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

As we listen and move to music, sing, compose, and play, we engage in musical experiences. These happen in formal learning settings, such as schools and rehearsal halls, but also in informal settings, such as homes and community centers. Musical experiences are fundamentally social and can teach us about ourselves and our relationship to others. This book explores some of the many ways we experience music and create musical meaning from infancy through older adulthood. While vignettes, narratives, and cases form the primary focus of each chapter, the contributors of the book use extant research and theory to deepen understanding of a particular phenomenon, idea, or experience. Chapters are written by leading experts who examine music teaching and learning. They employ various qualitative research methodologies, including case study, narrative inquiry, oral history, and ethnography, yet their contributions are readable, engaging, and refreshingly insightful.