Trans and gender-expansive youth deserve a safe and empowering space to engage in high quality school music experiences. Supportive music teachers ensure that all students have access to ethically and pedagogically sound music education. In this practical resource, authors Matthew L. Garrett (he/him) and Joshua Palkki (he/him) encourage music educators to honor gender diversity through ethically and pedagogically sound practices. Honoring Trans and Gender-Expansive Students in Music Education is intended for music teachers and music teacher educators across choral, instrumental, and general music classroom environments. Grounded in theory and nascent research, we provide historical and social context, and practical direction for working with students who inhabit a variety of spaces among a gender identity and expression continuum. Trans and gender expansive students often place their trust in music teachers, with whom they have developed a deep bond over time. It is essential, then, for music teachers to understand how issues of gender play out in formal and informal school music environments. Stories of trans and gender expansive youth and their music teachers anchor practical suggestions for honoring students in school music classrooms and more general school contexts.
The Oxford Handbook of Preservice Music Teacher Education in the United States identifies the critical need for increased cultural engagement in Pre-K-12 music education. Collectively, the handbook's 56 contributors argue that music education benefits all students only if educators actively work to broaden diversity in the profession and consistently include diverse learning strategies, experiences, and perspectives in the classroom. In this handbook, contributors encourage music education faculty, researchers, and graduate students to take up that challenge. 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. For example, educators can expand the types of music groups offered to students, from choir to jazz ensemble. Building upon students' available resources, contributors use research-based approaches to identify the ways in which educational methods and practices must transform in order to successfully challenge existing music education boundaries.
"Music Education for Social Change: Constructing an Activist Music Education develops an activist music education rooted in principles of social justice and anti-oppression. Based on the interviews of activist-musicians across the United States and Canada, the book explores the common themes, perceptions, and philosophies among them, positioning these activist-musicians as catalysts for change in music education while raising the question: amidst racism and violence targeted at people who embody difference, how can music education contribute to changing the social climate? Music has long played a role in activism and resistance. By drawing upon this rich tradition, educators can position activist music education as part of a long-term response to events, as a crucial initiative to respond to ongoing oppression, and as an opportunity for youth to develop collective, expressive, and critical thinking skills. This emergent activist music education--like activism pushing toward social change--focuses on bringing people together, expressing experiences, and identifying (and challenging) oppressions. Grounded in practice with examples integrated throughout the text, Music Education for Social Change is an imperative and urgent consideration of what may be possible through music and music education." - excerpt from publisher description
Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change: Creativity, Diversity, Integration takes prevailing discourse about change in music studies to new vistas, as higher education institutions are at a critical moment of determining just what professional musicians and teachers need to survive and thrive in public life. The authors examine how music studies might be redefined through the lenses of creativity, diversity, and integration. which are the three pillars of the recent report of The College Music Society taskforce calling for reform. Focus is on new conceptions for existent areas--such as studio lessons and ensembles, academic history and theory, theory and culture courses, and music education coursework--but also on an exploration of music and human learning, and an understanding of how organizational change happens. Examination of progressive programs will celebrate strides in the direction of the task force vision, as well as extend a critical eye distinguishing between premature proclamations of "mission accomplished" and genuine transformation. The overarching theme is that a foundational, systemic overhaul has the capacity to entirely revitalize the European classical tradition. Practical steps applicable to wide-ranging institutions are considered--from small liberal arts colleges, to conservatory programs, large research universities, and regional state universities.
This book examines contemporary issues in music teaching and learning throughout the lifespan, illuminating an emerging nexus of trends shaping modern research in music education. In the past, most music learning opportunities and research were focused upon the pre-adult population. Yet, music education occurs throughout the lifespan, from birth until death, emerging not only through traditional formal ensembles and courses, but increasingly through informal settings as well. This book challenges previous assumptions in music education and offers theoretical perspectives that can guide contemporary research and practice. Exploring music teaching and learning practices through the lens of human development, sections highlight recent research on topics that shape music learning trajectories. Themes uniting the book include human development, assessment strategies, technological applications, professional practices, and cultural understanding. The volume deconstructs and reformulates performance ensembles to foster mutually rewarding collaborations across miles and generations. It develops new measures and strategies for assessment practices for professionals as well as frameworks for guiding students to employ effective strategies for self-assessment. Supplemental critical thinking questions focus the reader on research applications and provide insight into future research topics. This volume joining established experts and emerging scholars at the forefront of this multifaceted frontier is essential reading for educators, researchers, and scholars, who will make the promises of the 21st century a reality in music education. It will be of interest to a range of fields including music therapy, lifelong learning, adult learning, human development, community music, psychology of music, and research design.
Future and current independent private music educators will find this book an invaluable resources for establishing and maintaining a private music studio. Private music instructors will learn what they should expect professionaly, personally, and financially from their independent music instruction business. Until now, no single resource has existed that fully explains how to run this type of business successfully. This book presents all aspects of private music instruction through an easy-to-read, concise, and engaging instructional format. Following the sound advice presented will help to greatly alleviate the problems that all beginning independent instructors face by specifically mapping out chronological steps for establishing and maintaining a private instruction music business. The field of private music education has been inundated by less-than-professional individuals who have made it difficult for legitimate, qualified instructors. The Private Music Instruction Manual shares years of information and experiences in the hope of legitimizing the field of private music instruction. In a world where there is decreasing priority and structure in public music education, private music instructors become increasingly important to prepare the next generation of musicians. No matter the size of your private music instruction business, the advice presented in The Private Music Instruction Manual will help to improve any private music business. From the Midwest Book Review: With The Private Music Instruction Manual; A Guide For The Independent Music Educator, author Rebecca Osborn draws upon her many years of experience and expertise as an adjunct college music professor and owner of three private music studies to write an informed and informative guidebook specifically for musicians and music instructors who want to teach students in a profitable private practice but are not familiar with or knowledgeable about setting up a music instruction business enterprise. Rebecca Osborne provides a wealth of invaluable, professional, effectively organized and presented instructions on establishing and maintaining a music teaching business and shows what to expect professional, personally, and financially from independent music instruction. If you want to make money teaching other how to play any kind of music instrument, then you need to give a careful (and profitable!) reading to Rebecca Osborn's The Private Music Instruction Manual!
Music is a powerful means for educating citizens in a multicultural society and meeting many challenges shared by teachers across all subjects and grade levels. By celebrating heritage and promoting intercultural understandings, music can break down barriers among various ethnic, racial, cultural, and language groups within elementary and secondary schools. This book provides important insights for educators in music, the arts, and other subjects on the role that music can play in the curriculum as a powerful bridge to cultural understanding. The author documents key ideas and practices that have influenced current music education, particularly through efforts of ethnomusicologists in collaboration with educators, and examines some of the promises and pitfalls in shaping multicultural education through music. The text highlights World Music Pedagogy as a gateway to studying other cultures as well as the importance of including local music and musicians in the classroom. Book Features: Chronicles the historical movements and contemporary issues that relate to music education, ethnomusicology, and cultural diversity. Offers recommendations for the integration of music into specific classes, as well as throughout school culture. Examines performance, composition, and listening analysis of art (folk/traditional and popular) as avenues for understanding local and global communities. Documents music's potential to advance dimensions of multicultural education, such as the knowledge-construction process, prejudice reduction, and an equity pedagogy.
"Drawing on a mix of collaborative autoethnography, secondary literature, interviews with leading improvisers, and personal anecdotal material, Jamming the Classroom discusses the pedagogy of musical improvisation as a vehicle for teaching, learning, and enacting social justice. Heble and Stewart write that to "jam the classroom" is to argue for a renewed understanding of improvisation as both a musical and a social practice; to activate the knowledge and resources associated with improvisational practices in an expression of noncompliance with dominant orders of knowledge production; and to recognize in the musical practices of aggrieved communities something far from the reaches of conventional forms of institutionalized power, yet something equally powerful, urgent, and expansive. With this definition of jamming the classroom in mind, Heble and Stewart argue that even as improvisation gains recognition within mainstream institutions (including classrooms in universities), it needs to be understood as a critique of dominant institutionalized assumptions and epistemic orders. Suggesting a closer consideration of why musical improvisation has been largely expunged from dominant models of pedagogical inquiry in both classrooms and communities, this book asks what it means to theorize the pedagogy of improvised music in relation to public programs of action, debate, and critical practice." - via publisher
"This open access book examines the political structures and processes that frame and produce understandings of diversity in and through music education. Recent surges in nationalist, fundamentalist, protectionist and separatist tendencies highlight the imperative for music education to extend beyond nominal policy agendas or wholly celebratory diversity discourses. Bringing together high-level theorisation of the ways in which music education upholds or unsettles understandings of society and empirical analyses of the complex situations that arise when negotiating diversity in practice, the chapters in this volume explore the politics of inquiry in research; examine music teachers’ navigations of the shifting political landscapes of society and state; extend conceptualisations of diversity in music education beyond familiar boundaries; and critically consider the implications of diversity for music education leadership. Diversity is thus not approached as a label applied to certain individuals or musical repertoires, but as socially organized difference, produced and manifest in various ways as part of everyday relations and interactions. This compelling collection serves as an invitation to ongoing reflexive inquiry; to deliberate the politics of diversity in a fast-changing and pluralist world; and together work towards more informed and ethically sound understandings of how diversity in music education policy, practice, and research is framed and conditioned both locally and globally." - via publisher
"Teaching Difficult Topics provides a series of on-the-ground reflections from college music instructors working in a wide variety of institutional settings about their approaches to inclusive, supportive pedagogy in the music classroom. . . The teaching reflections in Teaching Difficult Topics examine difficult themes that fall into three primary categories: subjects that instructors sense to be controversial or emotionally challenging to discuss, those that derive from or intersect with real-world events that are difficult to process, and bigger-picture discussions of how music studies often focuses on dominant narratives while overlooking other perspectives. Some chapters offer practical guidance, lesson plans, and teaching materials to enable instructors to build discussions of race, gender, sexuality, and traumatic histories into their own classrooms; others take a more global view, reflecting on the importance and relevance of teaching these difficult topics and on how to respond in the music classroom when external events disrupt daily life." - excerpt from publisher description
"Teaching Music History with Cases introduces a pedagogical approach to music history instruction in university coursework. What constitutes a music-historical "case?" How do we use them in the classroom? In business and the hard sciences, cases are problems that need solutions. In a field like music history, a case is not always a problem, but often an exploration of a context or concept that inspires deep inquiry. Such cases are narratives of rich, complex moments in music history that inspire questions of similar or related moments. This book guides instructors through the process of designing a curriculum based on case studies, finding and writing case studies, and guiding class discussions of cases." - via publisher
"Disability and Accessibility in the Music Classroom provides college music history instructors with a concise guide on how to create an accessible and inclusive classroom environment. In addition to providing a concise overview of disability studies, highlighting definitions, theories, and national and international policies related to disability, this book offers practical applications for implementing accessibility measures in the music history classroom. The latter half of this text provides case studies of well-known disabled composers and musicians from the Western Art Music canon from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century as well as popular music genres, such as the blues, jazz, R&B, pop, country, and hip hop. These examples provide opportunities to integrate discussions of disability into a standard music history curriculum." - via publisher
"In Listen Up!, author Brent Gault approaches listening instruction by actively using other musical behaviors (singing, moving, chanting, creating) and aural, visual, and kinesthetic learning modes. This in turn becomes a way to foster in young children a deeper, more meaningful connection with musical material while at the same time strengthening their active listening skills. The book provides teachers with a compendium of sample experiences that utilize music listening excerpts not only to offer an opportunity to listen to select pieces of music, but to also reinforce given musical concepts (rhythm, melody, form) that are made prominent in the selections. While teachers may use Gault's examples exactly as they stand, Gault also provides an opening section of strategies that they may use to develop their own listening lessons based on the ones in the book, with the hope that they will develop their own strategies and lessons in the future. A key selling point for Listen Up! is its dedicated companion website of slides for each lesson, with visual material that students can view and respond to as they listen. An innovative and engaging book-and-website resource, Listen Up! will be of practical interest to elementary music specialists for use in music classrooms. The book will also be a resource for methods teachers working with pre-service music educators in addition to music education undergraduate and graduate students preparing to teach music at the elementary level." - via publisher
"The roots of rap and the history of hip-hop have origins that precede DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash. Kids will learn about how it evolved from folktales, spirituals, and poetry, to the showmanship of James Brown, to the culture of graffiti art and break dancing that formed around the art form and gave birth to the musical artists we know today. Written in lyrical rhythm by award-winning author and poet Carole Boston Weatherford and complete with flowing, vibrant illustrations by Corettta Scott King Award winner, Frank Morrison, this book beautifully illustrates how hip-hop is a language spoken the whole world 'round, and it features a foreword by Swizz Beatz, a Grammy Award-winning American hip-hop rapper, DJ, and record producer." - excerpt from publisher description
"When Arn was a young boy in Cambodia, his days were filled with love, laughter and the sweet sounds of music. That all changed in 1975 when Arn's village was invaded by Khmer Rouge soldiers and his family torn apart. Arn was taken to a children's work camp, where he laboured long hours in the rice fields under the glaring eyes of threatening soldiers. Overworked and in constant fear for his life, Arn had to find a way to survive - so, when guards asked for volunteers to play music one day, Arn bravely raised his hand and took a chance that would change his life." - via publisher
"What happened when a former slave took beat-up old instruments and gave them to a bunch of orphans? Thousands of futures got a little brighter and a great American art form was born. In 1891, Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins opened his orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. He soon had hundreds of children and needed a way to support them. Jenkins asked townspeople to donate old band instruments--some of which had last played in the hands of Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. He found teachers to show the kids how to play. Soon the orphanage had a band. And what a band it was. The Jenkins Orphanage Band caused a sensation on the streets of Charleston. People called the band's style of music "rag"--a rhythm inspired by the African American people who lived on the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The children performed as far away as Paris and London, and they earned enough money to support the orphanage that still exists today. They also helped launch the music we now know as jazz. Hey, Charleston! is the story of the kind man who gave America "some rag" and so much more." - via publisher
"A gorgeous and empowering picture book biography about Evelyn Glennie, a deaf woman, who became the first full-time solo percussionist in the world. "No. You can't," people said. But Evelyn knew she could. She had found her own way to listen. From the moment Evelyn Glennie heard her first note, music held her heart. She played the piano by ear at age eight, and the clarinet by age ten. But soon, the nerves in her ears began to deteriorate, and Evelyn was told that, as a deaf girl, she could never be a musician. What sounds Evelyn couldn'thear with her ears, though, she could feel resonate through her body as if she, herself, were a drum. And the music she created was extraordinary. Evelyn Glennie had learned how to listen in a new way. And soon, the world was listening too." - via publisher
"This moving and impassioned picture book about the iconic Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla, that will embolden young readers to find their passion and make the impossible, possible! Selena Quintanilla's music career began at the age of nine when she started singing in her family's band. She went from using a hairbrush as a microphone to traveling from town to town to play gigs. But Selena faced a challenge: People said that she would never make it in Tejano music, which was dominated by male performers. Selena was determined to prove them wrong. Born and raised in Texas, Selena didn't know how to speak Spanish, but with the help of her dad, she learned to sing it. With songs written and composed by her older brother and the fun dance steps Selena created, her band, Selena Y Los Dinos, rose to stardom! A true trailblazer, her success in Tejano music and her crossover into mainstream American music opened the door for other Latinx entertainers, and she became an inspiration for Latina girls everywhere." - via publisher
"An energetic biography in verse of reggae legend Bob Marley, exploring the influences that shaped his life and music on his journey from rural Jamaican childhood to international superstardom. Soulful, sun-drenched illustrations transport young readers to Bob Marley's Jamaica, while uniquely perceptive poems bring to life his fascinating journey from boy to icon." - via publisher
"Like Montezuma (A Boy Named Beckoning), Zitkala-Sa is an important figure in Native American history about whom nothing has been written for children.This is a picture book biography of Zitkala-Sa, born Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, a Native American woman at the turn of the nineteenth century. Zitkala-Sa was a writer, editor, musician, teacher, and political activist in a time when even basic education was uncommon among Native Americans." - via publisher
"This picture-book biography of violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman will inspire young readers to follow the melody within themselves Before becoming one of the greatest violinists of all time, Itzhak Perlman was simply a boy who loved music. Raised by a poor immigrant family in a tiny Tel Aviv apartment, baby Itzhak was transformed by the sounds from his family's kitchen radio-graceful classical symphonies, lively klezmer tunes, and soulful cantorial chants. The rich melodies and vibrant rhythms spoke to him like magic, filling his mind with vivid rainbows of color. After begging his parents for an instrument, Itzhak threw his heart and soul into playing the violin. Despite enormous obstacles-including a near-fatal bout of polio that left him crippled for life-Itzhak persevered, honing his extraordinary gift. When he performed on the Ed Sullivan Show sat only 13, audiences around the world were mesmerized by the warmth, joy, and passion in every note. Gorgeously illustrated with extensive back matter, this picture-book biography recounts Itzhak's childhood journey-from a boy with a dream to an internationally acclaimed violin virtuoso." - via publisher
"Meet the famous composer George Gershwin and learn about his remarkabke composition "Rhapsody In Blue" in this engaging nonficftion picture book biography. George Gershwin heard music all the time--at home, at school, even on New York City's busy streets. Classical, ragtime, blues, and jazz--George's head was filled with a whole lot of razzmatazz! With rhythmic swirls of words and pictures, author Suzanne Slade and illustrator Stacy Innerst beautifully reveal just how brilliantly Gershwin combined various kinds of music to create his masterpiece, Rhapsody in Blue, a surprising and whirlwind composition of notes, sounds, and one long wail of a clarinet. Includes author's note, timeline, and bibliography." - via publisher
"A biography of African American jazz virtuoso Melba Doretta Liston, a pioneering twentieth-century trombone player, composer, and music arranger at a time when few women, of any race, played brass instruments and were part of the jazz scene. Melba Doretta Liston loved the sounds of music from as far back as she could remember. As a child, she daydreamed about beats and lyrics, and hummed along with the music from her family's Majestic radio. At age seven, Melba fell in love with a big, shiny trombone, and soon taught herself to play the instrument. By the time she was a teenager, Melba's extraordinary gift for music led her to the world of jazz. She joined a band led by trumpet player Gerald Wilson and toured the country. Overcoming obstacles of race and gender, Melba went on to become a famed trombone player and arranger, spinning rhythms, harmonies, and melodies into gorgeous songs for all the jazz greats of the twentieth century: Randy Weston, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and Quincy Jones, to name just a few. Brimming with ebullience and the joy of making music, Little Melba and Her Big Trombone is a fitting tribute to a trailblazing musician and a great unsung hero of jazz." - via publisher
"Bright colours and musical patterns make the music skip off the page in this toe-tapping homage to many jazz greats. From Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Thelonious Monk to Ella Fitzgerald, here is an evening sure to knock your socks off. Learn about this popular music form and read a biography of each player, featured at the end of the book. From start to finish, here is a book to share and savor again and again." - via publisher
As is the case throughout this guide, the titles featured here represent only a small sample of those available through the library. To browse for more physical juvenile titles, consider searching the Search @UW Library Catalog for "Musicians;" limiting the findings to "--Books and Media (UW Superior);" then using the limiters (on the left on desktop) to select "Educational Materials Collection"
Hoopla is a database for digital books. It is a good resource for finding juvenile materials in ebook and audiobook form. For navigation help, see the Hoopla databases section of our Children's Literature guide. Tumblebooks is also featured in that guide, and may also be of interest.
