The protests during the summer of 2020 were an awakening for many people to the realities of systemic racism. Music education had a full-blown reckoning with the insidious ways racism manifests in the profession. One way that systemic racism manifests in individual classrooms and programs, and one not always easily identified, is cultural…

In this article, the author offers a perspective on why humans like music and what it means for music education. The author builds his discussion around the following five basic premises: (1) since the dawn of civilization, humans have used their voices and the musical instruments they invented to express emotions in sounds that vary in pitch,…

It was not long into the author's career as a music educator that they noticed a considerable drop in their own recreational music listening. Any wisp of recreational music listening was typically an accompaniment to an activity or task rather than the main event. This changed dramatically around seven years ago, when a few of their colleagues…

This article describes a project in which contemporary music is studied and created in primary-school classrooms in the presence of a composer. Listening to and analyzing a composer's works fosters musical creation processes in students, who subsequently present and discuss their works in a meeting with the composer. Finally, the students' works…

Research conducted on the development of expressive performance capabilities suggests that children can learn to demonstrate expressiveness in their music-making. Expressivity includes musical interpretation, performance technique, and musical and personal creativity. This article examines creativity as an important component of musical…

To better serve students' evolving needs in music, music educators must connect classroom learning with how students use and interact with music in their daily lives. One way to accomplish this is by approaching classrooms with the music user in mind, which can open new possibilities for meaningful music making and remove students from the…

Contemporary African-American classical composers Cedric Adderley, John Lane, and Trevor Weston intertwine strands of culture and individual experience to produce musical works whose distinct designs offer cultural resources that music educators can use to integrate diversity into instructional settings. Of special interest is their ability to…

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common in the United States. All age groups are at risk for TBI, but there is a larger occurrence among school-age children and young adults. No matter the severity of a student's injury, he or she can benefit from music education, whether listening to music, singing, or performing on an instrument. Students can…