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Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or
music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger i ...
ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do original research on ways of
teaching Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the of an educational institution. Teaching is closely related ...
and
learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and ...
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
. Music education scholars publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, and teach
undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...
and graduate education students at
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
education or music schools, who are training to become music teachers. Music education touches on all learning domains, including the domain (the development of skills), the cognitive domain (the acquisition of knowledge), and, in particular and the affective domain (the learner's willingness to receive, internalize, and share what is learned), including music appreciation and sensitivity. Many music education curriculums incorporate the usage of mathematical skills as well fluid usage and understanding of a secondary language or culture. The consistency of practicing these skills has been shown to benefit students in a multitude of other academic areas as well as improving performance on standardized tests such as the ACT and
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...
. Music training from preschool through post-secondary education is common because involvement with music is considered a fundamental component of human
culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
and
behavior Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...
. Cultures from around the world have different approaches to music education, largely due to the varying histories and politics. Studies show that teaching music from other cultures can help students perceive unfamiliar sounds more comfortably, and they also show that musical preference is related to the language spoken by the listener and the other sounds they are exposed to within their own culture. During the 20th century, many distinctive approaches were developed or further refined for the teaching of music, some of which have had widespread impact. The Dalcroze method ( eurhythmics) was developed in the early 20th century by
Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. The Kodály Method emphasizes the benefits of physical instruction and response to music. The
Orff Schulwerk The Orff Schulwerk, or simply the Orff Approach, is a developmental approach used in music education. It combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons that are similar to a child's world of play. It was developed by the Germany, Germa ...
approach to music education leads students to develop their music abilities in a way that parallels the development of western music. The
Suzuki method The Suzuki method is a mid-20th-century music curriculum and teaching method created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki. The method claims to create a reinforcing environment for learning music for young learners. Backgroun ...
creates the same environment for learning music that a person has for learning their native language. The Gordon Music Learning Theory provides music teachers with a method for teaching musicianship through ''
audiation Gordon music-learning theory is a model for music education based on Edwin Gordon's research on musical aptitude and achievement in the greater field of music learning theory. The theory is an explanation of music learning, based on audiation (see ...
'', Gordon's term for hearing music in the mind ''with understanding''. Conversational Solfège immerses students in the musical literature of their own culture, in this case American. The Carabo-Cone Method involves using props, costumes, and toys for children to learn basic musical concepts of staff, note duration, and the piano keyboard. The concrete environment of the specially planned classroom allows the child to learn the fundamentals of music by exploring through touch. The
MMCP The Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project (MMCP) is a music education curricular plan that sought to improve music education through a child-centered approach. Rationale MMCP is an alternative educational model to music education as a respons ...
(Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project) aims to shape attitudes, helping students see music as personal, current, and evolving.
Popular music pedagogy Popular music pedagogy — alternatively called popular music education, rock music pedagogy, or rock music education — is a development in music education consisting of the systematic teaching and learning of popular music both inside and outsi ...
is the systematic teaching and learning of
rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...
and other forms of
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
both inside and outside formal classroom settings. Some have suggested that certain musical activities can help to improve breath, body and voice control of a child.


Overview

In
primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...
in European countries, children often learn to play instruments such as keyboards or recorders, sing in small choirs, and learn about the elements of music and
history of music Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of la ...
. In countries such as
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, the
harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...
is used in schools, but instruments like keyboards and violin are also common. Students are normally taught basics of Indian Raga music. In
primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...
and
secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
s, students may often have the opportunity to perform in some type of
musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group, musical group, or a band is a group of people who perform Instrumental music, instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist ...
, such as a
choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
,
orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...
, or
school band A school band is a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together. A concert band is usually under the direction of one or more conducting, conductors (band directors). A school band consists of woodwind instrum ...
:
concert band A concert band, also called a wind band, wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind orchestra, symphonic band, the symphonic winds, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind instrument, woodwind, brass ...
,
marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...
, or
jazz band A jazz band (jazz ensemble or jazz combo) is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands vary in the quantity of its members and the style of jazz that they play but it is common to find a jazz band made up of a rhythm section and a ho ...
. In some secondary schools, additional music classes may also be available. In
junior high school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes ...
or its equivalent, music usually continues to be a required part of the
curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...
.Randel, D. (Ed.) (1986). Education in the United States. In ''The New Harvard Dictionary of Music'' (pp. 276–278). London/Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. At the
university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
level, students in most arts and humanities programs receive academic credit for music courses such as music history, typically of Western art music, or music appreciation, which focuses on listening and learning about different musical styles. In addition, most North American and European universities offer music ensembles – such as choir, concert band, marching band, or orchestra – that are open to students from various fields of study. Most universities also offer degree programs in music education, certifying students as primary and secondary music educators. Advanced degrees such as the D.M.A. or the Ph.D. can lead to university employment. These degrees are awarded upon completion of music theory, music history, technique classes, private instruction with a specific instrument, ensemble participation, and in-depth observations of experienced educators. Music education departments in North American and European universities also support interdisciplinary research in such areas as
music psychology The psychology of music, or music psychology, is a branch of psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and/or musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is pe ...
, music education
historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
, educational
ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...
,
sociomusicology Sociomusicology (from Latin: ''socius'', "companion"; from Old French ''musique''; and the suffix ''-ology'', "the study of", from Old Greek λόγος, ''lógos'' : "discourse"), also called music sociology or the sociology of music, refers to bo ...
, and
philosophy of education The philosophy of education is the branch of applied philosophy that investigates the nature of education as well as its aims and problems. It also examines the concepts and presuppositions of education theories. It is an interdisciplinary fiel ...
. The study of western art music is increasingly common in music education outside of North America and Europe, including Asian nations such as South Korea, Japan, and China. At the same time, Western universities and colleges are widening their curriculum to include music of outside the Western art music canon, including music of West Africa, of Indonesia (e.g.
Gamelan music Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. The most common instruments used are metallophones (played with mal ...
), Mexico (e.g.,
mariachi Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, two ...
music), Zimbabwe (
marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...
music), as well as
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
. Music education also takes place in individualized, lifelong learning, and in community contexts. Both amateur and professional musicians typically take music lessons, short private sessions with an individual teacher.


Instructional methodologies

While instructional strategies are determined by the music teacher and the music
curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...
in his or her area, many teachers rely heavily on one of many instructional
methodologies In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...
that emerged in recent generations and developed rapidly during the latter half of the 20th century. These methodologies combine learning methods from traditional and contemporary educational theories to focus on active learning as they support student-led instruction with creative activities.


Major international methods


Dalcroze method

The Dalcroze method was developed in the early 20th century by
Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. The method is divided into three fundamental concepts − the use of
solfège In music, solfège (British English or American English , ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a mnemonic used in teaching aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, W ...
, improvisation, and eurhythmics. Sometimes referred to as "rhythmic gymnastics," eurhythmics teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement, and is the concept for which Dalcroze is best known. It focuses on allowing the student to gain physical awareness and experience of music through training that engages all of the senses, particularly kinesthetic. According to the Dalcroze method, music is the fundamental language of the human brain and therefore deeply connected to who we are. American proponents of the Dalcroze method include Ruth Alperson, Ann Farber, Herb Henke, Virginia Mead, Lisa Parker, Martha Sanchez, and Julia Schnebly-Black. Many active teachers of the Dalcroze method were trained by Dr. Hilda Schuster who was one of the students of Dalcroze.


Kodály method

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education. ...
(1882–1967) was a prominent Hungarian music educator, philosopher, and composer who highlighted the benefits of sensory perception, physical instruction, and response to music. In reality it is not an educational method, it is an innovative system of literacy and musical training, which proposes that music begins from an early age, such as the development of the mother tongue, where music is an educational tool for social transformation, in addition, proposes that every human being has access to music through the use of the senses, their voice and their corporal expression; His teachings are within a creative and fun educational framework built on a solid understanding of auditory, intuitive, physical, auditory, and visual sensory perception, thereby laying the foundations for listening, musical expression, reading, writing, and musical theory. This occurs in several stages through songs that give rhythmic, melodic, harmonic patterns and all musical elements, in aural, oral, verbal, auditory and visual recognition, reading, writing, creativity and theoretical understanding. Kodály's main goal was to instill in his students a lifelong love of music and he felt it was the duty of the child's school to provide this vital element of education. Some of the characteristic teaching tools of Kodály are the use of hand signs or solfa, rhythmic syllables (stick notation) and mobile C (verbalization). The most important thing is that the methodology belongs to everyone, so music is available to everyone. Most countries have used their own folk or community music traditions to build their own instructional sequence, but in the United States the Hungarian sequence is primarily used. The work of Denise Bacon, Katinka S. Daniel, John Feierabend, Jean Sinor, Jill Trinka, and others brought Kodaly's ideas to the forefront of music education in America.


Orff Schulwerk

Carl Orff Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...
was a prominent German composer. Orff Schulwerk is considered an "approach" to music education. It begins with a student's innate abilities to engage in rudimentary forms of music, using basic rhythms and melodies. Orff considers the whole body a percussive instrument and students are led to develop their music abilities in a way that parallels the development of western music. The approach fosters student self-discovery, encourages improvisation, and discourages adult pressures and mechanical drill.
Carl Orff Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...
developed a special group of instruments, including modifications of the
glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...
,
xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...
,
metallophone A metallophone is any musical instrument in which the sound-producing body is a piece of metal (other than a metal string), such as tuned metal bars, tubes, rods, bowls, or plates. Most frequently the metal body is struck to produce sound, usual ...
,
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
, and other
percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
s to accommodate the requirements of the Schulwerk courses. Each bar on the instruments is able to be removed to allow for different scales to be formed. Orff's instruments build motor skills, both visually and kinesthetically, in younger children that might not have those abilities built up yet for other instruments. Experts in shaping an American-style Orff approach include Jane Frazee, Arvida Steen, and Judith Thomas.


Suzuki method

The Suzuki method was developed by Shinichi Suzuki in Japan shortly after World War II, and uses music education to enrich the lives and
moral character Moral character or character (derived from ) is an analysis of an individual's steady Morality, moral qualities. The concept of ''character'' can express a variety of attributes, including the presence or lack of virtues such as empathy, courag ...
of its students. The movement rests on the double premise that "all children can be well educated" in music, and that learning to play music at a high level also involves learning certain character traits or virtues which make a person's soul more beautiful. The primary method for achieving this is centered around creating the same environment for learning music that a person has for learning their native language. This 'ideal' environment includes love, high-quality examples, praise, rote training and repetition, and a time-table set by the student's developmental readiness for learning a particular technique. While the Suzuki Method is quite popular internationally, within Japan its influence is less significant than the Yamaha Method, founded by
Genichi Kawakami was the president of the Yamaha Corporation from 1950 to 1977, and again from 1980 to 1983. He is often credited with the international success of Yamaha and was also widely influential as a community music educator. Born in Hamakita, Kawakami ...
in association with the
Yamaha Music Foundation The Yamaha Music Foundation is an organization established in 1966 by the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Education for the purpose of promoting music education and music popularization. It continued a program of music classes begun by Yamah ...
.


Other notable methods

In addition to the four major international methods described above, other approaches have been influential. Lesser-known methods are described below:


Gordon's music learning theory

Edwin Gordon's music learning theory is based on an extensive body of research and field testing by Aiden Griffin and others in the larger field of music learning theory. It provides music teachers with a comprehensive framework for teaching musicianship through
audiation Gordon music-learning theory is a model for music education based on Edwin Gordon's research on musical aptitude and achievement in the greater field of music learning theory. The theory is an explanation of music learning, based on audiation (see ...
, Gordon's term for hearing music in the mind with understanding and comprehension when the sound is not physically present. The sequence of instructions is discrimination learning and inference learning. Discrimination Learning, the ability to determine whether two elements are the same or not the same using aural/oral, verbal association, partial synthesis, symbolic association, and composite synthesis. With inference learning, students take an active role in their own education and learn to identify, create, and improvise unfamiliar patterns. The skills and content sequences within the audiation theory help music teachers establish sequential curricular objectives in accord with their own teaching styles and beliefs. There also is a learning theory for newborns and young children in which the types and stages of preparatory audiation are outlined.


World music pedagogy

The growth of cultural diversity within school-age populations prompted music educators from the 1960s onward to diversify the music curriculum, and to work with ethnomusicologists and artist-musicians to establish instructional practices rooted in musical traditions. 'World music pedagogy' was coined by Patricia Shehan Campbell to describe world music content and practice in elementary and secondary school music programs. Pioneers of the movement, especially Barbara Reeder Lundquist, William M. Anderson, and Will Schmid, influenced a second generation of music educators (including J. Bryan Burton, Mary Goetze, Ellen McCullough-Brabson, and Mary Shamrock) to design and deliver curricular models to music teachers of various levels and specializations. The pedagogy advocates the use of human resources, i.e., "culture-bearers," as well as deep and continued listening to archived resources such as those of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.


Conversational Solfège

Influenced by both the Kodály method and Gordon's Music Learning Theory, Conversational Solfège was developed by Dr. John M. Feierabend, former chair of music education at the Hartt School,
University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. It enrolled approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students as ...
. The program begins by immersing students in the musical literature of their own culture, in this case American. Music is seen as separate from, and more fundamental than, notation. In twelve learning stages, students move from hearing and singing music to decoding and then creating music using spoken syllables and then standard written notation. Rather than implementing the Kodály method directly, this method follows Kodály's original instructions and builds on America's own folk songs instead of on Hungarian folk songs.


Carabo-Cone method

This early-childhood approach, sometimes referred to as the sensory-motor approach to music, was developed by the violinist Madeleine Carabo-Cone. This approach involves using props, costumes, and toys for children to learn basic musical concepts of staff, note duration, and the piano keyboard. The concrete environment of the specially planned classroom allows the child to learn the fundamentals of music by exploring through touch.


Popular music pedagogy

'Popular music pedagogy' — alternatively called rock music pedagogy, modern band, popular music education, or rock music education — is a 1960s development in music education consisting of the systematic teaching and learning of
rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...
and other forms of
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
both inside and outside formal classroom settings. Popular music pedagogy tends to emphasize group improvisation, and is more commonly associated with community music activities than fully institutionalized school music ensembles.


Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project

The Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project was developed in 1965 as a response to declining student interest in school music. This creative approach aims to shape attitudes, helping students see music not as static content to be mastered, but as personal, current, and evolving. Rather than imparting factual knowledge, this method centers around the student, who learns through investigation, experimentation, and discovery. The teacher gives a group of students a specific problem to solve together and allows freedom to create, perform, improvise, conduct, research, and investigate different facets of music in a spiral curriculum. MMCP is viewed as the forerunner to projects in creative music composition and improvisation activities in schools.


Standards and assessment

Achievement standards are curricular statements used to guide educators in determining objectives for their teaching. Use of standards became a common practice in many nations during the 20th century. For much of its existence, the curriculum for music education in the United States was determined locally or by individual teachers. In recent decades there has been a significant move toward adoption of regional and/or national standards. MENC: The National Association for Music Education, created nine voluntary content standards, called the ''National Standards for Music Education''. These standards call for: #
Singing Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...
, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. # Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music. # Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments. # Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines. #
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
and notating music. # Listening to, analyzing, and describing music. # Evaluating music and music performances. # Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts. # Understanding music in relation to history and culture.


Integration with other subjects

Some schools and organizations promote integration of arts classes, such as music, with other subjects, such as math, science, or English, believing that integrating the different curricula will help each subject to build off of one another, enhancing the overall quality of education. One example is the
Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...
's "Changing Education Through the Arts" program. CETA defines arts integration as finding a natural connection(s) between one or more art forms (dance, drama/theater, music, visual arts, storytelling, puppetry, and/or creative writing) and one or more other curricular areas (science, social studies, English language arts, mathematics, and others) in order to teach and assess objectives in both the art form and the other subject area. This allows a simultaneous focus on creating, performing, and/or responding to the arts while still addressing content in other subject areas. Music in education is a way of incorporating music in teaching a subject. Music can be useful in education because, to play music it utilizes critical thinking and problem solving skills. Depending on the subject, it offers a new way of learning information. For example, in literacy, it can explain different elements like metaphors, characters and setting. Music teaches repetition which in turn benefits mathematical skills. For learning mathematics, the components of music are very helpful, simplifying concepts such as fractions and ratios. This is because of the way music works. Music also involves frequency and sound waves which are beneficial to understanding concepts in science. Understanding the different pitches in words and patterns in structure coincide with the way music structure is understood and read. The European Union Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013 has funded three projects that use music to support language learning. Lullabies of Europe (for pre-school and early learners), FolkDC (for primary), and the recent PopuLLar (for secondary). In addition, the ARTinED project is also using music for all subject areas.


Significance

A number of researchers and music education advocates have argued that studying music enhances
academic achievement Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's deg ...
, such as William Earhart, former president of the Music Educators National Conference, who claimed that "Music enhances knowledge in the areas of mathematics, science, geography, history, foreign language, physical education, and vocational training." Researchers at the University of Wisconsin suggested that students with piano or keyboard experience performed 34% higher on tests that measure spatial-temporal lobe activity, which is the part of the brain that is used when doing mathematics, science, and engineering. A long-term study over twelve years at the
University of Graz The University of Graz (, formerly: ''Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz'') is a public university, public research university located in Graz, Austria. It is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-old ...
also found a change in the grey matter in the brain of children with music lessons. An experiment by Wanda T. Wallace setting text to melody suggested that some music may aid in text recall. She created a three verse song with a non-repetitive melody; each verse with different music. A second experiment created a three verse song with a repetitive melody; each verse had exactly the same music. A third experiment studied text recall without music. She found the repetitive music produced the highest amount of text recall, suggesting music can serve as a mnemonic device. Smith (1985) studied background music with word lists. One experiment involved memorizing a word list with background music; participants recalled the words 48 hours later. Another experiment involved memorizing a word list with no background music; participants also recalled the words 48 hours later. Participants who memorized word lists with background music recalled more words demonstrating music provides contextual cues. Citing studies that support music education's involvement in intellectual development and academic achievement, the United States Congress passed a resolution declaring that: "Music education enhances intellectual development and enriches the academic environment for children of all ages; and Music educators greatly contribute to the artistic, intellectual and social development of American children and play a key role in helping children to succeed in school." Bobbett (1990) suggests that most public school music programs have not changed since their inception at the turn of the last century. "…the educational climate is not conducive to their continuance as historically conceived and the social needs and habits of people require a completely different kind of band program." A 2011 study conducted by Kathleen M. Kerstetter for the Journal of Band Research found that increased non-musical graduation requirements, block scheduling, increased number of non-traditional programs such as magnet schools, and the testing emphases created by the No Child Left Behind Act are only some of the concerns facing music educators. Both teachers and students are under increased time restrictions" Patricia Powers states, "It is not unusual to see program cuts in the area of music and arts when economic issues surface. It is indeed unfortunate to lose support in this area especially since music and the art programs contribute to society in many positive ways." Comprehensive music education programs average $187 per pupil, according to a 2011 study funded by the NAMM Foundation. The Texas Commission on Drugs and Alcohol Abuse Report noted that students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances including alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs.


Teaching with music

Studies have shown that music education can be used to enhance cognitive achievement in students. In the United States an estimated 30% of students struggle with reading, while 17% are reported as having a specific learning disability linked to reading. Using intensive music curriculum as an intervention paired alongside regular classroom activities, research shows that students involved with the music curriculum show increases in reading comprehension, word knowledge, vocabulary recall, and word decoding. According to the National Association for Music Education, in a study done in 2012, those who participated in musical activities scored higher on the SAT. These students scored an average of 31 points higher in reading and writing, and 23 points higher in math. When a student is singing a melody with text, they are using multiple areas of their brain to multitask. Music affects language development, increases IQ, spatial-temporal skills, and improves test scores. Music education has also shown to improve the skills of dyslexic children in similar areas as mentioned earlier by focusing on visual auditory and fine motor skills as strategies to combat their disability. Since research in this area is sparse, we cannot convincingly conclude these findings to be true, however the results from research done do show a positive impact on both students with learning difficulties and those who are not diagnosed. Further research will need to be done, but the positive engaging way of bringing music into the classroom cannot be forgotten, and the students generally show a positive reaction to this form of instruction. Music education has also been noted to have the ability to increase someone's overall IQ, especially in children during peak development years. Spatial ability, verbal memory, reading and mathematic ability are seen to be increased alongside music education (primarily through the learning of an instrument). Researchers also note that a correlation between general attendance and IQ increases is evident, and due to students involvement in music education, general attendance rates increase along with their IQ. Fine motor skills, social behaviors, and emotional well-being can also be increased through music and music education. The learning of an instrument increases fine motor skills in students with physical disabilities . Emotional well being can be increased as students find meaning in songs and connect them to their everyday life. Through social interactions of playing in groups like jazz and concert bands, students learn to socialize and this can be linked to emotional and mental well-being. There is evidence of positive impacts of participation in youth orchestras and academic achievement and resilience in Chile. According to the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA), "the world's top academic countries place a high value on music education. Hungary, Netherlands, and Japan have required music training at the elementary and middle school levels, both instrumental and vocal, for several decades." In contrast to previous experimental studies, a meta-analysis published in 2020 found a lack of evidence to support the claim that musical training positively impacts children's cognitive skills and academic achievements, with the authors concluding that "researchers' optimism about the benefits of music training is empirically unjustified and stems from misinterpretation of the empirical data and, possibly,
confirmation bias Confirmation bias (also confirmatory bias, myside bias, or congeniality bias) is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or Value (ethics and social sciences), val ...
."


Music advocacy

In some communities – and even entire national education systems – music is provided little support as an academic subject area, and music teachers feel that they must actively seek greater public endorsement for music education as a legitimate subject of study. This perceived need to change public opinion has resulted in the development of a variety of approaches commonly called "music advocacy". Music advocacy comes in many forms, some of which are based upon legitimate scholarly arguments and scientific findings, while other examples controversially rely on emotion, anecdotes, or unconvincing data. Recent high-profile music advocacy projects include the " Mozart Effect", the National Anthem Project, and the movement in World Music Pedagogy (also known as Cultural Diversity in Music Education) which seeks out means of equitable pedagogy across students regardless of their race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic circumstance. The Mozart effect is particularly controversial as while the initial study suggested listening to Mozart positively impacts spatial-temporal reasoning, later studies either failed to replicate the results, suggested no effect on IQ or spatial ability, or suggested the music of Mozart could be substituted for any music children enjoy in a term called "enjoyment arousal." Another study suggested that even if listening to Mozart may temporarily enhance a student's spatial-temporal abilities, learning to play an instrument is much more likely to improve student performance and achievement. Educators similarly criticized the National Anthem Project not only for promoting the educational use of music as a tool for non-musical goals, but also for its links to
nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
and
militarism Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...
. Contemporary music scholars assert that effective music advocacy uses empirically sound arguments that transcend political motivations and personal agendas. Music education philosophers such as Bennett Reimer, Estelle Jorgensen, David J. Elliott, John Paynter, and Keith Swanwick support this view, yet many music teachers and music organizations and schools do not apply this line of reasoning into their music advocacy arguments. Researchers such as Ellen Winner conclude that arts advocates have made bogus claims to the detriment of defending the study of music, her research debunking claims that music education improves math, for example.David J. Elliot and Marissa Silverman, Music Matters, A Philosophy of Music Education, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 38 Researchers Glenn Schellenberg and Eugenia Costa-Giomi also criticize advocates incorrectly associating correlation with causation, Giomi pointing out that while there is a "strong relationship between music participation and academic achievement, the ''causal'' nature of the relationship is questionable." Philosophers David Elliott and Marissa Silverman suggest that more effective advocacy involves shying away from "
dumbing down Dumbing down is the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content in education, literature, cinema, news, video games, and culture. Originating in 1933, the term "dumbing down" was movie-business slang, used by screenplay writers, meanin ...
" values and aims through slogans and misleading data, energy being better focused into engaging potential supporters in active music-making and musical-affective experiences, these actions recognizing that music and music-making are inherent to human culture and behavior, distinguishing humans from other species.Yudkin, J. (2008). Understanding Music (p. 4). Upper Saddle River, NJ:Pearson/Prentice Hall. The focus is also on advocacy of music education as important, despite disparities in income and social status. Woodrow Wilson said "We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks."


Cross-cultural

The music, languages, and sounds we are exposed to within our own cultures determine our tastes in music and affect the way we perceive the music of other cultures. Many studies have shown distinct differences in the preferences and abilities of musicians from around the world. One study attempted to view the distinctions between the musical preferences of English and Japanese speakers, providing both groups of people with the same series of tones and rhythms. The same type of study was done for English and French speakers. Both studies suggested that the language spoken by the listener determined which groupings of tones and rhythms were more appealing, based on the inflections and natural rhythm groupings of their language. Another study had Europeans and Africans try to tap along with certain rhythms. European rhythms are regular and built on simple ratios, while African rhythms are typically based on irregular ratios. While both groups of people could perform the rhythms with European qualities, the European group struggled with the African rhythms. This has to do with the ubiquity of complex polyrhythm in African culture and their familiarity with this type of sound. While each culture has its own musical qualities and appeals, incorporating cross-cultural curricula in our music classrooms can help teach students how to better perceive music from other cultures. Studies show that learning to sing folk songs or popular music of other cultures is an effective way to understand a culture as opposed to merely learning about it. If music classrooms discuss the musical qualities and incorporate styles from other cultures, such as the Brazilian roots of the Bossa Nova, the Afro-Cuban clave, and African drumming, it will expose students to new sounds and teach them how to compare their cultures' music to the different music and start to make them more comfortable with exploring sounds. Multicultural Education Music education has expanded to include educational approaches that take into account students' backgrounds. Socioeconomic status, race, gender, and identity play a factor in how a student approaches learning. In multicultural education, educators can adapt their teaching and classroom to include their student's background and culture to create equity in the classroom. Multicultural education is defined as "a field of study designed to increase educational equity for all students that incorporates, for this purpose, content, concepts, principles, theories, and paradigms." A conceptual model by McKoy, Lind, and Butler addresses the five pillars of content areas that play in multiculturalism. These pillars are student, teacher, content, instruction, and context. Using this model research, educators can cater their classroom to break down barriers and support an equitable learning environment. A multicultural approach to music teaching aims to expand student's knowledge and appreciation of other cultures and world music. This approach also broadens student's understanding of history and geography of other peoples through art forms expressed in different cultures. Culturally Responsive Teaching Culturally responsive teaching has roots dating back to the Civil Rights era in the United States, following the Supreme Court case ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
''. It is defined as "a learning theory in which teachers work to adapt and incorporate their students background and culture into the classroom. Following the desegregation of schools in the United States, one of the first theories was developed in the 1960's, theorizing that the success of students of color in academic settings was related to their home culture. They further correlated student's socioeconomic status to academic success, being referred to as "culturally disadvantaged." As music education grew in the U.S. throughout the 70's and 80's, music had expanded outside of the Western world, incorporating world music. In the 80's and 90's, as multicultural music became more prominent in music, educators started to develop culturally responsive pedagogy in response. There are six features to culturally responsive teaching. These features are: validating, comprehensive, multidimensional, empowering, transformative, and emancipatory. This teaching validates the student's whole culture and self, and contextualizes knowledge, acknowledging various types of learning. Culturally responsive teaching asks educators to see diversity in a positive light and as a resource to creating equitable learning environments. In a recent study, a teacher copied the singing and speaking styles of her student's cultures, as well as their communication styles. It was found that students found this to be meaningful to them. Culturally responsive teaching requires educators to break down the barriers of what is considered acceptable in the classroom, expanding the notion of what is considered acceptable singing and music outside of Eurocentric ideals.


Role of women

While music critics argued in the 1880s that "...
women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...
omposerslacked the innate creativity to compose good music" due to "biological predisposition", later, it was accepted that women would have a role in music education, and they became involved in this field "...to such a degree that women dominated music education during the later half of the 19th century and well into the 20th century.""Traditional accounts of the history of music education
n the US N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphab ...
have often neglected the contributions of women, because these texts have emphasized bands and the top leaders in hierarchical music organizations."Dr. Sandra Wieland Howe. "Women Music Educators In The United States: A History", in ''GEMS (Gender, Education, Music, and Society)'', the on-line journal of Gender Research in Music Education. Vol 8, No 4 (2015) When looking beyond these bandleaders and top leaders, women had many music education roles in the "...home, community, churches, public schools, and teacher-training institutions" and "...as writers, patrons, and through their volunteer work in organizations." Despite the limitations imposed on women's roles in music education in the 19th century, women were accepted as
kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
teachers, because this was deemed to be a "private sphere". Women also taught music privately, in girl's schools, Sunday schools, and they trained musicians in school music programs. By the turn of the 20th century, women began to be employed as music supervisors in elementary schools, teachers in normal schools and professors of music in universities. Women also became more active in professional organizations in music education, and women presented papers at conferences. A woman, Frances Clarke (1860–1958) founded the Music Supervisors National Conference in 1907. While a small number of women served as President of the Music Supervisors National Conference (and the following renamed versions of the organization over the next century) in the early 20th century, there were only two female Presidents between 1952 and 1992, which " ssibly reflects discrimination." After 1990, however, leadership roles for women in the organization opened up. From 1990 to 2010, there were five female Presidents of this organization. Women music educators "outnumber men two-to-one" in teaching general music, choir, private lessons, and keyboard instruction . More men tend to be hired as for band education, administration and jazz jobs, and more men work in colleges and universities. According to Dr. Sandra Wieland Howe, there is still a "
glass ceiling A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Ful ...
" for women in music education careers, as there is "stigma" associated with women in leadership positions and "men outnumber women as administrators."


Americas


Latin American musical traditions


Historical aspects

Among the
Aztecs The Aztecs ( ) were a Mesoamerican civilization that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the ...
, a great variety of instruments were used for two main purposes: to curate and play - religious music (the purview of specialized priests; and to perform  court music - (played daily for the Aztec ruling class.) The education of Aztecs of all social ranks, were conducted in schools called ''calmecac, telpochcalli,'' and ''cuicacalli''. and was a requirement for all people. This emphasizes the great importance that music and dance played in the lives of the Aztecs. In Mayan culture, musicians occupied a space between the elite and the common people. Music played a prominent role and professional musicians using a variety of wind instruments, drums and rattles to celebrate military victories. Music also played a prominent role in the funeral rites of the elite. With Spanish and Portuguese colonization, music began to be influenced by European ideas and principles.The
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
used music education as a means to spread Christianity to local indigenous populations. One example of an early educator is Esteban Salas considered the first Cuban native-born art music composer developed Santiago de Cuba into a center of music excellence in the country. Salinas' influence in the development of Cuban music includes a collection of over 100 music compositions that established him as the initiator of the Cuban art music tradition. His legacy continues in modern-day Cuba where the Esteban Salas Early Music Festival is held every year in Havana. The festival attracts classical music artists from around the world to perform and teach music following the tradition of Esteban Salinas. Since music was taught to the general public by rote, until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, very few people knew how to read music other than those who played instruments. The development of music in Latin America mainly followed that of European development: Choirs were formed to sing masses, chants, psalms; secular music also became more prevalent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and beyond.


20th century

In the 20th century, music education in Latin America places a large emphasis on folk music, masses, and orchestral music. Many schools teach their choirs to sing in their native language as well as in English. Several Latin American Schools, specifically in
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
and
Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
, believe music to be an important subject and are working on expanding their programs. In Puerto Rico, there is no official music education policy governing early childhood music instruction. Outside of school, many communities form their own musical groups and organizations their performances being very popular with the local audiences. There are a few well-known Latin American choral groups, such as "El Coro de Madrigalistas" from Mexico. This famous choral group tours around Mexico, showing students around the country what a professional choral ensemble sounds like. There is also evidence of the positive impact of participation in youth orchestras and academic achievement and resilience in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
. Music education can improve academic results in children. In Colombia, the Medellin Music School network has been in operation for over two decades. It has been demonstrated that students involved in this music program have better academic achievement and are less inclined to participate in violence. The music program increases chances of graduation for participants.


Indigenous cultures

Beyond traditional choral music, young Latin American artists are now using hip-hop as a way to promote the revitalization of indigenous languages and celebrate traditions that originated before the Spanish Conquest. Hip-hop in Latin America now acts as a voice of the oppressed, establishing this form of music as an expression of social revolution.Hip hop as empowerment: voices in El Alto, Bolivia Authors Ariana TarifaSource InformationJune 2012, Volume25(Issue4)Pages, p.397To - 415 - International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education Throughout Latin America, young indigenous artists are now using hip hop as a way to express their struggle against poverty and injustice. The new music coming out of Latin America all shows influences that go back to ancient Indigenous traditions. Uchpa and Alborada are two successful Peruvian bands who have celebrated their indigenous roots. From Chile, Jaas Newen's song "Inche Kay Che" calls for the defense of traditional Indigenous culture. The song "Koangagu" by Brazilian group Brô MC's examines how Indigenous and modern Brazilian cultures can come together in music. "Presente y Combativo" by Parce MC, Mugre Sur, Sapín celebrates the life of a Bolivian rapper who was murdered in 2009.


United States


18th century

After the preaching of Reverend Thomas Symmes, the first singing school was created in 1717 in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
for the purposes of improving singing and music reading in the church. These singing schools gradually spread throughout the colonies. Music education continued to flourish with the creation of the Academy of Music in Boston. Reverend John Tufts published ''An Introduction to the Singing of Psalm Tunes Using Non-Traditional Notation'' which is regarded as the first music textbook in the colonies. Between 1700 and 1820, more than 375 tune books would be published by such authors as Samuel Holyoke, Francis Hopkinson, William Billings, and Oliver Holden. Music began to spread as a curricular subject into other school districts. Soon after music expanded to all grade levels and the teaching of music reading was improved until the music curriculum grew to include several activities in addition to music reading. By the end of 1864 public school music had spread throughout the country.


19th century

In 1832, Lowell Mason and George Webb formed the Boston Academy of Music with the purposes of teaching singing and theory as well as methods of teaching music. Mason published his ''Manuel of Instruction'' in 1834 which was based upon the music education works of Pestalozzian System of Education founded by Swiss educator
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (; ; ; 12 January 1746 – 17 February 1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking ...
. This handbook gradually became used by many singing school teachers. From 1837 to 1838, the Boston School Committee allowed Lowell Mason to teach music in the Hawes School as a demonstration. This is regarded as the first time music education was introduced to public schools in the United States. In 1838 the Boston School Committee approved the inclusion of music in the curriculum and Lowell Mason became the first recognized supervisor of elementary music. In later years Luther Whiting Mason became the Supervisor of Music in Boston and spread music education into all levels of public education (grammar, primary, and high school). During the middle of the 19th century, Boston became the model to which many other cities across the United States included and shaped their public school music education programs. Music methodology for teachers as a course was first introduced in the Normal School in Potsdam. The concept of classroom teachers in a school that taught music under the direction of a music supervisor was the standard model for public school music education during this century. (See also: '' Music education in the United States'') While women were discouraged from composing in the 19th century, "later, it was accepted that women would have a role in music education, and they became involved in this field...to such a degree that women dominated music education during the later half of the 19th century and well into the 20th century."


Early 20th century

In the United States, teaching colleges with four-year degree programs developed from the Normal Schools and included music.
Oberlin Conservatory The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory of Oberlin College, a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in ...
first offered the Bachelor of Music Education degree. Osbourne G. McCarthy, an American music educator, introduced details for studying music for credit in Chelsea High School. Notable events in the history of music education in the early 20th century also include: * Founding of the Music Supervisor's National Conference (changed to Music Educators National Conference in 1934, later MENC: The National Association for Music Education in 1998, and currentl
The National Association for Music Education – NAfME
in
Keokuk, Iowa Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk people, Sauk chief K ...
in 1907. * Rise of the school band and orchestra movement leading to performance oriented school music programs. * Growth in music methods publications. * Frances Elliot Clark develops and promotes phonograph record libraries for school use. * Carl Seashore and his ''Measures of Musical Talent'' music aptitude test starts testing people in music.


Middle 20th century to 21st century

The following table illustrates some notable developments from this period:


Present

Music course offerings and even entire degree programs in
online music education Online music education is a recent development in the field of music education consisting of the application of new technologies associated with distance learning and online education for the purpose of teaching and learning music in an online envir ...
developed in the first decade of the 21st century at various institutions, and the fields of world music pedagogy and
popular music pedagogy Popular music pedagogy — alternatively called popular music education, rock music pedagogy, or rock music education — is a development in music education consisting of the systematic teaching and learning of popular music both inside and outsi ...
have also seen notable expansion. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, social aspects of teaching and learning music came to the fore. This emerged as praxial music education, critical theory, and feminist theory. Of importance are the colloquia and journals of the MayDay Group, "an international think tank of music educators that aims to identify, critique, and change taken-for-granted patterns of professional activity, polemical approaches to method and philosophy, and educational politics and public pressures that threaten effective practice and critical communication in music education." With a new focus on social aspects of music education, scholars have analyzed critical aspects such as music and race, gender, class, institutional belonging, and sustainability.


Europe

Music has been a prominent subject in schools and other learning institutions in Europe for many centuries. Such early institutions as the Sistine Chapel Choir and the Vienna Boys Choir offered important early models of choral learning, while the Paris Conservatoire later became influential for training in wind band instruments. Several instructional methods were developed in Europe that would later impact other parts of the world, including those affiliated with Zoltan Kodaly,
Carl Orff Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...
, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, and ABRSM, to name but a few. Notable professional organizations on the continent now include the Europe regional branch of the International Society for Music Education, and the
European Association of Conservatoires The European Association of Conservatoires (AEC) is the main association of colleges and university schools of music in Europe and represents the interests of institutions that are concerned with training for the music profession. It is abbreviate ...
. In recent decades, Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe have tended to successfully emphasize
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
heritage, while the
Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...
have especially promoted popular music in schools.


Asia


India

Institutional music education was started in colonial India by
Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...
after he founded the
Visva-Bharati University Visva-Bharati (IAST: ''Viśva-Bhāratī''), () is a public central university and an Institute of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which ...
. At present, most universities have a faculty of music with some universities specially dedicated to fine arts such as
Indira Kala Sangeet University Indira Kala Sangit Vishwavidyalaya (IKSV), also Indira Kala Sangeet University, is a public university located in Khairagarh, Rajnandgaon district, Chhattisgarh, India. History In 1956, Maharaja Birendra Bahadur Singh and maharani Padmavati ...
, Swathi Thirunal College of Music, Prayag Sangeet Samiti or Rabindra Bharati University.
Indian classical music Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ...
is based on the Guru-Shishya parampara system. The
teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
, known as
Guru Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...
, transmit the musical knowledge to the student, or shishya. This is still the main system used in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
to transmit musical knowledge. Although European art music became popularized in schools throughout much of the world during the twentieth century (East Asia, Latin America, Oceania, Africa), India remains one of the few highly populated nations in which non-European indigenous music traditions have consistently received relatively greater emphasis. That said, there is certainly much western influence in the popular music associated with
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
film scores.


Indonesia

The Indonesian island of
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
is known for its rich musical culture, centered around
gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...
music. The two oldest gamelan instrument sets, dating from the twelfth century, are housed in the kratons (palaces) in the cities of
Yogyakarta Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by Hamengkubuwono, a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an importan ...
and
Surakarta Surakarta (Javanese script, Javanese: , Pegon script, Pegon: ), known colloquially as Solo (Javanese script, Javanese: ; ), is a major List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in Central Java, Indonesia. The city adjoins Karanganyar Reg ...
. Gamelan music is an integral part of the Javanese culture: it is a part of religious ceremonies, weddings, funerals, palace activities, national holidays, and local community gatherings. In recent years, there has been an increasing market for gamelan associated tourism: several companies arrange visits for tourists wishing to participate in and learn gamelan. Gamelan music has a distinct pedagogical approach. The term ''maguru panggul'', translated means "teaching with the mallet" describes the master-apprentice approach that is used most often when teaching the music. The teacher demonstrates long passages of music at a time, without stopping to have the student demonstrate comprehension of the passage, as in a western music pedagogy. A teacher and student will frequently sit on opposite sides of a drum or mallet instrument, so that both can play it. This provides the teacher an easy way to demonstrate, and the student can study and mimic the teacher's actions. The teacher trains the kendang player, who is the leader of the ensemble. The teacher works one on one with them and repeats the parts as many times as necessary until the piece is rhythmically and stylistically accurate. The Kendang player is sometimes relied on to transmit the music to their fellow gamelan members.


Africa

The South African Department of Education and the ILAM Music Heritage Project SA teach African music using western musical framework. ILAM's ''Listen and Learn'' for students 11–14 is "unique" in teaching curriculum requirements for western music using recordings of traditional African music. From the time that Africa was colonized up to 1994, indigenous music and arts being taught in schools was a rare occurrence. The African National Congress (ANC) attempted to repair the neglect of indigenous knowledge and the overwhelming emphasis on written musical literacy in schools. It is not well known that the learning of indigenous music actually has a philosophy and teaching procedure that is different from western "formal" training. It involves the whole community because indigenous songs are about the history of its people. After the colonization of Africa, music became more centered on Christian beliefs and European folk songs, rather than the more improvised and fluid indigenous music. Before the major changes education went through from 1994 to 2004, during the first decade of the democratic government, teachers were trained as classroom teachers and told that they would have to incorporate music into other subject areas. The few colleges with teaching programs that included instrumental programs held a greater emphasis on music theory, history of western music, western music notation, and less on making music. Up until 1999, most college syllabi did not include training in indigenous South African Music. In African cultures, music is seen as a community experience and is used for social and religious occasions. As soon as children show some sign of being able to handle music or a musical instrument they are allowed to participate with the adults of the community in musical events. Traditional songs are more important to many people because they are stories about the histories of the indigenous peoples.


Australia

Although the
National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with state or othe ...
for schools includes music under its Arts component, research published in 2005 and 2020 have shown that it varies widely from state to state and school to school, with some students receiving none at all. By state and territory:
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
's state primary schools has enjoyed good music programs since the 1980s;
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
's music education strategy and fund was formed in 2019; Victoria has a best practice framework;
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
,
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
, and the ACT employs specialist teachers in some primary schools; in
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, generalist teachers are responsible for teaching the whole primary school curriculum in state schools. In November 2018, ABC Television aired ''Don't Stop The Music'', a three-part series which documented the launch and progress of a music program in a primary school in an underprivileged area of
Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
, Western Australia. It showed the positive effects of the program on the students and their families, as well as the teachers. A broader project encouraged members of the public to donate musical instruments to disadvantaged schools, which led to Musica Viva Australia receiving over 4,500 instruments to process. The series featured popular musician
Guy Sebastian Guy Theodore Sebastian (born 26 October 1981) is an Australian singer who rose to fame after winning the Australian Idol (season 1), first season of ''Australian Idol'', in 2003. Born in Malaysia and raised in Adelaide, Australia, Sebastian h ...
and researcher and music educator Anita Collins, and was also supported by the
Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...
.


Notable music educators

* Jamey Aebersold * Stefan Ammer * Ysaye Barnwell *
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...
* Edward Bailey Birge *
Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...
* Allen Britton * Patricia Shehan Campbell * F. Melius Christiansen * Frances Elliott Clark * Satis N. Coleman * Julia Crane *
John Curwen John Curwen (14 November 1816 – 26 May 1880) was an English Congregational church, Congregationalist minister and diffuser of the tonic sol-fa system of music education created by Sarah Ann Glover. He was educated at Wymondley College in Her ...
* Max Deutsch * Peter W. Dykema * Will Earhart * Jacob Eisenberg * David J. Elliott * Eric Gilder * Sarah Ann Glover * Edwin Gordon * Lucy Green * Philip C. Hayden * David G. Hebert *
Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( ; ; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advo ...
* Jere T. Humphreys * Émile Jaques-Dalcroze * Dmitry Kabalevsky *
Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education. ...
* Paul R. Lehman * Charles Leonhard * Joseph E. Maddy * Michael Mark * Ellis Marsalis, Jr. *
Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young ...
* Lowell Mason * Luther Whiting Mason * Lin Manuel Miranda * James Mursell *
Carl Orff Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...
* John Paynter * Bennett Reimer * R. Murray Schafer * Christopher Small *
Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was ed ...
* Shinichi Suzuki *
Lennie Tristano Leonard Joseph Tristano (March 19, 1919 – November 18, 1978) was an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher of jazz improvisation. Tristano studied for bachelor's and master's degrees in music in Chicago before moving to New Yo ...
* John Tufts * Thomas Tyra *
Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...


Professional organizations

*
American Choral Directors Association The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is a non-profit organization with the stated purpose of promoting the field of choral music A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Lat ...
* American Orff-Schulwerk Association * American String Teachers Association * International Association for Jazz Education * International Society for Music Education * International Society for Philosophy of Music Education * National Association for Music Education (US-based: also called NafME, and previously MENC) * Music Teachers National Association * Nordic Network for Music Education (NNME)


See also

* '' Basic Concepts in Music Education'' * Colored music notation * List of music students by teacher * Musical Futures * Music education for young children *
Music school A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...
*
Musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...
* Research in Music Education * Timeline of jazz education *
Visual arts education Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practic ...
*
Vocal coach A vocal coach, also known as a voice coach (though this term often applies to those working with speech and communication rather than singing), is a music teacher, usually a piano accompanist, who helps singers prepare for a performance, often al ...
* Voice teacher


References


Bibliography

* Anderson, William M. and Patricia Shehan Campbell, eds. Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education. Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference, 1989. * Campbell, Patricia Shehan. Teaching Music Globally. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. * DeBakey, Michael E., MD. Leading Heart Surgeon, Baylor College of Music. * Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "The Singing Muse: Three Centuries of Music Education in Germany." ''Journal of Historical Research in Music Education'' XXVI no. 1 (2004): 8-27. * Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "Didaktik of Music: A German Concept and its Comparison to American Music Pedagogy." ''International Journal of Music Education (Practice)'' 22 No. 3 (2004): 277–286. * Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. ''Every Child for Music: Musikpädagogik und Musikunterricht in den USA.'' Musikwissenschaft/Musikpädagogik in der Blauen Eule, no. 74. Essen, Germany: Verlag Die Blaue Eule, 2006. . * Machover, Tod
"My Cello"
in Turkle, Sherry (editor), ''Evocative objects : things we think with'', Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 2007. * Pete Moser and George McKay, eds. (2005) ''Community Music: A Handbook''. Russell House Publishing. . * ''National Standards for Arts Education.'' Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference (MENC), 1994. . * Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February 1997. * Ratey, John J., MD. A User's Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001. * Rauscher, F.H., et al. "Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship," University of California, Irvine, 1994. * Seashore, Carl, "The Measurement of Musical Talent", New York, G. Schirmer, 1915 * Seashore, Carl, "The Psychology of Musical Talent", Boston, New York tc.Silver, Burdett and Company, 1919 * Seashore, Carl, "Approaches to the Science of Music and Speech", Iowa City, The University, 1933 * Seashore, Carl
"Psychology of Music"
New York, London, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1938 * Schippers, Huib. Facing the Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. * * * * Weinberger, Norm. "The Impact of Arts on Learning." MuSICa Research Notes 7, no. 2 (Spring 200).


Further reading

* Barrett, Margaret, 2010. A Cultural Psychology of Music Education. New York: Oxford University Press. * Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "Piano Improvisation Develops Musicianship." ''Orff-Echo'' XXXVII No. 1 (2004): 11–14. * * McPherson, Gary (2006). The Child as Musician. New York: Oxford University Press. * McPherson, Gary and Graham Welch (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Research in Music Education. New York: Oxford University Press. * * Schafer, R. Murray (1965). ''The Composer in the Classroom''. Toronto: B.M.I. Canada. 37 p. * Serenko, A. (2011). Student satisfaction with Canadian music programs: The application of the American Customer Satisfaction Model in higher education.
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 36(3): 281-299
* Woodall, Laura and Brenda Ziembroski, (2002)

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External links

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