Creating Music

What Children from Around the World Can Teach Us

By (author) Patricia Elaine Riley

Publication date:

08 January 2017

Length of book:

312 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781475830163

Children create music in individually unique ways, but also using common processes. Each creating process component stated in the United States’ National Music Standards (imagine, plan and make, evaluate and refine, and present; NCCAS, 2014) is explored in this text using children’s creations from China, India, Ireland, Mexico, and the United States as examples. What can the characteristics of music created by children from five diverse locations teach us about creating music? How do the sounds surrounding children in their schools, homes, and communities affect the music they create and what can be learned from this? How do children’s similar creating processes inform how we teach music? These questions are investigated as the children’s music compositions and improvisations are shared and examined. As this narrative unfolds, readers will become acquainted with the children, their original music, and what the children say about their music and its creation. What we learn from this exploration leads to teaching strategies, projects, lesson plans, and mentoring recommendations that will help music educators benefit from these particular children’s creations.

Foreword—Peter Webster
Preface
Part I The Why and How of Children’s Music Creation
Chapter 1: Creating Music is Important
Chapter 2: Understanding the Processes of Music Creation
Part II Exemplifying the Creating Process Components with Children’s Compositions and Improvisations From Around the World
Chapter 3: Meeting the Children and Their Surroundings
Chapter 4: Imagining Music
Chapter 5: Planning and Making Music
Chapter 6: Evaluating and Refining Music
Chapter 7: Presenting Music
Part III Facilitating Children’s Creating
Chapter 8: Crafting Creating Opportunities
Chapter 9: Mentoring Student Creations
References
About the Author

Riley is an experienced music teacher and professor, and the present book arose from her desire to help pre-service and in-service music educators understand and implement the revised standards for music composition. The focus of this fascinating project is articulated in the book's subtitle. The process of communication and collaboration a child uses to create music reflects his/her culture and awareness of other cultures. The author divides the book into three sections: the first looks at applied research and the curriculum used in formulating the project; the second examines components of the creative process and describes the cultures of the five countries represented in the book; the last looks at educators' role as facilitators. The inclusion of lesson plans and examples of projects for teachers to encourage classroom music composition and improvisation makes this an extraordinarily valuable resource. The book is well written and abounds with illustrations, tables, figures, charts, interviews, and curriculum standards.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; professionals.