UO Libraries Home Page
Index for this guide:

Guides to the Literature
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Articles, Indexes, & Abstracts
Journals
Other References
Dissertations & Theses
Web Sites in Music Education

Research Guides


MUSIC EDUCATION RESEARCH GUIDE

I. Guides to the Literature

[Note: These provide an overview of most of the resources available for research in aspects of music education. You can also find specific reference sources for music education by looking in our subject catalogs under: Music- Instruction and Study or School music--Instruction and study. Books and method series for specific instruments are found under the name of the instrument, with - Instruction and Study added.]

Harris, Ernest E.
Music Education: a Guide to Information Sources.
Detroit: Gale, 1978.
[MUSIC ML 19 .H37]

Phelps, Roger.
A Guide to Research in Music Education. 5th ed.
Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 2005.
[MUSIC MT1 .P5 2005]

II. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias:

    The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed.
    [MUSIC REF. ML 100 N48 2001]
    Also available online as Grove Music Online (in Oxford Music Online). Music Education isn't well-represented in this edition of the New Grove, except under headings for Schools; Conservatories; and Education, Classical (the Greeks and the Romans.) Better to use the first edition of New Grove (listed below.)

    The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
    New York: MacMillan, 1980.
    [MUSIC REF. ML 100 .N48 v.6]
    There is a large section under "Education in Music" which provides a survey of the history of music education (by country and era) with timely bibliographies.

    [Note: there are also interesting (and sometimes large) articles about music education in the education encyclopedias in the Main floor Reference area LB 15. These are also invaluable sources for bibliographies.]

III. Articles, Indexes, and Abstracts:


Search shortcut: You can search all available databases and indexes in OneSearch sources in Music Education. Note: this set does not include all indexes in this topic! RILM must be searched separately, and some indexes are available only in print. A more comprehensive list of sources is below.

Music Indexes:

  • The Music Index
    [MUSIC REF ML118 .M84] or online
    From the UO Libraries home page under Articles, Databases & Indexes (OneSearch) then Browse Databases A-Z. The online version covers only articles from 1979-present.

    The print version covers articles published 1949-2001. Volumes covering 1990-2001 are on the Music Index Table and previous years are shelved in Music Reference. For a guide to using the paper version of the Music Index, see the Guide to Using the Music Index at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/music/researchguides/musindguide.html/
  • The Music Article Guide
    1966 - 1996 (Paper edition only)
    Excellent for finding articles on local music education groups and instrument-specific groups.
    [MUSIC REF ML 118 .M842]

  • Music Psychology Index
    1978, 1984
    [MUSIC REF ML 128.M77M9] (paper only)
    (Pre-dated by the Music Therapy Index - 1976)

  • The Music Educators Journal: Cumulative Index, 1914 - 1987
    [MUSIC ML 1 .M234 Suppl]

General Indexes that Include Music Topics and Online Magazines:

  • Academic Search Premier
    A full-text index to journals in all disciplines, including links to the full text of articles in many music journals.

  • Arts & Humanities Search
    Online through Articles, Databases & Index.  Covers 1980 - present.
    Coverage: Over 3 million records referencing more than 5,500 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.  Updated weekly.

Education & Psychology Indexes:

  • ERIC
    Online. Covers 1966 - present.
    Coverage: Over 1,200,000 references to thousands of educational topics. Includes journal articles, books, theses, curriculi, conference papers, and standards and guidelines. Updated monthly.
    The Knight Library owns most of the microfiche for the reports, for those items with the accession number ED.
  • CAIRSS for Music
    This is a bibliographic database of music research literature, prepared by the faculty and staff at the
    University of Texas, San Antonio, and Southern Methodist University. It provides indexing to music research literature in music education, music psychology, music therapy, and music medicine from
    1,354 different journal titles.
  • MuSICA
    This database specializes in scientific and related publications on music, including the fields of education, child development psychology, brain sciences, clinical medicine, and therapy.

  • Psychological Abstracts
    Print version (1920-1996) [REF. BF 1 .P65]
    Online version (PsychINFO) extends coverage to recent publications.
    Coverage: Contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports, as well as citations to dissertations, all in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education,pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law. Journal coverage, spanning 1887-present, includes international material.

  • Web of Science
    A science- and social science-oriented citation index that includes educational citations referenced in other works.

IV. Journals in Music Education


A list of some of the Music Education journals owned by the University of Oregon's Knight Library and where they are indexed is available through the Library's web site at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/music/researchguides/musedjrnls.html.

To find all versions (online, paper, and microfilm) of the journals the University of Oregon owns, use the Advanced Catalog Search on the UO Library's web catalog, choose the Title tab, and scroll down to the middle of the page to Journal Title


Just look for the FindText button at the top of the screen, click on it, and the Library's catalog will show you which versions we have of the journal.

V. Other References:

    Brookhart, Edward.
    Music in American Higher Education : an Annotated Bibliography.

    Warne, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1988.
    [MUSIC REF. ML 120 .U5 B77 1988]

    Data on Music Education: a National Review of Statistics Describing
    Education in Music and the Other Arts.

    Reston, VA: Music Educators National Conference, 1990.
    [MUSIC MT 3 .U5 D24 1990]

    Kantorski, Vincent.
    A Bibliography of Source Readings in Music Education.
    Warren, Mich. : Harmonie Park Press, 1997.
    [MUSIC REF. ML128.I64 K36 1997]

    Music Educators' National Conference. Committee on Bibliography of Research Projects and Theses.
    Bibliography of Research Studies in Music Education, 1932-1948.
    Chicago: MENC, 1949.
    [MUSIC REF. ML 120 .U5 M83 1949]

    The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning.
    Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
    [MUSIC REF. MT 1 .N48 2002]

    (An earlier edition of the above resource exists in the Music stacks as:)

    The Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning.
    New York: Schirmer Books, 1992.
    [MUSIC MT1 .H138 1992]

    Price, Harry E., ed.
    Music Education Research : an Anthology from the Journal of Research in Music Education.
    Reston, VA : Music Educators National Conference, c1998.
    NOTES: Articles originally published 1953-1997.
    [MUSIC MT1 .M98243 1998]

    Rainbow, Edward L. and Hildegard C. Froehlich.
    Research in music education : an introduction to systematic inquiry.
    New York : Schirmer Books; London : Collier Macmillan, 1987.
    [MUSIC MT1.R26 1987]

    Simons, Gene M.
    Early Childhood Musical Development: a Bibliography of Research Abstracts, 1960 - 1975, with implications and
    recommendations for teaching and research.

    Reston, VA: MENC, 1978.
    [MUSIC ML 128 .I64 S55]

VI. Dissertations and Theses:

University of Oregon Dissertations and Theses:

For examples to use in doing your own dissertation, you can search UO Library's catalog under Title = University of Oregon Theses. School of Music, and get a list of those dissertations done here from about 1975 to about 2006. Newer dissertations become available as they are processed.

Other Schools' Dissertations and Theses:

Music Educators' National Conference.
Doctoral Dissertations in Music and Music Education,.
Reston, VA: MENC, 1978.
[MUSIC ML 113 .M837 1978]
[Also in Music are the 1957-63 and 1963-67 editions]

Dissertation Abstracts
Available from the UO Libraries website under Databases & Indexes.
This source includes all dissertations and some masters' theses from 1861 to the present, and will have abstracts of those dissertations for at least 30 years. Most theses and dissertations may be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan, and the form for borrowing them is found by clicking on ILL on the top of the screen when you bring up a dissertation abstract.

VII. Music Education Web Sites

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Maintained by: Leslie Bennett, lbennett@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 04/10/2009