The purpose of this phenomenological inquiry was to examine musicians’—who already have extensive training in a familiar musical style—intensive, hands-on, performance-based learning experience of different musical traditions based on the theoretical frameworks of bi-musicality and interactive constructivism. Through chain sampling, I conducted interviews with eight musicians from multiple countries. Participants had a shared experience of the phenomenon shaped by their roles, including an undergraduate music student, a music education doctoral student, a private music teacher, a retired music teacher, a higher education professor, a music therapist, a children’s community choir director, and a music producer. Following epoché, bracketing, horizontalization, and phenomenological reduction, three themes emerged: (a) adapting skills and knowledge from previous learning, (b) setting aside techniques that express cultural differences, and (c) exploring novelty intuitively through experimentation with cultural integrity. The three themes encapsulated the essence of musicians’ experiences across musical traditions as adaptations, code-switching, and novelty with cultural integrity. The findings of this study may suggest implications for how music teachers and students broaden their music experiences beyond their familiar style to encompass diverse musical traditions in their formal and informal music learning settings.
AvisR. (2019). Bi-musical curricula and “Abyssal Thinking”: The case of KM Music Conservatory, India. Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education, 18(3), 26–55. https://doi.org/10/22176/act18.3.26
2.
BauerW. I. (2020). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. Oxford University Press.
CreswellJ. W.CreswellJ. D. (2023). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (6th ed.). Sage Publications.
5.
DavisM. E. (1994). “Bi-musicality” in the cultural configurations of the Caribbean. Black Music Research Journal, 14(2), 145–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/779481
6.
DeschênesB. (2018). Bi-musicality or transmusicality. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 49(2), 275–294. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26844647
FrühholzS.BelinP. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford handbook of voice perception. Oxford University Press.
9.
FungC. V. (1996). Musicians’ and nonmusicians’ preferences for world musics: Relation to musical characteristics and familiarity. Journal of Research in Music Education, 44(1), 60–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/3345414
10.
GiorgiA. (2006). Difficulties encountered in the application of the phenomenological method in the social sciences. Análise Psicológica, 24(3), 353–361. https://doi.org/10.14417/ap.175
11.
Guo-BrennanL.Guo-BrennanM. (2019). Building welcoming and inclusive schools for immigrant and refugee students: Policy, framework and promising praxis. In ArarH.BrooksJ. S.BogotchI. (Eds.), Education, immigration and migration (pp. 73–93). Emerald Publishing Limited.
12.
HaddonE. (2016). Bi-musicality and dialogical musicality: Influences of Javanese gamelan participation on Western instrumental learning. British Journal of Music Education, 33(2), 219–235. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051716000127
13.
HebertD. G.SaetherE. (2014). ‘Please, give me space’: Findings and implications from an evaluation of the GLOMUS intercultural music camp, Ghana 2011. Music Education Research, 16(4), 418–435. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2013.851662
HornbostelE. M.SachsC. (1961). Classification of musical instruments. The Galpin Society Journal, 14, 3–29. https://www.jstor.org/stable/i234904
16.
HouriganR. M.EdgarS. N. (2014). Phenomenological research in music education. In ConwayC. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of qualitative research in American music education (pp. 148–162). Oxford University Press.
KangS. (2016). The history of multicultural music education and its prospects: The controversy of music universalism and its application. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 34(2), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/8755123314548044
19.
KangS. (2022). Intercultural development among music students and teachers: A literature review. Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, 41(1), 54–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/87551233211061483
20.
KangS. (in press-a). Between the piano and the gayageum: From reversal to empowerment. In CayariC.ThompsonJ. D.RajanR. S. (Eds.) If colors could be heard they’d paint wondrous tunes: Narratives about music education, race, ethnicity, and identity. Intellect Books.
21.
KangS. (in press-b). Dialectic tension: Music education majors’ lived experience in an international choral trip. Music Education Research. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2024.2416251
22.
KangS.FungC. V.YooH (2023). Preservice music teachers’ world music preference for taught pieces and its transfer to untaught pieces. Journal of Research in Music Education, 71(1), 91–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224294221108497
23.
KangS.YooH.FungC. V.MatsunobuK. (2024). Virtual musical instruments in music classrooms: Performing with East Asian music cultures. Music Educators Journal, 110(3), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/00274321241237403
24.
Kertz-WelzelA. (2018). Globalizing music education: A framework. Indiana University Press.
KlopperC. (2010). Intercultural musicianship: A collective and participatory form of music exchange across the globe. Australian Journal of Music Education, (1), 48–57.
27.
LadefogedP.MaddiesonI. (1996). The sounds of the world’s languages (Vol. 1012). Oxford: Blackwell.
28.
MendonçaM. (2011). Gamelan performance outside Indonesia “setting sail”: Babar Layar and notions of “bi-musicality.”Asian Music, 2, 56–87. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41307913
29.
MikszaP.ShawJ. T.RechermeL. K.HashP. M.HodgesD. A. (2023). Music education research: An introduction. Oxford University Press.
30.
MonsonI. (1996). Saying something: Jazz improvisation and interaction. University of Chicago Press.
31.
MoustakasC. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Sage.
O’flynnJ. (2005). Re-appraising ideas of musicality in intercultural contexts of music education. International Journal of Music Education, 23(3), 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761405058238
34.
PattonM. Q. (2014). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. Sage.
35.
PilarskaJ. (2021). The constructivist paradigm and phenomenological qualitative research design. In PabelA.PryceJ.AndersonA. (Eds.), Research paradigm considerations for emerging scholars (pp. 64–73). Channel View Publications.
36.
RegusM.SatterfieldT. (2023). Where is Mi Gente? Codeswitching (Afro) Latinidad in the music classroom. International Journal of Music Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614231215807
ShawJ. T. (2016). “The music i was meant to sing”: Adolescent choral students’ perceptions of culturally responsive pedagogy. Journal of Research in Music Education, 64(1), 45–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429415627989
39.
ShehanP. K. (1984). The effect of instruction method on preference, achievement, and attentiveness for Indonesian Gamelan music. Psychology of Music, 12(1), 34–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735684121004
40.
ShehanP. K. (1985). Transfer of preference from taught to untaught pieces of non-Western music genres. Journal of Research in Music Education, 33(3), 149–158. https://doi.org/10.2307/3344802
41.
SlobinM. (1993). Subcultural sounds: Micromusics of the West. Wesleyan University Press.
42.
SuttonR. A. (1985). Musical pluralism in Java: Three local Traditions. Ethnomusicology, 29(1), 56–85. https://doi.org/10.2307/852324
43.
TitonJ. T. (1995). Bi-musicality as metaphor. The Journal of American Folklore, 108(429), 287–297. https://doi.org/10.2307/541882
TonerP. G. (2007). The gestation of cross-cultural music research and the birth of ethnomusicology. In PennyB. (Ed.), Humanities research: Historizing cross cultural research (pp. 85–110). The Australian National University.
46.
van den DoolJ. (2016). Blended modes of music learning: Shaping intermusicality in Kathmandu. Asian Music, 47(2), 84–113. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24914987
47.
Van ManenM. (2016). Phenomenology of practice: Meaning-giving methods in phenomenological research and writing. Routledge.
48.
VellaJ. (2024). In pursuit of credibility: Evaluating the divergence between member-checking and hermeneutic phenomenology. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 20(7), 665–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2024.04.001
49.
YooH.KangS. (2018). Instructional approaches to teaching a Korean percussion ensemble (Samulnori) to preservice music teachers and preservice classroom teachers: An action research study. Journal of Music Teacher Education, 28(1), 70–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1057083718777317
