How might primary students utilise the stimulus of a painting in a collaborative composition drawing on a non-conventional sound palette of their own making? This practitioner research features 17 recorder players from a Year 6 class (10–11-year-olds) who attend a West Auckland primary school in New Zealand. These children were invited to experiment with the instrument to produce collectively an expanded ‘repertoire’ or ‘palette’ of sounds. In small groups, they then discussed a painting by an established New Zealand painter set in the Waitakere Ranges and attempted to formulate an interpretation in musical terms. On the basis of their interpretation, drawing on sounds from the collective palette (complemented with other sounds), they worked collaboratively to develop, refine and perform a structured composition named for their chosen painting. This case study is primarily descriptive (providing narrative accounts and rich vignettes of practice) and, secondarily, exploratory (description and analysis leading to the development of hypotheses). It has implications for a range of current educational issues, including curriculum integration and the place of composition and notation in the primary-school music programme.

The author's interest in the role of language in education began while he was a student at Goldsmiths' College. A number of transcripts from lessons are considered, and the dialogue between teacher and pupil is analysed with a view to finding clues about the nature of the musical learning which is taking place. It is the author's view that we should allow children ample opportunity and time to talk about the music they are involved with, since it is through verbal articulation of knowledge that the process of musical learning and creativity can be fostered.

I am grateful to Ruth Wright and the editors of the journal for inviting me to make this brief response to the fascinating set of articles collected here. Taking the articles as a whole, I wish to offer a few thoughts which came to mind whilst reading them, concerning our roles as music-education researchers and music educators in relation to informal learning.

This article gives an account of a study in which the practice of music consultancy in primary education was examined. Its aims were to discover to what extent the claims made for music consultancy can be substantiated by empirical evidence, and to identify the factors which contribute to its success. The trends indicated that schools having a music consultant tend to achieve a slightly more favourable standard of music education, in terms of frequency of activities undertaken, than schools with no postholder for music. Little evidence was found, however, of the qualitative benefits thought to be conferred by the classteacher, supported by the consultant, being responsible for music teaching. Several interrelated factors were identified as having possible influence on the efficacy of music consultancy in promoting a satisfactory standard of music teaching among class teachers.

Theoretical approaches to learning in practice-based jazz improvisation contexts include situated learning and ecological perspectives. This article focuses on how interest-driven, self-sustaining jazz learning activities can be matched against the concepts of stolen knowledge (Brown & Duguid, 1996) and landscape of learning (Bjerstedt, 2014). Based on an extensive interview study with Swedish professional jazz musicians, it argues that the multidirectedness involved in jazz improvisational practice calls for a rich learning ecology framework including several didactic loci.

This article looks at the way music education policy is realised in three curriculum contexts: the formation of the official music curriculum, its implementation by music teachers and its reception by students. Working from within the field of education policy studies, I have collected data on music education in Cyprus in order to explore what music teachers and students might expect from a music curriculum and have compared this with what the official music curriculum actually prescribes. The findings constitute distinct sets of educational ideologies and indicate areas of fragmentation between the three contexts. I discuss some implications and make suggestions for conceptualising music education policy. I conclude that music education policy needs to be construed as a polydynamic process which is polyglot, polycentric and polymorphic in its nature.

This article examines the difference between the systems of education in Northern Ireland and on the mainland. For student teachers preparing for the Secondary phase, the isolation of Northern Ireland needs to be counterbalanced. Assisting students to adopt a curriculum philosophy very different from that which underpins their own recent school experiences requires both careful preparation and the support of appropriate classroom experiences. In preparing Primary school teachers to use music in their classroom two issues need to be addressed: the development of musical understanding in students with minimal practical musical skill, and the preparation of specialists to adopt the role of Music Co-ordinator in their schools. Account needs to be taken in the training of all teachers of the cross-curricular themes of Education for Mutual Understanding, Cultural Heritage and Information Technology. Finally, the author proposes a strategy for musical support and development of classroom teachers serving in primary schools.

This article reports findings from a study that sought to identify barriers to music and music education in the UK. Emerging from empirical research involving n = 723 participants and clarified by an evidence base of over 10,000 research participants, the key findings presented in this paper relate to pupil and participant voice and involvement, location as a sub-theme of diversity and inclusion, collaboration and transition points. The research is contextualised by twenty years of policy initiatives seeking to address barriers to music learning. The article provides an overview of the research study before presenting the rich data that emerged within each theme reported. Research participant voice is used as much as possible to enable the reader to consider, reflect and interpret the data in a way that is meaningful for their own context. The paper concludes by asking why after 20 years of policy initiatives, research and evaluation the same barriers still exist and, as we emerge from the pandemic, suggests that this research provides a compelling case that now is the time for change.

‘The Sequence of Musical Development’ by Swanwick and Tillman was published in the British Journal of Music Education (BJME) in 1986. This year marks its 35th anniversary and provides an occasion to look back on the article’s content and legacy. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the antecedents for the article’s underlying concepts, as well as how our understanding of children and young people’s musical behaviours and development has evolved. Alternate and more nuanced perspectives, both available at the time and since, draw on an expanding, diverse, multidisciplinary research base. These enable us to have a better grasp of the strengths of the original, as well as what continues to need investigation.

There has been little research conducted on Taiwanese Aboriginal music education in comparison to Aboriginal education. C. Hsu's Taiwanese Music History (1996) presents information on Aboriginal music including instruments, dance, ritual music, songs and singing, but information on music education practices is lacking. The examination of historical documentation shows that music education was used by both the Japanese government and Christian missionaries to advance their political and religious agendas. This paper will examine the development of the music education of Aborigines in Taiwan from the mid nineteenth century, when Christian missionaries first came to Taiwan, until the end of the Japanese protectorate (1945). I shall discuss how the missionaries from Britain and Canada successfully introduced Western religious music to Aboriginal communities by promoting various activities such as hymn singing and religious services. The paper will then look at the influence of government policy on Aboriginal music education during the colonial periods. These policies affected both the music taught in elementary schools and the teaching materials.

While many piano students successfully progress beyond beginner status to reach what is commonly referred to as the intermediate stage, there is minimal research specific to this area of practice. This is despite the fact that there is a high drop-out rate at this stage. This research study therefore set out to develop an in-depth understanding of the key issues of relevance from the perspective of the teachers who work with intermediate piano students. In order to develop a substantial body of data and therefore increase the validity of the findings, a comprehensive e-survey was developed and distributed to practitioners in the UK, USA and Australia, with 583 practitioners participating in the research. The findings highlight some of the key challenges teachers face when working with intermediate students, one of which is the priority students place on their piano studies, with teachers arguing that external commitments have a negative impact on commitment and progression in piano lessons. The data also reveal that repertoire is a major factor of relevance, with teachers citing popular music styles as of more interest to most students than traditional Western art repertoire, yet it is the least studied area in lessons. Given the impact that these two issues have on teachers' experiences of working with piano students and relevant drop-out rates at this stage, it is clear that there is a significant need for further research by engaging other key stakeholders, in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities involved in this area of music education.

The purpose of this study was to explore why highly trained musicians choose to teach in higher education. An international population from nine countries of music instrument teachers was sampled via online survey, to determine their reasons for teaching in higher education. Motivational constructs from the expectancy-value framework were used, and data were analysed statistically and qualitatively for themes. Findings show that participants held significantly higher expectancy beliefs about teaching than performing, and significantly higher intrinsic interest value beliefs about performing than about teaching. All six constructs were positively correlated with cost for music performing and teaching predicting the most variance.

This paper reflects on the musical skills and abilities required of the improvising musician and suggests some possible strategies to help school music teachers enable children to develop improvisational skills. The writer includes musical materials which exemplify his own suggested teaching and learning approach and which aim to develop the musical memory of performers.

The advent of the gramophone transformed the cultural conditions of contemporary music, including the way it was taught. For a considerable period of time, musicians and music educators disparaged the gramophone. The members of the musical appreciation movement were more sympathetic and helped transform the gramophone's educational image during the 1920s and 1930s. They argued that the gramophone, contrary to its detractors, might stem the appeal of popular music. As is clear from the sentiments of those espousing the pedagogic uses of the gramophone – which are analysed in this paper – their advocacy went far beyond music and was part of a broader cultural agenda, which included arresting the moral dangers associated with popular music.

We discuss a recent peer-learning project we undertook as co-conductors of the Young Conservatorium Wind Orchestra at Griffith University. Drawing on current educational theory on peer learning and material from our conducting practice and research, we explore how this approach offers professional conductors the opportunity to work together in an inclusive and empowering learning environment. We outline our peer learning context, the learning relationship we shared, the most significant musical outcomes of such a process, and the implications for conducting pedagogy and the professional development of conductors.

The article explores reasons for the absence of women from the world of professional music making. The processes of women's music making are examined, especially oral transmission, communal creation and ownership, its relation to everyday living, and holistic approaches to its role in education. These are illustrated by examples drawn from composers such as Hildegard of Bingen and Clara Schumann, and traditional sources, together with education and good practice in a variety of areas.

Learning to play musical instruments has always been a minority activity in British schools. This is partly to do with resources but also to do with the type of curriculum on which the teaching of instruments is often based. In an earlier paper (Cope & Smith, 1997) we argued that this curriculum was based on a classical, scholastic model and suggested that the goal implicit in this approach, the concert player, was inappropriate for most children. This paper lays out an analysis of the knowledge components involved in playing an instrument and draws a number of conclusions about how this might inform the way in which teaching instruments can be approached.

Interpretation of musical works depends on meanings, which, on a pragmatist view, are necessarily tied with cultural habits and practices. This entails that a piece of music is always interpreted differently by people raised in different cultural contexts. A musical work is always a result of this process of interpretation. Strictly speaking, works of music are therefore different works in culturally different contexts even if they were presentations of the same notes. The following discussion of the conditions of cultural exchange in music illuminates some pragmatist viewpoints on the topic by using Keith Swanwick's ideas as a point of comparison. The discussion shows that a contextual starting point leads towards a more ‘child-centred’ education.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how amateur choral singers experience collective group support as a method of learning ‘art music’ choral work. Findings are derived from a grounded-theory based, socio-musical case study of an amateur ‘art music’ Bach Choir, in the process of rehearsing and performing the Mass in B Minor by J.S. Bach. Data collection consisted of participant observation, qualitative interviews and a paper-based survey. Findings indicate that in the process of learning a challenging choral work, participants use peer-learning as support and form supportive groups within each voice part, with ‘informal leaders’ supporting others (‘followers’) who are performing the work for the first time. On the other hand, performing a challenging work can also seem ‘intimidating’ for those less experienced singers. Findings also indicate that whereas followers (and the conductor) benefit from this group support, ‘leaders’ may experience a certain lack of musical challenge.

The catalyst for this paper is the ongoing debate concerning formal and informal approaches to pedagogy within the music education literature. I utilise a chapter by Philpott (2010) as a means to continue discussion about the apparent dialectic between formal and informal approaches to music learning and the case Philpott raises for radical change in ‘three moments’ of music education history. In engaging with the concerns in Philpott's chapter I also seek to bring to a wider audience the ideas developed by a group of sociologists of education who draw on the work of Basil Bernstein (2000) and critical realism (Moore, 2013) to argue for a realist theory of knowledge. I utilise these social realist ideas as a means to engage with the theme of access to what Michael F.D. Young has recently termed ‘powerful knowledge’ (Young, 2012). As Bernstein (2000) suggests we must have an understanding of the recontextualising principles that come into play whenever the classification of knowledge undergoes change, as ideologies shift and change. I argue for a balance between powerful forms of pedagogy and powerful forms of knowledge based on an awareness of the essentially differentiated nature of knowledge.