Higgins Lee - Engaging in Community Music

Engaging in Community Music: An Introduction focuses on the processes involved in designing, initiating, executing and evaluating community music practices. Designed for both undergraduate and graduate students in community music programmes and related fields of study alike, this co-authored textbook provides explanations, case examples and how-to activities supported by a rich research base.

The authors have also interviewed key practitioners in this distinctive field, encouraging interviewees to reflect on aspects of their work in order to illu minate best practices within their specialisations and thereby establishing a comprehensive narrative of case study illustrations.

Features:

a thorough exploration and description of the emerging field of community music;

succinctly and accessibly written, in a way in which students can relate;

interviews with 26 practitioners in the US, UK, Australia, Europe, Canada, Scandinavia and South Africa, where non-formal education settings with a music leader, or facilitator, have experienced success;

case studies from many cultural groups of all ages and abilities;

research on life-long learning, music in prisons, music and ritual, community music therapy, popular musics, leisure and recreation, business and marketing strategies, online communities all components of community music.

Lee Higgins is the Director of the International Centre of Community Music in York St John University, UK, and is the current President of the International Society of Music Education (201618).

Lee Willingham is Associate Professor in music and directs the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

LEE HIGGINS AND LEE WILLINGHAM

First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2017 Taylor & Francis

The right of Lee Higgins and Lee Willingham to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Higgins, Lee, 1964 author. Willingham, Lee, author.
Title: Engaging in community music: an introduction /
Lee Higgins and Lee Willingham.
Description: New York; London: Routledge, 2017. Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016037949 ISBN 9781138638167 (hardback)
ISBN 9781138638174 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Community musicInstruction and study.
MusicInstruction and study. MusicSocial aspects. Community arts projects.
Classification: LCC MT87 .H54 2017 DDC 780.71dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016037949

ISBN: 978-1-138-63816-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-63817-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-63795-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Minion Pro and Helvetica Neue
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK

Visit the eResource at www.routledge.com/9781138638174

Few would argue that there is a palpable groundswell in community music world-wide. Those of us who have been immersed in the fields recent developments have certainly observed a substantial increase and deepening of projects, courses, programmes and scholarship within a diverse range of cultural contexts. These tangible developments have fuelled a growing appetite for new and dynamic resources that both respond to and propel these international developments. Engaging in Community Music: An Introduction quenches that appetite in abundance. It promises to satisfy those readers seeking to develop new perspectives and insights, those seeking inspiration and frame-works and, above all, those looking to further their knowledge and practice in this growing field of community music.

If I were to draw up a wish list of the community music leaders from around the world whose diverse perspectives are needed in order for the field to continue on this growth trajectory the names that appear in this book would be on it. Insights from these world leaders have been skilfully woven into a compelling narrative that invites readers on a dynamic journey. This ambitious undertaking has been carefully crafted by two of the worlds leading community music practitioners, thinkers and educators. The different experiences and cultural insights that Lee Higgins and Lee Willingham bring to this resource, coupled with their leading roles as community music educators, position them perfectly for this task. As such, the co-authors are able to articulate the values and processes, outcomes and impact of community music with an evocative and authentic voice.

As the field continues to mature, and as this groundswell generates momentum to further growth world-wide, new learnings will emerge from the interfaces of practice and research, process and outcome, and the places where community music collides with other fields and cultural contexts. At such interfaces, there are likely to be healthy tensions that challenge the field to move in new and uncharted directions. This book embraces these complexities and possibilities, featuring a dynamic interplay between these different perspectives in a way we have rarely seen in other community music resources.

The core themes explored in this textbook acknowledge the realities and diverse contexts in which community musicians are now working across the globe, paying particular attention to issues of social justice, cultural activism and well-being. Of significance is the texts discussion of the real-world practicalities of building careers in this field. Those of us working in community music and those in higher education in particular have detected in the next generation of community musicians a real thirst for such advice and resources to help navigate the rapidly changing landscape in which they will soon be working.

Engaging in Community Music will undoubtedly become a must-have resource and necessary companion for many community music leaders, educators, students and workers in the field. As more and more community music programmes and courses develop in higher education across the world, this book will provide students with a source they can return to for inspiration time and time again, a tool for reflection on practice and scholarship. Not only will readers take away from this book inspiration and ideas of current best practices, but they will also garner a strong sense of the possibilities and potential of what is emerging on the horizon of community music.

Brydie-Leigh Bartleet

Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre
Griffith University (Australia)

Former Chair of the ISME Community
Music Activity (CMA) Commission