Teaching Music Globally: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture

American Music Teacher, Oct-Nov, 2004 by Lesley Sisterhen

Teaching Music Globally: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (with CD), by Patricia Shehan Campbell. Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016). 2004. 247pp. $31.95.

In an increasingly global society, many educators have begun to reject the idea that their subject should be taught from one dominant perspective. In the music field as well, some teachers are seeking to broaden their students' musical and cultural perspectives by acquainting them with non-Western musical styles. An excellent guidebook is Teaching Music Globally, a manual for teachers of band, choir, general music, orchestra and other music classes. This book offers a scholarly guide to the development of curricula and lesson plans with a more global outlook, which may be used as an alternative way to help students develop their musicality and listening awareness.

The first chapter includes sample course schedules for teaching "global musics" in elementary and secondary schools, as well as university settings. These schedules and the classroom activities cited later in the text were developed in conjunction with a textbook called Thinking Musically. The eighty-minute audio CD, included with Teaching Music Globally, contains diverse musical examples.

A fundamental part of the author's philosophy is that the concept of imitation is of vital importance and can be used to help students develop aural awareness. Verbal explanation is less important, while notation is only an option. According to the author, students first should develop an awareness of their local "sonic surroundings" and then use this newfound awareness when discovering less familiar styles.

"Listen-to-learn phases" are directed at three types of active listening: attentive listening; engaged listening, in which students participate with activities such as singing, tapping rhythms or moving rhythmically; and enactive listening, which is the performance of a work. In each of these three phases, "Listening Experiences" that go along with tracks on the accompanying CD, which contains musical examples from all over the world, are suggested to give teachers ideas for class content. The majority of the book is dedicated to these "listening experiences" and "stored awareness activities," which include teaching tips and explanations of the cultural context of each piece. Ideas for improvisation and composition lessons also are included.

The author makes a powerful argument that as music teachers, we have a duty to help students learn music as a human phenomenon in which music is not separated from culture. This book and CD are a great way to begin. Reviewed by Lesley Sisterhen, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.