Creativity is often viewed as an essential component of music learning and teaching, yet its relationship to personality remains underexplored in many classrooms. In this article, I examine the concept of the creative personality and how understanding students’ individual traits can enrich creative engagement in music education. Drawing from research in psychology, music education, and creativity studies, I synthesize theories from Feist, Csikszentmihalyi, Amabile, Webster, and others to illustrate how personality factors—particularly, openness, extraversion, and resilience—interact with musical growth. I propose practical classroom strategies for fostering creativity through improvisation, composition, and reflective practice. The article concludes with implications for teachers seeking to cultivate inclusive, risk-taking, and imaginative learning environments that support each student’s unique creative identity.
In this article, I present a culture-based, standards-aligned instructional approach for integrating Chinese New Year music and cultural practices into elementary music classrooms in the United States. Grounded in the National Core Arts Standards for Music, specifically, Anchor Standard 11 (Connect), this approach emphasizes helping students relate artistic ideas and works to meaningful social and cultural contexts. Through interactive read-alouds of the children’s book The Nian Monster , students develop an understanding of cultural traditions associated with the New Year. Through singing the New Year song “Gong Xi Gong Xi,” students learn common New Year greeting phrases and celebratory gestures. Participation in lion dance activities, accompanied by a traditional luogu percussion ensemble, immerses students in expressive movement and rhythmic structures central to New Year celebrations. Students also explore traditional visual art forms, including paper cutting, calligraphy, and Chinese knotting, which are integrated with music and movement experiences within a celebratory classroom context. Through this integrated, cross-arts approach, students engage as listeners, performers, and creators across multiple artistic domains. The instructional design supports inclusive participation and fosters connections among schools, families, and communities.
The purpose of this article is to encourage teachers to embrace student autonomy in middle school ensemble classrooms and foster cultures of trust, belonging, and ownership. Contemporary educational practices increasingly emphasize student-centered pedagogical approaches. However, many large ensembles continue to rely on teacher-centered instruction. While classrooms in which students actively learn and play instruments may appear student-centered, in reality, the teacher controls and directs many aspects of the rehearsal. I argue that autonomy-supportive teaching facilitates student choice, student expression, and teacher-student collaboration, which can ultimately enhance learning. In this article, I explore foundational aspects of student autonomy and discuss effective teaching strategies supporting contemporary music educators. The tension between teacher-centered pedagogical traditions and recent research findings that support student autonomy presents an opportunity to reflect on how music teachers might integrate the past and the present into a contemporary student-centered approach. Key strategies may include offering students more choices and leadership opportunities in support of gaining autonomy. Teachers may consider this reconceptualization as an integrative tool to help cultivate a sustainable and healthy culture within their ensemble classrooms for the benefit of all.
Honors music groups, such as all-state and regional ensembles, have expanded beyond traditional large ensemble models to include opportunities such as honors modern band ensembles (HMBEs). Information on HMBEs remains limited, and the extent to which these ensembles resemble the structure of band, choir, and orchestra models is largely unknown. Drawing from our experiences as HMBE coaches, we describe various approaches to facilitating honors modern band groups. Specifically, we discuss the audition process, the rehearsal process, the development of stage presence for student performers, and, finally, how the director’s role shifts from facilitator to producer throughout the rehearsal process. After describing how we navigated these experiences, we invite music educators to consider the implications and applications for applying similar approaches in the music classroom.
This article proposes collective free music improvisation (CFMI) pedagogical strategies that support the development of twenty-first-century competencies (21CCs) among young, diverse learners. It highlights the educational benefits of integrating CFMI into music learning and outlines three key pedagogical dimensions that facilitate CFMI: socio-musical interaction, personal musical vocabulary, and shared understanding. Drawing on authentic classroom examples, the article illustrates how these dimensions can be developed to meaningfully engage learners in CFMI and foster core 21CCs—particularly communication, collaboration, and inventive thinking. These insights offer practical guidance for educators aiming to implement CFMI with similarly profiled student populations.
Through this article, I encourage music educators to enrich traditional pedagogical practices by embodying a spirit of exploration regarding emerging generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. To explore the capabilities of generative AI tools, music educators require a basic understanding of their function and limitations. Large language models may be used as an assistive tool for (a) curricular planning, (b) administrative tasks, (c) compositional activities, and (d) reading and writing assignments. AI music generators may be used (a) to develop supplemental curricular materials, (b) to facilitate multimedia performances, (c) as an exploratory tool, (d) as a composition assistant, or (e) as a means of self-expression. By developing a foundational understanding of generative AI technologies, music educators empower themselves to effectively modernize traditional instructional approaches.
The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026 presents an opportunity to pause and reflect on contemporary music education. I approach the anniversary from the perspective of democracy in music education at the 150th anniversary in 1926. In what ways were the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” visible in the philosophy and practice of music education at the time? The article begins with a description of trends in the middle years of the 1920s that likely influenced the direction of music education. From there, I describe how the sesquicentennial anniversary was formally celebrated. On a theme of “sing democracy,” I illustrate how music educators responded to prevailing trends and, in the worldview of the time, sought to enact democratic ideals in school music: advocate “music for every child,” expand the music curriculum, establish curriculum standards to improve the quality of music instruction, assimilate and cultivate citizens, and collaborate with professional communities. In conclusion, I return to those five markers of democratic thinking and action in light of the rights of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Listening back to narratives of music, education, and music education in and around the sesquicentennial anniversary can deepen understanding of the evolution of school music and help discern future directions for music in school and community.
This article describes a research study in which a collegiate choral ensemble learned vocal improvisation techniques as part of their regular rehearsals. While learning to improvise, singers had the opportunity to provide real-time feedback of their perceptions and experiences learning a new skill in a traditional choral setting. In this article, we share what we learned, including the rewards and challenges of teaching improvisation, our reflections as instructors, and perspectives from some of the singers. We also describe the activities we tried and offer strategies for other choir teachers who want to bring improvisation into their own classrooms.
