Musical Experience in Our Lives: Things We Learn and Meanings We Make

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.

Jody L. Kerchner is associate professor and director of Music Education at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she is the secondary school music and choral music education specialist. Her research focuses on music listening and cognitive processing, portfolio assessment, college-public school collaboration, and music teacher identity. Carlos R. Abril is assistant professor of Music Education at Northwestern University where he teaches courses in general music, multiculturalism, and philosophy. His research focuses on the sociocultural dimensions of the music teaching and learning process, music perception, and the elementary music curriculum.