Matching Items (69)
Description
The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes, preferences, and practices of Arizona high school choral directors towards sight-singing skills, and student success in group sight-singing evaluations, the teaching of sight singing including preference for a specific sight-singing system, and the instructional practices employed in daily rehearsals. High school choral directors from the state of Arizona (N = 86) completed an online researcher-designed questionnaire that gathered demographic information as well as information regarding directors' attitudes towards sight-singing instruction, which exercises are used for sight-singing instruction, and directors' self-perceived ability not only to sight sing but also to teach sight singing. Independent variables such as teaching experience, level of education, the system they were trained to use as a student, the system they currently use in the classroom, their self-perceived ability to sight sing, their self-perceived ability to teach sight singing, their choir's sight-singing rating at festival, and their daily instructional practices (as measured by minutes per week of sight-singing instruction) were used to investigate potential differences in attitudinal responses. Multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to investigate potential differences in responses according to various independent variables. Significant differences were found in responses to statements of the importance of sight-singing instruction according to level of teaching experience and time spent on sight-singing instruction in the classroom. No significant differences were found for statements of directors' attitudes toward sight-singing instruction according to level of education or prior training. Results indicate that Arizona high school directors are a seasoned and highly education group of professionals who understand and believe strongly that sight-singing instruction should be a part of their choral music rehearsals. These directors use a variety of systems and resources to teach sight-singing and all dedicate time to sight-singing each week in their rehearsals. Despite the overwhelming support for teaching sight-singing in daily choral rehearsals, there is a lack of participation in choral adjudication festivals where group sight singing is assessed. Further research is suggested to investigate the lack of participation of Arizona high school choral teachers in the group sight-singing component of the state choral adjudication festivals.
ContributorsFarenga, Justine (Author) / Sullivan, Jill (Thesis advisor) / Stauffer, Sandra (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Scmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Schildkret, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Jazz continues, into its second century, as one of the most important musics taught in public middle and high schools. Even so, research related to how students learn, especially in their earliest interactions with jazz culture, is limited. Weaving together interviews and observations of junior and senior high school jazz players and teachers, private studio instructors, current university students majoring in jazz, and university and college jazz faculty, I developed a composite sketch of a secondary school student learning to play jazz. Using arts-based educational research methods, including the use of narrative inquiry and literary non-fiction, the status of current jazz education and the experiences by novice jazz learners is explored. What emerges is a complex story of students and teachers negotiating the landscape of jazz in and out of early twenty-first century public schools. Suggestions for enhancing jazz experiences for all stakeholders follow, focusing on access and the preparation of future jazz teachers.
ContributorsKelly, Keith B (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Sullivan, Jill (Committee member) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This philosophical inquiry explores the work of philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and posits applications to music education. Through the concepts of multiplicities, becoming, bodies without organs, smooth spaces, maps, and nomads, Deleuze and Guattari challenge prior and current understandings of existence. In their writings on art, education, and how might one live, they assert a world consisting of variability and motion. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's emphasis on time and difference, I posit the following questions: Who and when are we? Where are we? When is music? When is education? Throughout this document, their philosophical figuration of a rhizome serves as a recurring theme, highlighting the possibilities of complexity, diverse connections, and continual processes. I explore the question "When and where are we?" by combining the work of Deleuze and Guattari with that of other authors. Drawing on these ideas, I posit an ontology of humans as inseparably cognitive, embodied, emotional, social, and striving multiplicities. Investigating the question "Where are we?" using Deleuze and Guattari's writings as well as that of contemporary place philosophers and other writers reveals that humans exist at the continually changing confluence of local and global places. In order to engage with the questions "When is music?" and "When is education?" I inquire into how humans as cognitive, embodied, emotional, social, and striving multiplicities emplaced in a glocalized world experience music and education. In the final chapters, a philosophy of music education consisting of the ongoing, interconnected processes of complicating, considering, and connecting is proposed. Complicating involves continually questioning how humans' multiple inseparable qualities and places integrate during musical and educative experiences. Considering includes imagining the multiple directions in which connections might occur as well as contemplating the quality of potential connections. Connecting involves assisting students in forming variegated connections between themselves, their multiple qualities, and their glocal environments. Considering a rhizomatic philosophy of music education includes continually engaging in the integrated processes of complicating, considering, and connecting. Through such ongoing practices, music educators can promote flourishing in the lives of students and the experiences of their multiple communities.
ContributorsRicherme, Lauren Kapalka (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Gould, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Sullivan, Jill (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This project sheds light on trombonist Andy Martin's improvisation and provides tools for further learning. A biographical sketch gives background on Martin, establishing him as a newer jazz master. Through the transcription and analysis of nine improvised solos, Martin's improvisational voice and vocabulary is deciphered and presented as a series of seven thematic hooks. These patterns, rhythms, and gestures are described, analyzed, and presented as examples of how each is used in the solos. The hooks are also set as application exercises for learning jazz style and improvisation. These exercises demonstrate how to use Martin's hooks as a means for furthering one's own improvisation. A full method for successful transcription is also presented, along with the printed transcriptions and their accompanying information sheets.
ContributorsWilkinson, Michael Scott (Author) / Ericson, John (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The purpose of this research project is to explore which musical mode, major and minor, is more effective to motivate children with Asperger's syndrome. To determine the more effective mode, the researcher has conducted experiments with seven students, two female and five male, with Asperger's syndrome on motivation for participation. Simple dance movements were used as a method of measurement for their motivation. The subjects' task was copying the researcher's simple dance with music, in major or minor mode, or with no music. There were three conditions, no music, major music, and minor music. However, the first dance of the experiments that had no music condition was not measured as it was a pre-test. All of the subjects followed the dance movements three times. The second and third dances of the experiments that were major or minor music conditions were used to determine which musical mode is more effective. To determine subjects' motivation from major and minor music, there were three areas of measurement; competency (level of execution) of movements, facial expression, and concentration on the dance for each experiment. All of the experiments were video-recorded for the evaluation. As a tool of measurement, a seven-point Likert scale was used. In addition, there were three evaluators: a professional music therapist, MT-BC; an undergraduate music therapy student at ASU; and a music education student of master's degree at ASU. In the evaluation on the measurements, the scores of the major music condition were slightly higher than the scores of the minor music condition in all three areas; competency of movements, facial expression, and concentration on the dance. However, the differences of the results in all three areas were not statistically significant.
ContributorsYun, Yeo Kwang (Author) / Crowe, Barbara (Thesis advisor) / Rio, Robin (Committee member) / Stauffer, Sandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Venezuelan maraca playing is largely unknown to musicians with Western Art Music backgrounds. While some composers utilize the instrument and its associated performance practices, the resources available to learn about the subject are limited and scattered. Through research, observations, and studying with correspondences, this document will explore the vastness of Venezuelan musical concepts and maraca techniques to seek out common goals and generate a resource that is accessible to musicians and musicologists. A large part of this research will focus on the Contemporary Music in the Western tradition that has been inspired by Venezuelan maraca playing. I will explain the context in which this music is commonly found and how to apply it to a contemporary setting. The individuals I interviewed span a variety of backgrounds and expertise. All have extensive experience in Venezuelan maraca traditions. Their individual points of view will give unique perspectives to help affix the music of the past to the creation of music in the future. The limited resources on this subject inhibit education, performance quality, new music, and further research. Ultimately, my document and recordings will provide imperative examples to help develop a greater understanding of an understudied Venezuelan art form.
ContributorsMuller, Jeremy (Author) / Smith, Jeffrey (Thesis advisor) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Bush, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Sunkett, Mark (Committee member) / Hackbarth, Glenn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Emotional competence is the capacity to handle emotional situations effectively. A teacher's emotional competence influences the choices they make both pedagogically and during student interaction. This qualitative multiple case study examines the lived experiences of four elementary general music teachers for the purposes of exploring emotional competence as related to perceptions and practices in the classroom. Research questions included: Is it possible to observe a music teacher's emotional competence in action? If it can be observed, what is the relationship between emotional competence and teaching practices, including a teacher's decisions about music, interactions with children, and his or her own emotional self-management? What is the relationship between a music teacher's self-perceived emotional competence and observed emotional competence in teaching practices? Four elementary general music teachers were observed four times within typical music teaching situations at their respective schools, and three interviews were conducted with each teacher. Teachers completed three self-report inventories drawn from the literature and revised by the researcher. An administrator and three students for each teacher were interviewed as secondary participants. Data were coded for emotional intelligence branches as outlined by Perry (2004), emotional competence skills as outlined by Saarni (1999), and "adaptive coping styles" described by Gottman (1997), and presented as individual cases. A cross-case analysis was conducted. Findings suggest that elementary general music classrooms are emotional places. Music provides students with unique emotional experiences. Effective teaching within this context has an emotional ebb and flow in which music plays a vital role. Interactions between teacher and students may result in a feedback loop in which exchanges of emotional reactions occur and where teachers may be called upon to manage their own emotional responses. When adverse situations arise, a music teacher may choose an adaptive coping style suitable for the circumstance. These choices are influenced by their knowledge, skills, and emotional competencies. Teachers' perceptions of their emotional teaching practices are not always congruent with their observed emotional teaching practices. When the knowledge and emotional abilities of music teachers are used effectively, they can have a positive influence on the emotional climate of the classroom, which may, in turn, impact learning.
ContributorsMcConkey, Michelle Stephan (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Bush, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Sullivan, Jill (Committee member) / Tobias, Evan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The solo repertoire from the Light Music Era serves as an important link between the Classical and Jazz soloist traditions. These characteristics are best highlighted through an analysis of three solo transcriptions: Felix Arndt's Nola as performed by Al Gallodoro, Rudy Wiedoeft's Valse Vanité, as performed by Freddy Gardener, and Jimmy Dorsey's Oodles of Noodles, as performed by Al Gallodoro. The transcriptions, done by the author, are taken from primary source recordings, and the ensuing analysis serves to show the saxophone soloists of the Light Music Era as an amalgamation of classical and jazz saxophone. Many of the works performed during the Light Music Era are extant only in recorded form. Even so, these performances possess great historical significance within the context of the state of the saxophone as an important solo instrument in the wider musical landscape. The saxophone solos from the Light Music Era distinguish themselves through the use of formal development and embellishment of standard "song forms" (such as ABA, and AABA), and the use of improvisational techniques that are common to early Jazz; however, the analysis shows that the improvisational techniques were distinctly different than a Jazz solo improvisation in nature. Although it has many characteristics in common with both "Classical Music" (this is used as a generic term to refer to the music of the Western European common practice period that is not Pop music or Jazz) and Jazz, the original research shows that the saxophone solo music from the Light Music Era is a distinctly original genre due to the amalgamation of seemingly disparate elements.
ContributorsPuccio, Dan (Author) / Mcallister, Timothy P (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Pilafian, J. Samuel (Committee member) / Spring, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The craft of improvisation at the organ has survived a long period of dormancy and is experiencing a strong resurgence in the twenty-first century. This project seeks to establish a precedence for the value of notated music as a resource in learning improvisation, and then, through music analysis, provide examples of how that process can develop. The result of the ideas presented here is a pathway whereby any disciplined organist can learn to imitate composed music, assimilate the musical ideas, and innovate through the act of spontaneous improvisation.
ContributorsHoward, Devon (Author) / Marshall, Kimberly (Thesis advisor) / Ryan, Russell (Committee member) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Rockmaker, Jody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Jamaican folk music is categorized into three large genres, which may be broken down into smaller more specific subgenres. Work and Social Music (which includes Work Songs, Mento Music, and Social Music), Recreational Music, and Ritual and Ceremonial Music. Rastafarianism, although it is a manifestation of ritual music, is given its own section due to the large amount of information available on the subject. Included here are historical analysis of the genres, as well as musical examples. Eight folk songs are included, and four drum patterns. This paper is intended as a resource for music educators, and therefore each song includes a Quick Reference Page, which lists solfege, rhythmic motives, genre of song, and if applicable drum rhythms which may be used to accompany the song. In addition, each song includes specific information regarding appropriate performance practice and suggestions for use in the classroom.
ContributorsVillarreal, Alicia Raquel (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis director) / Schmidt, Margaret (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor)
Created2015-05