Patricia Shehan Campbell

The Musical Cultures of Children

Childrens engagement in music beyond school is explored, including the manner by which the various folkways, technologies, and institutional settings help them to perpetuate and preserve particular musical expressions and experiences. Discussion of music in childrens play. the use and function of music in their lives, and the means by which they are musically enculturated will lead to a consideration of musics place in their schooling.

Unsafe suppositions? Cutting across cultures on questions of music's transmission

The study of transmission, the delivery and acquisition (or teaching and learning) of music, is a cross-cultural phenomenon that is of increasing interest and importance to music teachers who strive for a broadly conceived template of pedagogical considerations that transcend cultural boundaries. The potential for idiographic studies of transmission is considered along with an approach that encompasses crosscultural comparisons (if not universals) of transmission. A spectrum of formal and informal processes by which culture is acquired and learned is outlined at the outset. These issues serve to frame an examination of cross-cultural components of musical learning in the cases of childrens songs, Balinese gamelan, Bulgarian traditional music and Filipino kulintang. Comparisons of transmission principles are briefly noted, including the aural-oral techniques of demonstration and imitation; the visual-kinaesthetic network; the spectrum of holistic to analytical reception of skills and knowledge; the necessity of eye-hand coordination and the perception of gestural patterns for instrumentalists; and the role of the expert or more experienced musician. Recommendations point to the development of further studies of musics transmission in various cultural circumstances, with the intention of determining the likelihood of pan-human principles of teaching and learning.

Ethnomusicology and Music Education: Crossroads for knowing music, education, and culture

The influences of ethnomusicological theory and method on scholarly and practical aspects of music education will be considered here, as well as the nature of music educations impact on the scholarship and teaching by ethnomusicologists. An examination of books, monographs, journal articles, instructional materials, and conference proceedings is underway to determine ideas and practices of overlapping interest. The writings of John Blacking, Charles Keil, Bruno Nettl, Tim Rice, and the Seegers and the Lomaxes are among those scholars whose work is relevant to music education scholarship, and issues of mutual interest are emerging: cross-cultural perspectives of music cognition, the mind-body and music-dance dualities, childrens music culture, the pedagogy of world music, and research approaches to the study of music, musical thought, and musical behavior. Following a description of the actual influences by each field on the other, discussion will shift to the potential of the fields to learn from one another and to construct deeper understandings of music in society and its schools.

Rock Music in American Schools: Positions and Practices Since the 1960s

The challenge that rock music has historically faced in achieving widespread acceptance within American music education can be attributed to six common arguments: 1) Rock music is aesthetically inferior; 2) Rock music is damaging to the health of youth; 3) School time cannot be spent on the vernacular; 4) Music teachers are not trained in rock; 5) Rock music encourages rebelliousness and anti-educational behavior; and 6) Rock music curriculum is difficult to acquire. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these six claims is herein analyzed, and the authors’ conclusions discuss the potential benefits of rock music studies. Popular music as such need not, must not be taught in the public classrooms. This music will carry itself. The music educators job is to perpetuate Western art music and to open doors to its perception in the minds of the children of the nation (Anderson 1968, p. 87).

Approaches to Children's Song Acquisition: Immersion and Phrase-by-Phrase

This study is an examination of the effect of two instructional procedures for teaching songs to children: (a) immersion, in which the teacher presents the song in its entirety repeatedly, always from the beginning of the song to its conclusion, and (b) phrase-by-phrase, a method whereby the teacher fragments and then gradually connects song phrases toward the creation of a meaningful whole. Thirty-nine second-grade children from two classes were taught two traditional childrens songs using both methods in a counterbalanced design. Results showed that children taught through the immersion method performed the songs with fewer errors than did those taught through the phrase-by-phrase process. A discussion of childrens need for musical and textual continuity (which the immersion process provides) is followed by recommendations for future research.

Cultural Consciousness in Teaching General Music

The challenge to teach music from a multicultural perspective can seem overwhelming. Patricia Shehan Campbell explains why the multicultural approach is important and, with her associates Edwin Schupman, Marvelene Moore, Maria Navarro, and Ricardo Morlarios, offers ideas you can use in the general music classroom.

Unveiling the Mysteries of Musical Spontaneity

Instruction in improvisation is rarely included in school music courses. Guest editor Patricia Shehan Campbell discusses the importance of teaching improvisation and introduces this months special focus.

The Sonic Surrounds of an Elementary School

In this ethnographic study, we examined the musicking behaviors of schoolchildren at one American elementary school. The aim was to gain an understanding of the nature and context of rhythmic and melodic expressions made and heard by children, emanating from other children, as well as adults within the school environment. Time, place, and function figured as contextual considerations in the investigation of the sonic surrounds of the school; knowing when, where, and why the music occurred added meaningful dimensions to the description of childrens soundscapes. The open-ended sociability of music and its pervasiveness at play and in learning were reminders of musics role in serving human functions, finding its way into private spaces, and webbing within social interactions. Also intriguing were the variety of forms of childrens expressions, ranging from rhythmic play and melodic utterances to familiar songs and their parodies, and the way teachers used music for social signaling and facilitating learning.

An Ethnography of Improvisation Training in a Music Methods Course

In the belief that the strengthening of secondary school music programs is at least partially linked to the training of prospective teachers in the techniques of improvisation, me have examined the process by which music education students reveal an understanding of improvisation, its relationship to analytical listening, the musical and social interactions that can result from its study and practice in a group setting, and ways to integrate it into the curriculum. A 5-week improvisation training segment was included in a secondary music methods course. Five 90-minute sessions were focused on listening and analyzing model pieces and consequent small-group improvisations “in the style of the model.” Data were analyzed using ethnographic techniques. The profiles of two students were developed to trace emerging thoughts and behaviors regarding improvisation training. Although the profiled students differed as to prior experiences and personal perspectives on music-making and teaching, both showed evidence of an evolving sensitivity to the process of improvisation due to instruction—for themselves and for their students.

A University—School Music Partnership for Music Education Majors in a Culturally Distinctive Community

University—community collaborations are a fairly recent phenomenon, which has often been manifested through the establishment of university partnerships with schools. This research sought to document the process and outcomes of a university—school collaboration called Music Alive! in the Valley (MAV), a yearlong partnership between 33 university music education students and faculty with an elementary school within a rural location of a western state. MAV was intended to serve a Mexican American migrant community whose children frequently spoke only Spanish at home and to provide occasions for university students of music education to engage in positive social contact via music performances, participation, and training experiences. An ethnographic method was employed by which observations, interviews, and examination of material culture were assembled over the course of the school year, and an assessment was offered of the benefits and challenges in the creation of a music education partnership in distinctive (and remote) cultural communities.