Exercises in Composing

This part is designed primarily with composers in mind, yet while experience writing music would be helpful here, it is not absolutely required to enjoy doing these exercises. The exercises may be done by an individual alone, and they are also useable in a composition class, private lesson, theory seminar, or improvisation workshop. Part V opens with an essay about creativity in general that also explores ideas of truth and beauty in music. Beauty is not discussed in a mundane sense—not in the sense of prettiness or loveliness—but rather the concept of Beauty within music composition as it is embodied in the relation of the parts to the whole, a sense of proportion, and the aptness of technique to the idea expressed. This is followed by a series of exercises designed to inspire musical creativity. These involve a range of approaches, including: imitating models; channeling composers; creating alternatives to existing music; using spoken text as subtext for composition; stylistic juxtapositions and confrontations; altering parameters such as meter; rewriting pre-existing music; using structural analysis to create new music; cutting and pasting; group composing games; versions and variations of a phrase; deceptive endings, detours, and interruptions; and music based on physical manifestations of emotion discovered through acting.

System Development for Learning Process Monitoring in Private Lesson Institution Using Codeigniter Framework

The monitoring information system is one of the main functions in managing student data in Generasi Cerdas private lesson. This study provides the results of an analysis and design of a monitoring information system that can be used to facilitate services to students in monitoring including grades and student absence. This application developed using UML Design and PHP Programming with CodeIgniter Framework and use MySQL Database. CodeIgniter is an open source framework in the form of a PHP framework with an MVC model (Model, View, Controller) for building dynamic websites. The resulting application has been able to provide information of teacher, student, student value and student absence data to assist in processing student and teacher data in the Generasi Cerdas private lesson, so that the institution has a faster, more efficient monitoring information system and easier to use.

Assessing Practice Habits: A Study of Collegiate Instrumental Teachers’ Estimation of Students’ Practice Habits Versus Students’ Self-Report

This survey research aims to assess the collegiate instrumental teachers’ ability to estimate students’ practice habits in the practice room based on the students’ performance during the instrumental lesson and to collect collegiate instrumental teachers’ suggestions on estimating students’ practice habits in the practice room. A questionnaire in two forms was designed for 15 collegiate instrumental teachers and 30 music performance undergraduate students who were selected through a convenience sampling approach. The percent agreement (PA) and Cohen’s kappa (𝜿) were utilised to examine the inter-rater reliability between the results of both participants on the practice habits that focus on the practice time, practice sessions, goal setting, focused attention, mental practice, technique practice, metronome practice, practise with an electronic tuner, and practise with other practice strategies. The low average results, 31.50% on the percent agreement and .0437 on the Cohen’s kappa revealed that collegiate instrumental teachers cannot effectively estimate their students’ practice habits in the practice room based on the students’ performance during the instrumental lesson. However, an interesting observation was made from the suggestions given by the teachers, that is, the importance of communication of practice habits as well as observation of them in the private lesson studio. To improve, a system that teaches the key indicators of estimating students’ practice habits or a training package or method to observe students’ use of practice habits in the practice room is recommended to develop for future teachers.

Establishing a Foundation

Chapter Four explores how early childhood music and movement classes might utilize appropriate yoga postures and breath work for very young children from the ages of three to six, concluding with a sample curriculum for an eight-week summer music course. Building on research on the benefits of music education starting in early childhood, as well as research on the importance of slow, integrated movement for optimal learning and neuromuscular development, this chapter shows how introductory musical concepts may be blended with yoga postures and breath work to enhance attention, motivation, and aural awareness. Some of the proposed poses emphasize crossing the midline, which enhances integration across the two hemispheres of the brain. The postures and breath work may also be used with elementary-age students, so the final section describes how specific techniques might be incorporated in the private lesson, as well.

Near-Peer Mentorship: A Model for Private Music Instruction in an Underserved Community

The case presented in this study focused on the experiences of students enrolled in a Saturday day music program situated in an underserved community. Students in this community represent a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, and we were interested in whether younger students in the program would benefit from receiving lessons from an older student from the same community. This case study was bound by the shared experiences of the participants who engaged in music teaching and learning through this community music program. Data included the following: student surveys, participant interviews, private lesson and orchestra class observations, and teacher assessments. Overall, near-peer mentorship was beneficial. The majority of participants in this study experienced gains in performance skills. Interviews with the mentors revealed several benefits from tutoring a younger student, including self-analysis of instrument performance, positive feelings gained from helping others, and social benefits. The fifth-grade students who were assigned a mentor reported that they learned instrument-specific skills from their mentor and felt more comfortable and confident playing different songs because instruction was individualized.

Musical Identity

Chapter 2 proposes a theory of adolescent musical identity based on the experiences of 30 American adolescents, ages 12-18. Musical identity is organized in four developmental periods: (1) active construction, (2) emerging, (3) developing, and (4) focusing. Each developmental period is described in detail with subcategories. Important others who contribute to musical identity include parents and family members, peers, music educators, private lesson instructors, and community music facilitators. The chapter highlights the central experience of musical identity development as feeling musical, a pivotal moment where adolescents described making music for themselves. At the end of the chapter, a visual figure situates musical identity as a dynamic process traveling from externalized to internalized identity construction.

Navigating and Sustaining Musical Involvement at School and in Lessons

This chapter includes family reflections on musicking in both school music and private lessons, because these settings represented the main areas where parents viewed others as playing a primary role in their children’s music education. Issues of parental decision making, child agency, and family logistics are discussed. These factors were raised by many of the parents in this study when discussing school music and private lesson opportunities, often in recognition of the need to resist using music as a tool for advancement. This chapter argues that a combination of parenting musically and musical parenting skills was needed to navigate and sustain a family’s involvement and experience in music programs. There were four themes that arose from the data related to school and lessons: uneven access to formal music education, the complexity of parental decision making, the role of performance, and the challenges and rewards of home practice.

Hopes and Dreams

This chapter presents portraits of the eight families’ hopes and dreams for their children. The general and musical hopes and dreams were often intertwined. The family profiles in this chapter show a wide range of aspirations as well as approaches to reaching those goals, but one unifying thread is the importance of parents, children, and teachers sharing awareness of the family motivations. This chapter argues that clarifying parents’ hopes and dreams for their children’s musicking is essential to finding the right balance of parenting musically and musical parenting; it is also valuable for school music teachers and private lesson teachers to take time to know families’ motivations for participation in music.

Assessment in the Private Studio Setting: Supporting Student Learning, Providing Effective Instruction, and Building Faculty-Student Interaction

A significant amount of literature exists about how to design and implement an effective assessment process for students in a music program, specifically in the classroom setting. This article suggests a framework for incorporating individualized assessment in the private-lesson setting based on effective classroom assessment practices. Many in-service music teachers also teach privately. Applying their knowledge of classroom-based assessments and effective teaching strategies to the private-lesson setting can support student learning, provide effective instruction, and build faculty and student interaction. The private teacher plays a significant role in the education of music students. All music instructors—applied and classroom—should prioritize high-quality instruction, provide formative feedback to students, demonstrate teacher effectiveness to their employer (students, parents, or music educators), and use self-reflection to improve their instruction.