This project is a site-specific ethnographic study of a culture around a community water tank that serves as a value-driven piece of architecture and has become an inconspicuous tourist attraction in the city of Växjö due to its peculiar acoustic property. At the onset, I draw parallels between an ancient underground temple called the Hypogeum located in Malta, where the physical dimensions of the space similarly shaped sensorial experiences in more nuanced ways than conventional architecture of its time. The core of my work here has three explorative angles. One, where I embark on interdisciplinary research approaches, to conduct field studies and investigate ways to empirically test how the physical properties of spaces shape cognitive impressions. A crucial need to express spirituality within an academic framework is proposed and a method of non-intentional design (NID) is introduced as my driving process for the study. Two, as a digital story, I conduct interviews and make the culture of this space visible to the public through an instagram account called #echoingawareness. And three, I present some of my experience building this slow and steady relation with the local municipality with a proposal to provide space on the urban planning table for bottom-up approaches where voices from such sacred spaces can be made more inclusive. I hope this could be a useful resource as a transdisciplinary study for future planning of urban architecture and design.

Despite increasing popularity and interest in contemporary a cappella, little research exists involving this genre of music making. In this study, I investigated how SIX, a professional contemporary a cappella group, utilizes a primary practice of aural arranging to create original, a cappella cover arrangements entirely by ear. From one initial question and use of classic grounded theory analysis, three questions emerged: what did SIX do, how did SIX carry out what they do, and what characterizes how SIX carries out what they do? The substantive theory of aural arranging and the substantive and formal theories of fluid leadership emerged from the data. The theory of aural arranging posits that SIX creates original cover arrangements by ear through the use of interactive activities initiated by application of task and social-emotional leadership. This substantive theory addresses the questions: what does SIX do and how does SIX carry out what they do? The theory of fluid leadership posits that SIX uses a form of horizontal leadership governed by five principles; 1) no single, primary leader, 2) leading in areas of strength, 3) accurate awareness of strengths, 4) a practice of unassuming leadership, and 5) the maintenance of a healthy relational climate. These substantive and formal theories address the question, what characterizes how SIX carries out what they do? Aural arranging and fluid leadership emerged from an environment of complex challenges wherein SIX established environments of safety and empowerment, promoting the sharing and utilization of musical and leadership thinking and knowing toward creation of an aural arrangement. Although the findings from this research are not generalizable given the single case study methodology, the theory of aural arranging presents a viable structure for creation of aural arrangements in other contemporary a cappella groups, and fluid leadership illustrates potential as a leadership model within small musical ensembles both within and beyond the formal music education classroom. The principles of fluid leadership may potentially be useful in dissimilar small groups traversing many disciplines. This study expands and enhances the current knowledge base related to contemporary a cappella, aural arranging, and leadership within small ensembles and groups.

The purpose of this case study was to examine musical experiences which may affect student perceptions of self-efficacy in Advanced Placement (AP) Music Theory. Four students from a single AP Music Theory class participated in interviews where they discussed experiences in high school music study. Interview topics included ensemble participation in high school, outside-school involvement in musical activities and study, and perceptions of success in the course and preparation for the AP Music Theory examination. Specific research questions addressed in the study were: (1) What course skills addressed in AP Music Theory do students from different musical backgrounds feel most prepared to demonstrate within the context of the AP Music Theory examination? (2) What do student participants from different musical backgrounds cite as specific challenges in AP Music Theory? (3) How do students perceive their own musical backgrounds in relationship to their perceived success in AP Music Theory? Findings suggested that prior musical experiences and a positive, low-stress classroom atmosphere contributed to participants’ confidence completing fundamental performance tasks in AP Music Theory, and that those influences affected participants’ feelings of self-efficacy in the class and on the AP Music Theory examination. Conversely, participants’ application of prior knowledge and previously developed musical skills to more difficult AP-style performance tasks solicited feelings of self-doubt and lower levels of self-efficacy. Implications of this study suggest that teachers of school music ensembles, applied lessons, and AP Music Theory should consider student self-efficacy when designing instruction and planning rehearsals or lessons. Researchers might consider measuring student feelings of self-efficacy in specific performance tasks, and the ways in which teachers can help students to develop self-efficacy in music classes. / Music Education

Considering the cultural importance of country-western music in the United States, especially in places such as Texas, the exclusion of country-western music from the musical offerings of public schools and universities (Bates, 2019; Bates, Gossett, & Stimeling, 2020) could be seen as problematic. Furthermore, the absence of the country-western style from formal music education has led to the concomitant exclusion of an an entire musical instrument from formal music study: the pedal steel guitar. The purpose of this inquiry was to engage in the lived experience of becoming a pedal steel guitarist in order to ascertain how I, as a learner of an instrument primarily used in country-western music, could interact with others within both the country-western and pedal steel guitar communities of practice as I gained competence as a pedal steel guitarist. Using communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and landscapes of practice (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner 2014) as a theoretical framework, I employed autoethnographic methods to document the lived experiences contained within an 18-month period in which I progressed from a nascent pedal steel guitarist, to performing professional gigs at various dance halls and honky-tonk bars. Data collection methods included journal entries, interviews with accomplished pedal steel guitarists, and the creation of artifacts such as tablature transcriptions and recordings. I created a short ethnodrama (Saldaña, 2011) to elucidate the conflict I felt between various aspects of my musical identity as my previous musical experiences both enabled and inhibited my new learning project. After analyzing my pedal steel learning project using language from Wenger’s (1998) framework of communities of practice, I concluded that Wenger’s interlocking concepts of participation and reification respectively served as the propulsion and rudder that allowed me to traverse my learning trajectory. In addition, I discussed impications of my research for music teachers, such as destigmatizing the role of mistakes (such as wrong notes) in the learning process; music teacher educators, such as the importance of facilitating boundary experiences for preservice teachers in order to broaden knowledgeability; and music learners¬, such as the benefits that can come from—to quote my pedal steel mentor Bobby Flores—“diving into that cold river with no inhibitions” when it comes to learning a new instrument.

The process of memorization of musical pieces and performing without the support of sheet music is often described as ”playing a piece by heart.” This thesis delves into the process of memorization in classical music, with a particular focus on the author's personal journey in practicing the Kodaly’s solo cello sonata, highlighting the utilization of four distinct memory styles: kinesthetic, aural, visual, and analytical memory. Through an examination of each memory style, this study unravels the multifaceted nature of memorization in musical performance. The thesis not only explores the individual contributions of these memory styles but also examines how to combine them during the learning and memorization process. Through examples, the author sheds light on how she integrated these memory styles, achieving a comprehensive understanding of the piece and ultimately being able to perform it by heart. The findings of this study contribute to the broader field of music cognition, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms involved in memorization and performance. It highlights the importance of considering diverse memory styles and their integration in learning effective memorization techniques in classical music. This study can be useful for musicians who want to develop their memorization process and have a good experience from learning and performing pieces by heart. / <p>Program:</p><p>Zoltán Kodály sonata for unaccompanied cello, Op. 8 </p><p>Medverkande:</p><p>Katariina Kolehmainen - cello</p><p>Den klingande delen är arkiverad. The recording of the concert is filed.</p>

Aural learning, sometimes called “learning by ear,” is a fundamental mechanism of music, connected to musical perception, acquisition, and understanding. Researchers have primarily studied aural learning strategies through self-reported data or qualitative observations. Because the interaction between a learner and a recording offers a unique window into self-guided learning approaches and strategies, the aim of this study was to use participants’ interactions with the recordings as a data source. The purpose of this study was to investigate how high schoolers aurally learn unfamiliar melodies and identify trends that contribute to efficient learning.Twenty-nine high-school participants in individual sessions learned three different melodies by ear. As participants learned each melody, I used a modified, digital playback interface to collect interaction data on three learning constructs from the literature: (a) learning chunk length; (b) learning chunk order; and (c) synchronous versus turn-taking. Descriptive results showed that participants preferred to learn melodies in one-, two-, four-, or eight-measure chunks, and that their use of time learning either in a synchronously or turn-taking approach had no relationship to their total learning time. A Spearman Rank Order correlation revealed a moderate, inverse relationship between average chunk length and total learning time (Rho = -.506, p < .001) suggesting that participants who focused on learning larger chunks learned the whole melody faster. An analysis of participants’ choice of learning chunk order revealed three general approaches to the task. Participants used a “From the Beginning” approach approximately 14% of the time, characterized by repeatedly starting from the beginning and increasing the length of the learning chunk each repetition. Participants used a “Half to Whole” approach approximately 29% of the time, characterized by focusing on half of the melody at a time. Finally, participants most frequently used a “Bit by Bit” approach 57% of the time, characterized by learning short one- to three-measures chunks progressing from the beginning of the melody to the end. Most participants began and ended their learning session by listening to the entire melody. An ANOVA comparing approaches showed that the “Half to Whole” approach was significantly more effective than the “Bit-by-Bit” (F[2,66] = 10.25, p < .001), but showed no differences between other approaches. Some participants made notable changes in their approach between melodies showing some isolated examples of improvement when they chose longer chunks and switched to a “Half to Whole” approach. The approaches that emerged from this study provide a foundation for future experimental research on the way students best learn from recordings. / Music Education

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No description available.

Once a year over the week leading up to and including Labor Day, tens of thousands of people drive hours into Nevada’s barren Black Rock Desert to build an ephemeral city equal to “the size of downtown San Francisco.” This place, Black Rock City, home of the annual Burning Man event, only exists for a fraction of the year. For one week, participants gather together at Burning Man and operate under its ten guiding principles, including “radical self-reliance,” “communal effort,” “radical self-expression,” and “participation.” Everything, with the exception of porta-potties and ice, must be brought in and packed out by individuals. The decommodified, volunteer-run city is what its inhabitants make of it. At Burning Man, attendants are their own event planners, food providers, structure builders, gift givers, and activity coordinators. On the penultimate night of the event, an effigy of a forty-foot man is set aflame, a ritual left open for interpretation by participants. Two days later, the entirety of Black Rock City is torn down, leaving scarcely any trace that it ever even existed. Burning Man has gained social traction exponentially since its launch in 1986, leading to the formation of dozens of individually organized regional burns across the United States of America and internationally. Scholars from many disciplines have flocked to the event attempting to unpack its distinct subculture. While publications have analyzed Burning Man’s ethos, logistics, business organization, community, art, rituals, fire, and performances, only two have considered sound worthy of focus and few have addressed the regional burn network. “Aural Substance: An Ethnographic Exploration of Regional Burn Soundscapes” analyzes Burning Man’s regional network, expanding on sound artists Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood’s brief initial study of the national event's sound by way of ethnography and field recording. From June 2016 through February 2017, I conducted fieldwork and collected fifty-five hours of field recordings at seven different regional burns. I employ ethnomusicologist Steven Feld’s concept of “acoustemology,” or “sound as a way of knowing.” Through my observation, analysis of recordings, and interviews, I consider how the sounds at regional burns can signify the time, date, and location to burn participants. Sound-studies scholar David Novak writes that “noise is a crucial element of communicational and cultural networks.” In this study, I analyze how noise at a burn is not solely a by-product of participants’ “anarchistic freedom,” but a key part of the burn that relays information about regional burn values, public and private spaces, and burners’ lived experience. / Music History / Accompanied by one compressed .zip file: Archive.zip

The purpose of this research was to examine the potential relationship between students’ degree of familiarity with repertoire common to beginning band method books and aural-based music achievement after one year of study. Three research questions guided this study: (1) Which songs from the Familiar Repertoire Survey (FRS) are reported as being the most and least familiar to the sample? (2) For a familiar song, “Lightly Row,” can FRS scores predict (a) Familiar Music Achievement Singing Test (FMAST) scores, (b) Familiar Music Achievement Playing Test (FMAPT) scores, (c) Familiar Music Achievement Improvisation Singing Test (FMAIST) scores, and (d) Familiar Music Achievement Improvisation Playing Test (FMAIPT) scores? (3) For an unfamiliar song, “Finish Line,” can FRS scores predict (a) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Singing Test (UMAST) scores, (b) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Playing Test (UMAPT) scores, (c) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Improvisation Singing Test (UMAIST) scores, and (d) Unfamiliar Music Achievement Improvisation Playing Test (UMAIPT) scores? Participants (N = 17) were fifth and sixth grade students enrolled in their second year of beginning band in a New Jersey elementary school. I created two measurement instruments: FRS, designed to gauge the breadth and depth of students’ familiarity with songs common to beginning band method books, and the Music Achievement Test (MAT) designed to measure aural-based music achievement in singing, playing by ear, and improvising on a familiar and unfamiliar song. In the first session, participants completed FRS by listening to songs common to beginning band books and completing a Likert-type survey on their familiarity with each song. Later, participants watched MAT through an interactive video which prompted them to complete eight musical subtests. I recorded all performances. Judges rated each performance with two rating scales. I analyzed the frequency of responses for each song and found “Hot Cross Buns,” “Jingle Bells,” “Pierrot,” “Lightly Row,” and “London Bridge” to be the most familiar songs. Through linear regressions, I analyzed the ability of FRS to predict MAT scores. I found a significant regression equation between FRS and its ability to predict FMAST scores and UMAIST scores. The current exploratory study contained many limitations which restricts its generalizability to other beginning band populations; however, six conclusions can be made. Familiarity with common beginning band repertoire as represented by a selection of 24 songs common to beginning band method books does not predict students’ achievement (a) singing an unfamiliar song, (b) demonstrating through singing improvisation based on a familiar song, (c) playing by ear a familiar or unfamiliar song, and (d) improvising on an instrument, whether improvising within the context of a familiar or unfamiliar song. Familiarity with common beginning band repertoire does predict students’ achievement (a) singing a familiar song and (b) demonstrating through singing improvisation based on an unfamiliar song. / Music Education / Accompanied by one .mp3 file and one .xlsx file (Microsoft Excel 2007).