Of Garage Bands and Song-getting: The Musical Development of Young Rock Musicians

Abstract

This paper explores systems of music transmission, teaching and learning in evidence within the rehearsals of rock bands. Informants were nine musicians in two Seattle rock bands, all white males, ranging in age from fourteen to sixteen. Through interviews and observations of practice sessions, 'song-getting' and' skill-building' processes were noted. Attention was given to the young musicians' analytical listening behaviours, their evaluative remarks, and the social interactions of the groups' leaders as 'expert' musical models with other members of the group. Early home and school musical musical influences were examined, and ways in which the school music curriculum might be made more relevant to the needs and interests of young rock musicians are discussed.

“What Is a Good Musician?” An Analysis of Student Beliefs

“…While 44-percent participation is a good market share, more could be done to improve curricular offerings that might foster increased participation. Within each grade level, the topcited meaning of good musician is "performing/practicing on an instrument"; these data suggest that the music education faculty in this school district might benefit from exploring new ensemble environments and music learning situations that differ from traditional instrumental music (Allsup 2004;Boespflug 2004;Campbell 1995;Durrant 2001;Frith 1981;Green 2004;Hebert and Campbell 2000). If "practicing/performing on an instrument" is indeed what this culture views as an important indicator of a good musician-keeping in mind that a majority (56%) of students are not involved with any kind of school music within the culture at large-it seems reasonable to believe that by offering a wider selection of instruments, perhaps those that the students themselves recommend for inclusion, would help increase the participation levels within the school music program.…”

“…Identity formation of musicians has been previously addressed by music education research (Green 2002;McDonald, Hargreaves, and Miell 2002). One of the great ethnographic works in music education exploring this area is Songs in Their Heads: Music and Its Meaning in Children's Lives (Campbell 1998). Campbell's dialogue with and observations of young students engaged in music making is invigorating.…”

Queering informal pedagogy: sexuality and popular music in school

“…Contrary to exploring how identities and society influence popular music production and reception, current research on popular music pedagogy largely focuses on the elements of music (Blom 2006;Campbell 1995;Davis 2005;Green 2002Green , 2008Jaffurs 2004). Green (2008), for example, argues that popular music is useful because it can articulate a distinction between inter-sonic and delineated meanings of music.…”

El discurso sobre la práctica de un guitarrista de jazz semi-profesional: Estudio de caso de aprendizaje musical constructivo

“…Estas prácticas de enseñanza y aprendizaje, de escucha y copia de grabaciones por observación, pueden ser vistas como una réplica de los formatos tradicionales educativos que implican la obediencia a la autoridad del "maestro" (Campbell 1995;Lilliestam 1996), pero sin un "maestro" en vivo, lo que marca algunas diferencias que pretendemos enfatizar. Welch, Duffy, Potter y Whyton (2006/2008) sugieren además que en la música popular, en el jazz y en el folk los músicos experimentan más placer en sus actividades que sus compañeros del ámbito del clásico.…”