Music Education

When Gustavo Dudamel, at the age of twenty-eight, ascended the podium at the Hollywood Bowl for his inaugural concert as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he immediately captivated the hearts of his audience, just as he had the minds of music critics who designated him a modern-day Leonard Bernstein. In Changing Lives, the story of conductor Gustavo Dudamel becomes the entry point to an equally captivating subject: El Sistema, the music education program that nurtured his musical talent, first as a young violinist and then as a budding conductor under the mentorship of its founder, José Antonio Abreu. What began in Venezuela has now reached children in Los Angeles, New York City, Baltimore, and cities around the world. No matter the location, the overarching goal of El Sistema is unwavering: to rescue children from the depredations of poverty through music. Part history, part reportage, this book reveals that arts education can indeed effect positive social change.

The Child as Musician is an authoritative and comprehensive handbook of musical development from conception to late adolescence. Within 24 chapters by leading specialists, it celebrates the richness and diversity of the many different ways in which children can engage in and interact with music. The 24 chapters have been organized according to five sections: The first section (Development) examines the critical months and years from conception to the end of infancy. It looks at how the musical brain develops, ways of understanding musical development, and the nature of musicality. Section two (Engagement) scrutinizes claims about the non-musical benefit of exposure to music, for example that music makes you smarter. This is followed by four thorough reviews of dealing with musical preference and taste, literacy, aesthetic identity and the perception of emotion in music. Section three (Differences) focuses on those issues that help explain and identify individual differences. It includes chapters examining how children develop their motivation to study music, conceptions of giftedness and talent, and two chapters on music therapy. Five chapters cover skills that can develop as a result of exposure to music. It considers the informal activities associated with musical play and the use of computers and technology. There are also chapters dealing with the acquisition of vocal and instrumental skills, as well as the individual and social worlds of children's musical creativity. The final section of the book discusses five different contexts: The chapter on historical perspectives provides readers with information that will assist them in making comparisons between how children have learned and developed their musical capacities in the past, with current opportunities. This is extended by two additional chapters that focus on children's involvement in music in non-western cultures. The book concludes with two chapters focusing on youth musical engagement and the transition from child to adult. A landmark publication in music education and developmental musical psychology, this is a book that will fascinate both students and researchers - inspiring them to think deeply about the many different ways in which music can affect children's lives and the quality of life in communities throughout the world.

This introduction is essential for education students and researchers needing to use quantitative methods for the first time. Using datasets from real-life educational research and avoiding the use of mathematical formulae, the author guides students through the essential techniques that they will need to know, explaining each procedure using the latest version of SPSS. The datasets can also be downloaded from the book's website, enabling students to practice the techniques for themselves. This revised and updated second edition now also includes more advanced methods such as log linear analysis, logistic regression, and canonical correlation. Written specifically for those with no prior experience of quantitative research, this book is ideal for education students and researchers in this field.

Facing the Music investigates the practices and ideas that have grown from some five decades of cultural diversity in music education, developments in ethnomusicology, and the rise of 'world music'.

This is an essential tool for students tackling problems as varied as research proposals, field research strategies, data analysis, and statistical techniques. Researchers will find current sources and concise instruction in the formulation of a research proposal, its implementation, and dissemination of research results.

Hear, Listen, Play! is a book for all music teachers who are unfamiliar with, yet curious about the worlds of ear-playing, informal learning, improvisation, and vernacular musics. For decades, or even hundreds of years, a divide has slowly been developing between the realms of notation-based musical transmission, and aural/oral methods. Yet that divide is by no means a necessary aspect of music learning, and musicians who are lucky enough to dwell on both sides of it count themselves as so much the richer for doing so. This book aims to provide a door into those other worlds for any teacher who would like to open it.

A History of American Music Education covers the history of American music education, from its roots in Biblical times through recent historical events and trends. It describes the educational, philosophical, educational, and sociological aspects of the subject, always putting it in the context of the history of the United States.

In Kodaly Today, Micheal Houlahan and Philip Tacka offer an expertly-researched, thorough, and - most importantly - practical approach to transforming curriculum goals into tangible, achievable musical objectives and effective lesson plans.

Volume 1: Strategies Volume 2: Applications
Throughout both volumes focus is placed on the musical knowledge and musical skills needed to perform, create, understand, reflect on, enjoy, value, and respond to music. A key point of emphasis rests on the relationship between music learning and finding meaning in music, and as music technology plays an increasingly important role in learning today, chapters move beyond exclusively formal classroom instruction into other forms of systematic learning and informal instruction.

How do we develop musical creativity? How is musical creativity nurtured in collaborative improvisation? How is it used as a communicative tool in music therapy? This volume offers research on these questions by an international team of experts from the fields of music education, music psychology and music therapy. The book celebrates the rich diversity of ways in which learners of all ages develop and use musical creativity.

Why is music significant in life and education? What shall we teach? How? To whom? Where and when? The praxial philosophy espoused in Music Matters: A Philosophy of Music Education offers an integrated sociocultural, artistic, participatory, and ethics-based concept of the natures and values of musics, education, musicing and listening, community music, musical understanding, musical emotions, creativity, and more. Embodied-enactive concepts of action, perception, and personhood weave through the book's proposals. Practical principles for curriculum and instruction emerge from the authors' praxial themes.

Featuring chapters by the world's foremost scholars in music education and cognition, this handbook is a convenient collection of research on music teaching and learning. This comprehensive work includes sections on arts advocacy, music and medicine, teacher education, and studio instruction, among other subjects, making it an essential reference for music education programs.

Throughout the handbook, contributors provide a look at ways music teacher educators prepare teachers to enter the music education profession and offer suggestions for ways in which preservice teachers can advocate for and adapt to changes in contemporary school settings.

The foundational concept of this book. that the values of music are gained through direct experiences with its meaningful sounds, is explained and applied in a broad, inclusive scope, with a synergistic philosophical stance as the basis. In addition it clarifies for readers the explanations of musical feeling, musical creativity, and musical meaning that are at its core. For music educators, music lovers, or anyone who wants a synergistic philosophy of music education inclusive of a variety of positions.

This is a collection that transcends national boundaries and provides new knowledge about approaches to research and research education in music. The book is designed to serve as a resource for university music departments and conservatoires, and offers insights into the development of research programs in this context.

Teaching for Musical Understanding explains current research-based theories of how students learn in order to show prospective and practicing music teachers how to teach effectively. Author Jackie Wiggins draws on her twenty-two years of experience teaching K-12 music and twenty years of teaching in higher education to demonstrate how theory applies to music education. The text is deeply grounded in the work of social constructivist theorists and researchers in both education and music education.

Unique in both content and approach, this book offers a single-volume authoritative comparison of the four most popular music education methods used in North America: Jacques-Dalcroze, Kodály, Orff, and Comprehensive Musicianship. Its in-depth examination of the methods and underlying philosophies of each method--and its suggested lessons for each method at each grade level--will help readers make knowledgeable curricular choices among methods.

Written for music educators in multiple content areas and grade levels, the book sets forth guidelines for promoting the use of metacognitive skills among music students. Along with presenting an extensive overview of research on the topic, Dr. Benton shows how ideas gleaned from research can be put into daily practice in music classrooms and studios.