Creative music making as music learning : composition in music education from a Maltese pedagogical perspective

Abstract

This dissertation explores creative music composition in Year Seven and Year Eight, with particular focus on the Maltese Islands. Nowadays, creative music making is rapidly increasing its popularity in schools, especially amongst young individuals. Concomitantly, music teachers are confronted with the persistent unpopularity of music in the classroom. Notwithstanding the inclusive framework upon which the National Curriculum is constructed, music in schools remains unimportant to numerous individuals. While endeavours have been made to comprehend the different connections that students have with music, there is a need to ground this information inside the abstract perspectives and impression of the understudies. Findings suggest that the teachers’ and learners’ conceptions of creative music making as music learning comprise two categories, musical skills and approaches to creative music teaching and learning. This dissertation plans to contribute to existing literature by delivering a contemporary empirical base through which the researcher critically investigates the relevance of musical composition and the skills which the students need to develop and define the salient perceptions, strategies and content for the development of an effective music composition component to be integrated in the curriculum. It aims to advise an innovative path for discovery in music education, making way for additional investigation.