Rebecca B. MacLeod

Dr. Rebecca MacLeod is Professor of Music Education at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where she directs the string education program and conducts the UNCG Sinfonia. She is the author of Teaching Strings in Today’s Classroom and is published in Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, String Research Journal, Psychology of Music, The Strad, American String Teachers Journal, and various state music education journals. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education, the String Research Journal, and as guest reviewer for the International Journal of Research in Music Education. She is the recipient of the UNCG School of Music, Theatre and Dance Outstanding Teaching Award, the American String Teacher Association National Researcher Award, and the UNCG Junior Research Excellence Award. A passionate advocate for increasing access to string education to all students, Dr. MacLeod directs two community partnership programs that provide string instruction to underserved students: the Lillian Rauch Beginning Strings Program and the Peck Alumni Leadership Program. Students of these programs have performed for Dr. Maya Angelou, Dr. Gloria Ladsen- Billings, and the Sphinx Virtuosi. Her research on working with underserved populations, vibrato technique, music teacher education, and music perception has been presented at the International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (Thessoloniki, Greece), Music Research and Human Behavior International Conference (Barcelona, Spain), International Society for Music Education (Glasgow, Scotland), Music Educators National Conference, National Association for Music Education National Conference, American String Teachers National Conference, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, Society for Music Teacher Education, and music educators state conferences. Prior to joining the UNCG faculty, she taught elementary, middle, and high school orchestra in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania and was orchestra director and chair of music activities in Beaver, Pennsylvania. She was the assistant artistic director and conductor of the Tallahassee Symphony Youth Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra in Tallahassee, Florida. She is currently President-elect for the American String Teachers Association. She was a guest lecturer at Xi’an University and Shaoguan University (China) in summer 2016 and 2017. Dr. MacLeod received her undergraduate degree from Duquesne University and her MME and PhD from Florida State University. She is a frequent guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States and abroad.

There are 35 included publications by Rebecca B. MacLeod :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Achieving an artistic violin vibrato: Applications of research in the classroom 2014 572 Vibrato is an essential musical element in string instrument playing that enhances and facilitates expressive performance. However, the acquisition of a beautiful vibrato remains one of the most difficult skills for a young string player to obtain an...
A comparison of aural and visual instrument preferences of third and fifth grade students 2009 60 Instrument preferences of third and fifth-grade students (N = 90) were investigated for eight instruments commonly found in orchestra and band: flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, cello, trumpet, French horn, and trombone. Participants were divided i...
A Comparison of Instructional Strategies Used by Experienced Band and Orchestra Teachers When Teaching a First-Year Class an Unfamiliar Music Excerpt 2010 419 The purpose of the study was to compare the instructional strategies used by experienced band and orchestra teachers when teaching a first-year class an unfamiliar music excerpt. Twelve teacher behaviors were identified and operationally defined: ech...
A Descriptive Analysis of Performance Models’ Intonation in a Recorded Excerpt from Suzuki Violin School Volume I 2021 127 Given the importance of modeling in teaching young students to perform, particularly in the Suzuki approach, as well as the importance of playing intune, we studied intonation performances on four recordings of Suzuki Violin School Volume I. These ar...
A Descriptive Study of Cooperating Teachers' Perceptions Regarding Student Teacher Preparation 2011 330 The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of cooperating teachers regarding the level of preparedness of specific student teachers at the beginning of the student-teaching experience. Fifty-three secondary ensemble teachers (orches...
A descriptive study of high school and university students’ focus of attention in fast and slow orchestral excerpts 2009 1542 The purpose of this study was to investigate listener discrimination of orchestral performances and to ascertain focus of listener attention to technical and expressive music elements of those performances. High School (n = 84) and University (n = 84...
The effect of articulation style on perception of modulated tempo 2006 1946 We investigated the effect of legato and staccato articulation styles on the perception of modulated tempos. Ninety music majors served as participants. Listeners heard music examples that had been selected from two pieces, each of which included sta...
The effect of articulation style on perception of tempo in solo violin playing 2007 1699 We investigated effects of legato, staccato and pizzicato articulation styles on the perception of modulated tempos. Seventy-two music majors served as participants. Two solo violin excerpts were chosen with contrasting rhythmic rates and were record...
The Effect of Wearing Foam and Etymotic Earplugs on Classical Musicians’ Pitch Perception 2021 436 The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of wearing earplugs on classical musicians’ pitch perception across three experimental conditions: no earplugs, foam earplugs, and Etymotic earplugs. Participants were graduate and undergraduate...
An exploration of the relationships between cultural background and music preference in a diverse elementary orchestra class. 2012 1354 The purpose of this research was to investigate the music performing and learning mode preferences of fourth- and fifth-grade elementary students who were enrolled in an elective orchestra class in a culturally diverse elementary school. We were i...
High school string players’ perceptions of violin, trumpet, and voice intonation. 2012 1951 We studied young string players’ perception of intonation in accompanied solo performances of trumpet, voice, and violin. We were interested in whether pitch deviations of equal magnitude in the three solo performances would be judged as equivalen...
How research can improve your teaching 2018 134 Teachers are frequently told to use research-verified practices to deliver instruction. What does that mean? What are the research-verified practices we should be using in our music classrooms? If we look at the body of research related to music teac...
The Impact of an In-Service Workshop on Cooperating Teachers’ Perceptions of Culturally Responsive Teaching 2016 1410 Culturally responsive teaching values students’ identities, backgrounds, and cultural references as key tools for building meaningful learning environments. It has been adopted by many educators globally, but has not been incorporated consistently by...
In Tune or Out of Tune: Are Different Instruments and Voice Heard Differently? 2015 788 We studied music majors’ perception of intonation in accompanied solo performances of trumpet, violin, and voice. We were interested in whether listeners would judge pitch deviations of equal magnitude in the three solo performances as equivalent in ...
Influences of dynamic level and pitch register on the vibrato rates and widths of violin and viola players 2008 2654 The purpose of this study was to investigate possible influences of pitch register and dynamic level on vibrato rates and widths of university and high school violin and viola players. Analysis showed that pitch register significantly affected the vi...
The Influences of Teacher Delivery and Student Progress on Experienced Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness 2014 3572 The purpose of this replication and extension study was to examine how teacher delivery and student progress influenced experienced teachers’ perceptions of overall teaching effectiveness. Participants (N = 60 experienced music teachers) viewed 12 pr...
The Influences of Teacher Delivery and Student Progress on Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness. 2013 2369 The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher delivery and student progress influenced preservice teachers’ perceptions of overall teaching effectiveness. Experienced teachers (n = 6) were videotaped teaching mini applied lessons under four co...
Influences of teacher delivery, student engagement, and observation focus on preservice teachers’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness 2016 293 The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher delivery, student engagement, and observation focus influenced preservice teachers’ ratings of teaching effectiveness. Participants (N = 84 preservice teachers) viewed short teaching excerpts of or...
Initial movement and continuity of vibrato among high school and university string players 2005 2094 The purpose of the present study was to investigate aspects of vibrato performance among high school and university string players. The main questions were to determine whether students consistently initiate vibrato in an upward or downward direction...
Low Latency Audio Video Potentials for Collaborative Music Making Through Distance Learning 2016 800 The primary purpose of this study was to examine the potential of LOw LAtency (LOLA), a low latency audio visual technology designed to allow simultaneous music performance, as a distance learning tool for musical styles in which synchronous playing ...
Near-Peer Mentorship: A Model for Private Music Instruction in an Underserved Community 2020 363 The case presented in this study focused on the experiences of students enrolled in a Saturday day music program situated in an underserved community. Students in this community represent a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, and we were interested...
Orchestra as a Vehicle for Social Change: Providing Opportunities and Teaching Perseverance 2014 409 There are few things more beautiful than watching a child receive his or her first opportunity to play an instrument. Today at my lab school, the fourth grade orchestra students came to the orchestra cottage for their first lesson. At the start of th...
The Perceived Effectiveness of Nonverbal, Co-Verbal, and Verbal String Ensemble Instruction: Student, Teacher, and Observer Views 2018 961 The purpose of this study was to determine how students, teachers, and outside observers perceive teaching effectiveness within a university-level string ensemble rehearsal setting. Students, teachers, and observers reflected on six rehearsal segment...
Perceived pitch of violin and cello vibrato tones among music majors 2009 3622 The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived pitch of string vibrato tones. The authors used recordings of acoustic instruments (cello and violin) to provide both vibrato stimulus tones and the nonvibrato tones that listeners adjusted t...
Perception of melodic intonation in performances with and without vibrato 2015 330 We compared perception of mistuned intervals in unaccompanied melodies performed by trumpet, violin, and voice, and examined whether there were differences between the three timbres in performances with and without vibrato. Participants were 144 univ...
A Pilot Study of Relationships between Pitch Register and Dynamic Level and Vibrato Rate and Width in Professional Violinists 2010 290 The purpose of this research was to investigate whether dynamic level and pitch register influence vibrato width and rate of four professional violin soloists. Data were obtained from recordings of Bell, Midori, Mutter, and Perlman. Analysis of data ...
Preservice teachers’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness during high positive versus high negative teaching episodes. 2012 1749 The purpose of this study was to examine preservice teachers’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness when viewing teaching episodes with positive and negative feedback. A secondary purpose of the study was to examine several independent variables to d...
Resuming Classroom Instruction During COVID-19 2020 73 The American String Teachers Association convened the ASTA COVID-19 Task Force on May 21, 2020, to create a planning resource for string teachers as they prepare to resume string instruction in classrooms and studios in the fall. The following docume...
Resuming Studio Instruction During COVID-19 2020 56 The American String Teachers Association convened the ASTA COVID-19 Task Force on May 21, 2020, to create a planning resource for string teachers as they prepare to resume string instruction in classrooms and studios in the fall. The following docume...
String Vibrato: Research Related to Performance and Perception 2010 291 This article presents a summary of our presentation that was invited by the Research Committee of ASTA and given at the 2009 ASTA National Conference in Atlanta. In this article we describe and discuss previous and current research studies concerning...
A Survey of Practice Behaviors among Middle and High School String Players 2015 79 We were interested in middle and high school string musicians’ reports of how they spend their practice time and how often they use specific practice strategies. These 211 middle and high school participants reported an average of 5.64 years (SD = 2....
Teaching an artistic violin vibrato 2013 265 Vibrato is an essential musical element in string instrument playing that enhances and facilitates expressive performance. However, the acquisition of a beautiful vibrato remains one of themost difficult skills for a young string player to obtain and...
Tradition bearers as educations: A multi-case study of the teaching behaviors and beliefs of three old-time musicians 2014 86 The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching behaviors and beliefs of three “tradition bearers” of old-time music: Alice Gerrard, Tom Sauber, and Lightnin’ Wells. The three teachers were selected based on their extensive careers as performer...
Two studies of pitch in string instrument vibrato: Perception and performance responses of university and high school string players. 2012 2812 We investigated pitch perception of string vibrato tones among string players in two separate studies. In both studies we used tones of acoustic instruments (violin and cello) as stimuli. In the first, we asked 192 high school and university string p...
Using a prescreening rubric for all-state violin selection: Influence on performance and teaching experience. 2009 2385 Performance assessment is an integral part of young musicians' development. Students enrolled in music programs frequently participate in adjudication festivals and many audition for select ensembles. Outcomes of such events are deemed consequential ...