Although it is often suggested that there are important connections between composing, performing and audience-listening, there is little evidence as to the nature of this relationship. In this paper we report research into the extent that musical understanding is symmetrically revealed and developed across the three activities. Our theory of musical understanding is based on the work of Swanwick, and assessment criteria derived from the work of Swanwick and Tillman (1986) made it possible to compare levels of musical cognition whatever the specific activity. A study of the musical work of twenty children in a music school in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, suggests that performance usually elicits lower levels of musical understanding, significantly different from either composing or audience-listening. It seems that performance can be problematic within the music curriculum unless students are able to work at a technical level where they are able to exercise interpretative judgement and make musical decisions. The findings support the claims for an integrated music curriculum comprising all three activities.

This paper is based on a five-year research project into the work of music teachers in Northern Ireland. It is concerned with the implications of the research for the curriculum. The results reveal a serious shortage of suitably qualified music teachers in the Province, and significant deficiencies in funding and facilities for the subject. They also reveal that many teachers doubt the value of their general classroom teaching, and prefer their extra-curricular activities. The author suggests that Music should become an option during Key Stage Three which schools would have to provide, and which motivated pupils could choose as an alternative to the other ‘Creative and Expressive’ subjects.

This article suggests that traditional conceptions of musical ability, as advanced in the psychometric tradition of psychology, tell us very little about the nature of musical behaviour and how it is developed. The psychometric tradition, with its view that musical ability is innate rather than learned, has exerted a powerful and potentially damaging influence on the practice of music education over the past fifty or so years. It is only relatively recently, mainly in the field of Developmental Psychology, that these ideas have been challenged. In contrasting theories advanced by different psychological schools the article gives a broader perspective to the psychological debate on human intelligence / musical ability and shows the context in which musical behaviour might be viewed as a distinct or even autonomous form of intelligence – a ‘way of knowing’. It suggests that musical thinking should be considered as an ‘intellectual’ as well as aesthetic mode of thought and that musical ability, in the traditional sense, has little educational utility or relevance to music as a curriculum subject in schools.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interim report on one aspect of a major project based in the Department of Music at the University of Ulster. The project, ‘Peer Learning in Music’, builds on the programme of peer assessment which was piloted in a module in performance studies on the BMus course during the academic year 1992–3 and has since become an established feature of the course. The project started in October 1996 and since then peer-learning techniques have been introduced in a range of modules throughout the course, impacting on the teaching and learning methods and the conduct of assessment. Dissemination of the nature of the work and the operation of the programmes is being actively pursued in universities, colleges and conservatories in England and Northern Ireland.

This research project was initiated to study how instrumental pupils might respond to different practice methods assigned to them, and to explore pupils' perceptions of their own achievements at the end of the five-week study. Pupils were asked to choose one of two methods of practising: they could either do straightforward repetitions of short phrases in their music, or they could choose a set number of different repetitions from a menu of options listed on three graded pro forma cards. A description of the method is included as well as the data from pupils' returned questionnaires. Results of the study suggest that pupils not only preferred variety and choice of practice techniques, but also found that their learning process was faster and more effective. Recommendations are made, as there are implications here for instrumental teachers, class music teachers and their pupils.

Teaching and learning dynamics in musical instrument tuition, especially in one-to-one teacher–student contexts, have not been studied in a truly systematic manner. The research described in this paper attempts to bring some insights to this area, for teachers and students were studied over a period of six months. More specifically, in the fourth month of the study, all the learners took a practical instrumental examination of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (either violin or piano, ranging from Grades 1 to 8). It thus became possible to explore how the teachers aided, developed and structured the students' preparation up to, during and after the examination, and also how the students worked and responded to the examinations within the context of their families. Furthermore, parents were observed and interviewed about their interactions with their children – the students – and the teachers. Looking at four teachers and eighteen students, the results revealed a number of complex and interconnected themes which both aided and hindered learning. The current paper highlights these.