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Mon 1 Sep, 15:30-16:30 – [Before the new semester really starts – let’s think of this one as a late-summer session…. ] Hazel will test-run her conference presentation for the Society for Music Production Research taking place next week in Victoria, BC. The presentation shares Hazel’s model of music-related ‘listening’ as both a cognitive and communicative process for sound production researchers and practitioners.
Thu 18 Sep, 15:00-16:30 – Welcome back – introductory session to reconvene as a group plus work shared by Peter (conference presentation test-run: Seeing People Through Instruments: Interdisciplinary Avenues Towards Organology as Social Historical Science)
Mon 29 Sep, 15:00-16:30 – Hands up if you think that a ‘situated approach’ is important in your research! Christoph Seibert’s chapter in Music and Consciousness (2019, eds. Herbert, Clarke & Clarke) maps out some ideas for what ‘situated approaches’ can and can’t do for music research. Let’s discuss, with our own individual and collective interests in mind.
Writing and publishing academic journal articles – discussion session led by Nikki
In a nutshell
One idea, land the contribution.
Check that the contribution is a solid and original one.
In figuring out your contribution, think about keywords and titles. These are really important.
*Search with your chosen keywords to make sure the results match the area you’re aiming for!*
Choosing the target journal.
You can have the article first, and find where to publish. Then revise accordingly. Or, have a target journal and then write the article to fit. First is probably better.
Use visual tables / charts to plan your outputs. Remember the ‘one idea, land the contribution’ mantra. Label the ‘idea’ for yourself , identify what portion of data you’re using for it, choose your target journal.
Then: Keep stuff moving through the pipeline. Something in prep, something under review, something in revision.
You should know about the important stuff that sits behind the fun research:
You need to know about open research and how sneaky academic publishing is.
In the VALID cases of publishing, payments to publishers go both ways: subscription payments (allowing people to read) and open access article processing charges (allowing people to publish)
In the VALID cases, Editorial Board members and peer-reviewers are essentially volunteers. They are not remunerated for their time spent working on the journal by the publishers. They are doing what they do around the rest of the jobs/life. So be polite and be patient.
Thu 23 Jan, 2.30 – 4pm. Topic: What situations of listening require musical expertise and how is this expertise communicated? Led by Hazel (PhD candidate researching communication between performers and engineers in classical music recording and production)
Thu 27 Mar, 2.30pm – 4pm. Topic: Dialogue as methodology in music research. Group feedback and peer-review – article by Morag, on the Berlin School of music sociology.
Thu 24 Apr, 14:30-16:00 – no study group this week
Thu 29 May, 14:30-16:00 – Musicianship in the situation of the primary classroom – Nikki, Yi, Rebecca? – sharing work on this project following presentation at the Sempre 2025 conference in Manchester in April.
UPCOMING:
UPDATED Thu 26 Jun, 14:30-16:00 – Does the jazz musician leadership metaphor still work? Mark’s PhD research showed how trans-cultural pressures affect band leadership in the contemporary music industry context. Are there comparable consequences in other workplaces?
All meetings are hybrid: EFI 2.63 (usually) and online in MS Teams. Email Nikki or Una for more information!
What experiences of creative arts education could foster the future-proof leadership skills needed for the next generation of artists and musicians to thrive? What features of an (inclusive) creative education environment could meet or exceed these needs? This study day includes discussion sessions, presentations and responses to enable conversations about music education, participatory arts and inclusion.
Participants include postgraduate students and researchers (established and early career), with contributions from invited specialist education researchers, Rebecca Berkley (University of Reading) and Guro Gravem Johansen (Ingesund Music College at Karlstad University), this study day builds on regular meetings since September 2022 of the Musical Situations study group. With research expertise including music psychology, participatory music arts and health, and performance research, our discussions begin from the shared view that situated communication and interpersonal relationships are of key significance to creative arts education.
We warmly welcome all those with interests in the topic from relevant intersecting domains, such as: the impact of digital and learning technologies, including creative-arts specific generative technologies; non-institutional/marginal community arts experiences and expertise; current school classroom arts education practices; current HE practice in Music and related arts programme delivery; EDI concerns in both HEIs and creative industries.
Broad aims for the day
A chance to bring together researchers who are concerned with development of new ideas for arts (music) education training and skills that generate inclusive knowledge generation and artistic practice.
Enable and benefit from contributions to the topic from a range of perspectives through PGR and ERC participation
Come away with a better understanding of where ‘music’ education training and ‘arts’ education training currently sit in relation to one another, and who are the stakeholders in this discourse
For more info or to let us know that you’d like to join for some/all of the day, please email Nikki or Una.
Schedule
10.00 – 10.15am – Welcome and intro to the theme of ‘creative arts education future’ (Nikki and Una)
10.15 – 11am – Micro-updates / introductions – a chance to share what research-related activities people have been up to in the past 2-4 weeks (Invitation to everyone)
12.45 – 1.15 pm – Return to the theme of ‘creative arts education future’ with 3-minute pitches: If you could change one single thing about your own music education experiences/background, what would it be? (Invitation to everyone.)
1.15 – 2pm – Rebecca Berkley (Associate Professor in Music Education at the University of Reading, UK) is an outstanding choral director. Her current research examines the significance (and challenges) of developing fluency through musical literacies to support inclusive practice in formal and informal music education, with a focus on professional practice and leadership training for musicians working in education. Rebecca led the BERA-funded research project, Musicianship for Teachers, teaching classroom musicianship to general primary classroom instructors. She is the director of the Sing for Pleasure Musicianship for Singers programme.
2 – 2.45 pm – Guro Gravem Johansen (Professor of Music Education at Ingesund Music College at Karlstad University) specialises in instrumental practising, and learning and teaching in jazz and improvised music. She is Editor-in-Chief for the peer-reviewed journal Nordic Research in Music Education, and wrote the book “Children’s guided participation in jazz improvisation: A study of the ‘Improbasen’ learning centre’ (Routledge, 2021).
Ethnomusicological insights on situated musicality
Fantastic final session of the year, learning about Christian Ferlaino’s ethnomusicological research on sound-making practices and meaning among various communities scattered across the central Tyrrhenian part of Calabria, Italy.
Drawing on extensive ethnographic data, Christian’s work demonstrates how ‘those who use sounding objects show refined musical abilities, which are expressed through making sound rather than music’. Ferlaino suggests that the skilful behaviour of individuals in these communities challenges any definition of musicality that holds an implicit distinction between musician and non-musician.
‘For those who keep using sounding objects throughout their lives, making sound is a leisure activity, a way of expressing oneself through sound, similarly like making music. The sound of these devices also has an ecological component that allows people to establish relationships with the environment and dialogue with the surrounding natural soundscape. Sounding objects are also a place for experimentation for [so-called] musicians and non-musicians who use them throughout their lives. […] The fact that the abilities ascribed to musicality manifest also in non-musical contexts, as discussed in this paper, calls for a more encompassing definition of musicality, one that is not bound to a specific definition of music.’
The discussion afterwards explored these ideas in relation to a range of connected ideas: D/deaf and signed musics; Trevarthen’s Communicative Musicality; Ian Cross’s contributions to theorizing music and communication research in the field of music psychology; Ruth Finnegan’s anthropological insights of art as multi-modal experience, and C. Thi Nguyen’s concept of art as process. It was great! Happy festive holidays, everyone.
– Jutta’s presentation on current research project-in-progress, on unconducted orchestras.
– Musical Situations group: Take 5 minutes to say something about our own research project or preoccupations. One slide, 5 mins. It’s good to prepare but don’t over-think it!
Optional prompt: What have you been finding out already lately, and what would you like to know more about?
– General discussion
– Time to plan future meeting dates and topics
5pm – people in Edinburgh: 56 North (West Crosscauseway/Buccleugh St) for drinks or food together
Listening methodologies for qualitative music research
This is a topic that I’m really looking forward to discussing!
Musicians have a particular interest and expertise in listening. Any research that deals qualitatively with musical phenomena – processes, behaviours, cultures, etc – may have to define sensible and robust ways to examine the consequence of the particular ways that people listen to music. Sometimes those listening experiences are the focus of the research, but usually they are not.
Here are a couple of readings to browse:
Holmes and Holmes (2013), ‘The performer’s experience: A case for using qualitative (phenomenological) methodologies in music performance research.’ Pretty heavy on the ol’ epistemological stuff. What I think it does well should be to provoke some chat about how to access and report on music-specific experience through qualitative data.
Lavee and Itzchakov (2023). ‘Good listening. A key element in establishing quality in qualitative research.’ I think this is interesting alongside, because it’s absolutely not music-specific – but there are principles here that apply for any form of qualitative person-interested research. (And if music research isn’t person-interested, I’m not sure what’s the point…!)
Participation and learner engagement in piano performance education
This is a special session, with a talk from Naomi Kayayan, PhD candidate at Royal Northern College of Music. Naomi’s PhD research examines student-teacher partnerships and engaged learning practices in a conservatoire setting, particularly looking at piano performance education. Taking place on Friday 17th November, 11am – 12.30pm at Alison House.
