Dr. Laura Stambaugh

About Dr. Stambaugh

Laura Stambaugh, Professor and Head of Music Education at Georgia Southern University teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education, music cognition, and research methods. Prior to her college teaching, she taught elementary and middle school band for eleven years in New Hampshire. Her curriculum included chamber music ensembles and emphasized the Comprehensive Musicianship approach. She has been active as an oboist and conductor with community ensembles in New Hampshire, Washington, and Georgia, and completed a semester as a visiting researcher in Dr. Jessica Grahn’s Music and Neuroscience Lab at Western University (ON).

Her book, Music and the Brain for Musicians: Understanding the Research and Getting Involved, was published by Conway Publications in summer 2022. It is a gateway for students and professional musicians to learn about the perception, cognition, and neuroscience that enable excellent musicianship.

Dr. Stambaugh’s primary research agenda examines the development of automaticity in playing instruments, largely through motor learning perspectives. She seeks to answer the big questions of: what are the cognitive mechanisms underlying how people learn to play wind instruments, and how can teachers use that knowledge to improve instruction? Her secondary research areas include error detection skills and special learners and music. She has presented at local, national, and international conferences, including state music education conferences in Georgia, South Carolina, and Washington; NAfME: National Association for Music Education; the International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (Sapporo, Japan; Seattle; San Francisco); and the International Symposium on Performance Science (Vienna, Toronto, Auckland).

Dr. Stambaugh’s research appears in Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, Psychomusicology, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, and Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Her teaching articles are found in Music Educators Journal and Teaching Music. She holds a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Washington, a M.M. in music education from Northwestern University, and a B.M. in music education from Ithaca College.