Welcome to the Personal Website for
Peter Richard Webster

Greetings and welcome to my little part of cyberspace!

I am a Scholar-in-Residence at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. I retired in 2012 as a professor emeritus from the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Prior to that I was a professor in the music department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. I am very fortunate to have an opportunity to serve the Thornton School here in Los Angeles. I teach in the Music Teaching and Learning Department and serve as the Vice Dean of Scholarly and Professional Studies. If your travels take you to this beautiful part of the world, please contact me for a visit.

I study children's creative thinking in music and the appropriate use of music technology for music teaching and learning. I do research and write extensively in these fields as well as offer papers and workshops both nationally and internationally. I continue to play my trumpet as much as time allows and am an avid concert goer and computer user. A more completel resume can be found by following the link to the right.

My hobbies include boating (my wife and I live on a beautiful 53' Selene Trawler in Marina del Rey), biking and reading novels. I've been known to enjoy a good meal or two in the westside of Los Angeles before a night of theatre and wouldn't turn down a glass of good Irish or Scotch whiskey and perhaps an occasional good cigar.

Below find links to sample publications, presentations, and projects. Under projects too you will find my Measure of Creative Thinking in Music-II which I distribute freely for those that are interested in using it for assessment work with younger children.

For those interested in music technology work, you might visit http://www.emtbook.net/, a site for the text that David B. Williams and I jointly author.

Feel free to contact me at peterweb@usc.edu.

 

Full Resume Download.pdf
(January, 2019)

Short Resume Download.pdf
(January, 2019)

 


Recent Work at USC Thornton School on Curriculum

Development of New Professional Masters Programs

Blog Posting About Transforming Music Teaching Education

Recent Presentations

CMS2018Vancouver, October, 2018
Classical ReDesign Panel
Handout
Slides
Tehnology's RoleUndergraduate Curriculum Competencies Research Summary
Handout
Slides

ISME World Conference, Baku, Azerbijan, July 2018
Support Notes for Adaptive Constructivism
Support Notes for Advocating for Core Music Values

National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, July, 2017
Keynote Presentation Slides and Readings (Thursday) pdf
Workshop Session Handout (Friday) pdf

Creative Thinkin in Music: Preparing Teachers
Presentation at the 2017 Desert Skies Conference, February 23, 2017
PDF Slides

Creative Thinkin in Music, Feb, 2017
Presentation at the University of Florida, Gainesville
Video Link
PDF Slides

Technology Presentations by Peter R. Webster with David B. Williams
ATMI/CMS Conference Presenetations from 2010-2015
PDFof slides (Under the Resources Tab)

CMS Presentations on the Contemporary Music Project and The Task Force Report on Undergraduate Education in Music
Webster Presentation (PDF of Slides) and Reference Handout
Brian Weidner Site for Comprehensive Musicianship Prepared for Panel Presentation Prior to Webster Talk

University of Delaware, October 2015
Handouts

Little Kids Rock, Fort Collins, CO July 2015
PowerpointPDF
Notes-References

University of Illinois, May, 2015
Polymathic Thinking and Music Teaching and Learning
Encouraging Creative Thinking/CMS Report

RIME 2015, April
Polymathic Thinking

ATMI/CMS 2014
Defining Music Technology Competencies: Exemplars
Powerpoint Presentation
Full Spreadsheet of Projects

ISME, Porto Alegre, Brazil, July, 2014
Vision/Optimism Keynote
Adult Creativeness and Music (NAMM Grant) Survey Analysis

Jean Sinor Memorial Lecture, Indiana University, 2014
New Directions in Music Teaching and Learning: Vision 2020
References/Links

New Directions in Music Teaching and Learnin
Stamps Lecture, University of Miami, Frost School of Muisc, April 2013
Keynote Slides

Society for Music Teacher Education, September 2013
Status of Doctoral Programs in Music Education
A joint presentation by Joanne Rutkowski and Jason Gosset (Penn State) and myself
Powerpoint

Basic Presentation on Encouraging Imaginative Thinking in Music
Encouraging Imaginative Thought Powerpoint
Encouraging Imaginative Thought Handout




Sample Publication/ Projects

iBook Publication

Coming about: A retrospective review of, and reflections on, the writings of Peter Webster (pdf file)

Also available for Mac, iPad, and iPhone as an Apple iBook under the same title
Link to the iBook App

Other Sample Publications

Webster, P. (2016). Creative thinking in music, Twenty-five years on. Music Educators Journal. 102(3), 26-32.

Webster, P. (1990). Creativity as creative thinking. Music Educators Journal. 76 (9), May, 1990, pp, 22-28. [Google Scholar rated this article as the #1 most frequently cited article in Music Educators Journal as of June, 2010.]

Webster, P.  (2011).  Constructivism and Music Learning.  In R. Colwell and P. Webster (Eds.) MENC Handbook of Research on Music Learning, Vol. 1, (35-83) New York, New York:Oxford University

Webster, P. (2009). Children as Creative Thinkers in Music: Focus on Composition. In: L. Hallam, I. Cross & M. Thaut (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology, (pp. 421-428) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Webster, P. (2009). Music technology as a servant to real music experience, Orff Echo, XLII (1), 9-12.

Webster, P. (2007). Computer-based technology and music teaching and learning: 2000-2005. In L. Bresler (ed.), The International Handbook of Research in Arts Education, (1311-1328).Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Webster, P, and Hickey, M. (2006). Computers and technology, In: McPherson, G. (ed.), The child as musician: a handbook of musical development, (pp. 375-395).New York:Oxford University Press.

Webster, P. (2002). Creative thinking in music: Advancing a model. In: T. Sullivan, & L. Willingham, (Eds.), Creativity and music education (pp. 16-33). Edmonton, AB: Canadian Music Educators’ Association.

Webster, P. (2002). Historical perspectives on technology and music. Music Educators Journal. 89 (1), pp. 38-43. 

Important Projects

Link to information about my latest research on adult creativeness and music background sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM)!

I distribute freely: Measures of Creative Thinking in Music II (MCTMII).
Below is a kit of materials for your use. Please contact me directly for more information and for permission to use the measure in published research.
MTCM Kit

This is a descriptive model of creative thinking in music that I have used in recent years to help focus my thinking on important variable groupings that play an important role in the creative thinking process.
Like all models of this sort, I continually revise it. I welcome comment on the design and content.
Creative Thinking in Music Model


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Please send comments to peterweb@usc.edu
Revised: September, 2015