Music Practice Commons^™

A Quiet Mind: The Key To Musical Performance, Rebecca Ann Percy

University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Tasman Connections Through Song: Engaging In Classrooms And In Community, Dawn Joseph Dr, Robyn Trinick Mrs

The Qualitative Report

Community is an overarching word that encompasses people in formal and informal settings covering a broad range of activities. Engaging through sound “in community” and “as community” provides the opportunity for participants to come together making and sharing music through song. This paper focuses on voice (singing) across the Tasman within formal and informal locations. Author One draws on interview data within an “informal” space with three community choirs in regional Victoria (Australia) from her wider study Spirituality and Wellbeing: Music in the Community. The data shows that choir members use voice to connect with their local community around issues ...

Music Generated Narratives: Elaborating The Da Capo Interview Technique, Martin Cortazzi, Nick Pilcher, Lixian Jin

The Qualitative Report

This paper shows how we played researcher-selected extracts of music to participants in “the Da Capo technique,” to elicit narratives of their learning experiences. Previously, we used music alongside other techniques in an interview about learning; here we explore the Da Capo technique as a standalone technique to study its potential for narrative recall. To do this, we played 10 one-minute long extracts of classical music (five “Western” and five “Chinese”) to 20 participants (10 “Western” and 10 “Chinese”). After hearing each piece, participants were asked if the music recalled for them any experiences of learning. When it did so ...

Teaching Music To Immigrant And Refugee Students In American Music Classrooms, Sameerah Jabrhamdan

Music Education Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore what music teachers of refugee and immigrant students in the Western New York area are doing to include this population within their music classrooms. This is a qualitative multiple case study, with the purpose of finding out as much information possible from three participants who teach music to immigrant and refugee students. The three participants teach across different musical contexts, including middle school general music in an urban setting, elementary general music in a suburban setting, and elementary through high school strings in an afterschool urban setting. This study sought to find ...

A Content Analysis Of Flow And Music: Teaching, Performance, And Consumption, Lindsey Keay

Dissertations

Positive psychologist Csikszentmihalyi (2008) describes flow as a state of heightened concentration and arousal where a balance of skill and challenge cause someone to be so absorbed in a task that everything else seems to disappear. The result of the experience can be one of immense enjoyment and satisfaction. Musical activities lend themselves well to the flow experience due to the multifaceted tasks of listening, practicing, performing, or teaching music. With flow being an ideal creator of intrinsic motivation, music teachers and performers should consider flow and its implications for music making and music instruction.

The purpose of this study ...

Chihsuan Yang Interview, Omar Dyette

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Winner of the 3Arts Award in 2015 and the 2016 Camargo Foundation Fellow in France. Chihsuan was born and raised in Taiwan and moved to the United States at the age of 15. Being a Classically-trained violinist/pianist her whole life, Chihsuan acquired the skills to expand horizons beyond tradition, and it also granted her fluency in the universal language of music. As an eclectic and versatile violinist, erhu player, and pianist, actively engaged in the music scene around the globe, Chihsuan’s body of work spans across a multitude of genres and reaches beyond borders. Chihsuan has performed ...

Electronics And The Music Of Miles Davis, Darren E. Shekailo

School of Arts & Sciences Theses

Miles Davis produced a wealth of music relying on the use of electronic instruments and new technology. With their adoption, the famous trumpeter began his “electric” period. Examining the electric period of Davis’s career helps us trace the profound impact of electronic instruments and technological advances on his music.

Santería In A Globalized World: A Study In Afro-Cuban Folkloric Music, Nathan Montgomery

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The Yoruban people of modern-day Nigeria worship many deities called orichas by means of singing, drumming, and dancing. Their aurally preserved artistic traditions are intrinsically connected to both religious ceremony and everyday life. These forms of worship traveled to the Americas during the colonial era through the brutal transatlantic slave trade and continued to evolve beneath racist societal hierarchies implemented by western European nations. Despite severe oppression, Yoruban slaves in Cuba were able to disguise orichas behind Catholic saints so that they could still actively worship in public. This initial guise led to a synthesis of religious practice, language, and ...

Music Is The "Noise Of Remembering" Tracing The Origins, Influences, And Connectivities Of West African Music, Adam Friedman

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The popularity and universal reach of music genres such as Jazz and Hip Hop attest to the idea that these forms have been long established as a vital part of global musical culture. For people who are familiar with Afrocentric music, it is clear that styles such as Jazz and Hip Hop are rooted in, and inextricably linked with, African culture and history. What is more difficult to make sense of, however, is how and why transplanted African culture came to have such wide reaching impact in the new contexts in which it was taken up – because the stories behind ...

Mari Folk Music Influences On Andrei Eshpai's Viola Concerto, Vengerskie Napevy (Hungarian Tunes), And A Transcription Of Hungarian Tunes For Viola In The Viola Repertoire, Anna Petrovna Ivanova

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Andrei Eshpai was one of the most renown composers who drew on the Mari folk music traditions, within the confines of Western classical music. One of the main purposes of the research is to show how the Mari folk music was applied in Eshpai’s compositions for the viola. In the current research, I will explain the similarity between folk music of Mari and Hungary because the researched composition Hungarian Tunes by Eshpai is based on Mari tunes, however is called Hungarian Tunes. Another purpose of this research is to provide musical analysis and a performance guide for the compositions ...

A Quiet Mind: The Key To Musical Performance, Rebecca Ann Percy

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

In this day and age, many people believe they can multitask. From texting and driving to watching television while studying for a test, we always want to accomplish many things at once. Musicians often try to multitask while practicing their instruments. They think about breathing, articulation, jaw movement, finger technique, and more. However, research has proven that multitasking is impossible. According to Christine Rosen in “The Myth of Multitasking,” time and efficiency are actually lost while the brain decides which task to perform. Practicing with a “quiet mind” will lead to peak performance and avoid the detrimental effects of trying ...

Resources And Exercises For Expanding Your Approaches In Teaching The Bach Cello Suites To The High School Violist, Dragana Loncar

Strings Graduate Theses & Dissertations

This paper is a useful resource for teaching Bach’s cello suites to young violists age 13-18. The first part contains background information on the six suites and suggested uses of the four manuscripts in teaching. Seven excerpts, four copies and three published editions of the first eight measures of the Sarabande from Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007 are included as an example of the different edition markings that the teacher/student can refer to. The second part explores key affekts and Karen Tuttle’s Emotion list as possible teaching tools for expression. At the end of ...

Cowboy Art Song: A Contextual And Musical Analysis Of Libby Larsen's "Cowboy Songs", Ann Gabrielle Richardson

Dissertations

This dissertation sprang from a combination of two personal interests: cowboy culture and classical art song. The union of my cowgirl heritage with my career as a classical vocalist has long fueled an interest in a particular niche of repertoire: soprano art song with thematic connections to the North American cowboy. A conducted state of research reveals no scholarly literature exploring this specific topic. Libby Larsen’s collection, Cowboy Songs, fulfills the aforementioned niche, successfully capturing the spirit, musical idioms, and cultural themes of the North American cowboy.

Chapter I lays a contextual foundation for cowboy song, providing a catalogue ...

An Analysis Of The Life And Work Of Alice Fletcher And Frances Densmore, Lauren Hoak

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This work is an analysis of the life and work of Alice Fletcher and Frances Densmore. Through the examination of The Study of Omaha Indian Music and Chippewa Music, the influences of settler-colonialism, music, gender, and religion are taken into account. It also summarizes contemporary opinions of Fletcher and Densmore and discusses the lasting effect that their research had.

A Pedagogical Study Of The "Four Lauds For Solo Violin" By Elliott Carter, Heesun Shin

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Elliott Carter was one of the most influential composers of the past century, leaving a diverse and prolific body of over 150 works to posterity. Along with the Violin Concerto and “Mnemosyné,” the Four Lauds are the only works written for solo violin. Literature on these pieces is not extensive thus far, and this dissertation will provide an introduction to any student who is interested in learning about Carter’s violin music. In the first chapter, I will discuss relevant aspects of Carter’s musical language such as his use of all-trichord hexachord, all-interval trichord, complement union property, and his ...

Score Study Procedures And Processes Among Instrumental Music Teachers And Students Of Varying Experience., Jacob Mark Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Score study is agreed to be an essential part of musical preparation by professional conductors. However, no single method for score study has been established. This thesis examines the score study habits of undergraduate music majors, graduate students with a minimum of five years of instrumental teaching experience, and highly-qualified instrumental music teachers with a minimum of ten years of experience. Qualitative methods are employed, and interview transcriptions are the primary sources of data. Findings showed that instrumental music teachers and those with instrumental teaching experience base many of their score study decisions on the abilities and needs of students ...

Ministry Through Musical Performance: Establishing Biblical, Historical, And Pedagogical (Educational) Precedent For The Christian Performing Artist, Lindsey Graham

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As a performing artist, the author suggests in an “American Idol” culture, Christian artists have largely lost their identity as worshipers with a ministry of the Gospel through music. The Christian performing artist has the responsibility to commit to spiritual maturity and personal growth. This thesis project proposes the artist is a communicator of the Gospel through music and seeks to substantiate the Christian performing artist through biblical, historical, and educational rationale and precedent. Biblical rationale of the Christian performing artist is considered in Old Testament and New Testament principle and precedent. Historical rationale and precedent is established through the ...

Mindfulness And Musicians: An Overview, Stephen Dubetz

Honors Projects

This overview of mindfulness begins with a basic history of the practice and filters chronologically to the application of mindfulness in the lives of modern musicians. From its origins in ancient India to its acceptance into Western culture and its eventual use in clinical, professional, and educational settings, this paper touches briefly on the story of mindfulness as it developed through time. The main questions addressed within are: What is mindfulness? Where does it come from? What use does it have? What fields of Western professional culture have adopted it so far and to what extent? and How can it ...

Music & Media: A Senior Recital & Honors Project, Kayla Luteran

Honors Projects

Music & Media: A Senior Recital & Honors Project is a cross-media marketing strategy. The main purpose of this project was to develop visually appealing, informative graphic elements and branding to effectively promote a musical performance. This is interdisciplinary in nature and includes written and oral communication.

While many music students post about their senior recital on social media or place flyers, they do not develop a thorough methodology for generating buzz about their event. Although musical preparation is of utmost importance for a performance, I believe that time should be spent on all aspects of planning the recital. With this project ...

Incorporating Sight-Reading Into The Private Violin Lesson, Karen Van Acker

Strings Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Sight-reading is a necessary skill for violin students of all ages. Whether a student is in a school orchestra, preparing for an audition, interested in playing chamber music at a wedding or special event, or aspiring to be a professional orchestral musician, the ability to sight-read well and comfortably is invaluable. Many students tend to cringe at the thought of sight-reading, especially in an audition or in a public setting, and the initial reading of a new solo piece can be daunting. Therefore, it is necessary to teach sight-reading in the private lesson environment. More specifically, it is important to ...