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Research & Publications

Working papers, talks, and writing.

I keep returning to one question: why do people spend years learning an instrument — or training to teach music — only to quit just as the going gets good? These are the papers that grew out of trying to answer it.

Featured

Working paper May 2026 · Featured

Navigating Toward the Age-30 Musician

A Compass for Instrumental Music Curriculum Planning

Andrew Bajorek · Working paper · Colorado Mesa University

We know True North — lifelong musical engagement, the age-30 musician who keeps making music after the recital. The problem is the terrain between the beginner band room and 30. A 75% attrition rate at the 8th-to-9th transition. Socioeconomic barriers that build a swamp. Competitive sorting that builds a desert of self-concept. This paper argues for curriculum planning that begins with obstacle-mapping — three documented chasms, the singleton-director reality, and the cartographic tools (backward design, CMP, spiral curriculum) that turn a compass heading into a navigable route.

Instrumental music Curriculum design Retention Equity Backward design Singleton directors

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