Description: This article discusses the application of an ergonomically modified keyboard to reduce piano-related pain. The key width for the modern piano was established about 130 years ago. Before then, the key widths varied and were typically narrower than the modern piano as shown in Figure 1. During these early years it would have been normal for pianists to play and compose on different sizes of keyboards. In fact, technically challenging pieces written between 1750 and 1850 were probably composed using pianos with narrower keys underscoring Sakai's rationale as to why many modern pianists struggle with difficult piano techniques on a modern piano.1 Since the distance of an octave span became fixed around 1880, pianists have been dealing with the idea of a one-size-fits-all piano and the disappearance of optional key widths for the piano.

Description: This article discusses building collaborative partnerships between institutions of higher education and independent school districts. Music education programs in colleges and universities and music programs in public elementary, middle, and high schools have long been partners in spoken and unspoken ways. One of the most common relationships is that of the student-teaching experience in which undergraduate university and college students work with cooperating teachers in the public schools. This type of partnership benefits the university students in many explicit ways, but the benefits for the public school teachers and their students are not so clear. University faculty and students also commonly use schools as sites for research, though often after the research project is over, the "partnership" ends. Even though these types of relationships might commonly be called "partnerships," a true partnership is one in which all parties clearly benefit and all parties share a common goal. These types of partnerships might be termed truly collaborative.

Description: This article discusses the Health Promotion in Schools of Music (HPSM) Project. Abstract: The primary goal of the HPSM Project is to assist schools of music to prevent occupational injuries associated with learning and performing music. With this goal in mind, a national conference was hosted in the fall of 2004 to connect health care experts with individuals and organizations involved in the education of musicians. HPSM recognizes fundamental challenges in responding to the health risks associated with learning and performing music. In addition to current research showing that young musicians enter college with existing problems, the underlying physiological and psychological mechanisms for performance injuries are multidimensional and involve both individual and music-related variables as well as a myriad of social, environmental, and cultural factors. Because of this complexity, HPSM recommends Prevention Education and Intervention as the primary approach for schools of music to address these problems.

Description: This article discusses liminality as thought and action. Abstract: Turner's (1974) conception of liminal space provides an entry point to look beyond the given and to create opportunities to examine, critique, and challenge the assumptions inherent in many music programs. Building upon his theory of liminality as a place that is "ambiguous, neither here or there, betwixt and between all fixed points of classification", one might use this framework to create a place in which differing cultures, ideals, and values could meet, potentially generating relationships and community. Urban settings are often the meeting ground for dramatic cultural clashes given that music teachers often fit the typical profile of White, middle class, and female and often have few commonalities with their urban students. In this paper, the author explores the concept of liminality in the context of urban music education programs and examines its importance from the standpoint of both the music teacher and the student. Music teachers who work in urban settings often dwell in liminal situations in which their roles are ambiguous and uncertain. Students in urban school settings might exist outside of their normal musical, social and cultural structures. Thus, urban settings provide a particularly powerful place of ...