East meets West: Learning-practices and attitudes towards music-making of popular musicians

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie O. Mok

Learning-practices of popular musicians are a prominent theme in Western music education literature; however, there appears to be a shortage of such literature in Asian countries. With the aim of comparing East and West, a qualitative study was conducted to investigate the learning-practices and involvement in music of Hong Kong popular musicians. Since Hong Kong is a former British colony, the study intended to investigate whether these practices resembled Western practices, or if they were derived from elements indigenous to Hong Kong. Interviews and observations of the informants’ performances and rehearsals were used to obtain data. It was found that all the informants learned mainly in an informal way and participated actively in music-making – similar to the Western popular music-making scenario – but the shadow of the mentor–apprentice learning relationship inherent in Chinese culture also appeared. Lastly, achievement-driven motivation in learning, which is prevalent in Chinese society, was also found among the informants in the present study. This may not be a significant finding in the context of popular music generally, but it is an issue in which Asian educators may be interested.

Author(s):  
Robert H. Woody ◽  
Mark C. Adams

This chapter discusses the innate differences between vernacular music-making cultures and those oriented in Western classical traditions, and suggests students in traditional school music education programs in the United States are not typically afforded opportunities to learn skills used in vernacular and popular music-making cultures. The chapter emphasizes a need to diversify music-making experiences in schools and describes how vernacular musicianship may benefit students’ musical development. It suggests that, in order for substantive change to occur in music education in the United States, teachers will need to advance beyond simply considering how to integrate popular music into their traditional large ensembles—and how preservice music teacher education programs may be the key to help better prepare teachers to be more versatile and philosophically open to teaching a more musically diverse experience in their future classrooms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (02) ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Clint Randles ◽  
Leonard Tan

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine and compare the creative musical identities of pre-service music education students in the United States and Singapore. The Creative Identity in Music (CIM) measure was utilized with both US and Singapore pre-service music teacher populations (n = 274). Items of the CIM relate to music-making activities often associated with creativity in music education in the literature, including composition, improvisation and popular music performance. Results suggest, similar to findings of previous research, that while both populations are similar in their degree of creative music-making self-efficacy and are similarly willing to allow for creativity in the classroom, Singaporean pre-service music teachers value the areas of creative identity and the use of popular music listening/performing within the learning environment to a significantly greater extent (p < 0.0001) than their US counterparts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Patrick Bell ◽  
Christine Chen

The purpose of this case study was to examine Christine’s learning journey and music-making processes of songwriting in the Mandopop style over the course of a series of lessons. We begin this article by outlining our purpose and qualitative method, followed by a primer on Chinese popular music (C-pop). Next, we present a portrait of Christine to provide some context of her musical background, how she became interested in C-pop, and how she became interested in songwriting. We then proceed to describe Christine’s four-month songwriting journey with Adam as her instructor, and conclude by considering the implications of this case study for making Mandopop in music education.


Popular Music ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 585-599
Author(s):  
Tobias Malm

The process of becoming a rock musician strongly relates to the organisational form of the band (Bennett 1980; Green 2002; Behr 2010). At all levels of ambition and success, membership of a band provides the musician with a natural entry point for performing to an audience and forging a potential career (Smith 2013a). The ‘micro-organisational’ (Bennett 2001) development of a band, therefore, is an important career prerequisite for rock musicians (Behr 2015). However, the social and practical challenges of musicianship seem to be continuously underemphasised within the field of popular music studies (Cohen 1993; Kirschner 1998; Lashua 2017; Weston 2017; Kielich 2018). Therefore, in this article I will focus on an aspiring rock band's informal learning processes in becoming a small business together. The study provides insights into the educational and organisational aspects of band practices and contributes to the fields of popular music, education and organisation studies – fields that are converging in the emerging interdisciplinary research area of ‘organising music-making’ (Beech and Gilmore 2015).


1995 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-30
Author(s):  
Mee Lee LEUNG

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in English; abstract also in Chinese.Historically, sports was globally understood within the context of a masculine value system both in the Eastern and Western Societies. The 'Ying' and the 'Yang' stand for female and male in the Chinese culture implied that the female are more fragile and submissive where as the male being more aggressive and stronger. With 90% of the population in Hong Kong being Chinese, the cultural belief in a Chinese society that "Women's place should be in the home" has confined women to attend household chores and child bearing activities. In early 20th century, with the changing role of women in China and especially in Hong Kong, women are more active that they were a decade ago. Women are equal nowadays in a wide range of activities because they are better educated, play a more committed role and live a more active life. Thus, their participation in sports has increased in the past decade both in recreation and in competition. This paper attempts to report on Hong Kong women's participation in major games and also to recommend strategies which can further enhance women's place in sports.歷史上,無論東西方社會,運動廣泛地被視為屬於雄性的項目。正如中國以陰陽來代表女男一樣,女性被認為較順從和脆弱的,而男性則較強壯和具攻擊性。在九成人口都是中國人的香港社會中,「女性應該留在家裡」的觀念曾規限著女性須要處理家務和照顧孩子的責任。踏入20世紀,女性對社會事務的參與也開始積極起來。時至今日,香港的女性在多方面都能跟男性般獲得平等對待。她們不單止得到較佳的敎育機會, 在社會的角色也越來越重要。因此,無論在運動比賽及健體活動上,女性的參與比十年前的大為提高。究竟香港女性過去在主要運動競賽上的參與情況和未來女性在運動發展上方針應該如何?這都是本文探討的綱領。


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-469
Author(s):  
You Jin Kim ◽  
Moo Kyoung Song

In recent years, a strong focus on popular music has increased in South Korean music education. Although this shift in the curricular content has led to studies on the formation of popular music repertories in the curriculum, few studies have attended to teachers’ attitudes and learning practices to popular music as related factors. To understand popular music education in South Korea, we investigated music teachers’ attitudes, learning practices, and critical issues that have arisen in their teaching. We conducted an online survey with secondary music teachers ( N = 138) followed by a focus group interview ( n = 6). The findings suggest that teachers’ attitudes toward popular music (positive, neutral, or negative) were associated with their learning practices, including the time they spent on popular music, their selections of popular music genres, and musical activities. This provides a starting point for further investigation of the teachers’ attitudes related to their learning practices in shaping popular music curriculum. Regardless of the teachers’ attitudes to popular music, they agreed popular music a good place to start for their students. In addition, they had similar or divergent perceptions and concerns of teaching popular music depending on their attitudes, as they have found their own individual ways of incorporating popular music.


Author(s):  
Rachel Sorenson

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of undergraduate music education majors regarding the skills needed to teach popular music classes, and their comfort level with those skills. Preservice music educators ( N = 81) completed a researcher-designed questionnaire describing their previous experiences with popular music, their perceptions of necessary teaching skills for popular music instruction, their comfort level with those skills, and their overall feelings of preparedness to teach popular music. Respondents rated the teaching skills of ear training, piano/keyboard, and informal learning practices as most important. In addition, respondents indicated that they were most comfortable with the teaching skills of singing, music theory, and informal learning practices. In general, respondents felt moderately prepared to teach popular music, but many believed they were lacking important knowledge and skills, including proficiency on various instruments, understanding how to integrate popular music, and music software proficiency. Implications for music educators are discussed.


1986 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 306-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wong Siu-lun

Hong Kong, by now, is quite modern. At the same time, it remains essentially Chinese. Measured by most accepted indicators, Hong Kong qualifies as a newly industrialized region. It is using so much inanimate power to drive machines that the increase in fuel consumption is no longer proportionate to the increase in population size. It has joined the ranks of the “ecological phase 4 societies” in which the livelihood of the inhabitants is dependent on “extrasomatic energy”. As it began its transition in the pattern of energy usage much later, Hong Kong is still well behind western industrial nations in per capita energy consumption. But in Asia, in 1981, it had the third highest per capita use of commercial energy after Japan and Singapore, which stood at 1,487 kilograms of coal equivalent. Between 1960 and 1979 its average annual growth rate in energy consumption was about 10 per cent, a rate higher than those of all the industrial economies and most Asian countries except Singapore and the Republic of Korea. Hong Kong's productivity is high, ranking third in Asia after Japan and Singapore with a Gross National Product (GNP) per capita that grew at the annual rate of 6 8 per cent. By 1980 its GNP per capita reached US$4,240.5 In terms of employment, in 1981, 49 per cent of its labour force was engaged in manufacturing and construction, 47 per cent in commerce and various lines of services, and just 2 per cent in agriculture. The inhabitants of Hong Kong are keen participants in the mass media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Bryan Powell

The fields of community music and popular music education have expanded rapidly over the past few decades. While there are many similarities between these two fields, there are aspects that set these two areas of practice apart. This article seeks to explore the intersections of community music interventions and popular music education to explain how they are similar and in which ways they are unique. This discussion centres on examinations of facilitation, ownership of music, training and certification, inclusivity, life-long music making, amateur engagement, informal learning and non-formal education, and social concerns. The Greek philosophy of eudaimonism, understood as ‘human flourishing’ is then used to explore the opportunities for human fulfilment through popular music education and community music approaches.


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