Journal of Popular Music Education - Volume 8, Issue 3, 2024

Settings where students showcase their original songs to peers and teachers can seem advantageous and harmless. However, beneath this surface is a complex, multifaceted negotiation. In this article, I engage with the construction of this complexity. I interviewed eight Norwegian electronic popular music students at the university level on how they experienced the real-time peer group song assessment (PGSA) setting. Through semi-structured interviews, I seek to give a critical view on how PGSA works as a vehicle for learning. I discuss how the student’s experience of risk varies according to what the student is presenting and what the feedback focuses on. The interviews indicate that feedback that engages with elements that contain the highest degree of creative and personal investment is the hardest feedback to give and yet most desirable to receive. Appendix 1 offers suggestions for presenters, peers and teachers related to the PGSA setting.

In this multiple case study, we investigated secondary school students’ motivations to enrol in, and perceptions of their experiences during, a modern band course using an informal learning approach. Results indicated that primary motivations to enrol were related to their perception that this course provided musical opportunities that were not available in other course offerings, especially the opportunity to connect music learning more directly with their personal experiences. ‘Word-of-mouth’ advertising from friends and family members who had previously enrolled in the course was also an important motivator for enrollment. Students’ experiences in the course highlighted the importance of the informal learning structure, which they felt helped them to develop collaboration and other transferable skills as well as their musical abilities. These findings provide additional evidence for the unique benefits of informal popular music courses, and suggest that these benefits encourage student interest and enrollment.

The aim of this study was to examine Polish and US teachers’ popular music education practices with children 4–6 years old. Focus groups and individual interviews involved eighteen Polish and eighteen American teachers. The data were analysed using MAXQDA software in a coding process based on sociocultural theory. The results demonstrate that Polish and US teachers use similar popular music in similar contexts. However, the author found specific differences. When asked about their plans for future inclusion of popular music education, American teachers stressed that they planned to intensify its use by designing and implementing more activities. On the other hand, Polish teachers equated their plans with their own professional and self-development. This study sheds light on the role of popular music in educating young children as reported by Polish and US teachers and highlights the importance of continued research in this area.

Beginning with a description of música Mexicana’s rising stars, Yahritza y Su Esencia, a ‘family band’ of young Mexican American musicians, we suggest that school music educators become more informed of the musical interests, involvements and learning styles of Mexican American students at home, within their families and in the communities that surround them. Yahritza’s trademark sierreño style is described and contextualized in light of other notable genres such as mariachi, música nortena, son jarocho, banda, grupera and trap corridos. The phenomenon of family bands within Mexican American communities is explored as a means of children’s musical enculturation away from school, juxtaposed with a history of exclusion of Mexican American students from school music opportunities. The article addresses limitations of the American model of school music programmes, including (1) the need for opportunities for Mexican American (and other) populations to access meaningful musical education experiences, and (2) the gap between the music genres offered within the curriculum and those that Mexican American (and other) students experience at home and within their communities. Even as we acknowledge and applaud the presence of family bands and other strong music community music practices among Mexican Americans, we call for a national initiative among music educators to ensure that the music which students learn in school is at least germane to students’ home experiences.

This article explores a teaching method wherein undergraduate music performance students were given the task of making music in four different modes: (1) Nashville mode, (2) DAW mode, (3) track-for-topline mode and (4) topline-for-track mode. Thematic analysis of qualitative interviews highlights four domains influencing quality and efficiency of negotiation of musical ideas: (1) what the environment affords, (2) students’ ability to show or explain, (3) students’ taste and preferences and (4) students’ comfort sharing opinions. Based on these findings, we develop a model of aesthetic dialogue, understood as negotiation of musical ideas within a group. We argue that aesthetic dialogue is dynamic and constantly negotiated and that the model provides a framework suitable to address a range of issues relevant to students wanting to progress as co-writers. This model is proposed as a starting point for addressing collaborative music making and dialogues from student, teacher and curriculum perspectives.