The April MTNA eJournal is available online now. You can read these articles without registering here although you may not be able to hear and see the enhanced media (sound files, video files) unless you register. In this edition you will find two interesting articles:
The Musicians Guide to the Brain: From Perception to Performance by Lois Svard.
This is the 2nd article in the series: The Musicians Guide to the Brain. While this excellent article is targeted at performance and teaching, there are many wonderful applications to composing. Svard explains how proficiency of an instrument or technique is formed in the brain and how practice habits are formed and how they can be broken. I found that many of the explanations applied directly to developing proficiency in composing. Svard is currently at work on a book on neuropedagogy that will explore how recent discoveries in neuroscience can help musicians in their work in the teaching studio, the practice room, and on the concert stage.
Changes in Performance Style: Before the Era of Recordings by Malcom Bilson. Bilson claims,
While it is abundantly clear that musical performance 100 years ago was vastly different from what is heard today, it is my opinion that the most important changes in musical performance occurred across the 19th century before recording began around 1900.
This is a very interesting edition. I think you will find many applications to your teaching and composing.
If you would like to submit a scholarly article to be considered for publication in the journal, the editorial committee would like to hear from you:
An editorial committee has been appointed and is working with questions and observations about format and process that have arisen during this first full year of publication. We are working to refine the vision and to build a quality corpus of articles that will set the level and tone that we hope the e- Journal will embody. We are grappling with the most meaningful ways of implementing peerreview to lend credibility and weight to the writings selected for publication. We aim to attract substantive, cutting-edge thought, research, writing and philosophy in the field of music teaching and learning.
Even more than that, we want to receive your best article submissions. We aim to make the e-Journal a publication of substance, prestige and high quality. We need you to help us achieve that goal.
