pedagogy and instruction, 48–50, 55–56
physical properties of voices, 45, 46, 52–53
placement of singers, 36–39
policies encouraging healthy habits, 88, 89
proportions and physical properties of voices, 45
psychological approaches for, 65–66
psychological factors, 64–67
psychomotor process in act of singing, 46, 47
pubertal onset, 52, 53
radiation of sound, 36
reflux of stomach acid and enzymes, 85
registers, 4–9, 15–16
rehearsal adjustment to optimize health, 84
respiratory system and larynx, 62–63
reverberation radius, 35
risks from air travel, 85, 86
self-to-other ratio (SOR), 38, 39
senescence, 60
soft, breathy voice, 62
solo voices. See solo voice pedagogy
speech-language pathologists, 69
stamina demands, 66
surgical interventions, 70
thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle activity (chest voice), 47, 51, 53, 54, 56
tonal memory, 46
travel, risks from, 85, 86
untrained professional singers, 70–71
vibrato, 40
visualizations of voice production, 41
young singers, 44–59
accuracy, 47
adolescent singing voices, 52–57
articulation, 50, 51
audiation, 46
 aural acuity, 46
body alignment, 48, 49, 55
breath management, 48–49, 55
child singing voices, 44–52
classic, cultural, and popular singing styles, 50–52, 56–57
contemporary commercial music (CCM), 51, 52, 56–57
cracking, 49
cricothyroid (CT) muscle activity (head voice), 47–48, 51, 54, 56–57
feedback, 46
home environment, effect of, 47
maturation of physical structures, 45
motor development, 47
pedagogy and instruction, 48–50, 55–56
physical properties of voices, 45, 46, 52–53
proportions and physical properties of voices, 45
psychomotor process in act of singing, 46, 47
pubertal onset, 52, 53
thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle activity (chest voice), 47, 51, 53, 54, 56
tonal memory, 46
vocal injuries, 45
vocal production, 47, 48, 54–55
vocal health and education, 76–97
adjustment of rehearsal and methods to optimize health, 84
air-travel risks, 85, 86
Alexander Technique, 90
annual voice examination, 83
auditory safety, 92
body rhythms as source of musical rhythm, 90
body work methods, 89–91
classroom acoustics, 91
clinical evidence, 81, 82
daily maintenance of vocal function, 83
Dalcroze eurhythmics, 90, 91
epidemiology, 77
Feldenkrais methodology of self-awareness, 90
high risk groups, 77, 78
hygiene instruction, 88
kinesthetic awareness, 90
occupational hazards, 76–78
perceptions within teaching profession, 79, 80
policies encouraging healthy habits, 88, 89
reflux of stomach acid and enzymes, 85
role models, 87
therapeutic interventions, 81, 82
vocal doses, 78, 79
vocal hygiene, 79
vocal hygiene instruction, 80–82
voice amplification, 84, 85
voice training, 89–91
warming up, 83
vocal production, 47, 48, 54
vocal registers, 4–9, 15–16
voice amplification, 84, 85
voice analysis software, 41
voice classification, 16, 23–24
voice cosmesis, 69
voice instability, 62
"voice lift", 69
voice therapy, 63, 69–70
voice training, 67–70, 89–91
vowel production, 14–15

W
warming up, 83
well-being, 67–68
white flight, 257–259
works, musical, 255
world music
case study, 358–360
definitions, 348, 349–350
See also indigenous and world music

Y
Young Australian Concert Artists (YACA), 322–323, 323–326, 330–331
young singers
generally, 44–59
accuracy, 47
adolescent singing voices, 52–57
articulation, 50, 51
audiation, 46
aural acuity, 46
body alignment, 48, 49, 55
breath management, 48–49, 55
child singing voices, 44–52
classic, cultural, and popular singing styles, 50–52, 56–57
contemporary commercial music (CCM), 51, 52, 56–57
cracking, 49
cricothyroid (CT) muscle activity (head voice), 47–48, 51, 54, 56–57
feedback, 46
home environment, effect of, 47
maturation of physical structures, 45
motor development, 47
pedagogy and instruction, 48–50, 55–56
physical properties of voices, 45, 46, 52–53
proportions and physical properties of voices, 45
psychomotor process in act of singing, 46, 47
pubertal onset, 52, 53
thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle activity (chest voice), 47, 51, 53, 54, 56
tonal memory, 46
vocal injuries, 45
 vocal production, 47, 48, 54–55
youth orchestras
generally, 317–334
ages of players, 318
assessment model for, 327–330
costs and benefits, 321
defined, 317–318
freestanding, 317, 318
institutional, 317, 318, 321
metropolitan, 320
mission of, 321–323
national, 319
pedagogical aims, 321–323
pool of players, 318
provincial, 319–320
regional or rural, 320
rural, 320
school orchestras, 321
state or provincial, 319–320
subtypes, 318–321
suburban, 320–321
talent of artists, 324
Yui Japanese Drumming Club, 310

Z
zwischenfach voices, 20