10

Asia-Pacific Journal for
Arts Education
Co-editors:
Prof. Bo Wah LEUNG
Dr. Cheung On TAM
The Education University of Hong Kong
http://www.ied.edu.hk/ccaproject/apjae/apjae.htm
Volume 19 Number 2

ISSN: 1683-6995
July 2020

Impact of Creative Music Making and Improvisational
Approaches for Non-Music Specialists: A Case Study in Teacher
Education in Japan
Yuki Morijiri
Tokyo Gakugei University
morijiri@u-gakugei.ac.jp

Abstract
The difficulties of teaching music by non-music specialists are widely debated, particularly in
the Japanese music curriculum in primary school education in which the current ideas ofcreative music making are thought to be relatively new. The purpose of this research was to11
explore how non-music major students in teacher training experienced activities of creative
music making and how/what they could learn from such a session. This research study isbased on one of these case studies. Japanese non-music major undergraduate students (n=50)
submitted their self-reports after taking part in a ninety minute creative music making session
led by a British instructor. All words in the self-reports were transcribed as data and were
processed using software KH Coder 3 alpha as a text mining approach in order to elicit alexical co-occurrence network. With these results, seven sub-categories were elicited. The
most frequent words were classified into a category of ‘an enjoyable approach for a musicclass’ which included rhythmic activities learned by imitating the instructor. The participantsalso found the improvisational music approaches useful for general educational settings andshowed strong interest in utilising creative music making in other classroom teaching.

Key words
music education, teacher training, creative music making, non-music specialists, generalist
teacher12Introduction
In most primary school education settings, pupils are usually taught by generalist teachers
who are expected to be able to teach all subjects. However, teaching music in primary schoolby generalist teachers has long been one of the challenges on a worldwide basis. In an earlier
study, Mills (1989) reported that non-music specialist primary education students (hereinafter
called “NMES” as an abbreviation of “Non-Music Education Students”) had little confidence
in their ability to teach music. Hewitt (2002) compared two groups, which were ‘specialist’and ‘generalist’ teachers in terms of musical training and found out that generalist teachers
showed lower levels of confidence and self-efficacy in the composition process.
Russell-Bowie (2009) conducted a research study across five countries (Australia, Namibia,
South Africa, USA and Ireland) in terms of priorities and challenges for teaching music inprimary schools, subsequently concluding that the lack of teachers’ experiences bothprofessionally and personally in music and the lack of priority for music in schools are
identified as profound problems, regardless of country. In addition to the lack of priority formusic in academic achievement, lack of teachers’ knowledge, resources and structure aboutmusic teaching is a barrier to improve music curriculum in schools (Bresler, 1993). Researchstudies have widely established that generalist primary teachers who have fewer musicalexperiences and less perceived expertise are likely to have less confidence in their abilities toteach music in the classroom (Henley, 2011; Hennessy, 2000; Holden & Button, 2006; Garvis,
2013; de Vries, 2013, Stavrou, 2012, Wiggins & Wiggins, 2008). However, there is a study

13suggesting that there is not necessarily a relationship between personal musical experiences
and teaching music (Jeanneret & Degraffenreid, 2012).
One of the problems for generalist teachers in teaching music could be a specificperception that music is ‘special’, which is often believed, requiring something ‘special’ fordoing musical activities (Mills, 1989; Hennessy, 2000; Seddon & Biasutti, 2008). When
compared with music specialists, who seem to have already acquired some ‘special’ skills
needed for performing music, generalist teachers would perceive themselves as the ones whoare ‘not able to do music’. These perceptions could lead to a lack of confidence for teachingmusic. Another perception is that music is for someone ‘talented’: if the people perceive
themselves as ‘not musical’, it weakens their confidence for teaching music (Stunell, 2010).
The concept that musical ability should be cultivated by appropriate music learning andmusical activities is believed by some teachers (Jaap & Patrick, 2015). However, non-music
specialist teachers still seem to firmly believe that their capability for teaching music can bedecided by ‘special’ training, experience and ‘special’ talent, which they perceive themselves
as not having. These perceptions could lead the generalist teachers to keep music at a distancein their classroom teaching.
In their UK study, Holden and Button (2006) reported that non-music specialist
teachers ranked their confidence in teaching music in the classroom the lowest among all
subjects. They also added “not being able to read music made respondents feel very

14vulnerable” as a reason (p.29). Hallam, Burnard, Robertson, Saleh, Rogers and Kokatsaki(2009) found that, in a primary teacher-training programme, the students who played one ormore musical instruments showed a significant difference in their level of confidenceteaching music compared to non-players. The students who were not able to play an
instrument were significantly less confident than instrumentalists teaching music such as:
singing to the class, singing to teach music, enjoying teaching music and playing an
instrument for teaching. Also, according to Russell-Bowie’s study (2010), it revealed
significant correlations between having confidence in teaching music and musicalbackground, such as being able to play instruments. Perceived musical abilities and technicalskills in music itself can have a substantial impact on creating the people’s perception of
being able to teach music.
These examples of challenges for music education could be universal amongst many
countries, although systems or curriculums for music education and teacher training aredifferent in each country. Japan is not an exception. Shimojo, Hirata and Fukuchi (1996)
conducted a questionnaire survey of Japanese primary school teachers regarding the difficultyof teaching each subject in their classroom. In this research, 582 teachers responded to thesurvey and it revealed that they thought the most difficult subject to teach in primary school
was music. This research was also explicit about the main reasons why they felt teaching thissubject was difficult, revealing particularly a lack of knowledge of content and a lack of

15
methods for teaching music. MEXT (2019) conducted a national survey of elementary andjunior-high schools across Japan in order to explore the actual situation of teaching in schools.
Nineteen thousand, six hundred seventy-one primary schools responded to this survey and theresults showed the proportion of subjects taught by non-classroom teachers, namely specialist
teachers, in the academic year 2018-2019 (April 2018 to March 2019). From Grade 1 (aged6-7) to Grade 6 (aged 11-12), the proportion of music taught by music specialist teachers
increased; Grade 1 = 12.2%, Grade 2 = 20.7%, Grade 3 = 40.6%, Grade 4 = 47.8%, Grade 5= 54.0% and Grade 6 = 55.6%. Particularly in lower grades (Grade 1 – 2, aged 6-8), mostly
classroom teachers who are generalist teachers teach music in their class. This fundamental
situation has not changed much on a worldwide basis, including Japan, and is part of thecritical issue of music taught by generalist teachers.

Creative music making in Japan
In Japan, the national curriculum has been set up and named the “Course of Study” by the
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for school
education. This guideline has been revised approximately every ten years since it was
officially published with legally binding force in 1958 (although the first tentative guideline
was published in 1947). In the current music guideline, the subject has two areas:
Music-Making and Appraising (MEXT, 2011, 2017a, 2017b). The area of Music-Making has

16three sub-areas as activities: Singing, Playing Instruments and Creative Music Making.
Among these three activities, the current ideas and concepts of creative music making are
relatively new. In previous guidelines before 1989, the ideas for music creation were based on
the Western Classical music tradition, such as making a melody based on a piece of tonal
music, making accompaniment with chords, and arranging some parts of a piece of musicwith notation (Shimazaki, 2009). In 1989, a revised guideline for compulsory education was
published by MEXT and introduced a new concept as ‘creative music making’. This concept
was influenced by more contemporary ideas from overseas, such as Soundscape by Murray
Schafer and creative music making by John Painter. Including more exploratory andimprovisational musical activities and the use of various sound materials, these new concepts
were expected to expand the ideas of musical creation in music education. In brief, this newrevision attempted to introduce new musical ideas or applications in music creation rather
than continuing with the more conservative, conventional ideas of music itself in musiceducation. It was believed that this new approach would enable pupils to make music byapplying not only the approach based on the Western Classical music tradition, but also on
different styles of music making.
However, in spite of the intentions of the government, schools actually faced a difficult
situation. In music education in Japanese Schools, music activities in a class had emphasised
practice and rehearsed music and there were fewer opportunities for improvising and creating.

17
In an extensive survey involving 911 elementary schools in Japan, 52.3% of elementary
school pupils responded that they liked or would rather have the activity of creative music
making in music class, whilst 68.1% of them responded that they generally like music classes(National Institute for Educational Policy Research, 2015). By comparison, only 32.7% ofelementary school teachers agreed positively that pupils are highly likely to be interested in
making music with musical structures and the process of constructing music. Furthermore,
only 15.5% of the teachers believe that the pupils easily acquire creative music making(National Institute for Educational Policy Research, 2015). Adachi and Chino (2004) reported
that activities of creative music making were incorporated into music education by only 66%of the elementary schools which responded to their survey. They also pointed out two reasons
why creative music making is not practiced. The first reason was that people believe “onlyexceptional people with a special talent or extensive training can actually create such music”(p.307). This perception is associated with a conventional understanding of music. The
second reason is the lack of a long-term vision of teaching the activities of creative music
making. For teachers in elementary schools, it was quite challenging to teach music with thisnew concept of creative music making, particularly for musical activities for which they had
no teaching experience and no personal experience in music creation. Creative music making
is understood as one important aspect in music education, however teachers generally haveless confidence in engaging students in creative activities (Henry, 1996; Dogani, 2004).

18
Alongside teachers who already had experience teaching in schools not being able tocope well with the new ideas of creative music making, this situation was highly likely tocreate additional consequences for students enrolled in teacher training in higher education.
In teacher education, some influences come from what the students had experienced in theirown school education, as well as their own musical skills and background (Hennessy, 2000;
Russell-Bowie, 2010). In teacher training, the students learn how to teach music based on the
National Curriculum in domestic contexts. In addition, they will reflect what they hadreceived in their own school education, and their basic concepts of teaching music will be
influenced by the range of their own experiences of learning music, as most NMES only
receive music education in school settings. Critically, it could be said that there might befewer opportunities to learn new concepts in the understanding of music and how to teachmusic in schools in a teacher training programme in higher education, unless the students
have prior knowledge of the teaching approaches which they have not experienced.
Since the current ideas of creative music making were introduced to Japanese musiceducation, creative music making activities have been challenging for both pupils andteachers. If the pupils have not experienced creative music making sufficiently in schools, itwill be difficult to look back at their creative experiences in childhood as fruitful learningwhen they grow up. Their experiences of music creation could also form the basis of theirunderstanding of music. If the students in teacher education perceive themselves as not being

19
able to teach creative music making because of a lack of experience or expertise, higher
education needs to cultivate these skills in the students. Seddon and Biasutti (2008) reported
that NMES showed improvements in confidence in their personal musical abilities and theirabilities to teach music in the primary school after participating in ‘blues activities’, whichwere aimed at playing an improvised 12-bar blues on an electronic keyboard for beginners.
Russel-Bowie (2010) also emphasised the importance of higher education for trainee teachers
as a chance of empowerment. Abilities and confidence for generalist music teachers can be
improved in higher education and in their experience of learning (Henley, 2017; Holden &Button, 2006).
Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore how NMES in teacher training
experience activities of creative music making and how/what they could learn from thesesessions. As many generalist trainee teachers are likely to believe that music is special andteaching music can only be done by someone who acquires special skills or has talent, thisresearch aimed to investigate exploratorily their perceptions on creative music making after
taking part in an improvisational creative music workshop.

Methodology
Participants
The participants were 50 undergraduate students (Male = 19, Female = 31) in their 3rd year

20
Bachelor of Education, who majored in primary school education and also had a sub-major
based on a subject at university in Tokyo, Japan. All of the participants were non-music major
students, namely NMES. The details of their major subjects are shown in Table 1. Art
Education in the university indicates studying pedagogy in terms of visual art, such as;
painting, graphic design and craft, which are not related to music or drama.

Table 1 Sampled students’ major subject in primary education
Major subject

Number%

Art Education
Mathematics Education
English Education
International Education
Calligraphy Education

23
19
5
2
1

46.0%
38.0%
10.0%
4.0%
2.0%

Total

50

100.0%All of the participants were enrolled in a music pedagogy module. At the first class of
this module, the participants responded to a brief survey about their musical experiences. In apart of it, they submitted comments about what the most memorable experiences were inmusic classes in primary and secondary schools. None of the participants reported Creative
Music Making as the most memorable experience in music classes. Twenty participants (40%)
reported activities related to ‘Singing’ as the most memorable ones and nineteen participants(38%) reported ‘Playing Instruments”. Six participants (12%) reported the most memorable
activities were in the area of “Apprising” and another five students mentioned other activities

21(e.g. talking with a teacher). The participants took three classes (each class lasted 90 minutes)
before taking part in the subject session and had learned basic concepts for primary musiceducation, such as the purpose of studying the subject, a brief guideline of primary musiceducation and some musical terms. They had also experienced some activities of singing andplaying instruments.

Research design
Due to the specific educational situation, a case study was utilised as a research method. A
case study is “the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming tounderstand its activity within important circumstances” (Stake, 1995, p. xi) and can beapplied for an individual case, including a class, an event and a group (Gillham, 2000;
Thomas, 2011). Particularly, an educational case study is “an empirical enquiry which is:conducted within a localized boundary of space and time… into interesting aspects of an
educational activity, or programme, or institution, or system” (Bassey, 1999, p.58). Also, if
the research question is based on exploratory views, such as “how” and “why”, the casestudy method could be interesting to examine (Yin, 2009). In this research study, the researchquestions are exploratory in a specific social context. The research session was conducted asa part of module with NMES and its data was derived from their comments, based on what
they learned and how they felt. Therefore, it might be suitable to apply the case study method
to explore the case as a research method.

22
The participants took part in a creative music making workshop, led by an English
instructor at a university hall. The workshop lasted 90 minutes in total and was taught inEnglish and translated into Japanese by a researcher for the participants when necessary. The
workshop was designed within the context of this research study. Based on the concept ofcreative music making, the workshop was planned to include some potentially new concepts
for the participants: improvisational approaches, the creative process of music making, anddeviation from a written music score. The workshop was taught with the VOCES8 Method(Smith, 2013), that was inspired by Hallam’s (2010) research study, as an implementational
approach throughout the session. The VOCES8 Method includes using Latin and African
rhythms, which are thought to be less familiar to Japanese students. This method embraces
improvisational approaches to the performance of music without special musical expertiseand accessible ways to create music for the general classroom environment. The workshop
basically contained three different music activities which have not been introduced toauthorised music textbooks for compulsory education in Japan. Each of the three activities
focused on rhythm, melody and harmony.
The first activity mainly explored rhythm. The participants were asked to copy
whatever the instructor did, for example body movement, body percussion, making sounds
and creating rhythm. After this, they learned three different rhythmic patterns with hand claps,
and then were divided into three groups to create layers using the rhythm and sounds which

23
they had learned in various ways. This first part lasted approximately 25 minutes.
The second part focused on harmony. The instructor demonstrated a cyclical harmonicprogression comprised of four chords (F-Bb-C-F) on the piano to the participants. They wereasked to pick out one note from each chord and sing it in various ways, for example by avowel or humming. Approximately 10 minutes were spent on this part.
The final activity was creative singing of songs with melodies. A music sheet entitled'Spiritual Medley', which consisted of 3 songs; (Wade in the Water, Hit the Road Jack,
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child) and 1 voice percussion, was provided for theirinformation. The participants learned 1st (Wade in the Water), 2nd (Hit the Road Jack) and 4th(voice percussion) voices. They mainly sang the 1st and 2nd melodies by ear and tried a‘mashup’ with the instructor’s direction, using various singing styles, such as singing withlyrics or humming with changes of dynamics. This final part lasted approximately 20 minutes.
In addition to the three main activities, the students had opportunities to listen to thetheoretical background of the method, for example the intention of each musical activity,
useful teaching skills and expected outcomes of the method. There was also time allocatedfor questions at the end of the session. The full session was recorded with permission granted
beforehand and the researcher was present in the session as an interpreter and an observer.
After the session, the recorded video was observed in order to understand the students’behaviour and submitted comments.

24

Data collection and analysis
In the case study method, qualitative data collection, such as observations, interviews anddocuments are often preferred (Stake, 2005), therefore this research study used self-reports as
documents to analyse the data. A week after the workshop, the fifty participants submitted
their self-reports about their experiences and thoughts about the workshop. All words weretranscribed as data and were processed using software, KH Coder 3 alpha, as a text mining
approach (Higuchi, 2016, 2017) in order to elicit a lexical co-occurrence network in the
self-reports. This software enables us to draw a lexical co-occurrence network based on the
Jaccard similarity coefficient. According to the developer, this approach suggests that
researchers should go back to the original text data during analysis in order to ensure thereliability of its results related to the context of the original texts (Higuchi, 2016, 2017). In
this case, some modifiers were excluded in the process of analysis, such as ‘really’ ‘quite’ and‘very’ because these are not significant words to describe the content itself. After eliciting awhole lexical co-occurrence network, the context of each sub-category (subgraph in the
network) was considered with the linked original texts in order to understand the contents andto label each sub-category as a component. In addition to a text mining approach, anobservation was utilised to interpret the comments and students’ behaviour.

25

Results
From all data, 2,915 words were extracted, and 1,172 words were used for analysis. Table 2
shows the list of words which appeared more than 4 times in all data. Figure 1 illustrates alexical co-occurrence network generated from all data. In Figure 1, the size of each circle
corresponds to the frequency of the word it contains. Each line shows co-occurrence, forexample the darker lines indicate the higher coefficient. According to the result of analysis,
seven subgraphs were generated as Figure 1 illustrates.

Table 2 Extracted words and frequency
Words

Frequency

Words

Frequency Words

Frequency Words

Frequency

Enjoy

46

People12Workshop6

Listen

5

Music

35

Myself11

Different

6

Method

5

Think

35

Use

10

Like

6

Impression

4

Rhythm

24

Move

10

Receive

6

Activity

4

Sing

22

Fun

10

Good

6

Participate

4

Sound

19

Chord

10

Language5

Useful4

Appreciat
Feel

17

e

9

Pupils5Time4Instructor

15

Together

9

Natural5

Concentrate

4

Copy

14

Difficult

8

Various5

Before

4

Class

13

Beginning

7

All

5

Communicate

4

Body

13

Make

7

Experience5* Words that appeared more than 4 times

26

Subgraph 3
Subgraph 2

Subgraph 5
Subgraph 7

Subgraph 6

Subgraph 4

Subgraph 1

Frequency
10

20

30

40

Figure 1 Lexical co-occurrence network

The term ‘Enjoy’, which was assigned the highest frequency from all data, obtained

27
0.47 Jaccard Similarity Index with the term ‘Think’ and 0.41 with the term ‘Music’, followed
by 0.39 with ‘Rhythm’ and 0.36 with ‘Class’. These words are included in subgraph 1 inFigure 1. Subgraph 1 (bottom centre in Figure 1) comprises eleven words: Enjoy, Music,
Think, Rhythm, Copy, Instructor, Sing, Feel, Class, Together, and Different. The sentences in
the original data which were associated with this subgraph include the contents of theparticipants’ joyful experiences by copying what the instructor did, which turned into
structured rhythm patterns with some layers, and then into actual music. Also, the participants
felt that they made music by themselves without special techniques or expertise. This
category of the subgraph was named as an “enjoyable approach for music class”. In thiscategory, some participants described their experience as follows:“ ... when three different rhythmic patterns were mixed together, it became a reallyinteresting sound even though each rhythm was totally different.”“At the beginning, we just started to copy him [the instructor] and then realised
this became rhythm. And then we layered a couple of rhythmic patterns … I felt it
was really great and got a new understanding of the power of music.”“I really enjoyed the session and I was impressed to be able to make great music

28
by just copying him [the instructor].”“ ... I thought we (future teachers) would need to devise a way to let pupils enjoy
music like I did in this session. If we can create an enjoyable environment, pupils
could positively join in and it would help us to make active learning classes.”

The participants seemed to enjoy the rhythmic musical activity of imitating the
instructor. Also, it could be thought that the participants were attracted by both the
instructor’s manner of presentation and his personality; being energetic, appealing andengaging, in addition to the positive effect of being taught by a guest lecturer.
In this manner, the other six categories were delineated and given names relating to
the words contained therein. Table 3 shows each subgraph, words comprised in its subgraphand the name of the category. Subgraph 2 (top right in Figure 1) was labelled as “general
educational ideas” which includes the participants’ perspectives on educational leading in
general educational settings, not only in purely music education settings. Improvisational
approaches in music making prompts reactions, heightens attention to surroundings andincreases concentration on what they are doing. Students in higher education rarely learnmusic pedagogy through learning improvisational approaches themselves. The participants
were inspired by utilising this idea to capture people’s attention in a learning environment.

29
Some examples of the participants’ comments are as below:“ ... I really enjoyed and appreciated learning a way to get students’ attention andto let all pupils participate in musical activities with a song and melodies,regardless of one’s limitation at music.”“It was a really useful way to get pupils to listen to a teacher and concentrate on
activities. I deeply learned this essential skill as a teacher though learning music inthis workshop. When I become a teacher, I definitely want to try this way.”“I thought it would be useful for both class management and teaching a subject if
this method could be applied in educational environments.”“I think this method enables every pupil to participate in and enjoy music easily,
although playing music could be thought to require technical skills. It was new forme as I didn’t receive this kind of education in Japanese schools. It was
informative.”

30

Table 3 Category of subgraphsubgraph Name of category

Words in the subgraph1

Enjoyable approach formusic class

Enjoy, Music, Think, Rhythm, Copy, Instructor,
Sing, Feel, Class, Together, Different

2

General educational ideas

Pupils, Workshop, Concentrate, Listen, Method,
Receive, Participate, Impression, Appreciate

3

Various movements

Move, Various, Good

4

Natural introduction

Beginning, Natural, Before

5

Difficulty of singing inchordsSound, Chord, Feel, People, Myself, Sing,
Difficult, Activity, Like, Time6

Non-verbal communication

Fun, All, Language, Communicate

7

Making music with bodyBody, Use, Make

The third category was regarding “various movements”, which contained terms“move”, “various” and “good” (top centre in Figure 1). As the workshop included bodypercussion, some participants mentioned their experiences with various movements. The
fourth category was labelled “natural introduction” (bottom left in Figure 1). The workshop
did not start with many verbal explanations or introductions but rather was facilitated with analternative way of communication, by copying body movements and making rhythm together
with just a few physical instructions. Usual instructions for a class are more explanatory andformal in Japan. Some of the participants reported that they unconsciously started learning
music and then realised that the activity at the beginning was a warmup in preparation forfurther musical activities.
The fifth category (bottom centre in Figure 1) was named “difficultly of singing in31chords”, which focused on the activity of singing notes within chords. The instructor asked
participants to pick a note within a chord and sing it in different musical contexts. This
activity was challenging for some participants and brought opportunities to think about what
they had received in music education in their school lives. Some examples are as follows:“When we made a harmony from a chord, if we had taken a bit more time to makesure of a note and build up a harmony slowly, we would have been able to enjoy
the harmony in various ways. Around me, everyone just hummed the same tune as
we didn’t have confidence.”“ ... the most impressive activity was individually choosing one note from aharmony and singing it. When he [the instructor] said we could arrange within aharmony, most of us didn’t do that and hesitated. Japanese people are very good atdoing the same things as others do. However, we are likely to be very passive, andavoid creating something original and doing something different from others. I
tried to consider how to solve this fundamental problem, but it is difficult to reacha conclusion.”

Observation of this activity showed that the participants’ voices were quieter compared32
to other activities and their facial expressions slightly more serious. It is understandable thatthey hesitated somewhat doing such a unique, improvised activity.
The sixth category (bottom right in Figure 1) was labelled “non-verbal
communication”, as some participants gave their comments that music is a universal
language with which to communicate. In this university, undergraduate courses are primarilytaught in Japanese, making it unusual to take a class in English. This experience might makethe participants think about the difference of languages and ways of communication. The
participants felt they were communicating with each other through music. For example:“I felt we could communicate with each other even though we cannot understandeach other’s language.”

The seventh category embraced “making music with body” (centre in Figure 1). The
participants found that they could make music effectively using their own bodies. One of thestereotyped prejudices could be that music is comprised of singing and instrumental sounds,
such as piano, guitar and recorder in a music class.

“ ... I’ve learned we can create music with the whole of our bodies, not only byclapping hands or with the voice.”

33

From the data, the seven categories were generated. Each category embraced thecontents of creative music making which the participants experienced in the workshop andincluded their perceptions of the musical activities. Also, some general educational
perspectives were revealed from their self-reports.

Discussion and Conclusion
Data revealed that the non-music specialist, NMES’ perceptions of their own experiences
through the workshop on creative music making. The most frequent words (top 5) werecategorised into the component of “enjoyable approaches in music education” and it mainlycontains the activity using rhythm. The NMES specialists were highly likely to perceive thatplaying rhythms with their bodies is an enjoyable activity for many people, without atechnical barrier, although the workshop contains other activities focusing on melody andharmony. They learned to play each rhythm separately and then made layers using therhythms they had played, including improvisational ideas. Despite the fact that three rhythmic
patterns were played and layered together, none of the participants reported that it was
confusing or difficult. In contrast, they found it difficult singing a single note within a threenote chord. There was a perceived gap between these two activities in terms of musicaltechnical difficulty. There could be two main reasons for this. One reason would be related to34
the features of each of the musical elements. Rhythm is thought to be a more primitive andprimary musical element compared to harmony (Cowell, 2004). In most educational
resources, studying rhythm is introduced to pupils before studying harmony. Rhythm andharmony embody different levels of musical complexity and therefore activities with rhythm
could be more simple and more accessible, which enabled the NMES specialists to feel thatthey ‘are able to’ play and make music. The other reason could be the process of producing
sound. In the activity with rhythm, they learned every single rhythm, then layered what they
had learned. As a result, layered rhythmic patterns were created. However, the opposite
process was required in the activity with the chords. The harmonies of the chord progression
were demonstrated and introduced first. Then, the NMES were asked to choose a note they
liked in each chord. When everyone chose and sang one note for each chord, the harmoniesof the proposed chord progression were created. Thus, it could be suggested that the activity
with rhythm was more like a “bottom-up” process of creative music making and the activity
with chords was more like a “top-down” process. Also, as the NMES did not have muchmusical expertise, some of them found it difficult to hear and identify the individual notes ofa chord by ear. Particularly, they did not have much confidence singing a different note fromthe others or arranging their singing in a chord. The lack of confidence in showing theircreative ideas in the activity could lead us to conclude that they all gravitated towards theeasiest choice, namely singing the same note as the others. From these observations, it could

35
be thought that a bottom-up process of learning as a small step with primitive musicalelements would be easier and could make them feel more secure for music making.
Additionally, it suggests that fundamental psychological states, such as confidence andsecurity, could support their positive approach to and attempts to further participate increative musical activities.
In relation to this aspect, one important role of creative music making in this study was
to broaden the understanding of music held by most students, including NMES. They may
believe that music is something which is played from a score, should be readable as a score,should be structured with technical knowledge, should be played by instruments and should
be sung with a beautiful voice. This conventional understanding of music leads to theperception that ‘music is special’ (c.f. Mills, 1989; Hennessy, 2000; Seddon & Biasutti, 2008).
However, in this study, the NMES found that they could create music using only their bodies
and voices. Some students were motivated to utilise these music activities outside musicclasses as general activities when they become teachers in the future. It could be said that
their experiences brought them a new understanding of music, made them perceive music asless challenging and enabled them to expand their existing understanding of music, which
could possibly change their stereotyped conventional understandings of music itself.
From this case study, we can suggest that, not only are there musical benefits tolearning creative music making, but also that broader, general educational benefits for the

36
NMES were revealed. As improvisational approaches require concentration, prompt reactions
and active engagement in the activity, the NMES realised the value of applying theseapproaches as a vital technique for classroom management. It is crucial that NMES acquire
general teaching ideas from music teaching. Generalist teachers usually teach not only music,
but all subjects. Therefore, fundamental educational skills which are adaptable for all subject
teaching and classroom management are needed. Some improvisational approaches would be
beneficial in a variety of educational settings in order to draw pupils’ attention to theirteachers or for engagement in learning. It was fascinating that, in their creative musicallearning, the NMES specialists discovered a way to use this as a general educational
technique to get pupils to engage in an activity. They found it applicable not only in musicteaching, but also in general educational settings and were motivated to utilise this approach
when they become teachers in the future in various educational settings.

Implications for higher education
This research study could suggest the value of these approaches to higher education, as it
revealed positive possibilities to change non-music specialist teachers’ conventional
understanding of music and its application in the classroom. Russel-Bowie (2010) stressed
the importance of higher education in order “to empower and encourage preservice teachers
to develop their personal confidence and competence in music” (p.85). Part of the roles and37
responsibilities of higher education in teacher training could be to expand students’comprehension of music education and reduce apprehensions and feelings of inadequacy
about teaching music. From this research study, it can be concluded that it would be
beneficial for NMES to be able to begin using creative music making with fewer technicalbarriers and alter any mental barriers they may have toward teaching music. Successful
experiences could help them to break the perceived barrier of their level of musical ability
and would contribute to developing their confidence in the creation of music. If the teacher
trainees can feel that they are able to make music by themselves in enjoyable ways, thesesuccessful experiences could contribute to their confidence in utilising musical activities forteaching in the classroom and could develop a different understanding of music. If there areenough opportunities for experiences which raise the students’ confidence in music and forlearning various activities for wider musical understanding, creative music making in primaryschool education may be less challenging for generalist teachers.
For non-music specialist teachers, learning new ideas for creative music making could
contribute to expanding not only their musical knowledge for teaching music, but may
contribute to acquiring also general educational ideas about how to lead pupils in a classroom.
Learning something new often has the power to change the students’ perspectives on musicalunderstanding. In this study, it was revealed that new styles of music teaching and creative
music making were informative for and beneficial to the non-music specialists. It brought

38
them opportunities to re-think music itself and music education, and to explore wider
educational practices. The student teachers learned about the process of creating music, andhow to elicit important techniques for leading pupils and creating an enjoyable learning
environment. Particularly, the students who felt technical barriers for conventional musicalteaching needed to have an alternative way to teach music confidently. Through thesuccessful experiences of creating music with fewer technical barriers, the non-music
specialists also learned how to make music and then reflect upon how they achieved it. It wasalso an opportunity to compare these techniques with the teaching they had received in theirmusic class while they were still students in school. Further they were able to reflect upon
their personal musical experiences and think about their future vision as a teacher of music.
Experiences with new ideas of creative music making could give generalist teachers a chance
to develop their own ideas, both musically and educationally.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI)
from the Japan Society for the Promotions of Science (JSPS), Grant Numbers 16TK17436
and 18TK13152. The author also thanks Mr. Paul Smith (VOCES8 Foundation, UK) for
providing a workshop and making this research possible.

39

References
Adachi, M., & Chino, Y. (2004) Inspiring creativity through music. In S. Lau, A. H. H. Hui,and G. Y. C. Ng. (eds.). Creativity: when East meets West. World Scientific: Singapore.
305-340.
Bassey, M. (1999). Case study research in educational settings. McGraw-Hill Education:
London.
Bresler, L. (1993). Music in a double-bind: Instruction by non-specialists in elementary
schools. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 115, 1-14.
Cowell, H. (2004). The joys of noise. In C. Cox and D. Warner (eds.). Audio culture:readings in modern music. Continuum: New York. 22-24.
de Vries, P. (2013). Generalist teachers' self-efficacy in primary school music teaching. Music
Education Research, 15(4), 375-391.
Dogani, K. (2004). Teachers’ understanding of composing in the primary classroom. Music
Education Research, 6(3), 264–279.
Garvis, S. (2013). Beginning generalist teacher self-efficacy for music compared with maths
and English. British Journal of Music Education, 30(1), 85-101.
Gillham, B. (2000). Case Study Research Methods. Continuum, London.
Hallam, S. (2010). The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal
development of children and young people. International Journal of Music Education,

40
28(3), 269-289.
Hallam, S., Burnard, P., Robertson, A., Saleh, A., Davies, V., Rogers, L., & Kokatsaki, D.
(2009) Trainee primary-school teachers’ perceptions of their effectiveness in teachingmusic. Music Education Research, 11(2), 221-240.
Henley, D. (2011). Music education in England: a review by Darren Henley for the
Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Department for Education and Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Retrieved
from:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachme
nt_data/file/175432/DFE-00011-2011.pdf
Henley, J. (2017). How musical are primary generalist student teachers? Music Education
Research, 19(4), 470-484.
Hennessy, S. (2000). Overcoming the red-feeling: the development of confidence to teachmusic in primary school amongst student teachers. British Journal of Music
Education, 17(2), 183-196.
Henry, W. (1996). Creative processes in children’s musical compositions: A review of theliterature. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 15(1), 10-15.
Hewitt, A. (2002). A comparative analysis of process and product with specialist andgeneralist preservice teachers involved in a group composition activity. Music

41
Education Research, 4(1), 25-36. doi: 10.1080/14613800220119750
Higuchi, K. (2016). A two‐step approach to quantitative content analysis: KH Coder tutorialusing Anne of Green Gables (Part I). Ritsumeikan Social Science
Review, 52(3), 77-91.
Higuchi, K. (2017). A Two-Step Approach to Quantitative Content Analysis: KH Coder
Tutorial Using Anne of Green Gables (Part II). Ritsumeikan Social Science Review,
53(1), 137-147.
Holden, H., & Button, S. (2006). The teaching of music in the primary school by thenon-music specialist. British Journal of Music Education, 23(1), 23-38.
Jaap, A., & Patrick, F. (2015). Teachers’ concepts of musical talent and nurturing musicalability: music learning as exclusive or as opportunity for all? Music Education
Research, 17(3), 262-277.
Jeanneret, N., & Degraffenreid, G. M. (2012). Music Education in the Generalist Classroom.
In G. E. McPherson and G. F. Welch (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Music Education
Vol. 1, New York: Oxford University Press, 399-416.
MEXT (2011). Section 6 Music. Tokyo: MEXT. Retrieved fromhttps://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/education/micro_detail/__icsFiles/afieldfi
le/2009/04/21/1261037_7.pdf
MEXT (2017a). National Curriculum Standards reform for elementary school. Tokyo: MEXT

42
(in Japanese). Retrieved from https://www.mext.go.jp/content/1413522_001.pdf
MEXT (2017b). Music: course of study [elementary & secondary education]. Tokyo: MEXT.
MEXT (2019). 平成 30 年度公立小・中学校等における教育課程の編成・実施状況調
査 調査結果 [in Japanese]. Retrieved from:https://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/education/micro_detail/__icsFiles/afieldfi
le/2019/04/10/1415063_2_1.pdf
Mills, J. (1989). The Generalist Primary Teacher of Music: A Problem of Confidence. British
Journal of Music Education, 6(2), 125-138.
National Institute for Educational Policy Research. (2015). 平成 24 年度学習指導要領実施
状況調査 教科別分析と改善点（小学校 音楽）[in Japanese]. Retrieved from:https://www.nier.go.jp/kaihatsu/shido_h24/01h24_25/05h24bunseki_ongaku.pdf
Russell-Bowie, D. (2009). What me? Teach music to my primary class? Challenged toteaching music in primary schools in five countries. Music Education Research, 11(1),23-36.
Russell-Bowie, D. (2010). A ten year follow-up investigation of preservice, generalist
primary teachers’ background and confidence in teaching music. Australian Journalof Music Education, 2, 76-86.
Seddon, F., & Biasutti, M. (2008) Non-music specialist trainee primary school teachers’
confidence in teaching music in the classroom. Music Education Research, 10(3),43
403-421.
Shimazaki, A. (2009). Creative music activity at school in post-war educational reform period[in Japanese]. Annual report of the Faculty of Education, Bunkyo University, 43,
85-97.
Simoom, T., Hirata, A., & Fukuchi, A. (1996). Difficulties of teaching subjects and activities
in elementary schools and their reasons: self evaluation of elementary school teachers.
The Bulletin of Japanese Curriculum Research and Development, 19(1), 39-47.
Smith, P. (2013). The VOCES8 Method: Start the school day with a musical wake-up forvoice, body and mind. London: Edition Peters.
Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Stake, R. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin, and Y. S. Lincoln (eds.). The
SAGE handbook of qualitative research 3rd ed., Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications,443-466.
Stavrou, N. E. (2012). Fostering musical creativity in pre-service teacher education:
Challenges and possibilities. International Journal of Music Education, 31(1), 35-52.
Stunell, G. (2010). Not musical? Identity perceptions of generalist primary school teachers in
relation to classroom music teaching in England. Action, Criticism, and Theory forMusic Education, 9(2), 79-107.
Thomas, G. (2011). How to Do Your Case Study: A guide for students and researchers.

44
London, Sage.
Wiggins, R. A., & Wiggins, J. (2008). Primary music education in the absence of specialists.
International Journal of Education & the Arts, 9(12). Retrieved [20 June 2020] fromhttp://www.ijea.org/v9n12/
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: design and methods (Applied social research method,
Vol.5) 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.