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Music: Research Methods

Selected resources for students of music

Research Methods

This page offers a selection of online resources relevant to music and interdisciplinary studies. Some books only have a chapter, or a case study, that applies to music, performance or creative practice. To discuss a particular kind of research methodology, you can meet a librarian online, or email librarians@monash.edu. If your research involves statistical methods and approaches, including research design, statistical methods, and organising results for high-impact publications, the Monash Statistical Consulting Service offers HDR students (PhD and Masters by research) 5 hours of free one-to-one consulting.

SAGE research methods online 
SAGE Research Methods Online (SRMO) enables researchers to browse by methods to find design research projects, particular methods or to discover a new method. Since SRMO focuses on methodology rather than disciplines, use music as a keyword to find applications to music research. You can also use the Methods Map to read definitions of key terminology, or to find narrower definitions for qualitative data analysis or research design.

Sage research methods foundations
SAGE Research Methods Foundations is a concise introduction to methods and research terms. A targeted list of entries guides users through the content and the navigation menu puts the entry in context, so users can easily find more general topics related to a method, or continue on to more specific sub-topics. An A-Z section on the innovators of methods, has profiles evaluating their contributions, from Participatory and Arts-Based Research, Analysis of Material Culture, Narrative Research, Autobiography to Sampling.

The Orpheus Institute Series aims to enhance and advance discourse in the field of artistic research in music and to generate future work. A number of titles in the series are found below. The library has access to all the titles through JSTOR.

Oxford Handbooks Online brings together the world's leading scholars to write review essays that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic. You can search simultaneously across all handbooks by keywords. Methodologies are discussed in the following selectied chapters:

Toward a Methodology for Research into the Revival of Musical Life after War, Natural Disaster, Bans on All Music, or Neglect  
by Margaret Kartomi from The Oxford handbook of music revival (2014)
Music-Making As Data: Collection and Analysis  
by Kristen Pellegrino from The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education (2014)
Creating a Framework for Music Making and Leisure: Max Kaplan Leads the Way
by Marie McCarthy from the Oxford handbook of music making and leisure (2017)
Introduction: Situating Country Music Studies
by Travis D. Stimeling from The Oxford handbook of country music studies (2017)

Methodology of Music Research is a series published by Peter Lang in Switzerland.

Databases