Title: Teaching improvisation in different musical genres My curiosity for teaching improvisation in different genres emerged when I started playing with musicians who had another musical background than my own. I wanted to acquire a better understanding of what improvisation means to them and how improvisation is taught in their genre. The aim of this study is to gain insight into four pedagogues' methods of teaching improvisation. The four pedagogues represent the genres of jazz, blues, organ music and folk music. I chose these four genres for two reasons.

Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka musiklärares syn på huruvida deras val av specialiseringar under studietiden var adekvata för deras nuvarande yrkesroll.Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun har använts som metod och informanterna består av fyra före detta studenter från musikhögskolan Ingesund som arbetar som verksamma musiklärare. I min teoretiska utgångspunkt har jag valt att fokusera på musikeridentitet och läraridentitet. Resultatet av studien visar att informanterna valde sina inriktningar framförallt på grund av det egna musicerandet, men också för att få behörighet att undervisa i ämnet. Det framkommer också att läraryrket är mer än bara lärande och konflikthantering, och att samtal med elever och mentorskap har nästan lika stor del som lärandet. Det som informanterna har lärt sig mest av under sin utbildning till musiklärare är praktiken..

There are different ways of developing a second language. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate whether and possibly how music, focused on singing, can improve the development of Swedish as a second language. Through interviews with three vocal teachers, from three different schools in Sweden, and observations of one of the vocal teachers, information about how they work and think about the subject has been collected. The vocal teachers teach groups of second language learners by singing songs made especially for second language learning. The vocal teachers consider singing beneficial in the development of the pronunciation and improvement of the prosody, which affects the students? capacity to sound like a native Swedish speaker.

Sweden has a long and extensive wind band tradition. Today the interest for the traditional instruments is decreasing among children and teenagers. What can this be due to? Which conditions are needed for a functional wind band in the future? The purpose of this essay is to find answers to these questions and at the same time shed light on good examples, where the wind band activity works. To be able to answer the questions have I made four interviews with persons who have a big knowledge and interest about the subject.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the English writing activities of young Swedes on the site FanFiction.net to determine what type of differences were perceived between this activity and the writing activities taking place in upper secondary English courses, what effects fan fiction had on their English skills as well as what possibilities were perceived in regards to using fan fiction as a tool of learning. Methods used include an interview study along with a textual analysis to determine changes in grammatical complexity, errors and mistakes. Results indicate that partaking in fan fiction-related communities of practice in English can potentially improve language skills. Results also showed that informants valued interaction and practical language use, largely perceiving the formal teaching of English as lacking in opportunities for practical, contextually relevant and creative language use. However, introducing fan fiction and its practices of peer-reviewing in a formal educational setting was also perceived as risky, at the same time as there existed a sense of optimism that the fan fiction format and its practices could both be used to facilitate learning..

In this essay I analyze the meaning of the concepts home and at home and the feeling of coming home. What is a home and what different interpretations are there regarding the concepts of home and being at home? What kinds of feelings are aroused by coming home? The world we live in offers great opportunities to travel, which in itself creates a perspective on the meanings of the concepts. The world we live in also forces people to move from their homes, families and countries due to various reasons, which creates various problems and a certain urgency concerning the concepts. I describe basic terms concerning the concepts, both regarding concrete definitions and more abstract notions, and then compare them with my own reflections.         Based on my writing project Coming home I discuss these questions in various ways.

This is the end report of my final exam at Medieteknik. It covers the planning, work process and review of a Flash based web application that I set out to do. The goal was to create a user friendly, interactive e-shop with embedded functionality for playing music, displaying rich media content and researching possible payment solutions, to enable buying music files online. The project involved creating the user interface, the programmatic functionality of a Flash client (an SWF file). Also, setting up an Apache HTTP Server and establishing a working ?bridge? between the Flash client and the web server with Flash Remoting components and AMFPHP.

The Music Subject and its Status in School.

Abstract:According to the curriculum of the Swedish school the pupils should develop their historical consciousness. The aim of this study was to find out which pupils develop this consciousness by listing to an historical novel, talking about that book and writing stories. The study went on for four weeks and the subject of the teaching was the Middle Ages. 28 pupils took part and a variety of methods were used: 1: questionnaire about the lives of the pupils, 2: Making observations of their attitude to the teaching and 3: story writing. The results show that the social background does not influence the development of an historical consciousness.

Vi, Anna Nilsson och Jeanette Svensson, valde att producera musikvideos under vårat kandidatarbete på Blekinge tekniska högskola. Detta eftersom vi båda har ett stort intresse till musik och rörlig bild. Vi valde att göra två stycken för att lära oss produktionens process grundligt och för att nu kunna jämför de båda och av detta ta lärdom. Den ena musikvideon gjorde vi till en skånsk duett som heter KC och den andra till Advance Patrol. Båda låtarna är inom genren hiphop.

The purpose of the study is to examine and problematize how the ego affects musicians and dancers. Important factors that shape the ego is the artists educational background and experience within the artistic subjekt. Hence, the purpose is also to find out how these factors affecting the ego. I wanted other artists practitioners? thoughts on the subjekt, therefore I chose to interview four people, two musicians and two dancers.

Title: An encounter with an unknown piece of music. This essay describes the mechanisms involved in musical interpretation, by studying a score and listening to a recording. I have tried to map processes dealing with listening and score reading through an experiment, in which students from the Malmö Academy of Music were presented with a novel piece of music. I have made some conclusions, for instance it seems as though there is a connection in the interpretation between musical complexity and tempo, and a connection between dynamics and pitch, moreover that the participants in this study seem to be affected by the interpretational practice at the Malmö Academy of Music. The study is qualitative in its design both regarding data collection and interpretation of data.

Rami Kangas: Tidernas Midsommarvaka. En studie av Hugo Alfvéns rapsodi och tre olika inspelningar som historiska källor. [A Midsummervigil of all times. A study of Hugo Alfvén´s rhapsody and three different recordings as historical sources.] Uppsala: Musikvetenskap, 1999. C- uppsats (60 p).This essay has two purposes.

Abstract People who have problems with the written language will face serious difficulties in todays society. Our social structur is based on the criterium that every individual has to be able to read and write, and for this reason it is important that pupils with learning difficulties receive help. The purpose of my investigation is to examine how children with reading- and writing difficulties can benefit throught creative methods. Children with reading- and writing difficulties are in need of these creative methods that exist today. Amongst all of our public healht issues, dyslexia is one of the biggest problem we have today and children are therefor in need of these creative methods. Through  qualitative interviews with two educationalists there has been established thad the creative way of working benefits children in many ways if it is preformed correctly.

By describing and analyzing a self made composition for the Swedish folk music instrument ?nyckelharpa? with emphasis on playing techique, dissonance treatment and interpretation questions are reflected upon regarding how dissonances and andvanced harmonical progressions are treated on a limited instrument such as ?nyckelharpa?. By emphasizing the traditional norm connected to the interpretation and instrumentation of traditional Swedish folk music (a traditon in which the nyckelharpa is included) and comparing the te- chniques connected to it with the recent composed material in a western classical context the possibilities and limitations in composition and interpretation are further investigated. Thus the musical experience and the documentation of the process of composing a concert for nyckelharpa provides a knowledge base for reflective analysis upon questions regarding interpretation, composition and dissonance treatment. This thesis also provides a brief summary of traditional playing and bowing technique as well as a short historical description of the Swedish traditional instrument ?nyckelharpa?..