The object of the study was to describe and analyse instrumental teaching and learning, and increase our knowledge about how different patterns of interaction affect students' opportunities to learn. Data consisted of 5 hours of videotaped and transcribed guitar and brass teaching sessions. In order to elucidate the complex phenomenon of instrumental teaching, the study combines compatible theories for application on different theoretical levels of the empirical study. The results of the analysis show that teachers did not play much during the lessons. Teachers and students addressed music as sight-reading exercises. Music was broken down into separate notes or chords as read from the sheet. Interaction during the lessons had a strong asymmetric distribution of power. The asymmetric interaction had negative consequences for the students' opportunities to learn. The actions of the teachers and student were not primarily interpreted as results of individual choices, but as routine actions, evolved throughout the history of the institution.

Eleven brass and guitar lessons in Sweden were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed to investigate how teachers and students used speech, music, and body language; to what they focused their attention during the lessons; and how this affected student learning. A detailed description of each lesson was analyzed using cognitive concepts of experiencing and learning music, as well as concepts of educational genres of speech and music use. Five hours of video of 4 teachers and 21 students were minutely described and analyzed. The results of the study reflect how music during the lessons was broken down into separate note symbols as read from the score, rather than the expected musical phrases, rhythms and melodies. Surprisingly, expressive qualities of performing music were not addressed at all. The teacher controlled the interaction, while student attempts to take any initiative were ignored or questioned in a manner that was not anticipated. A STUDY OF INTERACTION AND LEARNING IN INSTRUMENTAL TEACHINGThe interaction between teacher and student has consequences for the student's opportunities to learn. A study of instrumental teaching in Sweden brings teacher-student interaction and musical learning into focus. The participants in the study were engaged in the non-compulsory music tuition of Swedish municipal music schools (kommunala musikskolor). The main purpose of the study was to improve knowledge about different patterns of interaction during instrumental music lessons as well as the effect of these patterns on the students' opportunities to learn and develop musical skills and abilities. The actions of teachers and students during the course of eleven lessons are described and analyzed in the study. These actions are viewed in a perspective of face-to-face interaction and discussed in relation to the traditional development of instrumental teaching and its institutional rules and values. This article focuses mainly on the results of the Swedish study and discusses issues raised as consequence for music educators internationally.

In this article the authors discuss the theoretical basis for the methodological decisions made during the course of a Swedish research project on interaction and learning. The purpose is to discuss how different theories are applied at separate levels of the study. The study is structured on three levels, with separate sets of research questions and theoretical concepts. The levels reflect a close-up description, a systematic analysis, and an interpretation of how teachers and students act and interact. The data consist of 12 hours of video-recorded and transcribed music lessons from high school and college. Through a multidisciplinary theoretical framework, the general understanding of teaching and learning in terms of interaction can be widened. The authors also present a software tool developed to facilitate the processes of transcription and analysis of the video data.