Looking back to the editorial in the very first edition of BJME, back in 1984, there are a number of striking resonances which belie the thirty years which have passed since Volume 1, Issue 1. Take this paragraph as an example:

‘Music is both a creative and a performing art’ (Hallam, 2006, p. 70). Many musicians and music educators maintain that composing and performing, although related, are essentially different aspects of musical activity. In the professional musical sphere, composition and performance are almost invariably separated; academic studies have treated them discretely; GCSE and ‘A’ level specifications assess them distinctly, and many music teachers assess them in the classroom as if they were separate disciplines. It is common practice for students in the lower secondary school in England to work in a more integrated way, however (Philpott, 2001; Major, 2008), composing, performing to the class, and appraising each others’ work. Recently produced assessment guidelines for secondary school music teachers in England (NAME, 2011) encourage this more integrated view, accepting the assumption made by Swanwick and Franca (1999, p. 12) that ‘musical understanding is a broad conceptual dimension’ by considering composing and performing as inter-linked ways of demonstrating and communicating musicality. This study sets out to investigate the links between composing and performing in the secondary school classroom, through peer-rating, teacher rating and students’ self-report attitudinal questionnaires, analysing these using a multi-trait, multi-method technique.

Evidence for convergent validity was found between performing and composing in the classroom, suggesting that they are closely linked and may indeed be related parts of the same trait. This may have implications for the ways in which composing and performing are taught and assessed. A larger-scale study could be undertaken to investigate this further.

Technologies such as YouTube, mobile phones and MP3 players are increasingly integrated into secondary school music in the UK. At the same time, the gap between formal and informal music learning is being bridged by the incorporation of students’ preferred music into class activities. We conducted an ethnographic study in two secondary schools in London, investigating the roles of technology in the negotiation of musical concepts in music classes. From this, we report some observations on the relation between formal/informal and authorised/unauthorised activities in class, and some specific observations on the role of YouTube, mobile phones and MP3 players in the class context. In the lessons we observed, these technologies functioned as part of a richly multimodal ecosystem of technologies, combining aspects of formal and informal use. This carries implications for how we plan for the use of technology in the delivery of music education.

In 1910, Victoria established an elite form of state secondary education that remained essentially unchanged until the introduction of a progressive curriculum during the late 1960s. This radical and voluntary curriculum introduced child-centred learning and personal development skills to state secondary schools. Many state secondary music teachers took advantage of the reform and introduced the English creative music movement (Rainbow, 1989). As music teachers were unfamiliar with progressive education they would require extensive retraining. Continual disruption to state secondary education during the 1970s, together with the lack of expertise in progressive music education in the Victorian Education Department led to music teachers being given little assistance in developing strategies for teaching creative music. No rationale was developed for creative music education until the late 1980s. As research in music education was in its infancy in Australia during the late 1960s, teachers had little understanding of the difficulties faced by many creative music teachers in England in regard to students developing traditional skills, for example music notation and performance-based skills. Dissatisfaction with progressive education led to the introduction of standards-based education in 1995. Progressive educational theories were no longer considered an important goal. Similar to the late 1960s Victorian education reforms, music teachers received little assistance from the Victorian Education Department. The introduction of standards-based Arts education has seriously reduced the teaching of classroom music throughout the state, leaving many classroom music programmes in a perilous position that is analogous to state music education before the introduction of progressive education in the late 1960s.

This article contributes to research on music masterclasses through examining learning through observation. It investigates how students are learning as observers in this context; whether and how they will transfer their masterclass learning to their own instrumental/vocal development, and whether they have discussed learning through observation. Data were gathered from higher education students observing two masterclasses. Their responses indicate observation of technical, musical, performative and pedagogic elements. However, they also suggest limited discussion of observation and of the processes involved in implementing observational learning within their own work. The findings suggest that there is scope for enhanced learning in the masterclass, including developing perception through facilitated engagement with systematic observation and consideration of processes of transferable learning. These may have positive implications for extending learning in other contexts.

Drawing on the work of the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend, this paper argues that the popular yet mistaken notion of scientific method has had a deleterious effect on music education by discouraging us from embracing conflict or pursuing counterinductive ways of thinking about music. Feyerabend argues that knowledge advances not according to principles traditionally associated with scientific method, but rather as a result of ad hoc hypotheses, counterinduction, and contradictions that are recognised between partly overlapping theories that are mutually inconsistent. Ignoring this truth results in the erasure of all but abstract forms of knowledge acquired through methodical investigation, which occurs when educators put all of their faith in method and ignore musical knowledge that escapes articulation or measurement. Yet tacit or informal musical knowledge can be seen as the artistic equivalent of the ad hoc propositions that are required, ultimately, to advance knowledge.

Music performance anxiety (MPA) is a widely acknowledged condition in the field of music performance. However, MPA is rarely discussed in the field of music education. Classroom, studio and conservatoire teachers observe their students experiencing MPA related to performances, examinations or auditions, but few have the prerequisite skills to manage the condition. It is therefore essential for music educators to gain an understanding of MPA in order to assist their students. This paper discusses the nature of MPA and its prevalence in the various populations which have been reported in the literature, including children and adolescents, undergraduates, amateur and professional musicians, and music educators. The paper argues that music educators have a critical role in the developmental trajectory of the condition and provides music educators with advice on how teaching practice can ameliorate developing or extant MPA in their students.