Youth Orchestras

Youth orchestras are central to the music education of tens of thousands of children and teenagers throughout the world, yet studies of their social function, cultural significance, and pedagogical value remain largely unexplored. Even if students receive their principal musical training through individual lessons and school ensembles, participating in a separate youth orchestra can be a life-changing experience for many musicians. This article defines youth orchestras in an international context, and then articulates and measures the pedagogical value of them in one particular case study: the ethos and educational outcomes of the Young Australian Concert Artists program of the Australian Youth Orchestra.

The Role of Bodily Movement in Learning and Performing Music: Applications for Education

This article explores the fundamental role of bodily movement in the development of musical knowledge and performance skills; in particular, how the body can be used to understand expressive musical material and to communicate that meaning to coperformers and audience. The relevance to the educator is explored (whether working with a child or adult beginner, or a more advanced learner). The article is divided into six main sections, tracing the role of body movement skill in music production, expressive musical performance, developing learners to play their musical instruments with technical and expressive appropriateness, coperformer coordination, and projection for audience perception. The work builds on a growing interest in the embodied nature of musical experience. The article concludes with case study observations of practical insights and applications for the teacher.

Commentary: Music Learning and Teaching in Infancy and Early Childhood

This article, which presents an overview by exploring the characteristic features of a range of musical beginnings and the possibilities for learning that are evidenced, demonstrates that much of young children's early music-making is improvised in the moment as a means to communicate with others and self. Such communications, from responses and exchanges in “motherese” or “parentese” to young children's independent invented song-making, may be regarded as the first “oral tradition.” Oral traditions draw on the power of repetition and the human urge to generate and create. Their musical outputs feature elaboration and ideational fluency as well as the acknowledgment of the musical cultures from which the tradition arises.

Musicality and Musical Culture: Sharing Narratives of Sound from Early Childhood

This article, which focuses on the early experiences of the young child and the ways these lay the foundations for playful and communicative engagement with music throughout life, discusses a theory of the beginnings of music; music teaching and learning; and creative musicality in action. It concludes that as our musicality is shaped by our particular cultural heritage, it can either be helped by sensitive teachers who walk with us along a path of mutual cultural discovery, or hindered by those who would see culture as something to be upheld and protected, separate from life. To trust that, with sensitive guidance, our ingenious musical creativity will find its own way within the rich, complex cultural worlds humans have created is the paradox which all teachers of music face.

Multiple Worlds of Childhood: Culture and the Classroom

This article investigates the multifaceted worlds of children's musical experience. Reflecting on cultures of childhood, cultural transmission, and cultural renewal, it examines the major changes to children's musical worlds brought about by globalization, migration, and the media. The increasing cultural diversity of these worlds—both real and virtual—provides challenges for teachers working within schools, but also promising prospects of renewed pedagogical practices and resources, particularly those provided by school communities and by the new media, with which children are remarkably adept. Connectedness between schools, communities, and children's own ways of knowing and interrelating with their worlds benefits all participants in this process of mutual exchange.

Voice Health and Vocal Education

Vocal health is of paramount importance to educators and performers of all ages and genres. Whether selecting appropriate repertoire for soloists, adjusting spacing to provide ideal self-to-other ratios between choir singers, developing age-appropriate exercises for young singers, or managing medication side effects on older singers' voices, optimizing vocal health creates the conditions for singers to reach their full potential and to produce expressive performances. This article begins by considering some of the occupational hazards voice educators and performers face. It also provides an overview of evidence-based healthy practices for teaching and performing, and offers suggestions for teaching healthy voice use to students. Included in this discussion is information on integrating the function of the whole body with the voice. The article closes with information on developing healthy learning/teaching environments.

Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Content

This article, which addresses the interfaces between learning, teaching, and curriculum in classroom music teaching, presents a theoretical framework drawn from the work of the British sociologist Basil Bernstein that allows for the analysis of different curriculum and pedagogic models in music education. To elaborate on this, a number of different curriculum models are presented and analyzed. Finally, the article shares some thoughts concerning future music curricula, based on Bernstein's principles of democratic rights in education, which focus on the possibility of promoting social justice in the music classroom.

Pathways to Learning and Teaching indigenous and world music Ensembles

This article, which explores ensemble teaching models using the learning experiences of the Monash University World Music Orchestra (Australia) as an example, discusses both indigenous and world music in an ensemble setting. It also includes definitive processes for teaching both indigenous and world music ensembles, an investigation of teaching and learning challenges, and solutions for teachers. Learning and teaching principles and methods that facilitate multiple approaches toward the acquisition of skills and knowledge are discussed in an ordered teaching plan. Challenges, strategies, and solutions are central to the analysis, and use case studies as a guide.

Once from the Top: Reframing the Role of the Conductor in Ensemble Teaching

This article, which considers the role of the ensemble conductor in schools to determine to what extent that model leads to independent musicianship, begins by examining the characteristics of modern school conductors, including who they are, how they got there, and what they do. One of the shortcomings of the traditional approach to ensemble rehearsals where the conductor (and only the conductor) identifies the problem and then applies a solution is that there is often a lack of transfer when a similar situation comes up in the future. Conductors must look for ways to involve their students in the rehearsal process and provide opportunities for them to exercise their budding musicianship and enrich their musical understanding. Rehearsals can be a context in which students actively engage rather than simply follow directions—something that happens because of them rather than something that happens to them. Within this framework, the role of the conductor expands to become the role of the collaborator—an expert and professionally trained collaborator, to be sure, but one who works with rather than simply works on younger and less-experienced musicians.

The Young Singer

Development of the singing voice is especially important for the young. Those who learn to sing early reap a lifetime of benefits, which, in addition to developing aesthetic awareness, include personal, social, and educational outcomes. Singing is a skill that requires disciplined study if the singer is to develop his/her potential. While vocal music teachers agree that children can and should learn to sing, some have considered it inappropriate to teach singing to children via formal instruction. Fortunately, this opinion is changing. The authors agree that structured singing is a learned behavior and formal vocal instruction is appropriate for most young people. This article presents specific information for developing child and adolescent singers.