The purpose of this study was to investigate high school music teachers' perceived influence of student enrollment in accelerated learning programs on student enrollment, participation, and attitude in band and choir. Participants (N = 100) were Florida high school band and choir directors. The dependent measure was a researcher-developed questionnaire asking for directors' perceptions of the three research questions as they related to students enrolled in Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Dual Enrollment, or Advanced International Certificate of Education courses. Respondents also provided what types of accommodations they use within their own program to allow the successful participation of these students. Results indicated that some music educators did perceive a negative influence of accelerated learning program enrollment on all three measures, yet variability in the sample was indicated by high standard deviations on nearly all questions. Further, the study yielded evidence that not all accelerated learning programs affected students similarly. Students in AP courses, for instance, were perceived as having fewer issues with enrollment in both primary and secondary ensembles than students in IB courses. The most commonly reported accommodation was permitting tardiness or absence from required events. Though the results of this study demonstrated a lack of agreement amongst Florida's music teachers about the influence of accelerated learning program enrollment on student participation in music, perhaps this disagreement itself is the most significant finding. If music study is a valued part of a complete education, then music educators and related parties should develop strategies that encourage and allow students to be successful in both music and accelerated learning programs. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music Education. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 14, 2017. / accelerated learning programs, advanced placement, enrollment, international baccalaureate, scheduling / Includes bibliographical references. / Kimberly VanWeelden, Professor Directing Thesis; Alice-Ann Darrow, Committee Member; Steven Kelly, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a six-week music curriculum focused on pre-reading and writing skills among three- to five-year-old children in an inclusive day care setting. Music and language have much in common, which is beneficial in the classroom with typically developing children and children with developmental delays or disabilities for pre-reading and writing skills. The commonalities between music and language as well as the role of rhythm in language lend themselves well to using music as a teaching tool for language-related skills such as pre-reading, pre-writing, and overall literacy. This study was conducted at an inclusive day care center in the Preschool (ages 3-4; n = 8) and Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK; ages 4-5; n = 12) classes. The experimental group (n = 11) received reading- and writing-focused music therapy sessions twice a week for six weeks and the control group (n = 9) received regular instruction without music. Each group contained children from the Preschool and VPK classes. Data were collected for each student with three measures of pre-reading and writing skills: the Print Awareness for Words (PAW) measured word recognition, the Print Concepts Checklist (PCC) measured knowledge of book concepts, and the Developmental Writing and Language Skills Checklist (DWLS) measured pre-writing skills. This study utilized a matched experimental design with pre- and post-testing. Non-parametric statistical analyses were used to determine if there were differences between the experimental and control groups regarding the effects of the music curriculum on children's pre-reading and writing skills. While no statistically significant differences were found, the findings from the present study are discussed in relation to typical academic and literacy development as well as to the literature on music and literacy. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 12, 2017. / Inclusive, Literacy, Music Curriculum, Pre-reading, Preschool, Pre-writing / Includes bibliographical references. / Jayne M. Standley, Professor Directing Thesis; Alice-Ann Darrow, Committee Member; Kimberly VanWeelden, Committee Member.

Florida has a rich history of traditional old time fiddling and the fiddle was the most popular musical instrument among early pioneers in Florida. Fiddlers were revered members of the community, often playing for social dances called frolics. Slaves that were brought from Africa mingled with settlers from Western Europe in the Southeastern United States, their different fiddle styles blending into a new genre of music that incorporated aspects of both cultures. Dances on plantations served as one of the few places where whites and African Americans socialized together. Fiddlers also played at home with their families, sharing music across generations. After the development of radio, musicians would often perform as part of live radio shows and record companies produced old time music recordings featuring fiddlers that influenced musicians near and far. Contests became popular after Henry Ford began promoting traditional dance and fiddling in the 1920s and 1930s and cities across Florida held contests or fiddlers conventions as part of community celebrations. The Future Farmers of America sponsored string bands which often included a fiddle player in the 1950s. The Florida Folk Festival has promoted traditional music and dance, featuring many fiddlers since its beginning in 1953. The Florida State Fiddlers Association holds the official state fiddle contest every year along with an annual convention that brings musicians together from all around the region. Further incorporation of traditional music in the curriculum could offer multiple advantages, including creating a more equitable learning experience for students. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / February 18, 2019. / diversity, education, fiddle, Florida, Old Time, traditional / Includes bibliographical references. / Clifford Madsen, Professor Directing Dissertation; Bruce Holzman, University Representative; John Geringer, Committee Member; Kasia Bugaj, Committee Member; Alice Ann Darrow, Committee Member.

The primary purposes of this study were (1) to determine the effect of three encoding conditions (singing, playing, studying silently) on participants’ music memorization accuracy, and (2) to examine potential differences between choral, jazz, and concert band musicians’ accuracy in completing the music memorization task. Secondary purposes were (1) to determine the strategies participants used to accomplish the music memorization task, and (2) to assess possible relationships between participants’ ensemble affiliation and stated memorization strategies, and relationships between these strategies and participants’ memorization accuracy. Three folk melodies were selected for memorization under the three encoding conditions. Participants (N=81) had 1:15 seconds to commit each melody to memory while studying silently, singing, or playing on a keyboard. Participants then notated the three melodies using conventional staff notation. Finally, participants provided a ranking of cognitive strategies used to complete the memory tasks. A two-way ANOVA revealed significant differences based on participants’ ensemble affiliation. A Tukey HSD post hoc test revealed the jazz group made significantly higher accuracy scores on the music memory task than the choral group and the band group. No significant differences were found based on encoding conditions and no significant interactions were found between the encoding conditions and ensemble groups. A sum of ranks and a Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed participants in the three ensemble groups approached the memorization task using significantly different cognitive strategies: the choral and band groups used ‘solfège labeling’ significantly more than the jazz group, while the jazz group used ‘harmonic analysis’ significantly more than the band and choral groups. A Spearman Rank Correlation revealed significant relationships between stated strategies and memorization accuracy. A significant positive relationship was found between identification of patterns and accuracy on the memorization task. A significant negative relationship was found between ‘labeling with solfège or numbers’ and accuracy on the memorization task. Results of additional Spearman Rank Correlation tests indicated that specific strategies functioned differently for the three groups of musicians. For example, there was a significant positive relationship between ‘hearing the whole melody’ and the band group’s memorization accuracy, though no relationships were found between this strategy and the memorization accuracy of choral or jazz groups. The present study is situated amongst a large body of research on music memory and the role it plays in music literacy. As a reading and writing memory task, the experiment is framed by questions of how musicians identify meaning in written music. While some findings support previous research, other findings raise more questions and suggest further exploration is needed. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 14, 2018. / ensemble affiliation, music cognition, Music literacy, music memory / Includes bibliographical references. / Alice-Ann Darrow, Professor Directing Dissertation; Bruce Holzman, University Representative; John Geringer, Committee Member; Kimberly VanWeelden, Committee Member.

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In this inquiry, I examined how young children use their personal, social and material resources to solve a music notational task. I asked 13 children, ages 5-9 to notate a song they learned the previous week, sing it back, explain what they did and then teach the song to a classmate the following week. I used Lightfoot and Davis' concept of portraiture as a qualitative research methodology to collect, code, analyze and interpret my data. Data included the children's invented notations and videotaped transcripts of their actions as they created their notations and taught the song to a classmate. Sociocultural Vygotskian developmental theory, activity theory and Bakhtin's dialogic theory provided the interpretive lens through which I examined how the children used their resources as mediational tools to complete the task. / Findings revealed that children who had no previous music training used increasingly sophisticated representational strategies to notate a song, and that they were able to refine their notations when singing the song from their notation, teaching the song or when prompted by an adult or a peer. I concluded that the peer-peer situation was a motivating force for triggering a recursive process of reflections-on-actions and knowing-in-action. Classmates' questions, comments and their singing played a critical role in moving the children to modify their notations and their singing, verbal explanations and gesturing in ways they did not do alone or with me. / Analysis of the children's notations, verbal explanations and teaching strategies provided insights not only into what they knew about music, but also their appropriation of the cultural conventions of writing and their aesthetic sensibilities, as gleaned from their choice of symbols, colours and how they presented their symbols on the page. Interviews with parents, teachers and school principal provided contextual background for interpreting the children's notations and how they approached the task. This study shows the value of adopting a social constructivist approach to teaching the language of music. It also demonstrates that researching the products and processes of children's invented notations from a social constructivist perspective enables more detailed portraits of children's musical and meta-cognitive understandings.