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This article provides a counterstory to damaging, dominant narratives concerning migrant experiences and border crossings. Through counter-storytelling, I share Rey's lived experiences as a transfronterizx (transborder) student who crossed the United States–Mexico border daily to attend school and eventually, participate in school music. The overarching question guiding the study was: What are a transfronterizx student's experiences navigating school and school music in the United States? Based on the findings, Rey encountered literal and metaphorical barriers as he pursued an education in the United States. In particular, navigating language, deficit-based teaching practices, surveillance, and policing were key in his narrative. Currently as a music educator, Rey draws from his personal transfronterizx background to inform his music teaching practices in a predominantly Latine school community. Considerations for working with migrant students and families are discussed in light of ongoing sociopolitical issues, including the need for more culturally and linguistically responsive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we evaluated the validity and reliability of a Chinese adaptation of the Self-Regulated Practice Behavior (SRPB) scale developed by Miksza. Tasks included supplementing, altering, and translating items to create a viable adaptation for Chinese music majors and evaluating the construct validity and reliability of the Chinese-adapted Self-Regulated Practice Behavior (C-SRPB) scale. Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) were used to analyze responses provided by Chinese music majors (N = 880) from various music conservatories and universities. Results indicated that an adjusted six-factor ESEM model was the best fit to the data. Internal consistency reliability coefficients for the subscales ranged from good to excellent (αs =.77–.86). Significant correlations between six subscales of C-SRPB and practice habits (i.e., daily duration, self-rated efficiency, and percentage of time spent on informal practice) provided criterion validity evidence. Overall, the findings suggested that the C-SRPB is a valid and reliable tool for measuring the self-regulated music practice of music majors in China. The results also suggest that music majors' understanding of self-regulated practice vary according to individualistic and collectivist culture contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explored the ways in which listening tools within technology-mediated environments can facilitate children's self-regulation of instrumental music learning between lessons. This interpretive multiple case study utilized a software application assigned for 22 weeks to a piano teacher and four students (ages 8–10). Data sources include student and teacher semistructured interviews and practice session observations. Self-regulated learning theory informed the recommended learning approach with technology and provided a lens for within- and cross-case thematic analysis. Study findings suggest that digital tools that provide accessible and customizable listening experiences can be used strategically to promote independent listening opportunities between lessons, in turn facilitating processes of aural familiarity and problem-solving. However, students' self-regulatory development was also dependent on learning preferences and sustained teacher facilitation. The recommendations in this study can inform instrumental teachers about pedagogical approaches with technology, and the implications can contribute to the design of digital environments to support children's instrumental learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the contemporary polarized political landscape and the elective nature of much music teaching and learning, it is important that music educators understand how they reinforce or undermine stakeholders' political beliefs. The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate alignment between Lakoff's moral-political metaphors and Allsup's main ideas and to consider the value of certain moral-political discourses for music education. I demonstrate that Allsup favors concepts that align with Lakoff's liberal nurturant-parent metaphor, while his ideas work in tension with the conservative strict-parent metaphor. When conservative moral discourse goes unacknowledged, discussions about what kind of ethics should inform music education get misrecognized as arguments about whether ethical concerns should inform music education. I also examine the potential implications of practices aligning with music educators' individual moral-political beliefs, a community's moral-political preferences, or a balanced approach to the two metaphors. Yet, nurturant-parent values and associated practices often remain unarticulated and peripheral in music teacher education. I propose that music educators might name the role that conservative ethics play within the profession, provide increased attention to practices aligning with the nurturant-parent moral-political metaphor, and experiment with discourse and actions not directly invoking either moral-political metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of music practice instruction on middle school band students' ability to articulate and incorporate practice strategies. Participants were middle school band students at a large suburban middle school (N = 105). Using a pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design, participants were divided into control (n = 53) and experimental (n = 52) groups. Participants in the experimental group received 3 weeks of practice strategy instruction during ensemble warm-up time, and the control group continued with their typical warm-up routine. Pretest and posttest data included self-reported practice strategy lists (N = 105) and video of individual practice sessions (n = 20). Both self-reported and video data were coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as pretest–posttest within-groups comparisons. Thirteen hours of video data were further analyzed using an observational measure of self-regulation. Analyses revealed that experimental group participants identified and utilized significantly more practice strategies following the instructional intervention. Posttest experimental group practice sessions also revealed a more mature approach to practicing, including more strategic behaviors, greater variety in musical objectives, and longer periods spent focused on short excerpts of music. Implications for future research and middle school instrumental classroom practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to recognize and distinguish among varying musical styles is essential to developing aural skills and musicianship. Yet, this task can be difficult for music learners, particularly nonexperts. To address this challenge and guide music education practice, this study drew on cognitive psychological principles to investigate the effect of interleaved presentation of music pieces by various classical music composers on learning to identify these composers' styles. Participants with 4 or fewer years of musical experience were presented with music pieces from six composers in an interleaved manner (alternating between listening to different composers' works) and music pieces from another six composers in a blocked fashion (listening to works by one composer at a time before moving on to the next). A later test in which participants had to classify novel pieces by the same 12 composers revealed the superiority of interleaved over blocked presentation, although most participants misjudged blocking to be more effective than interleaving. This finding provides evidence for the utility of interleaving in teaching music composers' styles and extends the literature on the interleaving effect in category induction to the auditory domain. Practical implications and future directions for the use of interleaving in music education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate processes that led practicing music educators in a graduate course to examine their beliefs and practices regarding inclusion, responsiveness, equity, and justice. Using Charmaz's constructivist approach to grounded theory, we interviewed 22 participants from MUS 8XX: Philosophy of Music Education. Constant comparative analysis yielded an explanatory framework, which we presented as a model and named "transformative learning processes (TLP) for practicing music teachers encountering social justice." TLP comprises four interrelated components: "building Gemütlichkeit," "grappling with difficult material," "emotional intensity," and "course structures," with "stories" acting as a hub for each of the interconnected categories. By describing processes that led practicing teachers to examine their mindsets and plan to change their practices, TLP could provide guidance for music teacher educators at the graduate level regarding how to approach social justice topics in their teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on relevant literature and recent qualitative findings, the purpose of this survey research was to identify pedagogical approaches to melodic dictation employed by Advanced Placement (AP) Music Theory teachers across the United States. The researcher-designed survey questions focused on pitch and rhythm skills, instructional resources, dictation strategies, test-taking skills, and characteristics of successful dictation students. The survey was distributed online to a stratified random sample of 875 AP Music Theory teachers across the United States. Of these recipients, 398 participants from 49 states and the District of Columbia completed the survey, yielding a 45.5% return rate. Results indicated that teachers preferred pitch systems that emphasized scale degree function and rhythm systems that emphasized the meter. Participants also reported the influence of the AP exam on their dictation teaching and described their need for additional instructional time and better preparation for teaching aural skills. Suggestions for further research include similar studies of other populations, including high school teachers of other theory courses and college theory instructors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Articles that explore the short- and long-term effects of COVID-19 on music teaching and learning. I Music Educators Journal (MEJ) i is seeking submissions of articles, essays, and perspective pieces on topics of interest to practitioners of music teaching and learning. I Music Educators Journal i is currently accepting articles on any music-teaching subject, but of particular interest are: Pieces that address the goals outlined in the NAfME Strategic Plan (see https://nafme.org/about/mission-and-goals/. [Extracted from the article]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of internal and external focus of attention on novices’ rehearsal evaluations. Thirty-two undergraduate instrumental music education students led bands in a series of three 6-minute rehearsals on their assigned excerpt. Prior to these rehearsals, participants were led in score study and rehearsal preparation activities. Internal group (n = 16) participants’ preparation related to knowledge of the score, whereas external group (n = 16) participants focused their preparations on observable rehearsal behaviors with a minimal amount of time devoted to score study. No significant differences were found between conditions for any of several dependent measures, including participants’ self-evaluation of their teaching, participants’ evaluation of ensemble performance, ensemble members’ evaluations of conductor rehearsal effectiveness and of conductor score knowledge, and independent audio evaluation of the final ensemble performance run-through. Results of repeated-measures analyses did indicate significant improvements in participants’ and ensemble members’ evaluations, for both experimental groups, between the first rehearsal and the second and third rehearsals. Both methods may have helped novice conductors prepare to rehearse, but their direct experience in working with ensembles may have been comparatively more informative in preparing them for future rehearsals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the extent of the overall relationship between previously tested variables and sight-reading. An exhaustive survey of the available research literature was conducted resulting in 92 research studies that reported correlations between sight-reading and another variable. Variables (n = 597) were grouped by construct (e.g., music aptitude, technical ability) and separate meta-analyses were conducted for each construct. Construct had a variable effect on sight-reading, with improvisational skills, ear-training ability, technical ability, and music knowledge correlating most closely with sight-reading, while attitude and personality were unrelated to sight-reading. Additionally, the study examined differences in effect size by type of publication (published study, unpublished thesis), the experience level of the sight-reader (elementary, secondary, college nonmusician, college musician), sight-reading mode (instrumental sight- reading, sight-singing), and type of sight-reading test. The few differences suggest future investigation of a developmental component to sight-reading is warranted. In general, music constructs that improve with practice correlated more strongly with sight-reading than did stable characteristics. These results support sight-reading being considered a music skill that improves with the musicality of the performer rather than a simple visuo-motor decoding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of specific practice strategy use on university string players’ performance. Participants (N = 40) volunteered for the study and were string players enrolled in orchestra at a major research university. Within a pretest–posttest designed study, participants were assigned to one of four treatment groups using stratified randomization: free practice, playing slowly then gradually speeding up, repeating small sections, and playing the excerpt multiple times. In a recorded session, participants were given 1 min to review the study music and then were asked to sight-read the excerpt. Participants then practiced using their assigned strategy for 10 min, rested for 1 min, and performed the excerpt again. The researcher discovered that each practice strategy significantly improved university string players’ performance. No differences were found among practice strategies with regard to pitch, rhythm, expression, or overall scores. Results of an additional analysis indicated that the results may have been affected by performance level of the participants, the study music, and the time involved in the practice session. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to investigate intermediate musicians’ self-regulated practice behaviors. Thirty sixth- through eighth-grade students were observed practicing band repertoire individually for 20 min. Practice sessions were coded according to practice frame frequency and duration, length of musical passage selected, most prominent musical objective, and practice behaviors. The 600 min of video were parsed into 234 practice frames for analysis. Practice sessions also were rated for overall degree of self-regulation. Reliability of the observational procedures (three observers, 95% to 100% agreement) and self-regulation ratings (two raters, coefficients of .89 to .96) was excellent. Analyses revealed an average of 7.8 practice frames with a mean duration of 2 min 45 s across sessions. Participants most frequently addressed the musical objective pitch accuracy and most commonly selected passages of nine measures in length or greater. The most common practice behaviors were varying tempo, repeating fewer than four measures, repeating more than four measures, and irrelevant playing. Significant relationships were found between self-regulation ratings and frequencies of the behaviors writing on music (r = .55), varying tempo (r = .42), repeating four or more measures (r = .41), and irrelevant playing (r = −.59). Implications for future research and practical applications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was designed to determine whether musicians' learning is affected by the time intervals interposed between practice sessions. Twenty-nine non-pianist musicians learned a 9-note sequence on a piano keyboard in three practice sessions that were separated by 5 min, 6 hr, or 24 hr. Significant improvements in performance accuracy were observed in Session 2 only in the group whose sessions were separated by 24 hr. There were significant increases in performance speed in Session 2 in all three practice conditions, results which likely were attributable to the inclusion of all Session 1 data in the analysis. Additional significant speed increases were observed in Session 3 only in the groups whose sessions were separated by 6 and 24 hr. These results suggest that sleep-based procedural memory consolidation may enhance performance accuracy in music skill learning, whereas enhancements in performance speed may be attributable to both wake- and sleep-based consolidation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to develop and test the construct validity and reliability of a self-report measure of self-regulated practice behaviors for beginning and intermediate instrumentalists. A questionnaire was designed to assess the motive, method, behavior, time management, and social influences dimensions of the theoretical model of self-regulation proposed by McPherson and Zimmerman. The questionnaire's construct validity was tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and a preliminary assessment of predictive validity was estimated by correlating the measure with self-reported practice habits. The measure's reliability in regard to internal consistency and consistency over time was assessed as well. The sample consisted of middle school band students in grades 6 to 8 (N = 302). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a model including factors representing the dimensions self-efficacy, method/behavior combined, time management, and social influences was the best fit. Cronbach's alpha and test -- retest reliability results indicated good to excellent consistency across all self-regulation subscales, with coefficients ranging from .76 to .90. Significant correlations (p > .001) between the self-regulation subscales and self-reported practice habits (i.e., time spent practicing, average daily practice efficiency, percentage of time spent on formal practice) provided preliminary evidence of predictive validity of the measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to determine if adults are able to remember how much time they actually spent practicing during a past time period of their lives where detailed daily records were kept of actual number of minutes practiced. It also addressed how past practice time relates to their highest level of musical performance across the 30 years on a scale of top-level expert to competent. Responses were divided into six classifications: (1) professional, (2) semiprofessional, (3) free-lance musician/college instructor, (4) music teacher, (5) community musician, and (6) jury/senior recital. Results indicated that after a 30-year period, students are not accurate in assessing past amounts of applied music practice when comparing records of actual practice time to later perceptions of this practice time. Also, there is not a strong relationship between practice time and their highest level of performance, although most participants indicate that they believe that there is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the expectations and attitudes toward practice by studio music teachers and students. Comparison of the benefits of physical practice, mental practice and knowledge of results; Responses and percentages for preferred use of practice time; Differences in the opinion of students and teachers on what they feel about practicing.