Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints

General music is informed by a variety of teaching approaches and methods. These pedagogical frameworks guide teachers in planning and implementing instruction. Established approaches to teaching general music must be understood, critically examined, and possibly re-imagined for their potential in school and community music education programs.
Teaching General Music brings together the top scholars and practitioners in general music education to create a panoramic view of general music pedagogy and to provide critical lenses through which to view these frameworks. The collection includes an examination of the most prevalent approaches to teaching general music, including Dalcroze, Informal Learning, Interdisciplinary, Kodály, Music Learning Theory, Orff Schulwerk, Social Constructivism, and World Music Pedagogy. In addition, it provides critical analyses of general music and teaching systems, in light of the ways children around the world experience music in their lives. Rather than promoting or advocating for any single approach to teaching music, this book presents the various approaches in conversation with one another. Highlighting the perceived and documented benefits, limits, challenges, and potentials of each, Teaching General Music offers myriad lenses through which to re-read, re-think, and re-practice these approaches.

Carlos R. Abril is professor and director of undergraduate music education at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. His research focuses on sociocultural issues in music education, music education policy, and curriculum. Abril is co-editor of the book Musical Experiences in Our Lives and serves on the editorial board of numerous journals in North America, South America, and Europe. He is a recipient of the Provost's Research Award at the University of Miami.


Brent M. Gault is associate professor of music education at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His areas of interest include music education policy, children's vocal development, and music listening in childhood. Articles by Gault have appeared in the Journal of Research in Music Education and Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education. He is the author of the book Listen Up! Fostering Musicianship through Active Listening, also published by Oxford University Press.