The purpose of this study was to determine the instructional methods of Oklahoma's elementary school music educators with respect to the inclusion of an authentic repertoire of American Indian music in the curriculum. The research was conducted through two methods. First, an analysis and review of adopted textbook series and pertinent supplemental resources on American Indian music was made. Second, a survey of K-6 grade elementary music specialists in Oklahoma during the 1997-1998 school year was conducted.

This study is a biography of the life experiences of Nathaniel Clark Smith (1877-1934), an African-American musician, music educator and composer who lived during the early part of America's music education's history. Smith became one of the first international bandmasters to organize bands, orchestras, and glee clubs in schools and industries in the United States. Smith was raised and attended school on a military post. He later received a B.S.M.A. from the Chicago Musical College and a Masters in Composition from the Sherwood School of Music. He taught music at five educational institutions: Tuskegee Institute, Western University, Lincoln, Wendell Phillips and Sumner High Schools. Some of his students became prominent musicians. They were Lionel Hampton, Nat "King" Cole, Milton Hinton, Bennie Moten and Charlie Parker. Smith also worked with industries. He conducted the newsboys band for the Chicago Defender Newspaper and he became the music supervisor for the porters of the Pullman Railroad Company. Smith was stated to have introduced the saxophone to African-Americans and he was considered as one of the first composers to notate spirituals. Smith published over fifty works in America. One of his compositions received a copyright from England. His Negro Folk Suite, published by the …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of trumpet playing upon the heart. A Holter monitor was used to record electrocardiograms (ECGs) to examine the heart's response during musical performances and practice sessions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the self-perceptions certified public high school teachers in the fine arts have toward their roles as artist and instructional staff member.

The purpose was to investigate the role of influential persons in the professional socialization process of music educators as musicians and teachers. The problems were to determine: who encouraged subjects toward music and teaching during pre-college, college, and post-college years; and the interrerationships of gender and teaching specialty with influential persons in subjects' lives.

The purpose was to determine the relationship between high or low cultural mistrust and vocal characteristics in African-American adolescent females. The vocal characteristics were vocal self-identification, singing style, and singing range.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test systematically a theoretical model that delineated the constructs and subsumed variables of jazz improvisation performance. The specific research questions were; what specific performance variables are related to single line jazz solo improvisation performance? and; what is the most cogent groupings of variables into underlying constructs which characterize single line jazz solo improvisation performances for all performers, student performers, and professional performers?

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the interpersonal influences which Bohumil Makovsky, Director of Bands and Chairman of the Music Department at Oklahoma A&M College from 1915 to 1943, had on his students and peers, as confirmed through the perceptions of selected individuals, and to determine what personal characteristics and means he drew upon to induce changes in his students and peers.

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of character strengths that high school students reported to develop while participating in choir. I created the Character Strengths in Choir Scale (CSCS) to explore the degree to which students believed they exercised 18 character strengths. Local choir students in the pilot study (n = 44) and the main study (n = 114) completed the CSCS and revealed that gratitude, teamwork, and honesty were among the most prevalent strengths while bravery, creativity, and spirituality were among the least prevalent strengths. Student responses were also investigated by subgroups according to gender and years of experience. Results indicated that there were statistically significant differences for the ranking of various character strengths in each subgroup. Aggregately, high school choir students viewed themselves as above average on all assessed strengths.

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice music educators' perceptions of collegiate large ensemble experiences. The researcher created and tested a survey designed to explore how preservice music educators perceived their large ensemble experiences may impact their pedagogy skills and musicianship skills. Local (n = 101) and national (n = 77) respondents answered agreement statements about ensemble experiences, course enrollment questions, and a ranking question. An exploratory factor analysis on data from the instrument yielded four factors: Conducting Gesture Growth, Musical Skills and Pedagogy Skills, Repertoire and Literature Selection, and Other with a Cronbach's alpha of .92. Composite score results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference for one factor by primary teaching identity. Preservice music educators observed the most musical skills growth for their conducting gesture. Participants gave the highest pedagogy skills ratings for statements about large ensembles preparing them for a career in music education, improving their teaching effectiveness, and ensemble experiences altering their perceptions of music teaching.

The purpose of this study was to increase knowledge about the experiences of adult amateur string players. Through narrative inquiry, this study presents the unique stories of two amateur string players who have sustained their active music-making throughout their adult lives. Leaders in music education have promised lifelong music-making and touted it as a benefit of supporting music in schools. This promise is part of vision statements, symposia, advocacy efforts, and guiding documents for the last century. Yet, the most common outcome for students who participate in school music programs is that they quit before they graduate high school, or soon afterward. The idea of school music segueing into lifetime music-making for large numbers of students remains an aspiration and not the outcome. I used narrative inquiry to explore and present the stories of these two players. Their experiences are unique, and it is not appropriate to generalize their narratives to others. However, I hope that by closely examining the experiences they considered impactful in their lives as music students and amateur musicians, music educators can better understand the ways their teaching practices might lead to students' enjoyment of music-making past their student years. Implications for practicing music teachers and …

The purpose of this study was to investigate problem areas of organists' performance as indicated by common experiences of pain. The research problems were to determine the specific areas of the body that were affected by pain, to determine the perceived level of that pain on a scale indicative of its severity, and to explore the relationship between demographic and performance-related factors within the population and specific area of reported pain. An examination of the demographic, performance-related, and pain data, as well as subject comments, indicated possible relationships of the pain experience to other factors. Organists attributed their pain to instrument characteristics, such as keyboard action, music rack height, bench design, and pedalboard shape. Pain was also associated with the time spent playing the organ, playing literature which required large reaches and rapid passage work, such as french toccatas, or playing with incorrect posture. To explore these relationships to spinal and upper extremity pain, further research is indicated.

School orchestra programs are overwhelmingly concentrated in suburban districts, which are becoming increasingly racially and economically diverse. Diversifying suburbs lie at the crossroads of race, racism, and whiteness and findings drawn from these settings can have implications for racial dynamics in all educational contexts. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to explore how racially underrepresented students perceive race within an urban characteristic high school orchestra program through the lens of critical race theory. I developed a composite counter-story to examine the racialized experience of school orchestra told from the perspective of students of color with a particular interest on competition. Participants were six students and two teachers affiliated with the same high school orchestra program in Texas. Emergent thematic findings examined students' sense of racial belonging, mechanisms upholding the racial status quo, and fulfilling aspects of students' orchestra participation. Though the lens of critical race theory, I discuss how everyday whiteness, property of whiteness, and meritocracy function to maintain white hegemony in school orchestra.

The purpose of this study was to measure music performance program enrollments and course availability for educationally disadvantaged and non-educationally disadvantaged groups (grades 9-12) in Texas, and to further examine relationships which could help music educators understand the role which music performance programs play in the lives of educationally disadvantaged students. Data analyzed were collected by Texas' Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). Educationally disadvantaged groups under consideration included economically disadvantaged, at risk (as defined by Texas Education Agency guidelines), limited English proficient, as well as Black and Hispanic students. Separate analyses were conducted for band, choir, and orchestra. Subjects included 907,327 students from 1,048 school districts.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the kinetic structures or reinforcement schedules of metric temporal patterns (metric combination of note values within a measure) in five best-selling beginning piano method series. Based upon a survey mailed to 98 music dealers, the five best-selling beginning piano method series in 1992 and 1993 were identified as: the Alfred Basic Piano Library, Bastien Piano Basics, David Carr Glover Piano Library, John. W. Schaum Piano Course, and John Thompson Modern Course for Piano. A coding system was developed for identifying the numerical appearances and occurrences of various metric temporal patterns per learning piece within each method series. Several computer programs were written to compute the kinetic structures, scope, and pacing of metric temporal patterns for each method series. The derived data were then compared to delineate relationships between the three analytical variables.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether students' timbre preferences in the sixth grade remain stable through the tenth grade. The investigation also examined whether gender, band instruction, or musical home environment makes any difference in influencing the stability of students' timbre preferences from grade six through ten. Students' timbre preferences at the beginning of the study were compared to their preferences four years later. The students' timbre preferences were obtained by employing Gordon's Instrument Timbre Preference Test (ITPT). A questionnaire was also utilized at the conclusion of the study to determine which students had musical home environments and which did not. All sixth grade students enrolled in a single school district took the ITPT. Each student's scores were tallied and ranked in order to determine their timbre preferences; four years later they were retested and their scores were ranked again.

The purpose of this study was to specify and test a model detailing (a) gender, (b) previous elective music experience, (c) school, (d) music self-concept, and (e) music values as predictors of music enrollment and the initial juncture of school-sponsored elective music participation. In the event that a model with adequate fit was retained, a further purpose of this study was to calculate the direct, indirect, and total effects of each predictor, thereby determining each predictor's relative contribution towards explaining variance in elective music enrollment. Participants included fifth-grade students (N = 148) from two elementary schools. Data were gathered via administration of the Motivators of Elective Music Participation Questionnaire, and by accessing middle school elective enrollment records. The proposed expectancy-value model of elective music participation demonstrated excellent fit and was retained for interpretation. Overall, the model accounted for 34.4% of the variance in elective music participation. The greatest total predictor of elective music participation was previous elective music experience, followed closely by music values. Music self-concept, gender, and school played negligible roles in predicting whether students opted in or out of sixth-grade music electives.

The purpose of this study was to investigate online social comparison and impostor phenomenon (IP) in undergraduate music education students. I employed a sequential explanatory mixed models design to explore the extent to which music education students experienced IP, used Facebook, and engaged in social comparison on Facebook. I explored participants' perceptions of how they engaged in online social comparison in the context of their professional lives. In Phase 1, I surveyed participants to measure impostor phenomenon, Facebook intensity, and Facebook social comparison. Analysis of the descriptive data revealed that 77.8% of participants experienced frequent to intense IP symptoms. Facebook social comparison emerged as the only significant predictor of IP in participants accounting for 13.3% of the variance in CIPS scores. In Phase 2, I conducted focus groups to investigate participants' perceptions of how they engaged in online social comparison as related to their professional identity. The themes that emerged from the qualitative data included: (a) comparing to peers online, (b) using Facebook for professional purposes, (c) psychological effects of online comparison, and (d) withdrawing from social media to avoid adverse effects. Lastly, I integrated the quantitative and qualitative data to expound upon and confirm findings in each phase. The …

Relations between music education structures and teacher agency are under-researched and under-theorized, and scholars have indicated that the traditions and competitions of school bands in the U. S. may constrain educator agency. The need for research on teacher agency in competitive environments is compounded by policy trends toward administrators' use of festival scores in music educator evaluations. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to investigate band teacher agency in a highly competitive music education environment. I used the chordal triad of agency as the primary theoretical framework. Participants were four mid-career band educators in Texas, and I collected data through interviews, observations, journal entries, website review, and email correspondence. Throughout the data, participants' agency largely reproduced existing structures. Findings coalesced around (a) participants' core values of music, students' development, hard work, and competition, (b) an inductive, cohesive collection of band teaching norms despite participants' employment in schools of varying urbanicity and student demographics, (c) power sources that transmitted values and directed teachers' agency, and (d) a compelling story of one participant's generative agency that contrasted with the rest of the data. I provide directions for further research on music teacher agency and suggest implications for band educators, professional …

Current practices in music education parallel the expansion of globalization and cross-cultural contact. However, the multicultural music education movement—referred to by some as "world music education"—has been primarily about the diversity of musical experiences and less about the circumstances and processes of the music itself. As a result, Western music educators often neglect inseparable learning pathways and unintentionally distort the meaning and value of diverse musics from around the world. While there is considerable research examining the teaching and learning of diverse music cultures, significant portions of that literature only represent the observed accounts of cultural outsiders. In this study, I examined the lived experiences of world music culture bearers who teach in Western university institutions in the Southwest region of the United States. I used narrative inquiry to learn more about their pedagogical experiences and documented their storied accounts of interactions with university students. I based the theoretical framework in this study on Clandinin and Connelly's narrative inquiry three-dimensional space model and Schippers' twelve continuum transmission framework. My primary findings revealed that teaching in a cross-cultural setting involves several musical and contextual choices. Moreover, the perceived authenticity of the research participants' transmission processes was often a byproduct of their …

Latinx students are underrepresented among high school music students in the United States, nationally. However, localized demographics in some parts of the country reveal secondary music programs that are comprised nearly entirely of Latinx students. Still, the experiences of such a large and racially marginalized population as Latinx students remain under-researched in the field of music education. To explore how Latinx racial identity may inform the experiences of Latinx music students and their music teachers, I conducted a post-qualitative study of students and teachers in music classes at large secondary schools in which the Latinx population is 95 percent or more. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with music students and their teachers. To guide my thinking on the role of race in the lives of the participants, I incorporated Omi and Winant's (2015) theory of racial formation throughout the data analysis. Overall findings indicated that race informs much of the experiences of the participants in varying, sometimes subtle ways. Through racism, racial resistance, the formation of racial identity, and the incorporation of both colorblind ideology and race consciousness, the participants provided nuance as to how we may regard the role and significance of race in music education. Implications …

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors contributing to the longevity of four early-career (5 to 10 years of experience) K–5 elementary general music teachers in Title I schools situated in four regions of the United States. The central research question was: How did early-career elementary general music teachers in Title I schools describe the opportunities and challenges that contributed to their decisions to continue teaching? Using Deci and Ryan's theory of self-determination as a theoretical framework, I analyzed how the four teachers reflected on the degree to which they each possessed autonomy, competence, and relatedness through recounting their perspectives, stories, and experiences. Although the participants shared many commonalities, they also experienced challenges and opportunities unique to their teaching environments. Results were mixed regarding their levels of autonomy and relatedness, but all four teachers possessed a high level of competence, which was likely a contributing factor to their longevity and potential to continue teaching. Nurture and care for children also emerged as a prominent theme from the results, which required the application of a separate theoretical framework. Noddings's theory of the ethic of care served as a lens for examining the myriad ways each participant demonstrated love, care, …

In music education, aesthetic education and praxial music education serve as two major, guiding philosophical frameworks, yet supporters of each often conflict with one another. Furthermore, both are slightly problematic with respect to the specific context of the public school. Each framework is primarily music-based, however, music education has existed in the wider context of general education since the 1830s. Given the recent core-status designation for music education, as part of all fine arts, in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a framework from general education that supported music education could offer benefits for the domain. However, the wider context of general education is messy as well. Two groups occupy most of the space there, and remain locked in a fundamental disagreement over the purpose of a formal education. The progressive educators, historically framed by Dewey and Thorndike, contend that education functions as societal improvement. In contrast, the essentialists contend that education functions as cultural transmission. Therefore, a more specific need for music education involves selecting a framework from general education that resolves this conflict. The writings of William Chandler Bagley indicate that he balanced both considerations of a formal education while also advancing his notion of …