Spril 2025 MTNA e-Journal

Envisioning a Future Musical Self: Identities of Dropout and Continuing Adolescent Piano Students
By Karen Gerelus

It might be said that everyone has a musical identity. What does the ability to envision a future musical self do to change the musical experiences in the present? This publication presents results from two separate but related studies. Study 1 used quantitative methods to investigate 55 former piano students who had dropped out of lessons and found these students had a significantly more limited scope of how long they would be involved in music as well as a limited ability to envision their future musical selves. Study 2 used qualitative methods to investigate four students who were enrolled in piano lessons with intentions to continue and found these students had a deeper understanding of themselves as musicians as well as the purpose of music in their lives both now and in the future. The results suggest the dropout students could not develop a long-term vision of themselves as musicians, while continuing students had a much better sense of how music fit into their identity. [Read More]

Poster Sessions

24Intersections: Piano Variations and Practice Know-How as Teaching Strategies for Piano Technique Development
By Samuel E. Pang [View]

Modern Marketing: 21st-Century Tools for the Independent Music Teacher
By Lindsay Bastian; Nora Mello, NCTM; Manuel Muñoz; Karolina Rimskyte; Joseph Snipes; Hanqiu Xu; and Vincent Yang [View]

Current Research

An Index of Graded Piano Repertoire to Support Undergraduate Music Theory and Secondary Piano Sequences
By Jesse Pierson [View]

Strategies for Performing Pierre Boulez’s Douze Notations
By Er-Hsuan Li [View]