Musical development & education

Musik findet sich in allen menschlichen Kulturen, und vermutlich hat es auch noch nie eine Kultur ohne Musik gegeben. Offensichtlich ist Musik sowohl im Rahmen der Menschheitsgeschichte als auch innerhalb der Entwicklung eines menschlichen Individuums bedeutsam. Dies hat einerseits mit ihrer Fähigkeit zur Gruppenbindung zu tun, andererseits mit der engen Verbindung zwischen Musik und Sprache und insbesondere beim Kinde zwischen der Entwicklung des Singens und des Sprechens. Musikalische Entwicklung ist stets von einem Wechselspiel zwischen Gewinnen und Verlusten gekennzeichnet: Durch Professionalisierung und Übung werden einige Fähigkeiten vervollkommnet, andere verkümmern dagegen durch Nichtgebrauch, was häufig von den betroffenen Individuen gar nicht negativ bemerkt wird. Wenn auch die Ausbildung von musikalischen Hochleistungen von dem frühen Beginn eines musikalischen Trainings abhängig zu sein scheint, so ist das Lernen von und mit Musik grundsätzlich in jedem Alter lohnend und fruchtbar. Prinzipiell wird jedes Kind im Vorschul- und Schulalter von musikbezogenem Lernen profitieren, sei dieses nun organisiert bzw. intentional in institutionellem Rahmen oder spontan bzw. beiläufig im familiären Bereich oder im Spiel mit Gleichaltrigen. Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojekts ‚Kind & Musik’ belegen, dass schon Grundschulkinder einen selbst bestimmten und eigenverantwortlichen Umgang mit Musik zeigen, denn sie reflektieren erwiesenermaßen ihre musikalische Lebenswelt, messen ihr unterschiedliche Bedeutung bei und passen sie ihren Bedürfnissen gezielt an. Quantität und Qualität emotionaler Erfahrungen in der musikalischen Biographie eines Menschen sind dafür verantwortlich, ob und in welcher Weise sich dieser weiter mit Musik beschäftigen wird. Intensive positive emotionale Erfahrungen mit Musik im Verlauf einer Biographie, nicht nur so genannte ‚musikalische Schlüsselerlebnisse’, sondern vor allem die täglich erlebte emotionale Unterstützung durch die Eltern oder andere nahestehende Personen bei der Beschäftigung mit Musik sind die Voraussetzung für eine positiv erlebte lebenslange Beschäftigung mit Musik. Jede Familie hat das Potenzial, ihr Kind optimal zu fördern, denn die emotionale Qualität und nicht das künstlerische Niveau von musikbezogenen Familienaktivitäten sind für eine effektive musikalische Frühförderung entscheidend. Einer effektiven musikalischen Frühförderung muss daher eine Information und Weiterbildung junger und zukünftiger Eltern vorausgehen, was schon im Musikunterricht höherer Schulklassen geschehen könnte.

Possui arranjos do professor Samuel Kerr no Anexo do trabalho.
This work investigated the possibilities of musical development for beginner choral groups through a set of choral arrangements by Samuel Kerr. For this was contextualized the term arrangement, the history of the choral arrangement in Brazil, the relationship between choral and musical education, and Samuel Kerr's thinking about choral practice. Afterwards a study of the scores was done, which involved the processes of composition of the arrangements (tessituras, text, distribution of voices, textures, ostinatos and canons). The elements found in the arrangements were related to the musical development of beginner choirs.

The paper deals with the music repertoire of traditional instrumental ensembles and solo musicians in the border region of Slovakia and Moravia in the western tip of the White Carpathians (the area of Myjava region, Horňácko, Moravské Kopanice and the border area of lower Trenčín and Uherský Brod regions) before the 1960s. The basic criterion in the classifying the repertoire is its connection to dance. In addition to the musical parameters of individual repertoire segments , attention is also paid to their cultural and social cont ext, and also to the process of building the music repertoire and the differences that depend on the type of instrument ensembles (string bands, brass music).

The enactive approach to cognition is developed in the context of music and music education. I discuss how this embodied point of view affords a relational and bio-cultural perspective on music that decentres the Western focus on language, symbol and representation as the foundations of cognition and meaning. I then explore how this 'life-based' approach to cognition and meaning-making offers a welcome alternative to standard Western academic approaches to music education. More specifically, I consider how the enactive perspective may aid in developing deeper ecological understandings of the transformative, extended and interpenetrative nature of the embodied musical mind; and thus help (re)connect students and teachers to the lived experience of their own learning and teaching. Following this, I examine related concepts associated with Buddhist psychology in order to develop possibilities for a contemplative music pedagogy. To conclude, I consider how an enactive-contemplative perspective may help students and teachers awaken to the possibilities of music education as ontological education. That is, through a deeper understanding of ‘music as a manifestation of life’ rediscover their primordial nature as autopoietic and world-making creatures and thus engage more deeply with musicality as a means of forming richer and more compassionate relationships with their peers, their communities and the ‘natural’ and cultural worlds they inhabit.

Na altura da escolha do instrumento, as crianças tendem a escolher instrumentos que são estereotipados pela sociedade como sendo para rapazes ou para raparigas.
Com este trabalho pretende verificar-se qual o motivo da escolha do instrumento de um grupo aleatório de alunos que frequentam a Escola de Música da Sociedade Filarmónica Artística Pombalense, através da realização de um inquérito por questionário, e relacionar os seus motivos com a teoria ecológica de Brofenbrenner.

The purpose of this study was to pilot a musical abilities test administered through an online assessment system and to examine the developmental trends of musical abilities and their relationships with some relevant cognitive and affective variables. The participants of the study were 1 st , 3 rd and 5 th grade students. The instrument was composed of tasks measuring the successive and simultaneous dimensions of musical abilities. The results indicated faster development in the first half of the examined period. Weak correlations were found between the scores on the musical abilities test and school marks for music given by teachers as well as between actual performance and students' subjective estimation of their own performance, while a stronger correlation was found with school marks for mathematics (.51, p<.001).

This  study  aims  to  understand  the  experiences  and  the  produced  impact  by  a  blog developed in Music Appreciation matter. Participants were 20 students (among digital native  adolescents,  and  adults)  of  the  technical level  as well  as  the  professor,  digital immigrant,  whose  teaching  experience  exceeds  30  years  in  an  institution  of  higher education  in  Western  Music  in  Jalisco,  Mexico.  As  method,  it  was  used  the  Action Research in the Classroom, in situ observations, focus groups, depth interviews, field diaries,and audio and video recordings. It’s concluded that the interaction mediated through the blog in the teaching of Music Appreciation is a motivational component whose design and implementation contributed to a better understanding of different musical    styles    and    educommunicative    interactions    exceeded    the    traditional knowledge actions. Among the most relevant results of research are those related to the introduction of new methods and technologies in different modalities and learning environments, as well asthe study of the synergies of the teaching-learning processes with    the    communication    ones,    mediated    by    the    diverse    Information    and Communication Technologies (ICT) and social communication media in the different institutions of higher education and educational centers dedicated to the teaching of music, belonging to both formal and non-formal education.

The problem of research. The relevance of the research is due to the urgent need to find new approaches to the musical development of students in general education, which makes it significant to refer to the experience of France in connection with the existence in the country of an original model of musical education with an established system of multifaceted partnerships controlled by the bodies of the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Culture of France.
The purpose of the article: scientific and practical justification of the need to develop a Russian strategy of musical development based on the interaction of educational and cultural organizations.
Materials and methods. As a methodological basis, a system-structural approach was used, which made it possible to conceptualize the data obtained as a result of the analysis of sources, as well as in the process of personal communication with French colleagues.
The results of the study. The mechanism of the studied interaction in various forms of educational, extracurricular and out-of-school musical activities is based on a clearly structured scheme of cooperation between schools and partner structures in the field of culture and art at the state (conceptual), academic (coordination) and local (performing) levels. The impetus for the construction of this system of partnerships was the recognition by the pedagogical community and the authorities of France of the priority of musical education as a powerful stimulant for the development of personal, intellectual and creative abilities of students necessary for successful implementation in any field of activity.
Discussion and conclusion. The initial impulse to the emergence of the concept of attracting artistic and cultural structures in the musical and educational field was the introduction in the early 80s of the twentieth century of the original system of professional and amateur musical training of students in the framework of general education in college and lyceum. In the future, the experience of partnership interaction in the field under study gradually spread not only to academic, but also to extracurricular and out-of-school activities. As an important "breakthrough" of the French musical and educational project, a significant contribution to the educational activities of musical and cultural centers of global importance should be recognized.
The far-sighted policy of the French authorities aimed at substantial support of artistic, especially musical culture as the basis for the development of the whole society can serve as a strategic guideline for the modernization of the music education system in Russia in terms of developing management schemes and educational technologies based on the interaction of educational institutions with cultural and art institutions.