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- Volume 2, Issue 2, 2009
International Journal of Community Music - Volume 2, Issue 2-3, 2009
Volume 2, Issue 2-3, 2009
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The community in music
By Wayne BowmanAn understanding of community music requires careful thought about what community means, how it is created and sustained, the kinds of community we wish to create and sustain and why, and how music and education relate to such considerations. Communities are fluid, porous, negotiated affairs: dynamic patterns of human interaction. To understand communities we need to understand the practices that stitch and weave them together. To ask What community? is also to ask What kind of practice?, What kind of people are deemed capable of engaging in it?, What kinds of attitudes, beliefs, and actions does it exist to sustain?, and What kinds of attitudes, beliefs, and actions are necessary to sustain and nourish it? Communities are not just places where we engage in musically educational practices: they are also creations of those practices. It is thus imperative that we consider both the kind of community we presume to serve and the kinds of community that predominate the music(s) we endorse as educational vehicles.
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Learning through music festivals
More LessThis article explores one particular music festival, the Festspel i Pite lvdal, as a source of musical learning. It is grounded in the empirical data of a case study that was gathered through observation, a survey, in-depth interviews, documentation and archival records. The theoretical framework was taken from modernity theory, and the study's epistemological basis was Lave and Wenger's theories of situated learning. The festival was seen as a community of practice, in which the attendees learned through peripheral participation. The findings showed that the audience learned music, about music and via music. When the outcome was compared with theories of musical knowledge, it became evident that it was similar to what people are expected to gain from other informal as well as formal music educational settings. The findings are discussed in relation to music education philosophy and research as well as perspectives found within ethnomusicology.
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And as I go, I love to sing: the Happy Wanderers, music and positive aging
More LessGlobally, society is faced with an aging population and there is an increasing interest in active aging. This involves all facets of social participation and recognizes the potential contribution older people can make to their communities. This study considers music as a way for older people to engage actively with their communities and both give and receive considerable positive benefits. This single case study focuses on a small choir, the Happy Wanderers, formed by a group of older people to perform to residents in care facilities and to sufferers of dementia. The group has a well-established and busy performance schedule. Participation in the group enhances the lives of the members as well as those of their audiences. Several significant themes emerged in this discussion of community music engagement: gaining a sense of purpose and fulfilment; maintaining relationships; and personal growth.
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John Langstaff: community musician and reveler
Authors: Sarah J Bartolome and Patricia Shehan CampbellJohn Langstaff fits within a select group of pathfinders in American music education who have shaped the profession's service to schools and society with special attention to the traditional musical expressions of American folk. His life and works are worthy of study for the contributions he made as a singer who modelled the nuances of traditional genres and styles for school children, youth and adult amateur musicians who shared his enthusiasm for traditional song, and for his attention to bringing energy, ideas and support to community music making. This biographical study pays tribute to Langstaff and his contributions to issues that concern the current practices of music educators and community musicians. The exuberance of Langstaff, in his own singing of traditional songs on recordings and in the productions of the performance groups he named The Revels, are telling of the best of music education and the emergence of community music practice. Of equal significance is his initiation of a movement that quite literally revelled in, and was deeply committed to, the restoration of traditional music of a bygone era.
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Sharing music and culture through singing in Australia
By Dawn JosephThis article discusses the notion of sharing music and culture as an effective platform to celebrate diversity in Melbourne, Australia. My research project Celebrating Music Making and Finding Meaning investigates and illustrates a context of diversity, one that promotes respect in a multicultural society sharing music and culture of a minority group. In 2007, I interviewed members of the South African choir in Melbourne; here I report on some data regarding why members sing in the choir, what are their understandings of a so-called South African identity and what they would like to share with the wider Australian community. I present some theoretical perspectives focusing on the notion of cultural and musical identity within a multicultural society. Such findings may have similar implications for other multicultural educational settings exploring the possibilities of valuing cultural diversity and making music across ages through a choir where difference can be shared and celebrated.
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The Gettin' Higher Choir: Exploring culture, teaching and learning in a community chorus
More LessThe purpose of the study was to examine musical teaching and learning in an informal context in order to glean information and strategies that may be helpful to teachers and students in more formal settings. Through an ethnographic approach, the researcher examined the particular culture of the Gettin' Higher Choir (GHC) to gain a deep understanding of the GHC experience and examine the teaching and learning processes of this 300-member organization. Data collection techniques consisted of observation, interviews and the examination of material culture. Analysis was ongoing throughout and following the fieldwork process. Themes which emerged included the following: who comes and why, the ethos of GHC, by-products of membership in the Gettin' Higher Choir, the teaching and learning process, and the outlier view. Implications for music education were suggested.
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Lifewide as well as lifelong: broadening primary and secondary school music education's service to students' musical needs
More LessThis article advocates the adoption of the concept of lifewide by school music teachers in the United States of America. The author presents limitations of the lifelong paradigm as applied to school music in the United States of America and advocates that music teachers would better foster lifelong musicking if they addressed the lifewide musical needs of students. The author provides a clarification of the lifewide concept and draws on research studies on amateur and popular musicians to gain insights on the kinds of things school music teachers could be doing to address both lifewide and lifelong musical needs of students.
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An elusive bird: perceptions of music learning among Canadian and American adults
More LessDiscovering the perceptions that non-professional adult musicians hold regarding their participation in community ensembles may help improve instruction as well as the ability to more fully understand the implications of lifelong music making. Andragogy, or the teaching and learning strategies associated with adult learning, provided the impetus for investigating the various methods that adults use in learning to play music. This research is based on inferences derived from ethnographic research conducted with adult members of the Cosmopolitan Music Society in Edmonton, Alberta, and the New Horizons Band in East Lansing, Michigan. Results from interview data suggested that there are dichotomous effects in music that present themselves to learners as attractive yet unattainable, and reporting several of these mystifying aspects of music learning may aid music teachers and community ensemble directors in facilitating musical empowerment among students and mollifying the often disparate and conflicted relationship between school music and community music.
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Learning from our elders: survey of New Horizons International Music Association band and orchestra directors
More LessThis study asked NHIMA directors (N = 74) who teach older adults to compare their experiences in teaching adult and youth learners. I analysed their comments through the lens of andragogical principles. Directors commented on teaching style, instructional content, learner attitudes and adult physical limitations. According to these directors, adults displayed less flexibility in learning that was perhaps compensated for by richer life experiences and higher levels of commitment, indicative of issues related to fluid and crystallized intelligence. The directors appreciated that rehearsals with adults could be done in a more relaxed fashion. Their enthusiastic comments about teaching adults raise questions about the ways that youth are taught.
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The Australian National University Music Education Programme: developing a new approach to ongoing engagement in music making for all ages
By Susan WestThe Music Education Programme at the Australian National University has developed a new, system-wide model in music education, focusing on peer and inter-generational social engagement through music making during and beyond the school years. One aim of the programme is to find alternative ways of fostering lifelong engagement in music making. A central feature of the approach is the consultation processes with students from ages five to seventeen. This process has included the development of a range of repertoires for different year levels that can be taught by both classroom teachers and music specialists. It has also revealed ways in which students of all ages can interact with a wide range of repertoire choices, regardless of social and cultural pressures or lack of exposure to choices outside of the school environment. Evidence presented in this paper documents the philosophy of the programme, aspects of the research profile, current findings and future directions.
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A content analysis of choral students' participation perceptions: implications for lifelong learning
Authors: Debbie Rohwer and Mark RohwerThe purpose of this study was to describe students' perceptions of their high school choral experience. The participants in the study were 57 choral musicians attending a north Texas high school. Each participant was asked to complete a broad writing task: to write a letter to the incoming varsity choir members in order to help the musicians to transition to the new choral environment. The writings were analysed for consistent content topics. Six overarching themes emerged: (1) social; (2) musical; (3) director-related; (4) effort/fun; (5) memories; and (6) concerns. Conclusions cite the need for an understanding of student perceptions so that transitions to new ensembles can be made easier through the joint efforts of high school and community music ensemble directors.
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The facilitraining rainbow: an interview with Phil Mullen
By Kari VeblenThis interview explores the work and thinking of UK-based CM worker and trainer Phil Mullen. Mullen speaks of his commitment to the facilitraining rainbow, furthering all dimensions of teacher role, leadership and modes of delivery in community music.
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Book Review
More LessChorus and Community, Karen Ahlquist (ed.), (2006), 1st edn., Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 323 pp., ISBN-13: 9780252030376 (hbk.: alk. paper), $30.00 ISBN-10: 0252030370 (hbk.: alk. paper), $30.00 ISBN-13: 9780252072840 (pbk.: alk. paper), $65.00 ISBN-10: 0252072847 (pbk.: alk. paper), $65.00
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