International Journal of Community Music - Volume 6, Issue 3, 2013

While community music is an internationally successful concept, and community musicians have been facilitating music learning worldwide for many years, community music is still almost unknown in Germany. This is rather surprising, because there are groups and activities in Germany, which (according to the international understanding) would qualify as community music. The concept of music for everyone, without relying on notions of talent or social class, as an activity that facilitates personal and group development, has also been known in Germany. Because music education in German schools is in a crisis, with music educators and scholars searching for new concepts and practices, it seems to be the right time now to introduce community music into the German music education discourse and practice. Community music offers solutions to some of the challenges of today’s music education classes in German schools, such as inclusion, participation, heterogeneity, connections between music education inside and outside of schools, or supporting students with special needs. The German example also raises the issue of internationalization and localization in music education, one of the most important challenges in times of globalization.

Can community music’s practices translate into the music teachers’ classroom? This article discusses the preparation of music teachers and community musicians while speculating about the potential benefits of online instruction. The first section contrasts fundamental distinctions between community music and music education, followed by an analysis of existing master’s degrees in community music and music education. The final section examines the potential collaboration of community music and music education through online education programmes.

This article discusses processes and practices of creative learning in musical education in schools, reflecting on the contributions of this approach to the construction of communities of musical practice in the classroom. The discussion is based on a case study carried out in a primary school in Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil. In this study, the creative learning is triggered in group-composition activities, through collective musical presentation and criticism of the students’ productions. The music teacher created the conditions needed to establish an environment of social relations that favours the construction of a community of musical practice in the classroom. Over time, these forms of social participation configure an engaged and committed community of musical practice, sharing ways of making and thinking about music. Detailing this proposition, the role of the composition activities, presentation and critical in the articulating process between the dimensions of creative learning are analysed, considering the children’s perspective and the teacher’s role in this process, reflecting on opportunities for teaching music in schools.

The lenses through which community music and music pedagogy can be viewed are many. A navigation through a symposium on community music and music pedagogy at Ludwig Maximillians University Munich in February 2013 can be provided by examining the purposes of the activities presented in various papers. This approach could address the concerns of a number of speakers about a lack of shared terminology and understanding, and reduce oppositionality sometimes present when we pit community music against music pedagogy.

The expressive capacities of young children in music are understood to develop naturally from infancy, and are home-grown in families where music is valued and present. The act of ‘rhythmicking’, which is engagement in some manner of rhythmic behaviour, is one of children’s expressive features long before they are introduced to musical study in some formal or systematic manner. With a conscious attention to the application of a community music sensibility, an early childhood programme was designed that nurtured children’s playful yet powerful musical engagement, shored up their rhythmicking capacities, and fostered family time for sharing music that was collaboratively made and listened to. Facilitating musicians co-constructed musical experiences with kindergarten children, and efforts were put forward to involve parents and siblings with kindergarten children in an enticing rhythm-driven programme.

This article discusses the theme of intergenerational impact as it emerged during a study tour of adult learner communities in North America, carried out during March and April of 2011. Data was collected via observation, interviews and questionnaires, to provide a degree of international perspective to a broader ethnographic project investigating sociocultural development through ensemble music programmes in identifiable, marginalized, communities in Australia. The five-week tour involved observation of 31 ensembles, comprising several hundred learners and ensemble directors, spread across nine communities in Ontario, New York State, Washington State, Arizona and California. The study tour was facilitated by a New Horizons International Music Association (NHIMA) fellowship, and the participating communities were all members or affiliates of the NHIMA. Utilizing the theoretical framework of Lee Higgins’ community as an act of hospitality, the article focuses on five emergent examples of social development with effects crossing generational boundaries, with findings indicating a growing trend in mentor-based social change within communities embracing group adult music learner programmes.

The Shelter Concert Series was a service-learning project conducted in coordination with a university-music programme and a shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness. Students performed weekly concerts, including a jazz band, steel band, clarinet duet, old time ensemble, acoustic guitarist, rhythm and blues band and a classical vocalist. This article offers a reflective account of practice based on qualitative research. Questionnaire, interview and observation data indicated Shelter clients enjoyed the concerts and were appreciative of the students’ performances. Students reported an increase in positive attitudes towards individuals experiencing homelessness, and a desire to participate more often in service learning. Shelter staff believed the concerts led to a more positive atmosphere for the clients. Implications for service learning and music education, especially with individuals experiencing homelessness, are discussed.

In 2011 Joseph Straus published the book Extraordinary Measures: Disability in Music. Adopting a sociocultural approach, Straus explores the relationship between disability and music by focusing on how music not only reflects, but also constructs different disability narratives. After providing an overview of the book content and themes, this article focuses on what I perceive as being Straus’s misunderstood guest, that is, music therapy. Writing from my own perspective as a music therapy practitioner-researcher, and in relation to Straus’s characterization of music therapy as a ‘ghetto’, I respond to certain ideas developed in the book and offer some different perspectives regarding music therapy as well as its contribution to the study of disability in music. These perspectives are drawn from practices and theories emerging from music- and culture-centred, as well as resource-oriented and community approaches to music therapy. This response article aims to instigate interdisciplinary exchange and dialogue between different music-related disciplines within the wider field of disability studies.