Improvisation and Music Education

<p>This book offers compelling new perspectives on the revolutionary potential of improvisation pedagogy. Bringing together contributions from leading musicians scholars and teachers from around the world the volume articulates how improvisation can breathe new life into old curricula; how it can help teachers and students to communicate more effectively; how it can break down damaging ideological boundaries between classrooms and communities; and how it can help students become more thoughtful engaged and activist global citizens. In the last two decades a growing number of music educators music education researchers musicologists cultural theorists creative practitioners and ethnomusicologists have suggested that a greater emphasis on improvisation in music performance history and theory classes offers enormous potential for pedagogical enrichment. This book will help educators realize that potential by exploring improvisation along a variety of trajectories. Essays offer readers both theoretical explorations of improvisation and music education from a wide array of vantage points and practical explanations of how the theory can be implemented in real situations in communities and classrooms. It will therefore be of interest to teachers and students in numerous modes of pedagogy and fields of study as well as students and faculty in the academic fields of music education jazz studies ethnomusicology musicology cultural studies and popular culture studies.</p>