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- Volume 1, Issue 3, 2009
International Journal of Community Music - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2009
Volume 1, Issue 3, 2009
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11th Community Music Activity International Seminar: A personal reflection
More LessThis paper provides a personal reflection on the 11th Community Music Activity International Seminar exploring some of the main issues that arose, through both the seminar themes of criminal justice system, wellbeing, religion faith and ritual, leadership, and social capital; and the plenary emerging themes of theorizing, practice and leadership, research, and actions.
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Bambini al Centro: Music as a means to promote wellbeing.
Authors: Valentina Iadeluca and Andrea SangiorgioBambini al Centro literally Children in the Centre is a project operating since 1999 in Rome, financed by the Italian State. It is a recreational-musical space devoted to children aged 012 months and their families. The principal goal of the Centre is to provide an opportunity for encounter, relationship, sharing and global growth with, and through, music and dance. This project report aims to illustrate the social and political context in which the project was born and the main features that make it a successful example of community music.
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Conductors' perspectives of Kansas prison choirs
By Mary L CohenThe purpose of this investigation was to gather and examine prison choir conductors' (N = 9) perspectives on six Kansas prison choir programs to document current practices, assemble information to help prison choir conductors, and compare data to theories of prison choir participation. According to conductors, when inmate singers first joined their choruses, they generally had limited vocal skills and short attention spans. Conductors remarked that through consistent attendance at rehearsals, inmates improved their focus, built trust among the group, learned to use their bodies more efficiently for singing, and experienced a sense of accomplishment. Data indicated that inmates have opportunities for transformational change through interacting with other singers and audience members, preparing for choral performances, and developing a sense of group responsibility. In particular, these opportunities included paying attention to details, learning physical skills in order to sing, and singing particular texts.
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Sound Links: Exploring the social, cultural and educational dynamics of musical communities in Australia
More LessSound Links examines the dynamics of community music in Australia, and the models it represents for informal music learning and teaching. This involves researching a selection of vibrant musical communities across the country, exploring their potential for complementarity and synergy with music in schools. This article focuses on the most significant themes that have emerged from the author's recent Sound Links fieldwork in four musical communities across Australia. Drawing on insights from well over 300 community music practitioners, participants, educators, and administrators, it will touch on the critical success factors, key challenges, learning dynamics and models for community-school collaborations found in these diverse community settings. These themes will be interwoven with ideas and concepts from community studies in the humanities and community music literature to provide a range of insights into the social, cultural and educational dynamics of musical communities in Australia.
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Communities of sound: Examining meaningful engagement with generative music making and virtual ensembles
Authors: Steve Dillon, Barbara Adkins, Andrew Brown and Kathy HircheIn this article, we examine the affordances of the concept of network jamming as a means of facilitating social and cultural interaction, that provides a basis for unified communities that use sound and visual media as their key expressive medium. This article focuses upon the development of a means of measuring social and musical benefit through correlation with meaningful engagement and provides examples of inclusive ensembles, and the specification of musical knowledge through algorithmic and educational experience design. This research builds on the design and development of the jam2jam family of generative software and hardware applications. An emerging theoretical model for observing meaningful engagement in community music making is examined against three case studies selected from a larger scale long-termed research project. In this analysis of case studies we specifically employ an observational tool called the meaningful engagement matrix, discuss its development and describe how it functions to feed back data which informs software development, theories of social engagement and experience design.
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Survey of New Horizons International Music Association musicians
By Don CoffmanThis study analysed survey responses from 1652 New Horizons International Music Association (NHIMA) musicians in the United States and Canada to better understand older adults' experiences in making music. The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) ascertain the extent of NHIMA musicians' musical backgrounds and their current involvement in music making; (b) determine perceived benefits of music making in NHIMA groups; and (c) establish a baseline for a longitudinal study that monitors NHIMA musicians' health compared with similar adults who are non-musicians to document relationships between health changes and music making. NHIMA musicians can be typified as approximately 70 years old, almost exclusively Caucasian, of average health, college educated, with above average incomes and with previous playing experience on their instruments in high school. They play their instruments on average for an hour a day. Their comments reveal that most of the respondents cite emotional well-being and benefits, followed by physical well-being, cognitive stimulation and socialization benefits. This large sample study thus corroborates the findings of previous efforts using smaller samples and provides baseline data for future research.
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Community music and the welcome
By Lee HigginsThis article considers three interconnecting ideas surrounding community music practice; (1) the workshop as a distinctive approach through which people are given opportunities to engage with active music making (2) the welcome as a preparatory thought and consequential gesture, inviting potential music participants to the workshop space, and (3) safety without safety, an idea that describes the practice of the welcome within the workshop event. These concepts are illustrated through the badge of identity workshop, an example of community music in practice. Finally I conclude by suggesting that the workshop as event, the welcome, and safety without safety, beckon community music participants to engage in music invention that has, at its core, the exploration of new territories.
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A matter of comparative music education? Community music in Germany
More LessIn German music education, the term community music is almost unknown. There could be various reasons for this fact such as a lack of community music activities in Germany, terminological problems concerning the German translation, or an appropriate explanation of the term community music. This paper will discuss some of these issues, starting with the common problems Germans have with the concept of community music regarding the notion of community and non-musical goals. Furthermore, an overview of activities that might qualify as community music will lead to a brief examination of one the most important music education projects of the last decade, Rhythm Is It!. Finally, this paper offers some future perspectives about how to include German music education in the international discussion on community music.
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