The Routledge Companion To Music Theory Pedagogy

Today’s music theory instructors face a changing environment, one where the traditional lecture format is in decline. The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy addresses this change head-on, featuring battle-tested lesson plans alongside theoretical discussions of music theory curriculum and course design. With the modern student in mind, scholars are developing creative new approaches to teaching music theory, encouraging active student participation within contemporary contexts such as flipped classrooms, music industry programs, and popular music studies. This volume takes a unique approach to provide resources for both the conceptual and pragmatic sides of music theory pedagogy. Each section includes thematic "anchor" chapters that address key issues, accompanied by short "topics" chapters offering applied examples that instructors can readily adopt in their own teaching. In eight parts, leading pedagogues from across North America explore how to most effectively teach the core elements of the music theory curriculum: Fundamentals Rhythm and Meter Core Curriculum Aural Skills Post-Tonal Theory Form Popular Music Who, What, and How We Teach A broad musical repertoire demonstrates formal principles that transcend the Western canon, catering to a diverse student body with diverse musical goals. Reflecting growing interest in the field, and with an emphasis on easy implementation, The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy presents strategies and challenges to illustrate and inspire, in a comprehensive resource for all teachers of music theory.

The Routledge Companion to Music, Technology, and Education is a comprehensive resource that draws together burgeoning research on the use of technology in music education around the world. Rather than following a procedural how-to approach, this companion considers technology, musicianship, and pedagogy from a philosophical, theoretical, and empirically-driven perspective, offering an essential overview of current scholarship while providing support for future research. The 37 chapters in this volume consider the major aspects of the use of technology in music education: Part I. Contexts. Examines the historical and philosophical contexts of technology in music. This section addresses themes such as special education, cognition, experimentation, audience engagement, gender, and information and communication technologies. Part II. Real Worlds. Discusses real world scenarios that relate to music, technology, and education. Topics such as computers, composition, performance, and the curriculum are covered here. Part III. Virtual Worlds. Explores the virtual world of learning through our understanding of media, video games, and online collaboration. Part IV. Developing and Supporting Musicianship. Highlights the framework for providing support and development for teachers, using technology to understand and develop musical understanding. The Routledge Companion to Music, Technology, and Education will appeal to undergraduate and post-graduate students, music educators, teacher training specialists, and music education researchers. It serves as an ideal introduction to the issues surrounding technology in music education.

The Routledge Companion to Aural Skills Pedagogy offers a comprehensive survey of issues, practice, and current developments in the teaching of aural skills. The volume regards aural training as a lifelong skill that is engaged with before, during, and after university or conservatoire studies in music, central to the holistic training of the contemporary musician. With an international array of contributors, the volume captures diverse perspectives on aural-skills pedagogy, and enables conversation between different regions. It addresses key new developments such as the use of technology for aural training and the use of popular music. This book will be an essential resource and reference for all university and conservatoire instructors in aural skills, as well as students preparing for teaching careers in music.

"Many innovative approaches to teaching are being used around the country, and there is an exciting energy about the scholarship of teaching and learning. But what is happening in the most effective music theory and aural skills classrooms? Based on three years of field study spanning seventeen states, coupled with reflections from the author on her own teaching strategies, Teaching Music Theory: New Voices and Approaches highlights teaching approaches with substantial real-life examples from instructors across the country. The main premise of the text focuses on the question of why. Why do we assess in a particular way? Why are our curriculums designed in a certain manner? Why should students master aural skills for their career as a performer, music educator, or music therapist? It is through the experiences shared in the text that many of these questions of "why" are answered. Along with answering some of the important questions of "why," topics such as classroom environment, undergraduate research and mentoring, assessment, and approaches to curriculum development are emphasized. Teaching Music Theory: New Voices and Approaches is written in a conversational tone in order to provide a starting point of dialogue for students, new faculty members, and seasoned educators on any level. It is through the pedagogical trends presented and the continued conversation encouraged by the author that one can begin to have a greater appreciation of outstanding teaching and thus an understanding of our own approaches in the classroom"--

Viewing the plurality of creativity in music as being of paramount importance to the field of music education, The Routledge Companion to Creativities in Music Education provides a wide-ranging survey of practice and research perspectives. Bringing together philosophical and applied foundations, this volume draws together an array of international contributors, including leading and emerging scholars, to illuminate the multiple forms creativity can take in the music classroom, and how new insights from research can inform pedagogical approaches. In over 50 chapters, it addresses theory, practice, research, change initiatives, community, and broadening perspectives. A vital resource for music education researchers, practitioners, and students, this volume helps advance the discourse on creativities in music education.

Directly addressing the underrepresentation of Black composers in core music curricula, Expanding the Canon: Black Composers in the Music Theory Classroom aims to both demonstrate why diversification is badly needed and help faculty expand their teaching with practical, classroom-oriented lesson plans that focus on teaching music theory with music by Black composers. This collection of 21 chapters is loosely arranged to resemble a typical music theory curriculum, with topics progressing from basic to advanced and moving from fundamentals, diatonic harmony, and chromatic harmony to form, popular music, and music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Some chapters focus on segments of the traditional music theory sequence, while others consider a single style or composer. Contributors address both methods to incorporate the music of Black composers into familiar topics, and ways to rethink and expand the purview of the music theory curriculum. A foreword by Philip Ewell and an introductory narrative by Teresa L. Reed describing her experiences as an African American student of music set the volume in wider context. Incorporating a wide range of examples by composers across classical, jazz, and popular genres, this book helps bring the rich and varied body of music by Black composers into the core of music theory pedagogy and offers a vital resource for all faculty teaching music theory and analysis.

The Routledge Companion to Teaching Music Composition in Schools: International Perspectives offers a comprehensive overview of teaching composing from a wide range of countries around the world. Addressing the current state of composition pedagogy from primary to secondary school levels and beyond, the volume explores issues, including different curricular and extracurricular settings, cultural aspects of composing, aesthetics, musical creativity, the role of technology, and assessment. With contributors from over 30 countries, this volume encompasses theoretical, historical, empirical, and practical approaches and enables comparisons across different countries and regions. Chapters by experienced educators, composers, and researchers describe in depth the practices taking place in different international locations. Interspersed with these chapters, interludes by the volume editors contextualize and problematize the teaching and learning of composing music. The volume covers a range of contexts, including formal and informal, those where a national curriculum is mandated or where composing is a matter of choice, and a range of types, styles, and genres of musical learning and music-making. Providing a wide-ranging and detailed review of international approaches to incorporating music composition in teaching and learning, this volume will be a useful resource for teachers, music education researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and all those working with children and young people in composing music.

In recent years, music theory educators around the country have developed new and innovative teaching approaches, reintroducing a sense of purpose into their classrooms. In this book, author and veteran music theory educator Jennifer Snodgrass visits several of these teachers, observing them in their music theory classrooms and providing lesson plans that build upon their approaches. Based on three years of field study spanning seventeen states, coupled with reflections on her own teaching strategies,ÂTeaching Music Theory: New Voices and Approaches highlights real-life teaching approaches from effective (and sometimes award-winning) instructors from a wide range of institutions: high schools, community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and conservatories. Throughout the book, Snodgrass focuses on topics like classroom environment, collaborative learning, undergraduate research and professional development, and curriculum reform. She also emphasizes the importance of a diverse, progressive, and inclusive teaching environment throughout, from encouraging student involvement in curriculum planning to designing lesson plans and assessments so that pedagogical concepts can easily be transferred to the applied studio, performance ensemble, and other courses outside of music. An accessible and valuable text designed with the needs of both students and faculty in mind,Teaching Music Theory provides teachers with a vital set of tools to rejuvenate the classroom and produce confident, empowered students.