ABSTRACT
Without doubt, being a proficient instrumentalist is one important facet of being a music teacher. Higher music education programmes, in various ways and different domains, assist students in acquiring the necessary artistic knowledge. However, while they seem to follow the logic of professionalization characteristic of all teacher programmes, music education programmes are marked by some unique phenomena:
The family background of music education students has a deep influence on their motivation to become a music teacher (Bailer 1999, 2002). 1
Music education students decide earlier than other teachers to major in music in order to pass the audition (Pfeiffer 1994; Bailer 1999, p. 26; Madsen and Kelly 2002; Isbell 2010).
They have spent much of their leisure time learning how to play an instrument and have had intense emotional experiences by the time they enter higher education (Bastian 1987, 1995; Bailer 2002).
Consequently they feel deeper bonds with their subject compared to other students in higher education (Weiß and Kiel 2010).
