Threading the Concept: Powerful Learning for the Music Classroom

This book provides both preservice and seasoned music educators with a unique and powerful way of teaching. The premise of the book is to offer a pedagogical approach that emphasizes focus on conceptual learning that is sensory oriented. From the musical concepts we teach_melody, harmony, rhythm, and form_the teacher targets one concept per lesson (e.g., melody), and provides learning experiences in singing, listening, performing, moving, reading/writing, and improvising/composing that are all focused on only that concept. Essentially, the learners are bombarded visually, aurally, and kinesthetically, gaining a firm grasp of the concept because they have heard, sung, moved, performed, written, and created in that class, all in small time segments. The teacher has a greater ability to reach all students' learning needs and engage them in active learning in each class. The book not only offers background information about the learning process, but also specific lesson templates that serve as conceptual models for music classes.

Debra Gordon Hedden is an associate professor of music education at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. She founded the University of Kansas Youth Chorus (KUYC). Hedden served as past chair of MENC's Society for General Music, as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum Reform for the Orff-Schulwerk Association, and as a member of the editorial boards for the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education and the Journal of Music Teacher Education.