In Dr. Pendergast's choral music lecture in class, he took us through the essentials of choral music education: the unique conceptual teaching concepts and attributes that make choral music an important component of well-rounded music education. Vocal music in general is unique in that it comes directly from the identity of each person - their instrument is their body - and that has to be taken into account when building vocal music programs through considering and working to build students' self-efficacy. This often occurs in choral music because it is so accessible. Anyone can join choir and learn to sing, while the learning curve difference is not conducive to that in instrumental music.
My greatest take-away from the lecture was the prioritizing of self-efficacy and identity: who I am, and what I can do. Of course, this applies directly to choral music education as discussed in the lecture, but I think it's valuable to all of music education. Students, and people in general, are drawn to wht they can do, and are excited by doing things. Thus choral music is exciting for a lot of people because they feel that they can be making good music early on. But when it applies to instrumental music, the cultivation of self-efficacy may need be more involved and intentional through the difficult front-work of learning an instrument. No matter the music education area, affirmation of self-efficacy in the interest of students continuing in music is critical.