Mr Giancarlo Ranzani

My name is Giancarlo and I am a guitarist, guitar educator, and researcher who revels in investigating best teaching practices across cultures and linking them with academic disciplines. My undergraduate and postgraduate degrees are within the bounds of popular music performance and teaching theories, respectively. In entering the field as a researcher I seek a triangulated integration of my interest in performing, teaching, and scholarship.

My current research, for a doctoral program, aims to examine how rhythmic skills are acquired and transmitted in educational practices in Cuba. It seeks to gain knowledge of the unique aspects of music learning as they occur in typical settings in Cuba where rhythmic skills are taught, as well as how they are embedded in Cuban children’s lives.

European knowledge of Cuban music tends to focus on the musical materials themselves, or on biographical accounts of the country’s internationally acclaimed musicians, prompting a considerable volume of literature in these areas. The way these eminent Cuban musicians learn music, however, has received much less attention – particularly in the way it unfolds in informal settings in Cuba.

It is expected that a study of Cuban music education will yield significant insights into the acquisition of musical skills more generally and contribute to the current discussion over the divided line between formal and informal education.