Steel bands have become more prevalent in U.S. schools since the early 1980's. Through discussions with several of the leading steelpan builders in the United States, it is now estimated that there are over 600 steel bands in U.S. schools and universities. An appealing aspect of these ensembles is that they attract a wide range of students, from accomplished instrumentalists to students with no musical background. Due to their uniqueness in school music programs, steel bands are often extra-curricular activities but are often highly sought after for performances. This case study examines students' motivations to play in steel band (nontraditional music ensembles) including informal music education and learning, pedagogy, curriculum, and repertoire. It was found that students are attracted to the ensemble due to the uniqueness of the instruments, the repertoire, and for the opportunity to be part of a close community. Students value the opportunity for learning music in an informal manner where they are able to have input on the instructional process and what material is performed.

ABSTRACT “MUSIC IS WAITING FOR YOU:” THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF CHILDREN’S MUSICAL IDENTITY by L. Michelle Mercier-De Shon This phenomenological study of lived experience (Van Manen, 1990) explored the perspectives of four 4th grade children as they live in and live through music to formulate their musical identities. Framed within perspectives of symbolic interaction theory (Blumer, 1969), communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), and figured worlds (Holland, et al., 1998), data were collected using methods consistent with qualitative inquiry. These included: observations of quasi-formal music learning settings, in musical playgroups and during professional musicians’ presentations; close observations of children’s daily school lives; and planned discussion group interviews (O’Reilly, 2005). Findings emerged from the data via a bricolage of existentialist (Morrisette, 1999; Holyroyd, 2001) and interpretative phenomenological analyses (Smith, 2003). Children in my study explored and expressed their musical identities through self-directed engagement across multiple modalities of singing, listening, performing on instruments, and creating music. They engaged with these modalities in individualized and shared ways. Singing was situated, by context and in concert with social and gender comparisons. Listening, performing, and creating encompassed a trajectory from experimentation to intentionality, with continually embedded exploration and musical play. Findings indicated that children in middle childhood may actively shape their musical identities within a dynamic nexus of individualized and social continuums of music experience and learning. These continuums may be understood along three dimensions: development; components, i.e., music participation and learning; and processes. The developmental spectrum of children in middle childhood provides a fluid context for understanding musical identity, revealed not as a fixed entity, but through interweaving elements of their past, present, and future musical lives. Self-directed music participation and learning may shape musical identity and provide a context for its expression through both musical and social roles, as children enact musical behaviors through social interaction. Finally, children’s musical identity may be understood as a process, in which personal dialogue meets external discourses, as children continuously negotiate self-conceptions of musicality within and among their musical worlds. Findings indicate that music teachers may offer opportunities for exploration and musical play as a basis for concurrently nurturing the development of musical identities and fostering musical understanding.

ABSTRACT “MUSIC IS WAITING FOR YOU:” THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF CHILDREN’S MUSICAL IDENTITY by L. Michelle Mercier-De Shon This phenomenological study of lived experience (Van Manen, 1990) explored the perspectives of four 4th grade children as they live in and live through music to formulate their musical identities. Framed within perspectives of symbolic interaction theory (Blumer, 1969), communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), and figured worlds (Holland, et al., 1998), data were collected using methods consistent with qualitative inquiry. These included: observations of quasi-formal music learning settings, in musical playgroups and during professional musicians’ presentations; close observations of children’s daily school lives; and planned discussion group interviews (O’Reilly, 2005). Findings emerged from the data via a bricolage of existentialist (Morrisette, 1999; Holyroyd, 2001) and interpretative phenomenological analyses (Smith, 2003). Children in my study explored and expressed their musical identities through self-directed engagement across multiple modalities of singing, listening, performing on instruments, and creating music. They engaged with these modalities in individualized and shared ways. Singing was situated, by context and in concert with social and gender comparisons. Listening, performing, and creating encompassed a trajectory from experimentation to intentionality, with continually embedded exploration and musical play. Findings indicated that children in middle childhood may actively shape their musical identities within a dynamic nexus of individualized and social continuums of music experience and learning. These continuums may be understood along three dimensions: development; components, i.e., music participation and learning; and processes. The developmental spectrum of children in middle childhood provides a fluid context for understanding musical identity, revealed not as a fixed entity, but through interweaving elements of their past, present, and future musical lives. Self-directed music participation and learning may shape musical identity and provide a context for its expression through both musical and social roles, as children enact musical behaviors through social interaction. Finally, children’s musical identity may be understood as a process, in which personal dialogue meets external discourses, as children continuously negotiate self-conceptions of musicality within and among their musical worlds. Findings indicate that music teachers may offer opportunities for exploration and musical play as a basis for concurrently nurturing the development of musical identities and fostering musical understanding.

Beginning band directors appear to prioritize notation-based practices in their programs and rehearsals despite cognitive research indicating the necessity of audiation for musical comprehension and success. During rehearsals, directors oversee musical success and cognition suggesting the potentiality to improve upon traditional forms of teaching in order to prioritize audiation and encourage its systematic improvement. Using Edwin Gordon’s work on audiation and applications from cognitive research as my theoretical framework, I surveyed, observed, and interviewed beginning band directors regarding their prioritization of audiation during rehearsals. In this mixed methods study in which I used an explanatory sequential, multiple case study design, beginning band directors from select institutions and Gordon Institute of Music Learning certificate holders (N = 20) were asked to complete an online survey answering Likert-scaled and open-ended questions regarding rehearsal activities and students’ musical success. After survey completion, each volunteer director (n = 4) was observed twice, interviewed individually, and interviewed collectively in a focus group. Following the transcription of observations and interviews, open-ended survey responses, observations, and interviews were coded and major themes generated. Three implications for band directors and music educators included, first, valuing an unlimited pedagogy with a de-emphasis on decoding and repertoire and a reemphasis on ear playing and informal learning. Second, preparatory experiences are important for comprehensive success in beginning instrumental study. Third, a beginning band curriculum that is intentionally seeking to create comprehensive musicianship among beginners may be best achieved by balancing traditional pedagogy, Music Learning Theory, and informal music learning approaches. Future research might examine directors’ teaching inclusions and pedagogy over a more extensive period of time or as a single case study. Future research could also document audiation instruction from the student perspective.

Master of Music / Department of Music / Phillip D. Payne / The purpose of this study was to determine if music educators who have had experiences with informal music are more likely to employ informal learning within their classroom. Secondary research objectives included a comparison of survey results against specific demographics of the survey participants, an examination of the types of informal learning that the participants experienced and facilitated, and a look at the perceived barriers and benefits of informal music learning from the viewpoints of the participants. Participants (N=25) were practicing music educators pursuing graduate music studies. The participants were enrolled in a summer Master of Music program at a university in the Midwest. Data was collected by employing a pen and paper survey that provided a demographic description and informal music learning questionnaire. The participants were asked to indicate the frequency of participation in informal music activities prior to becoming a music educator. They further reported what informal music learning activities they facilitate within their school music curriculum. Finally, the participants responded to two short answer questions where they identified barriers and benefits they perceive with the implementation of informal music practices within their music programs. Results from a Pearson correlation showed a moderately strong relationship (p = 0.43) between participants who had informal music experiences (E) and who employed informal music learning within their music curriculum (C). There were no significant differences observed in the results between participants of different gender or school division. Of the short answer responses cataloged, participants cited a lack of experience with informal music and difficulty of connecting informal music learning to the formal music curriculum as the barriers to employing informal music learning in the classroom. The participants discussed the increase in student motivation, expanding musicality, and real-world relevance as the benefits of informal music learning. Knowledge gained from this study may be useful to individuals facilitating informal music learning within music education programs at the primary, secondary, or collegiate levels.

For many teenagers, learning to play guitar might only involve themselves and one or more of their peers interacting outside school. Music education research, however, does not reveal the spectrum of ways in which adolescent musicians interact to learn peer-to-peer. The purpose of this study was to examine this process: how adolescents verbally and nonverbally communicated to learn music together and without adult teachers. Two research questions in this study addressed how systems of meanings emerged in adolescent musicians’ processes of talk. The first was: How do participants learning jointly and independently communicate with a peer outside school? The second question was: How do participants assess independent learning along with their peer and joint learning outside school? The participants were six adolescent guitarists from El Paso, Texas. The final candidates included five males with Hispanic backgrounds and one Mexican-American adolescent male. Data were collected in three observations of the guitarists learning in pairs. Data were also collected in interviews, artifacts, and field notes. Discourse analysis involved review of recorded observations, field notes, and transcripts. Data were coded and parsed into categories. Multiple systems of meanings emerged in themes. Quoted material helped to explain the discourse themes. Three sets of findings included main dialectic discourse themes: together–individual, unreserved–reserved, and established–undetermined. Four identity discourses—self-learner, coach, musical artist, and friend—emerged from participants’ dialogues. Three themes indicated how participants individually assessed learning, and two themes showed how joint evaluations emerged peer-to-peer. This study and its results highlight a spectrum of ways adolescent musicians use everyday talk to learn music outside school. Findings in this study might empower music teachers to facilitate their students’ own peer dialogues. Future research can build on the foundation of findings here, which raise questions for exploring how communication outside school might compare with communication in school, how peer-to-peer music learning might be facilitated, as well as implications about why certain types of communication influence music learning.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka om ett experimenterande med etnopoetisk transkribering av den i fältarbetet skapade etnografin kan ge fördjupade insikter i musikens funktion och betydelse inom demensvården. Det sju dagar långa fältarbetet på ett demensboende gav upphov till ljud- och videoupptagningar, intervjuer med personalen, samt fältanteckningar och -dagbok. Etnografin presenteras i två empirisk- analytiska kapitel, av vilka det första undersöker formellt organiserade musiksituationer, medan det andra undersöker informella musiksituationer på demensboendet. Den etnopoetiska transkriberingen eftersträvar att i text så noggrant som möjligt återge tal och sång, liksom även de minsta detaljer i mänsklig kommunikation, så som prosodi, gestik, koreografi och andra paralingvistiska element. Som svar på fem ställda frågor konkluderar undersökningen att den etnopoetiska transkriberingen tydliggör: 1) hur spegling, upprepning och turtagning strukturerar samspelet mellan vårdtagare och personal; 2) den sociala interaktionen mellan forskaren, personer med demenssjukdom och deras personal; 3) hur musik förekommer i situationer som inte vid första anblicken uppfattas som musik; 4) demenspatienter (som agerande subjekt); 5) den kommunikativa musikkompetensen hos personer med demenssjukdom, de anhöriga och personalen. / The aim of this paper is to investigate if an experiment with ethnopoetic transcription of the ethnography created in a field study can convey profound insights into the functions and meanings of music in dementia care. The seven days fieldwork, resulting in sound- and video recordings, interviews, field notes and diaries, was conducted in a nursing home. The ethnography is presented in two empirical-analytical chapters, the first of which investigates formally organized music situations, whereas the second scrutinizes informal music situations in the nursing home. The ethnopoetic transcript aspires to meticulously render speech and singing in text, as well as minute details of interaction, such as prosody, gestures, choreography and other paralinguistic elements of communication. In response to a set of five questions, the investigation concludes that the ethnopoetic transcription makes evident: 1) how mirroring, repetition and turn-taking structure the interaction between patients and nursing staff; 2) the social interaction between the researcher, the patients and the nursing staff; 3) how music actually happens in situations that at first sight may be considered non-music situations; 4) dementia patients (as acting subjects); 5) the communicative music-competence of dementia patients, their relatives and the nursing staff.

This research contextualizes the measurability of African musical arts (including music, dance, drama, poetry and costume art as an integrated whole), through the introduction of a generic evaluation system, which can be implemented outside its culture of origin as recontextualized authenticity. An assessment system is developed, entitled, The Generic Crosscultural Assessment Framework for African Musical Arts. The Framework illustrates that: the cultural-educational void between African/indigenous/informal and international/formal music education can be crossed; the development of a reliable, valid and objective evaluation system for African musical arts assessment, which can be recognized internationally to the satisfaction of Western and African cultures, is possible. African musical arts has only fairly recently begun to be integrated into formal education systems and music curricula for schools and tertiary institutions. At this stage, there is no structured curriculum available for African musical arts in schools. The need for structuring a Framework for contemporary African musical arts assessment, from which a curriculum could be developed, is clear. The contextualization of the main problem of the research, namely the measurability of African musical arts, took place through: exploration of cultural diversity; translation between cultures; music-cultural integration processes in assessment; cross-cultural dialogue; the learning, teaching and grading situations in different cultures and systems and the integration of different ‘voices’ from many disciplines. Globalization and change were essential concepts in this research. The choice of the research designs for this thesis was informed by Western as well as African indigenous music philosophies. A combination of documentary research design (with literature review, content analysis) and deconstruction theory study designs was conducted within the qualitative paradigm. The reseach focused on intercultural understanding and communication, as well as its emic/etic, or insider/outsider approach. The most important aspects of the research focused, firstly, on Social Studies including Ethnomusicology, Translation Studies, Inter-Cultural and Cross-Cultural Studies; secondly, on Educational Studies including assessment standards, philosophies and systems; thirdly, on African Musical Arts; and finally, on contemplating the syntheses of all above named outcomes in relation to generic cross-cultural standards. The emphasis of the thesis is on music-cultural integration processes in assessment of progressive skills development. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2013 / Music / unrestricted

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The first indentured Indians arrived in South Africa in 1860. Their importation was a consequence of the British, who wanted cheap labour from their colony, India, to serve the Empire’s needs in South Africa. Several of these Indians, upon completion of their term of their indenture, chose South Africa as their new ‘motherland’. They settled in Durban and its surroundings with some migrating inland. Consequently, the largest community of Indians in South Africa is still located in the Durban area. Indian communities globally show clear socio-economic development coupled with a strong association to religion and worship. The South African Indian diaspora is no different. Religion is deeply embedded in the fabric of this community. Rooted within most Indian religious practices are strong ties with music. The immigrants who arrived in South Africa shared common religious associations with India, the major religions being Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Christianity in South Africa includes established and mainline church denominations such as Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Pentecostal movement. The Pentecostal movement includes the Full Gospel Church of God, Assemblies of God and Apostolic Faith Missions. Music, a subsidiary to worship within the Pentecostal church movement, provides certain unique dimensions to the religious service as opposed to the traditional repertoire and instrumentation (hymns being sung with organ accompaniment) of the mainline churches. To date, little is known about the music education, performance practice and music praxis in these churches. The lack of data on the latter provides the basis for this current investigation into Church Music praxis within the Pentecostal movement. A mixed method research approach which integrates both the qualitative as well as quantitative is adopted for this study. This approach allows for greater insight into the target population and their phenomena. The qualitative phase which consisted of informal structured interviews and a review of literature, provided in-depth knowledge and thematic data that informed the quantitative phase. The sample population used in the quantitative phase draws on six of the largest churches in the predominantly Indian areas of Durban. A questionnaire was developed specifically for this study, submitted for review to an expert, and administered to the sampled population. The results were coded and entered into a statistics database (SPSS) for analysis. Findings suggest that there is a unique stylistic development and performance tradition within these churches. Results reveal that the majority of Pentecostal church musicians in the Durban area have no formal training in music, yet are able to function as musicians within their congregations. Many musicians indicated their inability to read music as their greatest challenge. Consequently, this led to a great deal of time being spent on learning music. In almost all of the latter cases this occurred either autodidactally, communally and/or simply aurally. Musicians also indicated that financial difficulties were a setback, in that several were unable to purchase instruments and the necessary equipment to engage with their core music functions within the church. Many relied heavily on church support to assist with this need. These musicians possess an ability to perform technically and musically challenging music repertoire that demands advanced music skills and knowledge. This phenomenon attests to the power of informal music education. Many of these musicians go on to pursue successful careers as musicians and music educators. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Litt. et Phil.