Swanwick, K. (1992). Music Education and Ethnomusicology. British Journal of Ethnomusicology. 1. pp 137 - 144.
Swanwick describes the purpose of music in education, and explains how ethnomusicology remains local and culturally neutral. Ethnomusicology is the study of how different cultures approach music. He proposes that we all interact with music in different ways, but we reflect and critique music using four dimensions. These are materials, expression, form and value. Materials are the inspirations for the music, or the quality and tone of sounds in the physical environment. Expression is the emotion that the musician is feeling when they play, or what the audience feels when they listen. Form is the norms or system that the music follows, for example, we can listen to Indian music and an Irish drinking song, and be able to identify which is which by drawing on previous knowledge. The value is how closely the listener is tuned in to the piece and how they relate to the music. The main aim of music education in schools is to explore musical procedures, and to provide events for students to choose to be involved
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Lierse, A. (2012) A Music Education Program Considered to Be Best Practice. Parliament of Victoria Submission. pp. 1 - 17.
This paper examines the music education program provided at Melbourne High School. Lierse demonstrates the importance of music education and the role it plays in student development. Students develop various skills that can be utilised in other areas of the curriculum, such as problem solving, interpretation and comprehension and develops students emotional intelligence. Melbourne High embraces music as an essential component to whole learning. Lierse demonstrates the importance of keeping provision for music education in Victorian schools. She explains that state government schools are struggling to deliver effective music programs with their very limited resources. Maintaining classroom music programs and instrumental music opportunities requires funding, support from the school, support from the parents and adequate time allocation for learning. She recommends that a better set up of music support centres would enrich teacher knowledge and offer more opportunities to students.
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Bartel, L. (2004). Questioning the Music Education Paradigm. Waterloo, Canada: Canadian Music Educators Association.
Bartel examines how, what and why we teach music. He explains that in the past, teachers have not valued music educational experiences as there was a misconception that it would be out of control and far too ‘noisy’. Classes traditionally tend to be teacher directed. Music is an art form, but has founded roots in attention, practice and pursuit of perfection. Bartel also explains that in some music programs, music programs are linear and formal, with clear achievement standards and outcomes. Schools should consider music programs as a continuous sequence and instead focus on developing performance ability. In the current state in North America, teachers are actively encouraged to achieve set standards in music, and pass these values on to their students. Bartel suggests that instead we should be creating a curriculum that supports their music education for life-long involvement. Being able to reflect on what the aims of the music curriculum are currently is an important consideration for teachers.
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