This book uncovers the multifaceted nature of music participation through a collection of studies in a wide variety of musical contexts across the United States. The contributors combine personal voices and vivid narratives with scholarship to present many potential meanings of music participation, and lay out research-based implications for lifelong music education. Exploring music participation in choral and instrumental ensembles; school music classes and community groups; in-person and virtual spaces; among children, young adults, and older adults; and for native-born citizens and immigrants, the 10 original studies in this volume present a diverse portrait of musical engagement. The chapters draw out themes including enjoyment, identity development, learner autonomy, social interaction, motivation, commitment, and quality of life, and draw connections between musical meanings and philosophical principles from both Western and Eastern traditions. Linked by interludes that connect the empirical studies with philosophical interpretations, this volume brings together multiple methodologies and perspectives to consider the social, cultural, and psychological meanings of lifelong music participation. It offers a valuable resource for scholars, professionals, and students working in school and community music or music education research, as well as readers interested in general education, social psychology, lifelong learning, and aging studies.

Featuring chapters by the world's foremost scholars in music education and cognition, this handbook is a convenient collection of current research on music teaching and learning. This comprehensive work includes sections on arts advocacy, music and medicine, teacher education, and studio instruction, among other subjects, making it an essential reference for music education programs. The original Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning, published in 1992 with the sponsorship of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), was hailed as "a welcome addition to the literature on music education because it serves to provide definition and unity to a broad and complex field" (Choice). This new companion volume, again with the sponsorship of MENC, explores the significant changes in music and arts education that have taken place in the last decade. Notably, several chapters now incorporate insights from other fields to shed light on multi-cultural music education, gender issues in music education, and non-musical outcomes of music education. Other chapters offer practical information on maintaining musicians' health, training music teachers, and evaluating music education programs. Philosophical issues, such as musical cognition, the philosophy of research theory, curriculum, and educating musically, are also explored in relationship to policy issues. In addition to surveying the literature, each chapter considers the significance of the research and provides suggestions for future study.Covering a broad range of topics and addressing the issues of music education at all age levels, from early childhood to motivation and self-regulation, this handbook is an invaluable resource for music teachers, researchers, and scholars.

The streamlined Fourth Edition of this widely adopted text introduces prospective school music teachers to the profession of music education by one of the field’s respected senior practitioners. In a warm, approachable style, Hoffer presents a working repertoire of concepts and general information, gets readers thinking about music teaching, and encourages them to examine themselves in terms of their future roles as educators in the field. Introduction to Music Education, 4/E provides a comprehensive, straightforward overview of the field, including its opportunities and its challenges. The text is written for a general music education course that precedes methods courses in which prospective teachers learn techniques for teaching various aspects of music. In addition to Hoffer’s uncluttered discussions of the nature of teaching, teachers, and music, useful chapter components such as questions for discussion and projects are included.

I acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude to my coeditors: my wife Irene, and my friend and colleague Tom Draper. They have worked with diligence and insight to bring this work to completion. They have delegated the task of writing the Preface to me. As the scientific study of human development matures it is not only natural, but it is necessary to reach beyond understanding the ways humans develop capacities, to study the ways emerging capacities fit into the larger sphere of human undertakings. Music is one of the most significant of those endeavors. As I attend the several piano competitions that are on my agenda each year, and see children seated at the keyboard drawing forth the magnificent sounds of Bach, Chopin, and Ravel, I am always a little awed. Surely, it seems to me, the piano* is among the best of man's creations; the creative energies of great composers are among mankind's greatest expressions; and encouraging children to associate themselves seriously with both instrument and composer can be one of the great blessings to their young lives and, by association, to the larger society. Music touches the entire range of our lifespan on a daily basis. Involving chil dren with music and music training has high market, and common sense, validity. Parents understand intuitively that children will benefit, and their lives will be enriched, if they are influenced by music and music training.