The Child As Musician: A Handbook of Musical Development (Oxford Handbooks)

The Child as Musician is an authoritative and comprehensive handbook of musical development from conception to late adolescence. Within 24 chapters by leading specialists, it celebrates the richness and diversity of the many different ways in which children can engage in and interact with music.

The 24 chapters have been organized according to five sections:

The first section (Development) examines the critical months and years from conception to the end of infancy. It looks at how the musical brain develops, ways of understanding musical development, and the nature of musicality.

Section two (Engagement) scrutinizes claims about the non-musical benefit of exposure to music, for example that music makes you smarter. This is followed by four thorough reviews of dealing with musical preference and taste, literacy, aesthetic identity and the perception of emotion in music.

Section three (Differences) focuses on those issues that help explain and identify individual differences. It includes chapters examining how children develop their motivation to study music, conceptions of giftedness and talent, and two chapters on music therapy. Five chapters cover skills that can develop as a result of exposure to music. It considers the informal activities associated with musical play and the use of computers and technology. There are also chapters dealing with the acquisition of vocal and instrumental skills, as well as the individual and social worlds of children's musical creativity.

The final section of the book discusses five different contexts: The chapter on historical perspectives provides readers with information that will assist them in making comparisons between how children have learned and developed their musical capacities in the past, with current opportunities. This is extended by two additional chapters that focus on children's involvement in music in non-western cultures. The book concludes with two chapters focusing on youth musical engagement and the transition from child to adult.

A landmark publication in music education and developmental musical psychology, this is a book that will fascinate both students and researchers - inspiring them to think deeply about the many different ways in which music can affect children's lives and the quality of life in communities throughout the world.

Gary McPherson is the Marilyn Pflederer Zimmerman Endowed Chair in Music Education at the University of Illinois and was President of the International Society for Music Education between 2004-2006. He studied music education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before completing a master of music education at Indiana University and a doctor of philosophy at the University of Sydney. He worked at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia for many years where he helped to develop undergraduate and postgraduate courses in music education and undertook longitudinal research projects with children learning music in schools. His published research addresses visual, aural and creative aspects of music performance, motivation and teaching and learning process in music. He has served on the editorial boards of most research journals in music education, and was editor of Research Studies in Music Education from its inception in 1993 until December 2004.