Despite the changes and evolution in the last centuries in the way we see pedagogical practice and in the individual and in social changes, music teaching in Portugal maintains the tradition of master-student relation. Until the 19^th century, being a musician was a multi-task activity; in contrast, in our time, a musician is seen as a specialist in only one area of expertise, and music education systems are more centered in the replication of the musical “masterpiece” and less on the real music making and creation by music apprentices. This specialization withdrew much of what some authors consider essential for musicians to be able to “musicing” defined by Elliot (1995:40) as “… all five forms of music making: performing, improvising, composing, arranging and conducting…”. This traditional way of thinking music education based in the teacher’s knowledge in a one-to-one tuition makes it harder to develop “autonomy as a learner in this context, or to explore different outlets for […] individual artistic and professional voice.” (Hallam & Gaunt, 2012:17). It also bears consequence to the relevance that music students give to their learning, because they are driven to engage, most of the times, with classical music, instead of relating to their listening habits and engage with meaningful music making.

This paper is focused in the first part of an action-research project that intends to reflect about alternative pedagogical and artistic approaches in musical vocational teaching system in Portugal, and the changes that a traditional music teacher needs to make in his practice to put his students engaging in authentic, meaningful and rewarding music making. This implies a more democratic way of being a teacher, as defended by Rancière and Freire, abdicating his superiority and giving the students the possibility to take initiative and have a more active role in the construction of their own knowledge that, in terms of music learning, should be oriented “to solve authentic musical problems through active music making.” (Elliott, 1995:61). The idea of "emancipation" of the students defended by Rancière and the idea of non-passive educator is one of the Freire’s principles to claim that the teacher’s attitude "implies decision, choices, intervention in the reality". (Freire, 1996:77). Investigators in the field of music education also defend that “pupils flourish in the context of democratic relationships with both their parents and their teachers”. (Creech, A., & Hallam, S., 2011:8)

The “praxial” approach defended by Elliot is opposed to a music education philosophy that “undervalue the process dimension of music: the actions of artistic and creative music making”, focusing in “the perception and contemplation of things rather than their creation – looking, listening or reading rather than making” (Elliott, 1995:30). Trying to explore alternatives we will use an approach we call “performative practice” or “engaged practice”. Naidu (2014:459) says that “Effective and engaged teaching practices are those that recognise the importance of making real world connections between the subject material taught, and the students’ experiences, through ‘engaged’ teaching and working to encourage the student to become reflexive and critical thinking societal participants.” It’s intended that students take the leading role in exploring and giving ideas to music creation, through improvisation, composing and conducting. Being those students already a product of several years of music learning in the “classical conservatoire tradition”, there is already resistance to new methods in the classroom, mainly the possibility to expand to new sonorities and to try different musical approaches in a collaborative setting. This “musical collaboration provides opportunities for children to expand upon their individual musical potential […] structuring creative music products in meaningful ways with minimal intervention from adults.”(Beegle, 2010:220)

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