Musically Meaningful

Abstract

To enhance music learning and performance, teachers can direct learners toward authentic, interpersonal goals. Teachers’ aspirations for their students’ positive musical experiences may be realized when learners seek to connect with their audiences and evoke responses in listeners. Instead of anxiety-promoting concerns over judgment, students can be concerned with communicating. Instead of learning isolated techniques with no apparent meaning, learners can acquire skills and knowledge that serve to realize expressive ends. Authentic, interpersonal goals can enhance expression and connect knowledge in meaningful ways, promoting the transfer of that knowledge to other situations.