The aim of my project was to find different ways to make playing easier and freer. What does it actually mean to let go and what could help to achieve more secure and relaxed feeling in your body when playing your instrument? I collected and experimented with exercises from a book The Inner Game of Music and Alexander Technique. I found out that knowing more precisely what to focus on and being more aware of the body can have a great effect. I discovered more gentle ways to teach myself and learned about the importance of how we are treating and using our bodies during practicing and in everyday situations. / <p>The sounding part consists of the following recording; Esa-Pekka Salonen: Pentatonic Étude.The recording has been archived. </p>

The ability to sight-read well is held as a highly regarded and important skill in music performance and education. Over the past 90 years, researchers have investigated several aspects of music sight-reading, especially those attributes possessed by skilled sight-readers. A significant and recurrent finding from this body of research is the relationship between sight-reading and rhythm recognition. Though these studies have found positive effects and correlations between rhythm recognition and sight-reading, they have been limited and indirect. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of (a) practicing rhythms on a single pitch and (b) practicing rhythms with full-range scales and their direct effects on sight-reading ability in saxophonists at the college level. The primary objective in this research was to determine if one method was more effective than another in developing sight-reading skills. The participants (N = 74) consisted of college students who were enrolled in saxophone lessons at a university in the southwestern United States. Participants were administered a sight-reading pre-test at the beginning of an 8-week treatment period. After pre-testing, students were blocked into two groups. The first treatment group was assigned to practice rhythms on a single pitch and the second treatment group was assigned to practice rhythms combined with full-range major scales. After the treatment period, participants were administered a sight-reading post-test. A 2-way mixed ANOVA was used to determine if there were differences between treatment groups, differences from pre-test to post-test, and if there was a significant interaction between treatment and time. There was no significant difference between treatment groups, F (1, 72) = .035, p = .852, partial η2 = .000028. There was a significant effect for time, indicating that both treatment groups improved from pre-to post test, F (1, 72) = 83.499, p < .001, partial η2 = .537. There was no significant interaction between treatment and time, F (1, 72) = .322, p = .572, partial η2 = .004.

This study examined the musical background characteristics, self-efficacy beliefs, and practice behaviors of string students auditioning for an all-region orchestra in one large South-Central district. Purposes of the study were: (1) to describe the musical backgrounds and self-efficacy beliefs of high school string students, (2) to measure the relationship between self-efficacy scores and performance achievement, and (3) to describe the practice behaviors and thoughts of high and low self-efficacy string students. Questionnaires were given to 101 high school string students; 65 competed in all-region orchestra. Descriptive data from the questionnaire revealed information such as how many took private lessons and that those who did tended to have a higher sense of perceived self-efficacy in relation to playing their string instruments. Other descriptive items asked questions such as whether or not students started in public school and how much they practiced outside of orchestra. The relationship of summed self-efficacy scores to a competition ranking was found to be statistically significant and inverse. For all string participants (n=65) Spearman's rho was, rs= -.37, (p=.001) with 14% of the variance explained (r2 =.14). This inverse relationship documents the linear trend for students with better rankings (lower ranking numbers) to also tend to have higher self-efficacy scores. Observation and interview data of 8 higher and 8 lower self-efficacy sub-group students were also analyzed. The higher self-efficacy sub-group students tended to use more cognitive practice strategies, while the lower self-efficacy sub-group tended to use dissimilar and less advanced strategies. Understanding string students' musical background experiences and characteristics and the possible relationship self-efficacy may have with practice and achievement could benefit certain students. Helping these students gain a higher sense of perceived self-efficacy in their musical endeavors, or obtain certain characteristics that successful students share, could possibly enable them to develop and understand more complex practice strategies and compete more confidently.

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Presented master thesis tackles common piano practicing issues among students at the first stage of piano learning. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the difficulties that block students' progress, and analyze proper approaches that improve students' musical capabilities. The practicing issues are scientifically categorized into three categories: technical, interpretative and general practicing and performing issues, and are further analyzed from physical, psychological, and most importantly, educational perspective. In addition, contemporary piano teaching methods from various countries are explored and various methodologies and teaching philosophies are investigated and presented. Effective approaches, suitable strategies and practicing suggestions are provided in the study for both teachers and learners. Chinese piano educators can use this study to enrich their teaching methodologies and to develop new piano teaching methods.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:32:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eliane Cristina Gallo Aquino.pdf: 7695454 bytes, checksum: b9300a1b67f2bec413b90905f6873d0c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-11 / This research intends to display the relations between some authors who evaluate the physical environment in educative foundations, their occupying, the perception of their users and, chiefly, the view from elementary school (from 6 th to 9th grades) teachers in public municipal schools, in the city of Campinas S?o Paulo. In this sense, it discourses about the relevance of the physical environment between students and teachers in the process of teaching and learning in spaces pertaining to the schools. Therefore, the object of arguing is the importance of the physical spaces for the act of teachers educating, aiming at the students learning, since there are gaps between pedagogy and the use of these school environments, which result in learning quality loss, when there is no appropriation of these spaces by the individuals in this process. / Esta pesquisa apresenta as rela??es entre alguns autores que avaliam o ambiente f?sico de estabelecimentos educativos, sua ocupa??o e a percep??o dos usu?rios e, principalmente, a vis?o de docentes do ensino fundamental (de 6?. a 9?. anos) de uma escola p?blica municipal da cidade de Campinas - SP. Nesse sentido, discorre sobre a relev?ncia do meio f?sico entre os alunos e professores durante o processo de ensino e aprendizagem nos espa?os escolares. Assim sendo, o objeto de questionamento ? a import?ncia do espa?o f?sico para o ato de ensino dos professores, visando ? aprendizagem dos alunos, pois, existem lacunas entre a pedagogia e o uso desses espa?os e ambientes escolares, as quais resultam em perda de qualidade da aprendizagem quando n?o h? a apropria??o dos espa?os escolares pelos indiv?duos do processo em quest?o.

La adolescencia es una etapa clave para la promoción de estilos de vida saludables, tales como el incremento de la actividad física y la mejora de la condición física. El objetivo de este estudio ha sido conocer el nivel de práctica de actividad física habitual en adolescentes y analizar su influencia en la salud, especialmente cardiovascular. Así como, diseñar y llevar a cabo un programa de intervención de mejora de la condición física y el estilo de vida en esta misma población. Se evaluó, pre-intervención, nivel de práctica de actividad física y tiempo dedicado a actividades sedentarias; y pre- y postintervención, presión arterial, frecuencia cardiaca en reposo, composición corporal, y condición física orientada a la salud. Concluimos que el nivel de práctica de actividad física de los adolescentes es bajo, asociándose los chicos a un nivel de práctica muy superior al de las chicas. El sexo tiene una alta influencia en los hábitos de práctica de actividad física, por lo que se debería tener muy en cuenta a la hora de llevar a cabo programas de intervención. Los adolescentes que practican más actividad física tienen mayor probabilidad de presentar mejor salud cardiovascular y la prevalencia de adolescentes que posee una capacidad aeróbica indicativa de riesgo cardiovascular futuro es alta, por lo que sería aconsejable realizar programas de intervención para aumentar el nivel de práctica de actividad física y de condición física de los adolescentes, especialmente en las chicas. El programa de intervención aplicado ha tenido un efecto positivo en la circunferencia de la cintura, índice cintura/cadera y porcentaje de grasa corporal; y en la forma física, en resistencia aeróbica, fuerza-resistencia y fuerza muscular, siendo estas las cualidades físicas que más nos interesaba mejorar desde el punto de vista de la salud cardiovascular. / Adolescence is a key stage to promote healthy lifestyles like increased physical activity and improved physical condition. This study aims to know the usual level of practicing physical activity among adolescents and to analyse its influence on health, particularly cardiovascular health. The other aim is to design and carry out an intervention programme to improve this population’s physical condition and lifestyle. A pre-intervention assessment was done of level of practicing physical activity and time spent on sedentary activities, and a pre- and post-intervention assessment was done of blood pressure, cardiac frequency at rest, build and physical condition in health terms. We conclude that the level of practicing physical activity is low, and males are associated with a much higher level of practice than females. Gender has a high influence on practicing physical activity habits, and should be taken into account when carrying out intervention programmes. There is a greater likelihood of presenting better cardiovascular health among adolescents who practice more physical activities. The prevalence of those adolescents with aerobic capacity indicative of future cardiovascular risk is high. Therefore, intervention programmes would be advisable to increase the level of practicing physical activity and the physical condition of adolescents, especially females. The applied intervention programme has had a positive effect on waist circumference, waist:hip ratio and percentage of body fat, and on physical fitness, aerobic resistance, force resistance and muscle strength, these being physical qualities which need improving the most from the cardiovascular health viewpoint.

This diploma thesis called Estimations in Mathematics at Elementary School is created as an auxiliary teaching material. It acquaints the readers with the concept of mathematical estimation and presents its basic divisions. It also provides graphic instructions how to make estimations and it contains plenty of problems which serve as a systematic practicing and training of the ability of estimating. In addition, the form of individual problems shows spheres in which estimating is convenient to develop. At the end of the work there are presented research-oriented problems with the need of estimation.

Master of Music / Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance / Karen M. Large / This report covers a history of the flute in jazz music as well as the advancement of the flute in jazz, starting from the late 1920s. The lives of jazz flute pioneers Alberto Socarrás, Wayman Carver, Herbie Mann, Hubert Laws, and Ali Ryerson are discussed, as well as their contributions to the history of jazz flute. Basic jazz techniques such as improvisation are broken down and explained for classically trained flutists and others who have an interest in playing jazz music but do not know where to begin. This report also discusses how practicing these techniques can further aid in preparing a classical performance. Examples included in this report are excerpts from Mozart’s Concerto in D Major for flute and Mike Mower’s Sonata Latino.