Digital Commons Network^™

Bringing Music Back Into The Classroom And Its Benefits On Elementary School Students, Laura Alcaraz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This project brings to light the lack of music education in elementary classrooms despite its benefits to students. There are numerous positive advantages for students learning to play an instrument or participating in a choir, for example. The education system strives to educate its students to the best of their abilities. However, this focus has pushed away music education to math, science, and language arts, and prepared students for standardized testing. This senior capstone research project examines the benefits of bringing back music into the classroom through the use of literature review and anonymous interviews with public and private school …

In Her Own Hands: How Girls And Women Used The Piano To Chart Their Futures, Expand Women's Roles, And Shape Music In America, 1880–1920, Sarah F. Litvin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

American girls and women used the parlor piano to reshape their lives between 1880 and 1920, the years when the instrument reached the height of its commercial and cultural popularity. Newspapers, memoirs, biographies, women’s magazines, personal papers, and trade publications show that female pianists engaged in public-facing piano play and work in pursuit of artistic expression, economic gain, self-actualization, social mobility, and social change. These motivations drove many to use their piano skills to play beyond the parlor, by studying in conservatory, working as classical and popular music performers and composers, founding and teaching at schools, working as department store …

Literacy-Based Elementary Music Instruction And English Language Literacy Acquisition, Stefan Wolf

Graduate Teacher Education

It is often touted by music educators and proponents of music education in the public school system that music helps improve math and reading achievement and test scores. While this justification has undoubtedly saved some music programs, the purpose of this study is not to establish the usefulness of music education in improving other skills but rather to find parallels and overlaps between music literacy and English language acquisition and the pedagogy used to teach both and to determine what implications these relationships have for music literacy pedagogy for all. The author tentatively postulates that music literacy instruction has some …

Mobile Music Development Tools For Creative Coders, Daniel Stuart Holmes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project is a body of work that facilitates the creation of musical mobile artworks. The project includes a code toolkit that enhances and simplifies the development of mobile music iOS applications, a flexible notation system designed for mobile musical interactions, and example apps and scored compositions to demonstrate the toolkit and notation system.

The code library is designed to simplify the technical aspect of user-centered design and development with a more direct connection between concept and deliverable. This sim- plification addresses learning problems (such as motivation, self-efficacy, and self-perceived understanding) by bridging the gap between idea and functional prototype …

The Impact Of Informal Music Learning On Fifth Graders' Music Learning Processes And Perceptions Of General Music Class, Alejandro Juarez

Music Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe qualitatively the learning processes and perceptions of music class that emerged in a fifth-grade general music setting in which informal music learning processes were the fundamental components of the pedagogical approach. Initial research questions aimed to examine the ways students perceived their previous music classroom, how they used music outside of school, how informal music learning strategies impacted them, and how they believed popular musicians learned music. Students in this action research study were 50 fifth graders in two classes. Data were collected using many ethnographic techniques including interviews, questionnaires, and video/audio …

Integrating The Fine Arts, Cole Alexander

Honors Projects

This project seeks to understand and apply research to a lesson plan unit regarding the integration of the fine arts (art and music) into the general education classroom.

Pieces Of Us: Songwriting Our Stories In Harrisonburg, Va, Davina Miaw

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Storytelling is a way in which humans communicate their lives as narratives and understand the world around them. Storytelling through composing music allows students not only a means of personal expression, but also enhanced literacy skills, social skills, and understandings of basic musical concepts (e.g., Barrett & Stauffer, 2012; Kaschub & Smith, 2009). This thesis contains a digital storybook of fifth grade students’ original songs that documents their processes of turning ideas into final products and examines their thoughts and words about songwriting and identity development. It also shares autoethnographic reflections on ways in which my identity as a musician …

Tone Production, Musicianship Training, Repertoire Development, Performance Practice: A Pedagogical Overview Of Selected International Children's Choirs, Janet Hostetter

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Abstract

Directors of children’s choirs benefit greatly from understanding the pedagogical processes used in internationally-recognized children’s choirs. The sharing of ideas and resources among children’s choir directors is especially critical in the United States where diverse populations are the norm. Cross-cultural collaboration produces inspiration for new repertoire and exposes developing singers to the established performance practices upheld in choral communities of other nations. The effort to incorporate musical practices across regions builds meaningful relationships as directors and singers learn to understand, respect, and perform music of other lands. Finally, when children’s choir directors understand the pedagogical practices embraced by global …

Geographic Analysis Of Marching Band Culture (College And High School Ensembles), Steven Deamon

Honors Projects

Each marching band defines “culture” as their ensemble’s decisions on marching style, music choice, band size, instrumentation, and performance obligations. This study aims to categorize marching bands by cultural features, test if marching band characteristics are similar across a region, and explore how these trends in band culture relate to other demographic and socioeconomic trends. Research focused on bands in the Midwest and Southeastern United States and was conducted through video observation. Through analysis, it was found that most marching bands surveyed use a corps step, perform music of artistic merit, have between twenty-one and one hundred marchers, perform with …

Religious Music In Public School Choir: Attitudes, Practices, And Experiences, Landon R. Lamontagne

ETD Archive

A large portion of the choral music canon is sacred or religious in nature because the history of choral singing is in large part due to its importance in the development of the Christian church. Many public school choir teachers include sacred or religious music as a part of their repertoire because of its historic, musical and educational value. The fact that religious songs and sacred texts are often included in public school choir curricula has raised numerous philosophical and legal questions over the past several decades, although research regarding public school choir curriculum and religion is limited. The purpose …

Gender And Singing In The American Classroom, Amanda Franklin

Honors Program Theses

This thesis was written to uncover the history of gender and choral singing, draw connections between gender and music, analyze current student perspectives regarding singing in the American classroom, and offer suggestions for educators in present-day chorus classes. This thesis is most relevant for music educators who seek a more-gender balanced program, but the implications of this research can be applied to gender in education as a whole.

Teaching Music Literacy In Beginning Band: A Review Of Method Books And A Proposed Alternative Method, Haley Caroline Harrington

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to review current band methodologies, specifically for the beginning band, and identify the current process of teaching music literacy. For beginning bands, music literacy instruction is a powerful tool music students use to be successful at sight-reading. It cannot be assumed that simply because students perform music on instruments, they also will achieve high ratings at sight-reading. Brain-compatible learning may offer a solution in addressing the issue with how beginning band students are taught to read music. Therefore, this study will propose a more effective method, applying the Music Learning Theory of Edwin Gordon …

Role Of Spatial Ability In Musical Instrument Choice: Implications For Music Education, Tevis L. Tucker

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore the relationship between spatial ability and the wide range of musical instruments musicians play. Existing literature has established a link between musicianship and improved spatial ability, but researchers have yet to look at how the spatial makeup of different musical instruments may, in turn, reveal unique levels of spatial proficiency from one instrumentalist to the next. This study was formatted as an online survey that included a music experience scale, a demographics scale, and two measures of spatial ability: the Card Rotations Test (CRT) and the Paper Folding Test (PFT). Participants who …