Musical criticism lies at the heart of music education. It is argued that there are five fundamental dimensions of musical criticism: control of sonorities; expressive characterisation; structural relationships; personal evaluation; historical and technical context. The first four of these – those directly concerned with response to a musical object or event – are the essential modes of criticism and these can be seen unfolding in the musical development of children. Following the publication in 1986 by Swanwick and Tillman of a musical development model, further research in Cyprus gives supportive results; showing strong agreement between judges on the use of critical criteria for assessing children's compositions and articulating the same sequential order of development. A random selection of children's compositions drawn from over 600 items collected in Cyprus is assessed by independent judges. There are correlations between assigned critical criteria and the age of the children. Thus the pattern of musical development can be seen to parallel a critical hierarchy. From these data we can also assume that, although the sequential order of development may be confirmed, the compositions of the UK children in our sample appear generally to be more advanced than those of their Cyprus peers. The quality and consistency of music education provision seems therefore to have a positive role in the development of critical powers. There are implications for music curriculum development, for assessment procedures and for further work on musical development, and on the relationship of composing to performing and of both to audience listening.

This paper reveals contemporary issues of music education in post-soviet Armenia. The author analyses the state of music education and draws special attention to the music education of adult beginners, which is a new challenge for the educational system of Armenia. In particular, the author reveals new problems in the performing arts, especially piano playing by adults, which brings with it many questions about new methodical approaches.

The author details ideas with respect to the psychological aspects of adults who wish to play piano and presents results of her tests on students from the chair of Music Education, Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan. She also provides observations and a number of recommendations for even more productive work.

This article is an attempt to explore what we Secondary School Music Teachers should do in our music lessons. To illuminate this problem the author postulates two rôles which he believes many music teachers adopt more or less whole-heartedly: the ‘Instructor’, who passes on a body of received skills, information and perhaps values; and the ‘Enabler’, who sets up conditions in which his or her pupils may discover music.

Although both rôles can be fruitful in some areas of the music curriculum, the author considers them inadequate, and attempts to describe a new role which teachers might find more helpful. He outlines ways in which the teacher who adopts this role might operate when teaching Composition, Literature Studies, Audition, Skills and Performance (C(L)A(S)P).

This is a report on the Music Curriculum course units in a primary teacher-training programme held at the Macarthur Institute of Higher Education, Sydney, Australia. It attempts to give an overview of the attitudes of starting students to music and their experiences of music teaching in the Primary School. These are generally negative, and the students are very hesitant about the idea of being expected to teach music when they graduate. Course content is examined along with changes in attitudes, skills and knowledge of the students.

All reflective music educators ponder the questions posed by this title. Over the years, they have channelled an enormous amount of energy into the improvement of musical teaching and learning in our schools. Ross (1995) argues that these efforts continue to be futile, for the basis of thought and practice is misconceived. This paper examines Ross's thesis highlighting and developing its existential component. A case study illustrates the argument for placing authentic self-expression and ‘music proper’ within the context of wider contemporary debate.

The encouragement of aural methods should be basic to any fostering of musical experiences and understanding. This basis has been lost in European formal music education largely because of the all-pervading influence of musical literacy. Efforts to retain some importance for the aural experience through examinations have mostly been unsuccessful. If music is primarily an aural experience, then it is this that should govern the work of teachers at all times. A case is presented for both class and instrumental teachers to recognise the importance of psychomotor skills and the value of imitative methods for all pupils, enabling improvisation on all instruments. The argument draws on some examples of teaching and learning from other cultures.

Music education at present suffers from a dilemma that few in the field seem to realise or appreciate. To put it in perhaps overly simple terms, the issue involves whether the music teacher should teach music or concepts! In this day of growing interest in cognitive psychology, few would deny any longer the involvement and relevance of concepts and conception in any form of musical functioning. But the writers of methods texts and materials, and theorists of teaching alike, often give evidence of being woefully confused about the process of conception, the nature of its ‘products’ and therefore of the precise involvement of concepts in musical functioning.

Ghana, a former British colony, has, since 1987, embarked on a massive programme of educational reform. With regard to music education, there seems to be a conflict of opinions and objectives; between those of the curriculum planners on one hand, and the music teachers on the other. This paper examines recent literature on this topic, together with current debates about how music is to function at the basic level in the new system.

When we enjoy a solo musical performance, two factors in particular may contribute to our appreciation: the technical skill of the performer in playing the instrument and the individual expressive interpretation of the work. The factor which predominates will vary from piece to piece according to the musical demands. In traditional piano method the skills of playing the instrument and of creating an interpretation are normally taught together. Here the author suggests that the two factors can be separated and considers how the skills of creating an interpretation might be explored independently. A computer-based system is described which enables a person to create individual expressive performances of piano music even without being able to play the piano. Some potentially limiting factors are considered.

This study addresses the baseline assessment of pupil composing competencies at age 11+. It asks whether it might be possible for these to be evaluated by the use of a whole-class listening task. A rationale for this proposal is discussed. Results from a pilot study which administered an original audiated puzzle-task to a cohort of pupils, followed by a related composing assignment, are presented, analysed and discussed. This methodology is shown to reveal information about pupil composing competencies.

In 2005, the Barenboim-Said Foundation launched the Early Childhood Music Education project in Andalusia (Spain) to promote music education for young children. Ten years later, an initial study was performed to evaluate the influence of the project on the development of the participating children. The results of this study form part of a broader ongoing research project, in collaboration with the University of Seville, aimed at investigating the influence of the Early Childhood Music Education project on general aspects of child development. This study has a quasi-experimental design, framed in Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, consisting of an experimental and a control group (n = 1101) and the administration of a questionnaire, adapted to measure and compare means between the two groups, as the sole measurement tool. The results, analysed using an independent samples t-test for the comparison of means and Cohen’s d effect size, reveal statistically significant differences in the means of the dimensions of the experimental and control groups. This confirms the hypothesis that the Early Childhood Music Education project has a positive impact on the different dimensions, in accordance with Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

A brief review of the state of music education in the UK at the time of the creation of the British Journal of Music Education (BJME) leads to a consideration of the range and focus of topics since the initiation of the Journal. In particular, the initial requirement of careful and critical enquiry is amplified, drawing out the inevitability of theorising, an activity which is considered to be essential for reflective practice. The relationship of theory and data is examined, in particular differentiating between the sciences and the arts. A ‘case study’ of theorising is presented and examined in some detail and possible strands of future development are identified.

The popular view that ‘the gifted can look after themselves’ is considered with reference to the identification of gifted orchestral instrumentalists. Among agroup of professional orchestral musicians, a substantial number are found to have started lessons on their principal instrument not on their own initiative, but on that of their school. The absence of a ‘method’ for the identification of gifted instrumentalists is considered, and some ways whereby the music teacher may develop an environment in which more gifted instrumentalists identify themselves are suggested.

A-level music, a qualification taken most often in English and Welsh school contexts around the age of 18, has been a long-standing feature of the musical training of many musicians. Historically bound up with Western European Art Music, the qualification has somewhat broadened its horizons in recent times, though with mixed success in opening up new ways of thinking about music. Recent research has highlighted the seemingly precarious nature of A-level music in many English schools. The reasons for this picture of decline are highly complex and difficult to disentangle, and are part of a much broader diminishing of creative subjects in the school curriculum. Decreasing numbers of A-level music entries run somewhat counter to popular policy discourse, which celebrates flagship announcements of £79 million given to Music Education Hubs in 2019–2020, and 2018 survey results that reported more than 700,000 children learning to play a musical instrument through music hub provision. However, behind these headlines, although there are many children having the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, few continue through to A-level and beyond. Despite its declining numbers, A-level music is recognised as a valuable qualification amongst music teachers, offering something distinct from graded music examinations and other Level 3 musical qualifications. This article presents the results of a recent nationwide survey of A-level music teachers to offer an insight into teacher perceptions of current A-level music specifications, the extent to which it prepares students for entry into higher musical education, and its appropriateness for aspiring young musicians.

Power relations operate in any educational setting, and there may be particular vulnerabilities in a tradition conducted in the relative isolation of the music teaching studio. These vulnerabilities have been highlighted dramatically in recent years through high-profile cases of power abuse, but power is implicated in a wide range of contexts related to the studio, including cultural, gendered, pedagogical, artistic, institutional and interpersonal issues. It may be impossible to divest power of its negative connotations, but there is a good deal of theory focused on power, even if its terms are broadly political or philosophical, and subject to debate. This theoretical paper explores power relations with regard to the music studio, investigating popular conceptions and everyday usage before turning to scholarship focused on interpersonal and broader social perspectives. Some reflections are offered on the uses and abuses of power in the studio. A better understanding of its dimensions and usage can support the ongoing development of studio practices and contribute to the conversation that we need to have about power.

For some years, music technology has been incorporated into the secondary music Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course at Kingston University. Student evaluations of this work have been supportive in the main, but identified continuing challenges in relation to establishing a sense of ease with its application in education. A range of course developments were devised in response, and closely monitored in 1997. The first half of this article outlines the rationale behind them. It draws upon a range of texts that document the reception of IT in schools and colleges, and on an interpretative response (based on theories of cognition), which the writer feels holds much relevance for music educators. The second half outlines course developments, and includes feedback from students and partner schools. Eighteen months on, the fundamental strategy is still in place, and staff have found it consistent with the requirements for ICT outlined in circular 4/98 by the DfEE.

The claims of certain reports increasingly appearing in the media suggesting that ‘music makes kids smarter’ invite critical evaluation. Several other recent studies have been re-examining the hypothesis that musical listening and learning it using methods like Kodály's may enhance spatial reasoning and social and cognitive growth. In weaving together these interrelated themes, the intention of this article is not only to sensitise music educators to an awareness of transfer's significance and singular character, but to advise discretion in the interpretation of research results. Since the mechanisms of transfer are still not fully understood, future enquiry will have to accommodate many problems facing researchers in the field for whom the formulation of a comprehensive theory of transfer is, as yet, a distant prospect.

Although not developed specifically with musicians in mind, Alexander Technique has come to be associated with musical performers and with the problems of tension they may experience. In this article the author, a cellist and a cello teacher who has herself been helped by therapy based upon Alexander principles, acknowledges the special value that the technique has for musicians and demonstrates this by reference to the needs of string players. She goes on to show how other performers may benefit, and how F. M. Alexander's ideas can be particularly important for singers. She enlarges this view to take in a wider range of musical education and, arguing that singing has, of late, been sadly neglected in schools, illustrates the potential of the Alexander principles through a detailed account of how one child was helped to ‘find her voice’and how, in succeeding, she was able to increase her confidence in many other areas besides music.

Against the background of current debate concerning the proposed national curriculum, a number of questions remain unanswered. This paper examines the issue of how, and indeed whether music education is practised from an expressivist point of view. The expressivist position, as evidenced for instance in the work of Herbert Read, Louis Arnard Reid and Suzanne Langer, is analysed in the more recent work of Robert Witkin and Malcolm Ross.

The paper continues by questioning whether there is an expressivist future in music education, discussing the work of Keith Swanwick and John Paynter alongside recent guidelines from HMI and the DES. Official utilitarian arguments are questioned and evidence of developments in Scotland and the United States are examined. The American tradition of developmental psychology in music leads to a discussion of the work of David J. Hargreaves in this country, and finally recommendations are made concerning the relationship between music and the other arts, with particular reference to curriculum structures and programmes of learning.

Originally, the creative music workshop involving professional players was intended to give direct support to school teachers and to enhance music in the classroom, but today's large-scale, high-profile projects mounted by orchestras and opera companies appear to be developing into a full-scale industry on their own. Their role in partnership with schools and colleges now requires clarification: a survey of education policies has revealed some confusion of aims with few bodies looking closely at objectives, outcomes and effects. Music companies could profit from the experience of museums and art galleries.