Article

Research Perspectives in Music Education Informal Learning Practices 18(1), 38-51 © 2016 The Florida Music in the Teaching and Music Education Association Making of Music Teachers: A Preliminary Study Robert Saunders1

Abstract The purpose of this pilot study was to examine two classroom teachers who participate in informal music making and have introduced aspects of the experiences into their teaching. I examined the availability of informal learning environments in the form of musical “sessions” or gatherings in a city in upstate New York. Through purposeful sampling techniques, I observed two teachers in each of their informal session settings. Both teachers were then asked to take part in a semi-structured interview about their use of informal music learning practices in their classroom teaching. The data from both aspects of the study were coded and compared to draw out themes such as their use of repetition, their performance of several styles of music, and their interest in learning many of the instruments found in the style in which they participated. These themes imply the usefulness of participation in informal music experiences for pre- service and in-service teachers. Recommendations of further research include identification of similar individuals to the participants in this study on a national level and using that data to initiate similar studies in other parts of the country.

Keywords Informal Music Learning, Vernacular Music, Bluegrass, Gamelan, Case Study

Introduction Pre-service teachers are primarily prepared to create formalized learning environments for their students. Formal music learning is characterized by the use of curricular and methodical goals that guide instruction on a predetermined path. Jenkins (2011) describes formal instruction is the “attempt to refine, regulate, and control certain aspects of informal learning” (p. 180), which leads readers to assume a hierarchy between formal and informal music learning. In contrast, Green (2005) posits that “informal popular music learning practices… take place largely in the absence of adult supervision or guidance” (p. 27). This is not to say that guidance is not necessary or that a teacher should not be trained to offer students opportunities to create music informally. Informal learning is learner initiated and is characteristically not outcome driven (Coffman, 2002). Although goals and outcomes may not be clearly defined, the benefits of this type of learning are clearly described by several researchers. An important delineation to make is the difference between learning settings for informal and formal music making (Jenkins, 2011). Often, informal music making takes place in the form of musical sessions (Cope, 2002; Waldron & Veblen, 2009), and participants are engaged in a social music activity (Batt-Rawden & DeNora, 2005; Cope, 2002).

1 University of Miami

Corresponding Author: 2910 NW 130th Ave. Unit 202, Sunrise FL 33232, [email protected] Saunders 39

Through this engagement, participants are actively defining a musical self (Batt-Rawden & DeNora, 2005) as well as creating an important “social network of like-minded people” (Waldron & Veblen, 2009, p. 66). Another concept to consider in the discussion of informal music making is that of vernacular music and the importance of understanding a teacher’s role in a student’s musical acculturation. The term vernacular is used to “embrace a range of musical genres and practices that people have access to all of their lives” (O’Flynn, 2006, p. 140). This internal musical library is gained through constant listening and imitating of examples given by others (Woody & Lehmann, 2010), so clear connections to informal music learning practices can be made. The music environment for each person is different but similarities exist in the almost ubiquitous mixture of western art and pop music in each person’s vernacular music (O’Flynn, 2006). An increase in informal music learning through the use of technological resources such as the internet (Cope, 2002; Waldron, 2012) has led to changes in the vernacular music of individuals. The benefits of such learning practices and concepts is seen clearly in a mixed method study by Woody and Lehmann (2010) in which the students with the most experience and understanding of their vernacular music were best equipped to play and were more comfortable with performing short, original melodies by ear. Social relevancy and the impact that traditional styles of music have are important elements in the education of future generations of music participants (Dabback & Waldron, 2012; Higgins, 2012). Children gain an understanding of their cultural history and create deeper connections to the music around them in the very earliest stages of cognitive development (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003; Lopez, 2009; Swain, 2010). Informal music making can take the form of member driven session type participation (Kruse, 2013; Waldron & Veblen, 2009), religious or culturally driven celebrations or events (Graham, 1971; Hirabayashi, 2009), and government funded programs for musical creativity and preservation (Bartleet, 2009; Bush & Krikun, 2013). Bridging the gap between these experiences and the one found in a modern music classroom could benefit music educators and music learners. To better understand informal music practices, a large portion of research has been done in observing and describing the practices seen in informal musical sessions (Cope, 2002; Waldron & Veblen, 2009). Important aspects of informal music learning as described above are regularly observed in these settings (Folkestadt, 2006; Karlsen, 2009; Waldron, 2012). What has not been observed is the participation of trained music educators in these settings. Research has been conducted in observing how students learn informally without teacher interaction (Green, 2002). When music teachers have formal music training and understanding, the ways that these teachers interact with this process can be of great interest to other music education professionals.

Researcher’s Experience My participation in informal learning practices started when I was in high school when I learned to play the mandolin. The goal of my music training was to take what I knew from formal cello instruction (notation reading, structural understanding, and ear training) and apply those executive skills to a new instrument. I chose to play mandolin because I had heard it on recordings during my childhood. After learning the basics of the instrument, I sought out new recordings of expert players. When I practiced the instrument, I chose the sonic characteristics that I liked the most, and I focused on those characteristics. Two projects during my tenure at a preparatory school where I taught highlight the success of informal music making in the classroom. The first was the bi-annual event “Just Stoopin’,” 40 Research Perspectives in Music Education a performance by the premier Upper School Chamber Ensemble located on the front stoop of the administration building. The building was an old farmhouse with a large front porch, and it reminded me of the setting of a social event a family friend’s house called the Strawberry Social where I played almost every year. But instead of playing traditional dance music, as I had performed at the Strawberry Social, I let my students in the Chamber Ensemble choose music from the strings library. They, of course, chose music that was familiar to them, such as classical and pop music, and I used this collection as a chance to teach sight-reading skills. When my students played music related to their past experiences, I observed that their performance level improved. In the second project, titled “The Spring String Celebration,” I chose music that I hoped the students would recognize either from their own personal listening or from their parents’ listening experiences. I wanted to play music that they may have heard in the car going on a family trip. Along with several pieces from pop radio, I chose songs from the The Beatles and other classic rock performers. The activities culminated in a rock concert, complete with lights, amplification, and costumes. As the above research literature and my personal experiences suggest, there is a large portion of research dedicated to the learning processes of students involved in informal music learning. What has not been looked at in depth is how teachers can be participants in the informal music making along with their students. Case study research of specific teachers’ activities is limited, and a broader understanding of these teachers’ backgrounds could be beneficial. Music educators need to know why such teachers are interested in informal learning and what allows them to feel comfortable in this style of instruction. Making connections between pre-service music teacher training and informal music participation could help in-service teachers confidently build skills specific to this style of teaching. With greater understanding of individual experiences and personal practices, there may be a way to design further instructional practices to include informal learning in the formal music classroom. The purpose of this pilot project was to examine two Upstate New York teachers’ descriptions of their use of informal music learning techniques in their classroom instruction, and how their participation in informal music environments informs their classroom practice. My research questions were: 1. What are the informal learning activities of two Upstate New York area music teachers and how do they introduce aspects of informal learning into their classroom instruction? 2. What benefits or obstacles do these individuals see to introducing such instructional techniques into their classrooms? I documented how two teachers described infusing informal learning techniques into their otherwise formal learning environment. I compared this information to the activities described in related research studies and made suggestions for possible teacher considerations and future research.

Methods and Procedures To address the questions above, I employed case study research. Creswell (2013) states that “case study research is a qualitative approach in which the investigator explores a real- life… multiple bounded systems over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information” (p. 97). Modes of data collection in this study included observation of informal music participation, in-depth interviews, and artifact collection. Purposeful sampling (Levinson, 1986) was used to identify participants who were active musically and used some of their own informal music making knowledge and skills in Saunders 41 their classrooms. This sampling method can assure a richness in data for analysis (Thornton, 2010). Through brief, informal interviews of local folk music store proprietors, the assistance of university music faculty who focus on informal music practice in their own research, and information gathered from periodical sources such as local newspapers and magazines that had information on informal music gatherings, I identified two teachers who could be appropriate participants in this study. More specifically, I was looking for two music teachers in the area who were also involved in informal music participation outside of their regular teaching environment. Due to the scope of this pilot study, data collection was limited to the practices of two participants. The participants were observed once each in an informal music environment of their choosing where audio was recorded and field notes were taken. The observations, each lasting approximately two hours, allowed me to witness each participant’s role in their musical environment. The two participants were also asked to take part in one 45 to 60-minute interview where they were asked questions designed to elicit conversation about their experiences in informal music making, formal music making, and their personal educational practices that may be informed by informal music. Interview questions were developed from the research questions and from the researcher’s personal interest in informal music making. Interviews were very conversational as a result, allowing the participant to elaborate on certain topics more so than others. All procedures were approved by a university research review board. To answer the research questions, I used interpretive inquiry to draw conclusions from the data that I collected. Creswell (2008) describes interpretive inquiry as “a form... in which researchers make an interpretation of what they see, hear, and understand” (p. 176). Interview transcripts were coded and final data analysis and conclusions were drawn from the information that was gained through the two stages of this research project. Field notes were compared to look for similarities between both participants’ informal music activities as well as within their own interview transcriptions. Once the data were coded for each participant individually through an open coding process (Creswell, 2013), the data from both participants were reanalyzed together as a whole and re-coded through a similar process. These code books were then compared to each other to draw out themes present in both participants’ experiences. Data from the interviews and session observations were analyzed in an inductive manner. Each interview was coded in a line-by-line manner and then listed and grouped to find themes. Similar codes did stand out from each individual interview using this process. Field notes from the session observations were also analyzed and compared with the specific themes found in the interview data analysis. Themes were drawn directly from the codes produced in the interviews and I regrouped the codes once four major themes had been established. To check for validity and address researcher bias, triangulation techniques were used at two levels to compare the data gathered from the interview sessions and the observations of each participant (Creswell, 2013). The first level took place during the data collection process in the form of debriefing strategies conducted with two university supervisors (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In these debriefing sessions, both the university supervisor and I took notes to compare bias and discuss differing ideas. The second level of triangulation was the member- checking of coded and thematic data from the observations and interviews of each participant (Creswell, 2013). Both participant were given the chance to individually go over the final analysis as well as review any form that the data had taken previously (e.g. transcripts, code books, initial groupings and themes). 42 Research Perspectives in Music Education

Results To answer the research questions, I have provided the information that follows in a narrative form, which is recommended for case study research by Creswell (2013). The data pertaining to the first research question about the informal music practices of both participants can be found in the description below. For the second research question, the interview, observation, and artifact data are combined and reported throughout the following sections. The city in upstate New York where the participants resided has several musical centers— schools, performance venues, cultural districts—in which performance and practice spans both formal and informal forms of musical engagement. There is a well-established school of music that fosters formal music making of Western music at a very high level. Elsewhere, there are many forms of informal music making that encompass a wide range of traditional and non-traditional genres. The two participants I chose for this project were active members in these informal music experiences and had solid connections to the formal music making of the well-established school of music. Yet they differed from each other in their choice of informal music-making, one performing American traditional and the other Balinese Gamelan music. Pseudonyms have been used in place of the participants’ names.

Jim: Background and Music Training Jim had been a general music teacher for some time and had taught private lessons since his days in high school. Very early in his music career, Jim was invited to play guitar in jazz ensembles with musicians who were much older than he, and likened the experience to what he called “bandstand” learning. Jim described the experience:

I was playing with all these musicians and they invited me down to perform with them and eventually I just sort of, on the bandstand, just sort of learned tunes mostly by ear. Kind of just picking stuff up. Improvising.

Experiences with informal jazz ensembles turned into jam sessions with bluegrass players, where the need for understanding the repertoire and the style was paramount. Jim was expected to know certain tunes so that he could be a part of the music making process in these jam environments. To learn the repertoire, Jim would “go home and listen to a recording and try to figure it out.” Learning to play stylistically correct instruments was also an important activity for Jim’s participation in the bluegrass session. Having taken up the guitar sometime before high school, Jim was comfortable enough on that instrument to begin teaching lessons to others.

I was in high school and a friend of my mom’s had a daughter that wanted to play guitar.... She was my first student and I just sort of taught her songs that I knew. You know, I mean we never wrote anything down.

This informal model of teaching resembled the training Jim had as a young musician. Each new instrument brought Jim a new venue for teaching others in a very traditional, informal manner. Jim was proud to say that he “never looked at a lick of tabs,” a common form of notation used by fretted instruments. All of his song acquisition and teaching was centered around playing by ear, learning the music in the same way he was taught, and, possibly, how bluegrass musicians had been taught before him. Saunders 43

Jim became interested in formal music teaching during his undergraduate degree work. During his undergraduate studies, Jim connected with a local musician and started performing in residency programs at local public schools.

And that was in the context that we were special musical guests in the school doing something different than the regular music program, and I really enjoyed that so I decided that I wanted to um, ah, pursue a career in teaching.

This led Jim to earn his state teacher certification as well as strengthen his understanding and ability to teach private lessons for many different instruments including banjo, mandolin, guitar, trumpet, voice, and percussion, both formally and informally. Jim had the chance to design his school’s music curriculum to reflect his informal teaching experiences.

One of the things that I sort of put into the curriculum is that the students should have a bunch of tunes.... They should be aware of a tradition that is sort of mother tongue to them.

Jim’s Bluegrass Session Jim led a number of informal bluegrass sessions around the city. One was a beginner’s workshop that occurred once a month in the back of a music shop. Jim suggested that I attend this session because he thought that there would be more evidence of informal learning at this session. Also, he told me that there was a wider variety of skill levels between the different members of the session. At the beginning bluegrass session, musicians ranging in both instrumentation and age gathered for informal instruction and to play a few tunes with other similarly skilled musicians. I joined the group as a participant observer because I thought that, considering the size of the group (around 10 people), and considering my own background in bluegrass music, I would be less intrusive if I sat in and played quietly with them. Players in this session knew that I was observing and recording the session. Creswell (2013) describes the role of a participant observer as one that can “help the researcher gain insider views” (p. 167). I used audio recordings to go over the session and transcribe the conversations later on. As people came in, everyone talked about where they had come from, who was taking lessons with Jim at the time, and how long each had been playing this sort of music. Most of the group was middle aged or older, but there was one banjo player who appeared to be a bit younger than the rest. Jim came in to the group and immediately said “hi” to all of the newcomers to the session. Following this, Jim said hello to several of the regular attendees and began to get everyone in tune. Each individual was expected to be able to tune him or herself; however, there were a few instruments that had issues staying in tune. Jim located these instruments and offered advice for correcting the issue. Then the first song was introduced, a familiar song to the group and one that Jim chose specifically because there were only two chords in it. Jim offered advice to the new members of the group, such as how to play certain chords or how the melody to the tune could be played on each instrument. Jim was very good at pinpointing the stronger players and allowing them to show the others how a melody or chord progression went. Each new song was introduced in a very similar fashion; first by describing the chord progression, then by playing the melody, then finally playing the whole tune through many times while calling on individuals to “take the lead.” Jim would switch between instructor and ensemble member, occasionally playing with individuals to one side, and then go right back 44 Research Perspectives in Music Education to playing with the rest of the group. Jim would take the lead to show off his playing skills, as well as illustrate some characteristic improvisational tricks that many bluegrass musicians use. The session ended with another familiar song for the regular members, and many of them sang along as well. Jim gave the group a number of techniques and songs to work on for the next session meeting and told everyone to exchange cards and contact info so that they could stay in touch and play more.

Mark: Background and Music Training Mark was a first year general music teacher at a charter school in Upstate New York. Mark was classically trained on the piano starting at a very early age and continued to play throughout his undergraduate and graduate work at a well-respected music school. Along with classical ensembles, Mark was a participant in a wide variety of musical genres including heavy metal and acoustic rock. In the acoustic rock band Mark had his first encounter with informal music making.

My guitar player, who was a brilliant songwriter and would come up with these really cool bridges and he would latch onto a chord progression or an idea and write six songs around it.... He wasn’t at all professionally trained. Um, he had been playing guitar for his whole life...he couldn’t tell me the names of the chords. He could sort of play them for me.

Music teaching entered Mark’s life during his undergraduate degree work. He built a small studio by “gradually collecting students” after someone had asked him if he was “interested in teaching.” Mark was introduced to Balinese gamelan music while studying in his undergraduate program. His school had a group led by an ethnomusicology professor, and there was a push from the program to open up performance opportunities to members of the community. Mark started working with students at a local private school that were very eager to include gamelan music as an after school activity. After watching the instructor teach the young children for several semesters, Mark “started helping people out during rehearsals and like... doing coachings.” At this time, the ethnomusicology professor was on sabbatical, and there was a lull in the performance activities of the university gamelan ensemble. Mark and another co-instructor had been leading that group with the help of the official teacher’s assistant for the gamelan group. To learn enough and feel comfortable with the repertoire, Mark began to learn the characteristic gamelan instruments forwards and backwards.

We practiced [the instruments] backwards so we could model it in front of everybody because [the instructor] always modeled everything backwards on his instruments so it was in the right direction for everyone else.

Mark used recordings of the gamelan songs to rehearse while attempting to learn every part without notation. It was his goal to know all of the parts to a piece because he saw this as the evidence of mastery. Mark observed that “professional American gamelan ensembles, or Balinese groups, they all know exactly when everything is supposed to happen.” During his return to school for a graduate degree Mark began teaching students regularly in a variety of settings. His idea was to teach these students in a very traditional way, trying Saunders 45 always to maintain the original mode of transmission from teacher to student. At the time, Mark was taking individual lessons from a native musician of Bali who was teaching him in a very traditional manner. Mark was allowed to instruct others in traditional gamelan when his teacher “felt that I knew enough to teach the repertoire that I had learned already with him.” Aspects of this teaching began to mix with Mark’s private piano lesson teaching as well. He began to model music passages for his students on the piano so that they could see the movements of his hands and fingers. Also, he employed the technique of repetition to teach his students. Similar to his own instruction, with every new song, he and his student would “loop it until they’ve got it and they can show me that they can play it by being able to loop it on their own without me intervening.”

Mark’s Gamelan Session Setting The gamelan group was in preparation for a concert on the day that I observed their meeting. As the large group of over 20 professional and amateur musicians gathered, there were several small one-on-one sessions between experienced and novice players. The experienced player would demonstrate a small section of the music backwards on their own instrument and the novice would then follow along as they began to pick up on the movements of the instructor. Eventually, as the novice built up section after section of increasingly difficult melodic and rhythmic material, the two of them played the whole part, called the polos, together several times through. In many instances, the experienced player would play an alternate part, called the sangsih, as the novice continued to repeat the sections over and over. After a short welcome by the ensemble’s leaders, the group performed a short piece to get warmed up. This was a song that was familiar to the members of the group and one that they would be performing at the upcoming concert. I was told later that this piece had been learned entirely without notation by all of the members of the ensemble. The next piece the gamelan ensemble played was a new composition written by one of the members of the ensemble. This member was fluent on all of the gamelan instruments and was switching parts throughout the rehearsal when needed. Although there was notation for the different parts, it was not a standard notation as is found in western art music. Mark’s role in this session was that of a participant in the ensemble. While he was playing a lead instrument in the group, there was another member leading the rehearsal. There were times that Mark took solos in designated sections of the different songs. At several points, Mark stopped the ensemble to give some insight into the piece and to direct certain instrumental sections in what they were supposed to be playing. While Mark was not directly leading the group, the ensemble seemed to look to him as a source of knowledge and expertise. My role in this session was that of a passive observer because I was not able to participate in the rehearsal. There was a great amount of effort being put into maintaining traditional practices found in gamelan groups from Bali. The instrumentation was the same and many of the songs they chose to perform were common repertoire to Balinese natives. However, it was interesting to observe non-natives perform traditional music in this way. Most of the musicians there had some sort of formal music training and, in a form of psychological regulation, I could sense an undercurrent of mild frustration by a few of the less experienced members, evident from the sideways looks members were giving each other as the song progressed. Trevarthen (2009) describes the development of non-verbal communication and the meanings it has for musical practice. Psychological regulation is described by the author to be a process in which emotions are exchanged through shared movements or actions. All of the instruments were playing all of the time and each piece was repeated at least 5 times before moving on. The pace 46 Research Perspectives in Music Education of the instruction and the opposition to formal music making this posed may have been the source of that frustration.

Interpretation A major theme that emerged from both of the interviews was the use of repetition in both learning new songs and practicing/performing familiar ones. The two participants made use of this concept in many of the different styles that they both had performed in their past experiences. Another common theme for both of them was the need to build a repertoire of stylistic songs. These would inform and validate their participation in the music sessions. Finally, both participants maintained a high level of executive ability on instruments that are common to the style of music they perform.

Use of and Comfort with Repetition Jim explained that his ease in using repetitive teaching techniques stemmed from his experiences in informal music making.

I do a ton of repetition. A ton of it. Well...I would actually say, more repetition. And I’ve, you know, I’ve observed a lot of general music teachers. And I do more repetition than most. I mean, I would say four or five times more.

In his teaching, Jim plays a complete song several times through and expects the students to help each other “figure it out.” This resembles the style of learning found in Jim’s informal bluegrass session, where he would play through a tune and call on participants to play the lead, whether they were expecting it or not. If a novice musician was unable to play the entire lead, the rest of the group would continue playing. The novice sometimes would get another chance to play the lead, and sometimes they would not. During Mark’s gamelan session, repetition was used to allow everyone to play through his or her part in order to learn it better. Even with the newer, original composition written by one of the members, the group never broke it down into its smaller parts. Each piece was played three or more times through, with the sections within the piece being repeated many times (i.e., AAAA, BBBB, CCCC…). The leader of the group would cue each new section, although the decision to move on to the next section did not depend on the group playing the section entirely correct. Mark also used repetition in his classroom, but he described it more as a response to his pre-service training than a reflection of his informal session playing. Mark spoke about discarding the “music education way”—dismantling songs into separate parts to the extent of taking away the context of the song—after employing it as a new teacher. Using a more repetitive process to build up songs for class, he had a greater amount of success learning tunes. For both teachers, the practice of repetition was very different than what might be used in a formal music classroom during rehearsal of songs in preparation for a concert. In these cases, the repetition was not used as a technique to perfect a passage or to refine a specific skill that is being addressed by a repeated section. In contrast, repetition was used in the learning of the song entirely, with all members focusing on through-playing of the music over and over in quick succession. Whereas a formal music director may take a small section of music already learned by the performers and repeat it several times, the process of song learning, refinement, and even the final product of these informal music learning experiences all focused on repetition as the primary mode of group participation. Saunders 47

Performance of Many Styles of Music Both of the participants were actively involved in multiple styles of music before, during, and after their pre-service training in music education. This experience may have allowed them to draw from a wider variety of musical knowledge when designing their music curriculum. This learning was self-guided for both of the participants. Mark and Jim sought out other styles of music because they enjoyed the social interaction of playing music with other people. Mark had played heavy metal and acoustic rock, and was venturing into jazz because he thought it was important for him as a musician and a teacher. Jim had performed in a jazz band, a rock and roll band, and plays with country swing band currently. All of these activities are in conjunction with their formal music making, singing in choir for Jim, and playing piano for Mark.

Song Acquisition Jim felt very strongly about learning music and songs as well as teaching as many songs as possible to his students. He explained that in jazz, bluegrass, and other styles of music, “there are certain tunes you are supposed to know,” along with the expectation to be able to understand the style enough to quickly pick up other songs. Jim wanted to maintain the traditions he had learned of sharing songs with others, and to teach his students a wide variety of repertoire, both in the American tradition and from elsewhere. Having had the chance to design his school district’s general music curriculum, Jim made sure to include song acquisition as a major focal point. He went on to say that, “the students should have a bunch of tunes and...they should be aware of a tradition that is sort of mother tongue to them.” Mark felt that learning a lot of tunes on his own was important for his acceptance as a gamelan instructor as well as a general music teacher. He said,

I think part of it was I needed to know repertoire. Like I needed to know how to be able to play the tunes without, um, without anybody being around... if I can’t sit and spit out what we just did to, you know, to a group and know exactly where to repeat it...then I wasn’t ready...

A large portion of each of the participant’s work in learning repertoire was self-guided and they were working on processes to make the task more objective driven. As a new teacher, song learning became the focus of his classroom and private teaching. Mark felt that students were more responsive when they were given a wide variety of music to perform and practice.

Learning Stylistic Instruments Both Jim and Mark felt that it was important to understand and be able to play instruments specific to the traditional music that they played in the informal session. Both of them went so far as to learn multiple instruments within that styles: Jim with the guitar, mandolin, and banjo; and Mark with the jegogan, gangsa kantilan, and reyong as normally found in a gamelan ensemble. These instruments were in addition to the instruments Jim and Mark learned in formal situations, voice and piano respectively, and in the case of Jim, learned mostly by self- instruction. For Mark, separate from the other instruments, learning the drum was a rite of passage. He explained, “In Bali most of the teachers say you’re not ready to teach, until you know how to play the drum.” Jim was not guided to play a certain instrument. His desire to learn new instruments was informed by his idea of what best complements a bluegrass ensemble. His 48 Research Perspectives in Music Education discovery of instruments was a self-guided process that eventually led him to attain a high level of technical ability, enough to be able to teach private lessons on those instruments. His pre-service music education training gave him further confidence to continue his activities as a teacher.

Implications, Recommendations, and Conclusions

Implications for Music Teachers It is important for music teachers to take informal music learning into consideration when they are designing their programs. Research literature suggests that the inclusion of informal learning processes is of equal importance to formal learning (Dabback & Waldron, 2012; Folkestadt, 2006; Green, 2005; Higgins, 2012; O’Flynn, 2006; Woody & Lehmann, 2010). When students are allowed to guide their own learning and create curricular goals out of topics of self-interest, then there may be a greater amount of meaning and different connections made to their musical learning. It also is important for music teachers to understand the stylistic considerations of the music that is available to students. This can be accomplished through recordings, internet research, inviting guest artists well versed in a musical style, or joining a group of local musicians. The themes drawn from the case studies presented here suggests that teachers who participate in multiple styles of music making, both formal and informal, may be more comfortable with allowing informal music practices into their classroom instruction. When a music teacher has direct experience with a style of music making, they may be able to create guided, if in fact more formal, instruction out of what otherwise may be an entirely informal music environment. As compared to teachers with only formal musical experiences in their pre-service training, those that perform in multiple styles can expose their students to a greater variety of musical ideas. Finally, music educators may find value in participating in social music making in any way that they can. If the goal of music education is to create lifelong music makers, then teachers might consider modeling that ideal. Barbershop choirs, wedding bands, small folk ensembles, and mandolin orchestras can be important to the maintenance of musical experiences for amateur and professional musicians alike. If music educators are not actively seeking out ways to participate in social music making, they may not be expanding their own musical horizons. Including informal music making practices in a formal music classroom is may appear to be contradictory. That said, teachers can be better served by bringing certain concepts of informal music learning, such as those discussed in this article, into their classroom practice. By having experience with and feeling comfortable in informal music learning experiences, teachers possibly have an increased ability to transfer these important skills to their students. Learning multiple instruments, having a varied vocabulary for music, and gaining comfort with sometimes tedious but equally important rehearsal skills such as repetition are foundational skills important to the learning of young musicians. By introducing informal music making in the classroom, teachers are enhancing and supporting these curricular goals through varied and student centered learning activities.

Recommendations for Further Research This project purposely was limited in scope. This study could be replicated with other teachers who also infuse informal music-making practices in their classrooms to obtain their insights. The difference in participants’ expertise with bluegrass and gamelan styles of music led Saunders 49 to inconstancy in data. Survey research might indicate more commonalities among teachers’ practices. Another line of research could seek to compare the music achievement of students in classrooms with and without informal music-making practices.

Conclusions Music educators ought to consider the impact of informal music making on learning processes in young musicians. Adhering to the traditions and history of various forms of music music is as important as writing down and recording the music itself. Music transmission by informal means has been a common vehicle for the maintenance of musical style in many different cultures and should be considered when designing music curriculum. Participation in group experiences is important to the formation of positive associations with music. Pate (2013) describes the participation of individuals in informal music settings as giving them a sense of “affirmation and validation...through the perceived felt-shared-ness of these (group informal music) experiences” (p. 199). The experiences students have when making music in an unstructured social environment can be as meaningful and informative as those found in formal settings. The social aspect of the informal music making process is something that should be shared with the new generations of young musicians. There are several considerations for teachers consider as they seek to include informal music making into their curriculum. One misunderstanding of informal music making is that there are no goals to work towards and that there may not be actionable objectives for teachers to describe in lesson plans. Mark expressed apprehension in applying informal learning to his teaching because it was not the “music education” way. On the contrary, even the most informal music settings have goals that individuals are working towards. In the case of Jim’s beginner bluegrass session, the members were there to learn new music and to play with other musicians. It may be that those goals are not spoken, that objectives are not clearly outlined in a list, but one, or many, must exist for there to be any educational progress made. Jaffurs (2004) suggests that teachers’ curriculum construction and methodological ability can increase by opening up the process to alternative points of view. She writes that “by understanding how children construct a method for teaching themselves, teachers may discover alternative methods for creating a learning environment” (p. 196). Whether the goal is to get a list of songs ready for a gig, or to play through some tunes with another person, there are a set amount of skills that are required and those skills can be acquired in a specific order. That is the beginning of educational design, to create method out of objectives. Informal music making is an unwritten, practical form of that educational practice. Within the confines of a music classroom, teachers may find difficulty in balancing informal and formal learning. Both Jim and Mark expressed frustration over difficulty in providing well balanced instruction to their students and in devising lessons that included informal and formal learning. Many teachers are used to relying on past experience in formal music instruction to carry them through lesson teaching. Some teachers may resist informal music teaching because it can appear to be the “absence of teaching.” Although early work from Lucy Green, an expert in the area of informal music, seems to reflect this notion, recently published instruction texts by her outlines the specific activities necessary to create informal music learning environments. In Hear, Listen, Play! How to Free Your Students’ Aural, Improvisation, and Performance Skills (Green, 2014), she outlines instructional strategies to use informal music learning practices in classroom settings. Additionally, other resources are becoming available to help teachers look beyond formal instructional practices and move towards a more conversational music approach (Azzara & Grunow, 2011) as well as being informed by American vernacular music 50 Research Perspectives in Music Education

(O’Connor, 2009). In part it is true that informal music making takes place in the absence of formal music structure, but it does not take place in opposition to it. We as teachers must become comfortable with informal teaching techniques and music transmission if we are to use it in our classroom instruction. This will create new experiences for students, rich in meaning, both personal and social.

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