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

This is a useful addition to academic and research collections supporting the curricular and scholarly study of music education.Jody Kerchner and Carlos Abril engage us on a timely topic through the exploration of musical experiences in a variety of environments, including both formal and informal settings....The myriad of resources cited in the brief introduction reinforce the depth of the researchers' expertise....Kerchner and Abril have filled a void in the available literature with the presentation of a unique compilation that is accessible to a variety of readers.Kerchner's and Abril's Musical Experience in Our Lives takes us a giant step toward what the field of music education most needs to become: more real. In chapter after chapter by the assembled writers the actual musical lives being lived by people at every stage, from early childhood through older adulthood, are portrayed thoughtfully and delightfully, demonstrating how rich and diverse those lives can be and how minimally related they are to traditional music programs in the schools. This is an indispensable book for all music educators, eye-opening, refreshing, mind-expanding, and hopeful for its encouragement of an invigorated profession.Musical Experience in Our Lives features a veritable pantheon of outstanding researchers and thinkers in the field of music education. They bring to this work important perspectives on the transmission, learning, and joy of music making from the youngest child to people in their later years. These qualitative studies provide a detailed description of the sociological dimensions of music learning, helping us to understand that what is learned far transcends a particular classroom, teacher or setting...Jody Kerchner and Carlos Abril break new ground in this book by bringing together in one publication a series of narratives and case studies that illuminate the nature and meaning of musical engagement in formal and informal settings across the lifespan. Set in rich sol"