Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om mental träning kan vara till hjälp för att minska nervositet vid musikaliska framträdanden samt öka medvetenhet kring kroppen och det mentala. I bakgrundskapitlet förklaras vad mental träning är, relevanta begrepp,  tidigare forskning inom området samt det valda perspektiv för studien. Sedan förklars den valda dokumenteringen, loggbok och ljudinspelning, det specifika mentala träningsprogram beskrivs samt när och var det har utförst. Analysen påvisar att stress och oro upplevs, i början av studien handlar det om yttrefaktorer som tid, lokal, omgivning. Senare i studien minskar oro och stress dock förskjuts den till prestation inom skola och instrumentspel. Specifika upplevelser och reaktioner beskrivs, både kroppsliga och mentala. Till sist påvisas det om den mentala träningens påverkan på musicerande. I diskussions delen problematiseras ljudinspelning och den valda loggboksstruktureringen. Sedan diskuteras även föskjutningen av oro och stressn som sker under studien, solo jämfört med orkester samt medvetenheten kring kropp och det mentala. / The purpose of this study is to investigate whether mental training can be helpful in reducing nervousness in musical performances as well as raising awareness about the body and the mental. The background chapter explains what mental training is, relevant concepts, previous research in the field and the chosen perspective for the study. Then the selected documentation, logbook and audio recording are explained, the specific mental training program is described as well as when and where it has been performed. The analysis shows that stress and anxiety are experienced, at the beginning of the study it is about surface factors such as time, local, environment. Later in the study, anxiety and stress decreases, however, it is shifted to performance in school and instrumental games. Specific experiences and reactions are described, both bodily and mental. Finally, it is demonstrated about the influence of mental training on music making. In the discussion section, audio recording and the selected logbook structure are problematic. Then we also discuss the shifting of the anxiety and stress that occurs during the study, solo compared to the orchestra as well as awareness of the body and the mental.

This thesis treats the phenomenon of Singing Experience. Its purpose is to reveal the content that constitutes the phenomenon of singing from the singers’ point of view. Singing should be understood as a unique vocal expression carried by tones in a form that is sonorous, alive and fluid. The singing is in the context of singing with others. In order to perform a study that aims to reveal content within a phenomenon, the study uses a phenomenological approach from a first-person perspective, which is also my own perspective as the singer as well as the researcher. The interest in the field has arisen from the experience of singing with people who do not seem to notice that they sing out of tune. This has led to the thoughts that the phenomenon of singing includes different contents for different people in different situations. The phenomenological methods provide cogitations to stretch the particular situated momentary experience into the sphere of the possible experience. In the thesis the result of this eidetic study is described with its general essence a “musical vocal confirmation of my existence in the world” as well as a description of the constitution of the phenomenon of singing. The description of the phenomenon is a description of the essences of the lived-body, as well as the immanence of emotion and cogito. The description also includes the surrounding world, which harbours the dimension of the real as well as inter-subjective transcendence concerning time and space, humanity, music and the divine. All of the essences have shown to be essential essences of the experience of singing. This, however, is dependent on how the phenomenon of existence is regarded: to exist in a wide or a narrow sense, including or excluding the transcendent aspects of the phenomenon of singing.

Denna studies syfte är att undersöka hur gitarrelever på gymnasiet upplever sin relation till gitarren och hur den kan influera deras identitet, självbild och framtidsvision – möjlighetshorisont. Fem kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med gymnasieelever på estetiska programmet som alla hade gitarr som huvudinstrument. Studien vilar huvudsakligen på en sociokulturell teoretisk grund där stor vikt har lagts på relationen mellan informanterna och deras omvärld i utformningen av intervjuerna och analysarbetet av insamlad data. Den tidigare forskningen som redovisats i arbetet fokuserar på identitet och musikalisk identitet samt möjlighetshorisont då identitetsskapandet och informanternas framtidsvisioner har varit de centrala ämnena i studien. Studien visar att gitarren kan ses som ett verktyg att genom denna förstå och bearbeta sin sinnevärld. Gitarren upplevdes som en stor del av informanternas liv och deras identitetsskapande, både på ett praktiskt plan genom musicerande, övande och utvecklande av teoretisk kunskap men också på ett känslomässigt plan där gitarrutövandet och musiken kunde hjälpa dem att bearbeta och hantera känslor. En viss diskrepans mellan informanternas gitarrundervisning och deras gitarrutövande på fritiden kunde även urskiljas i resultatet – någonting som uppmanade till vidare frågeställningar och reflektioner gällande utformning av vissa aspekter kopplade till gitarrundervisningen. Vidare framgick det att titlar och benämningar på sig själv kunde upplevas ha stor vikt i skapandet av den egna självbilden och projektionen av ens image mot omvärlden. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how guitar students in high school experience their relationship with the guitar and how it can influence their identity, self-image and vision for the future – horizon of opportunity. Five qualitative interviews have been conducted with high school students on the arts program, all of which had guitars as their main instrument. The study is mainly based on a sociocultural theoretical basis where great emphasis has been placed on the relationship between the informants' and their surroundings in the design of the interviews and in the analysis of collected data. The previous research reported in the paper focuses on identity, musical identity and the horizon of opportunity since the developing of identity and informants' vision of the future have been the central subjects in the study. The study shows that the guitar can be seen as a tool for understanding and processing one’s worldview. The guitar was perceived as a large part of the informants' lives and their identity development, not only on a practical level through musicianship, practice and development of theoretical knowledge, but also on an emotional level where the guitar practice and music listening could help to process and manage emotions. A perceived division between the informants' formal and their informal guitar practice could also be identified through the results – something that called for further questions and reflections on the design of certain didactic aspects related to guitar teaching. Furthermore, it became clear that certain titles and labels on oneself could be perceived as having great importance in the creation of one's self- image and the projection of one's image towards the outside world.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur lärare i musikteori konstruerar och arbetar med relationen mellan musikteori och musikalisk praktik i undervisning. För att undersöka detta har fokusgrupper bestående av musikteorilärare använts som datainsamlingsmetod. I analysen av intervjuerna har ett diskurspsykologiskt perspektiv använts. Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsansats och en socialkonstruktionistisk epistemologisk utgångspunkt. I resultatet synliggörs tolkningsrepertoarer där lärarna beskriver relationen mellan musikteori och musikalisk praktik. Dessa tolkningsrepertoarer framställs ibland som motstridiga, såsom framställningen av musikteori som något som gynnar kontra hindrar inlärning av klingande musik. Det rådde däremot samstämmighet i tolkningsrepertoaren som framställde musikteori som något som får sin mening endast i och med musikalisk praktik. Resultatet diskuteras i relation till tidigare forskning om musikteoriämnets historiska rötter respektive ämnets relation till nutida musikutövande samt forskning om musikteoriundervisning och dess roll i musikalisk utveckling. / The purpose of this study is to examine how music theory teachers constructs and work with the relationship between music theory and musical practice in teaching.  To examine this, focus groups consisting of music theory teachers were used as method for data collection. A discourse psycological view was used to analyze the interviews. The study has a qualitative research approach and a social constructionist epistemological view. The result illuminates’ interpretative repertoires were the teachers describes the relationship between music theory and musical practice. Sometimes these interpretative repertoires are described as conflicting, such as the description of music theory as something that benefits versus obstructs the learning of musical practice. Other interpretative repertoires have been unanimous, such as the rendering that music theory gets its meaning only in association with musical practice. The result is discussed in relation to previous research of the historical roots of music theory in contrast to the subjects’ relationship to contemporary musical performance and also research about music theory education and its role in musical development.

Under åtta veckor har jag lärt mig åtta nya folkmusiklåtar genom notläsning. Vanligtvis arbetar folkmusiker utifrån en gehörstradition och nu ville jag utmana mig själv med ett annat tillvägagångssätt. Syftet var att avgöra hur min inlärningsprocess påverkas, hur memoreringen av låtarna påverkas och hur jag upplever min tolkning av “svänget” när jag jobbar utifrån notläsning.  Varje vecka har jag jobbat med en ny låt och genom utförliga anteckningar i min loggbok samt ljudinspelningar har jag kommit fram till flera resultat kring hur projektet upplev- des. Mina egna reflektioner kring processen sammanfattas i resultatet i form av ett feno- menologiskt perspektiv. / I have been learning eight traditional Swedish tunes in eight weeks by reading sheet mu- sic. This kind of music is usually taught through showing and listening to others, but I wanted to challenge myself with another way of working. The purpose is to see how my process of learning and adapt a tune is affected, how my memorizing is affected and how my assumption of a “groove” is affected.  Each week I have worked with a new tune and during the process I have written down notes in my notebook and recorded how I sound early on and afterwards. These tools have led me too a result of how I felt and what I have realized after the project.

Individualized teaching in schools with children with learning disabilities is a prerequisite, in order to be able to convey knowledge and teaching in an educational and developing way. The purpose of this study is to explore how musical communication can be used in school's with children with learning disabilities in different ways and how teachers can create an individualized teaching through this, during the music lessons. The study's result describes the interviews that have been conducted that have occurred in varied locations around Sweden with teachers in the subject area music in learning disabilities. The result presents how teachers use musical communication in their teaching and in what way the teaching is tailored to the needs of the students to become developing. The discussion that is linked to the subject of the study focuses on individual adaptation and alternative ways in which the teacher can make use of it in order to obtain an educational teaching, in which the students are given the opportunity for an in-depth understanding and a developed knowledge.

No description available.

“Doing gives birth to ideas”. From ideas to composition: a study of composition processes in higher music education. Recent technological developments have challenged the historical methods of composing music for acoustical instruments using traditional scores. However, composers in the Western art music traditionstill continue to use them when they explore the realm of sounds intraditional instruments and possible ways to communicate their intentions. The aim of the present study is to describe the development process in the composition of score-based music intended to be performed by a mixed ensemble of wind, string and percussion instruments. Three composer students from an undergraduate program in Western art music composition each participated during two semesters in the data collection. The data consists of a series of composition sketches, qualitative interviews, voice logs, music recordings and observations of rehearsals and concerts. The analysis focused on shedding light on the participants’ ways of developing the content as the processes of composition unfold. The main methods of analysis were to compare different versions of the same composition and, on the basis of this comparison, to ask analytical questions of the participants. A result common to the three participants, is the conclusion that they start with rudimentary structures and gradually elaborate them so that they become more detailed and sophisticated, for example, more varied in instrumentation. This elaboration is supported by the use of written notes – scaffolds – that guide the development of the structure in different directions. Seven types of scaffolds, that represent different strategies to formulate and solve compositional problems, were found in the empirical data. The study contributes to wider understanding of the importance of making handwritten sketches throughout the process of developing musical ideas. Despite recent technological developments, there is evidence that hand-sketching still serves as an intuitive tool for meaningmaking, in combination with other tools such as acoustical instruments and new music technology.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att genom självobservation utforska på vilka sätt min sång kan förändras av regelbunden fysisk aktivitet. Processen har bestått av fysisk aktivitet fyra gånger i veckan på Lifestyle Fitness Arvika samt övningspass i sång två gånger i veckan på Musikhögskolan Ingesund. Studien utgår från det fenomenologiska perspektivet med inriktning mot livsvärldsperspektivet och kroppens fenomenologi som skapar möjligheten att fritt reflektera kring hur jag upplever, erfar och handlar i ett sammanhang. Datamaterialet består av loggboksanteckningar och videodokumentation. Resultatet presenteras i fem olika teman som beskriver vilka mönster som framkommer i självobservationen. Dessa teman är Kroppens stabilitet, röstens utveckling, sångprestationens disposition kontra fysisk aktivitet, rutinskapande och när inspiration och motivation träder fram. Resultatet visar på för- och nackdelar samt förutsättningar som fysisk aktivitet kan ha för sjungandet. / The purpose of this study is to explore through self-observation how my singing can be changed by regular physical activity. The process consisted of physical activity four times a week at Lifestyle Fitness Arvika as well as a practice session in singing twice a week at Ingesund Music School. The study is based on the phenomenological perspective focusing on the lifeworld and the phenomenology of the body, which creates the opportunity to freely reflect on how I experience, learn and act in a context. The data consists of logbook entries and video documentation. The result is presented in five different themes describing the patterns that emerge in self-observation. These themes are the body's stability, the voice's development, the song performance disposition versus physical activity, routines and when inspiration and motivation occur. The result shows the pros and cons as well as the effect that physical activity may have for singing.

Syftet med denna självstudie är att utforska på vilka sätt mental träning kan förändra livsvärlden samt minska obehag inför scenframträdanden. Syftet bärs upp av följande forskningsfråga: På vilka sätt förändras livsvärlden genom mental träning inför ett framträdande? Studien utgår från ett livsvärldsperspektiv och metod är loggboksskrivande. Resultatet presenteras med hjälp av teman som: Att öppna medvetandet, Självbildsträning – att tycka om sig själv, Förebilder – att se sig själv, Vad jag vill odla inom mig, Att vara förberedd, Sista förberedelsen och Tiden är inne. Efter resultatet följer en diskussion om vikten av avslappning och en bra självbild samt för- och nackdelar med att använda Fagéus metod i mental träning. Arbetet avslutas med att frågan om dess betydelse vidrörs samt möjligheter till framtida forskning. / The purpose of this study is to explore the ways mental training can alter my life-world and reduce the discomfort I experience during stage performances. The study is supported by the following research question: In which ways does my life-world change through the use of mental training before a performance? The study is based on a life-world perspective and the method for the study is logbook writing. The result is presented by following themes: Opening minds, Self-image Training – enjoying myself, Role models – to see myself, What I want to grow within me, Being prepared, Final preparation and The time has come. After the result follow a discussion of the importance of relaxation and a good self-image, I also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using Fagéus method of mental training. The work concludes with the questions of the importance of this study and the opportunities for future research.