During the last decade there has been an awakening interest in considering not only formalised learning situations within institutional settings, but also all the various forms of informal musical learning practices outside schools. Informal musical learning outside institutional settings has been shown to contribute to important knowledge and aspects of music education. In this article, I will examine research studies which in different ways focus on formal and informal learning situations and practices or formal and informal ways of learning. I will consider the relationship between music education as praxis (music pedagogy) and as research, and the relationship between these two facets of music education and the surrounding society. I will identify four different ways of using and defining formal and informal learning, respectively, either explicitly or implicitly, each one focusing on different aspects of learning: (i) the situation, (ii) learning style, (iii) ownership, and (iv) intentionality. Formal – informal should not be regarded as a dichotomy, but rather as the two poles of a continuum; in most learning situations, both these aspects of learning are in various degrees present and interacting. Music education researchers, in order to contribute to the attainment of a multiplicity of learning styles and a cultural diversity in music education, need to focus not only on the formal and informal musical learning in Western societies and cultures, but also to include the full global range of musical learning in popular, world and indigenous music in their studies.

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Recent technological developments and the increasing impact of the media mean that listening to music and creative music making constitutes a major and integrated part of many young people's lives.The aim of the present article is to describe the process of computer-based composition, and how this is perceived by young composers. This paper describes a three-year empirical study of 129 computer-based compositions by 15 to 16-year-olds. Computer MIDI-fti.es were systematically collected covering the sequence of the creation processes step by step; interviews were carried out with each of the participants; and observations were made of their work.All the participants succeeded in creating music, and in the subsequent analysis, six qualitatively different ways of creating music were identified which could be divided into two main categories: HORIZONTAL and VERTICAL. These categories, devised by the authors in this context, refer to compositional strategies, not to structures in the music itself. In the horizontal categories composition and arranging are separate processes, whereas in the vertical categories composition and arranging are one integrated process.

Most research in music education has so far dealt with music training in institutional settings, such as schools, and is accordingly based, either implicitly or explicitly, on the assumption that musical learning results from a sequenced, methodical exposure to music teaching within a formal setting. However, in order to realise and understand the multidimensional character of music teaching, musical learning should be considered in a much broader and wider context. During the last decade there has been an awakening interest in considering not only the formalised learning situations within institutional settings, but also all various forms of learning that goes on in informal musical learning practices outside schools. The study of informal musical learning outside institutional settings has actually proved to contribute to important knowledge and aspects of music education. The aim of this presentation is twofold: (i) to give a 'view from the bridge' about current and potential directions in music education research and practice, and (ii) to illuminate this issue by presenting some current and recent work. I will do this by focusing on two main themes: (i) different aspects of formal and informal learning situations or practices, and formal and informal ways of learning, respectively, and (ii) the developing of research methods exemplified by the main results of a meta analysis of qualitative studies on music creativity and composition. By way of introduction, I will start by presenting the definition of the field of research in music education from which I operate. This also involves a view of the relationship between music education as a field of praxis (music pedagogy) and as a field of research, and the relationship between these two facets of music education and the surrounding society.

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