Musical Experience in Our Lives

Things We Learn and Meanings We Make

Edited by Jody L. Kerchner, Carlos R. Abril

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 January 2009

Length of book:

360 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

ISBN-13: 9781578869473

As we listen and move to music, sing, compose, and play, we engage in musical experiences. These happen in formal learning settings, such as schools and rehearsal halls, but also in informal settings, such as homes and community centers. Musical experiences are fundamentally social and can teach us about ourselves and our relationship to others. This book explores some of the many ways we experience music and create musical meaning from infancy through older adulthood. While vignettes, narratives, and cases form the primary focus of each chapter, the contributors of the book use extant research and theory to deepen understanding of a particular phenomenon, idea, or experience. Chapters are written by leading experts who examine music teaching and learning. They employ various qualitative research methodologies, including case study, narrative inquiry, oral history, and ethnography, yet their contributions are readable, engaging, and refreshingly insightful.

Part 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Musical Experience throughout Our Lives
Part 3 Infancy/Early Childhood
Chapter 4 Songs of Belonging: Musical Interactions in Early Life
Chapter 5 From the Teacher's View: Observations of Toddler's Musical Development
Chapter 6 A Community Music Program for Parents and Children With and Without Special Needs
Chapter 7 Musical Portraits, Musical Pathways: Stories of Meaning Making in the Lives of Six Families
Part 8 Childhood
Chapter 9 Pulling the Curtain Back on Performance in the Elementary School
Chapter 10 El Cameleon: The Musical Secrets of Mirella Valdez
Chapter 11 Improvisatory Musical Experiences in the Lives of Children with Severe Disabilities
Chapter 12 Composing in the Classroom: The Journey of Five Children
Part 13 Adolescence
Chapter 14 Strings Attached: The Reality Show
Chapter 15 Drawing Middle-Schoolers' Attention to Music
Chapter 16 At-Risk Teens: Making Sense of Life through Music Composition
Chapter 17 Boys' Voices: Inside and Outside Choral Music
Chapter 18 Music in Motion: An Overture to the Student Experience in the Outdoor Music Ensemble
Chapter 19 The Violin and the Fiddle: Narratives of Music and Musician in a High School Setting
Part 20 Adulthood/Older Adulthood
Chapter 21 Creation to Performance: The Journey of an African American Community Gospel-Jazz Ensemble
Chapter 22 Both Sides of the Coin: Experienced Musicians Tell of Lives Lived and Shared
Chapter 23 Dancing Inside: Dalcroze Eurhythmics in a Therapeutic Setting
Chapter 24 Voices of Experience: Lessons from Older Adult Amateur Musicians

Musical Experience in Our Lives features a veritable pantheon of outstanding researchers and thinkers in the field of music education. They bring to this work important perspectives on the transmission, learning, and joy of music making from the youngest child to people in their later years. These qualitative studies provide a detailed description of the sociological dimensions of music learning, helping us to understand that what is learned far transcends a particular classroom, teacher or setting...