Abstract

The current model for educating professional musicians originated in the early nineteenth century Europe, focusing on three main areas: instrumental or vocal performance, ear training, and music theory and history. There is no evidence that the model has incorporated the pedagogical innovations of the twentieth century that other academic fields have adopted. Addressing this gap, the present work describes this educational model for professional musicians from the perspectives of academic culture, pedagogical practices, and cognitive processes involved in musical learning. This is done through a critical narrative literature review. Problems have been identified concerning the pedagogical preparation of teachers, revealing practices that may hinder the development of reflective skills, autonomy, and self-regulatory activities in students, as well as widen the gap between theory and practice. To address these issues and integrate the aforementioned innovations into musical teaching and learning processes, possible solutions are proposed and explained, drawing on constructs from Social Constructivism, such as Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, Bruner's Learning Scaffolding, student-centered models, and theories of social and cultural learning.