Learning music is a complex, fascinating process that spans an impressive variety
of meanings and experiences. The contributions that feature in this Research Topic
bring together insights from a range of complementary perspectives to examine in detail
how these layers of significance are part of, and shape, instrumental music education.
To better capture the richness of such work, the present collection of articles is
conceived around the following five themes: (i) body and action, (ii) technology,
(iii) lived experience and meaning-making, (iv) pedagogical implications, and (v)
beyond the musical instrument. It should be noted that many overlaps can be observed
between the five topics, as insights developed in one specific area, as it often occurs
in both the sciences and the humanities, may find a home (and be further developed)
in other scholarly areas. For example, the analysis of lived experience has important
implications for technology-enhanced learning and the modes of engagements one can
develop with its tools and concepts; similarly, the study of action, movements, and
gestures may stimulate novel pedagogical insights to transform existing learning paradigms
and cultivate corporeal practices situated beyond music-only territories. Accordingly,
while in what follows we examine each theme separately, we also highlight continuities
and similarities emerging across manuscripts and topics.
Body and Action
The main characteristics of what a meaningful instrumental music education involves
can hardly be captured by rigid prescriptions or sets of rules determined a-priori.
Instead, many scholars argue that aspects pertaining to body and action, which emerge
and develop in the concrete, moment-to-moment dynamics of a music lesson, play a more
fundamental role in driving meaningful teaching and learning (see e.g., Bowman, 2004).
Accordingly, a close focus on their experiential and behavioral features can inspire
important insights concerning how meaning is generated and transformed during musical
practice. Three conceptual analysis articles published move from such a perspective,
as they place a renewed emphasis on how teachers can meaningfully communicate with
their students through gestures, touch, and other forms of engagement (Bremmer and
Nijs; Simones), and how a phenomenological analysis of different bodily processes
can illuminate on how musical skills are acquired contextually (Kim). In these contributions,
theoretical backgrounds inspired by dynamical system theory and embodied cognitive
science are used to frame research in various ways, disclosing potential real-life
applications that inform theory and practice. For instance, researchers could develop
a range of self-reflection tools that help describe in more detail the moment-to-moment
dynamics of bodily activity, in turn supporting flexible ways of learning that take
advantage of various resources a bodily approach can offer. This includes novel possibilities
to engage with technological tools in meaningful ways, as we shall see next.
Technology
As we are living in a highly technological age, digital technology imbues almost all
aspects of life. This, accordingly, has also profound repercussions in the domain
of music education. While digital technology is often seen as a force of change (see
Savage, 2009), its acceptance and adoption are not self-evident. As Tuuri and Koskela
state, a reason for this might involve considering technology as something unnatural,
distant from how we live and develop experience contextually. However, moving from
the idea that technology has been, and still is, an integral part of human evolution
and flourishing, the authors propose to view technology as a co-constitutive aspect
of making and understanding music. This insight is framed within a general perspective
based on a post-phenomenological view on the human–technology relationship and on
4E cognition, a school of thought in the cognitive science that conceives of mental
life as an Embodied, Embedded, Extended, and Enactive phenomenon, and that places
emphasis on how living systems and their environment meaningfully co-evolve (see Newen
et al., 2018). It is argued that such a cross-disciplinary liaison may encourage pedagogical
practices that are based on “possibilities, imagination, and relationality,” rather
than on conformity to conventional ways of thinking. This requires an instructional
design methodology that guides the integration of technology in music teaching and
learning. According to Macrides and Angeli such a methodology is missing. To address
this issue, their contribution aims to enrich the existing framework of Technological
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) by connecting affect and cognition to the affordances
offered by technology within an educational design process. A final contribution that
primarily focuses on technology is that of Addessi. Summarizing the state-of-the-art
of the research project she coordinated (the MIROR project), the author describes
the main applications of the MIROR platform (an educational device consisting of a
set of software). The latter is described as a tool to stimulate and develop musical
and motor creativity in children, particularly in areas such as dance or music composition.
Taken together, these contributions emphasize the key role of a meaningful interaction
with technology in pedagogical contexts, highlighting the importance of lived experience
across different music-making activities.
Lived Experience and Meaning-Making
Meaningfulness in music education, as in education in general, is largely related
to how people make sense of their active participation and experiences, and how they
find learning meaningful for themselves and for others. Silverman links meaningfulness
to a 4E-inspired account of “sense-making” in/for instrumental music education. According
to her, meaningfulness comes about as we engage with activities, objects, and persons
in ways that “connect us both to ourselves and our worlds in significant ways.” Three
contributions under this theme report on empirical studies. Schiavio et al. examined
music teachers' experiences and perceptions of ensemble skills and learning skills
when working with collaborative forms of music making. The ability to “listen and
respond to others” emerged as the most important ensemble skill, whereas “time management,”
“comparing yourself to the class,” and the “development of responsible ways of learning”
were considered the main learning skills. The other two contributions report results
from interpretative phenomenological analysis of performing musicians' lived experiences
of Dalcroze practice—an approach to music education that facilitates musical exploration
and enhances understandings of music-movement relationships through integration of
group movement activities, ear-training, and creative engagement. The participating
flute players found the approach useful in preparing repertoire for performance (Ridout
and Habron). The instrumental ensemble performers had experienced a chain of influences
including heightened awareness of music, time, space and energy as well as between
the ensemble members, improvement of musicianship, decreased self-consciousness, and
finally enjoyment that all enhanced learning (Wentink and Van der Merwe).
Pedagogical Implications
The contributions of this collection, as we saw, can offer important insights into
a variety of pedagogical settings ranging from the use of technological resources
in class to the phenomenological analysis of lived experience in those who teach and
learn music. An additional aspect this work can contribute to involves concrete implications
for theory and practice across manifold educational contexts. For instance, while
the article by Filippa et al. focuses on how infants and children imitate musical
gestures, opening up fascinating pedagogical possibilities from early musical interventions,
the article by Ford asks us to critically reflect upon the theme of interculturality
in the music curriculum. This latter topic is closely related to that of collaborative
learning, as explored by Johansen and Nielsen through the report of a workshop conducted
by the two authors, where the experiences of students involved in peer-learning were
assessed. Real-life examples of music pedagogy are also at the core of the empirically
grounded contributions by Philippe et al., and Meissner and Timmers. The former article
addresses the self-regulation processes involved in the preparation of a music exam;
the latter, examines the role of dialogue teaching in learning to perform expressively.
Both articles highlight a need to consider in more detail the experiential dynamics
framing meaningful instrumental education. An important aspect of this enterprise,
captured by the systematic review by Després and Dubé, involves listening more carefully
to what students have to say in both in-school and out-of-school contexts, thereby
providing a more nuanced perspective of their meaning-making possibilities in musical
and non-musical contexts.
Beyond the Musical Instrument
Another theme that emerges in this Research Topic concerns the uses of instrumental
practice for facilitating learning and development in other domains, and for well-being
more generally. Gutierrez discusses a novel approach for learning music theory that
adapts the Conduction techniques introduced by jazz improviser Butch Morris. This
approach involves a flexible lexicon of signs and gestures that are realized by the
ensemble in real time. As Gutierrez explains, “In a theory-learning context, students
bring their instruments to class, form an ensemble, and take turns using signs and
gestures to conduct their peers, guided through processes aligned with learning objectives
(e.g., harmonic minor scales, Neapolitan chords, or polytonality), as well as to more
freely experiment with musical structure in situ, with minimal or no reliance upon
notation.” This approach provides a welcome shift away from the abstract orientation
that characterizes much music theory education, opening a more holistic, embodied,
and interactive perspective. Gutierrez discusses how Conduction can be understood
as a “4E music theory pedagogy” and draws inspiration from current work in embodied
mathematics education. The effects of body-based forms of learning on mathematical
skills are also discussed by Ribeiro and Santos. Their article reports on a longitudinal
study that examines the impact of musical training on numerical cognition. In particular,
they found that musical activities that involve melodic and rhythmic engagement correlate
with improvements in the mathematical skills of participants who suffer from developmental
dyscalculia. Discussing this finding from a 4E perspective, the authors suggest that
musical training may afford a wider range of cognitive domains for learning and therefore
offers “a useful tool for compensatory remediation” of learning disabilities. Along
similar lines, MacRitchie et al. discuss a mixed-methods study that examines the impact
music instrument training programs have for improving well-being in older adults.
Specific attention is given to cognitive, motor, and social factors. This research
provided mixed results, showing the motivational importance of contextual factors
associated with the choice of repertoire and the level of cohesiveness that develops
within a given group of participants. As the authors note, “the class itself may impact
the cognitive gains that individual participants in that class experience.” Accordingly,
the authors suggest that more research is needed to better understand the elements
that encourage and impede positive class environments.
To conclude, we believe that all the contributions in this Research Topic address
essential elements of instrumental music education; and that the findings, insights,
and perspectives discussed in each paper could inspire new research and theory in
this fast-evolving domain. We hope this collection will thus become a reference for
continuing research in instrumental music education.
Author Contributions
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to
the work, and approved it for publication.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial
or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.