Gareth Dylan Smith – författare

Music has been a vital part of leisure activity across time and cultures. Contemporary commodification, commercialization, and consumerism, however, have created a chasm between conceptualizations of music making and numerous realities in our world. From a broad range of perspectives and approaches, this handbook explores avocational involvement with music as an integral part of the human condition. The chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Music Making and Leisure present myriad ways for reconsidering and refocusing attention back on the rich, exciting, and emotionally charged ways in which people of all ages make time for making music. The contexts discussed are broadly Western, including an eclectic variety of voices from scholars across fields and disciplines, framing complex and multifaceted phenomena that may be helpfully, enlighteningly, and perhaps provocatively framed as music making and leisure. This volume may be viewed as an attempt to reclaim music making and leisure as a serious concern for, amongst others, policy makers, scholars, and educators who perhaps risk eliding some or even most of the ways in which music - a vital part of human existence - is integrated into the everyday lives of people. As such, this handbook looks beyond the obvious, asking readers to consider anew, "What might we see when we think of music making as leisure?"

There is growing recognition that improvisation is a vital artistic and ontological practice that can promote developments in many areas of musicianship and beyond. Although improvisation is taught and assessed in education institutions throughout the world, pedagogical research on improvisation is disparate, emerging mainly from case-specific accounts of particular musical traditions, for instance, jazz and free improvisation. Furthermore, in certain musical contexts, improvisation is often viewed primarily as a means to an end or as a method to construct musical artifacts.In contrast, this volume considers improvisation within the field of popular music education not as a "means to an end" but as the opportunity for liberatory praxis. Editors Gareth Dylan Smith and Zack Moir view improvisation and improvisatory thinking within education as means to enhance, challenge, rethink, or disrupt normative pedagogic approaches within popular music education. Improvisation offers liberatory potential through resisting, undermining, and refocusing many of the forces in music education and cultures of music learning that can have dehumanizing effects on learners, teachers, scholars, and practitioners alike. The editors have curated a unique collection of essays wherein improvisation as liberatory praxis works as an exploratory framework. Together these chapters--written by leading scholars, practitioners, and musicians from around the world--explore ways to consider improvisation and improvisatory thinking within education as means to enhance, challenge, rethink, or disrupt normative pedagogic approaches within and around popular music education.

There is growing recognition that improvisation is a vital artistic and ontological practice that can promote developments in many areas of musicianship and beyond. Although improvisation is taught and assessed in education institutions throughout the world, pedagogical research on improvisation is disparate, emerging mainly from case-specific accounts of particular musical traditions, for instance, jazz and free improvisation. Furthermore, in certain musical contexts, improvisation is often viewed primarily as a means to an end or as a method to construct musical artifacts.In contrast, this volume considers improvisation within the field of popular music education not as a "means to an end" but as the opportunity for liberatory praxis. Editors Gareth Dylan Smith and Zack Moir view improvisation and improvisatory thinking within education as means to enhance, challenge, rethink, or disrupt normative pedagogic approaches within popular music education. Improvisation offers liberatory potential through resisting, undermining, and refocusing many of the forces in music education and cultures of music learning that can have dehumanizing effects on learners, teachers, scholars, and practitioners alike. The editors have curated a unique collection of essays wherein improvisation as liberatory praxis works as an exploratory framework. Together these chapters--written by leading scholars, practitioners, and musicians from around the world--explore ways to consider improvisation and improvisatory thinking within education as means to enhance, challenge, rethink, or disrupt normative pedagogic approaches within and around popular music education.

Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning asserts the fertile applications of eudaimonia—an Aristotelian concept of human flourishing intended to explain the nature of a life well lived—for work in music learning and teaching in the 21st century. Drawing insights from within and beyond the field of music education, contributors reflect on what the "good life" means in music, highlighting issues at the core of the human experience and the heart of schooling and other educational settings. This pursuit of personal fulfillment through active engagement is considered in relation to music education as well as broader social, political, spiritual, psychological, and environmental contexts. Especially pertinent in today’s complicated and contradictory world, Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning is a concise compendium on this oft-overlooked concept, providing musicians with an understanding of an ethically-guided and socially-meaningful music-learning paradigm.

Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning asserts the fertile applications of eudaimonia—an Aristotelian concept of human flourishing intended to explain the nature of a life well lived—for work in music learning and teaching in the 21st century. Drawing insights from within and beyond the field of music education, contributors reflect on what the "good life" means in music, highlighting issues at the core of the human experience and the heart of schooling and other educational settings. This pursuit of personal fulfillment through active engagement is considered in relation to music education as well as broader social, political, spiritual, psychological, and environmental contexts. Especially pertinent in today’s complicated and contradictory world, Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning is a concise compendium on this oft-overlooked concept, providing musicians with an understanding of an ethically-guided and socially-meaningful music-learning paradigm.

The Music Learning Profiles Project: Let’s Take This Outside uses ethnographic techniques and modified case studies to profile musicians active in a wide range of musical contexts not typically found in traditional music education settings. The book illuminates diverse music learning practices in order to impact music education in classrooms. It goes on to describe the Music Learning Profiles Project, a group of scholars dedicated to developing techniques to explore music learning, which they call "flash study analysis."Twenty musicians were interviewed, invited to talk about what they do, how they learned to do it, and prompted to: Identify key learning experiencesDiscuss their involvement in formal learning environmentsPredict how they see musicking practices passing to a future generationThe Music Learning Profiles Project offers a nuanced understanding of the myriad approaches to music learning that have emerged in the early part of the twenty-first century.

The author is a drummer with experience in a variety of musical genres and contexts, with emphasis on rock and related styles. This auto ethnographic Element presents the author's philosophy of playing drum kit. The text explains how playing drum kit matters to this musician and may resonate with others to whom making music matters in similar ways. The Element contains audio files of music in which the author plays drum kit in the ensemble settings described. There are photos of the author's drums and of him drumming. Based on June Boyce-Tillman's non-religious model of holistic spirituality and Tim Ingold's notion of correspondences, the author describes how playing drum kit enables him to experience transcendence - the magical nexus at which Materials, Construction, Values/Culture and Expression meet. Each of these domains, and the magic derived from their combination, is illustrated through examples of the author's live and recorded musical collaborations.

Despite their central role in many forms of music-making, drummers have been largely neglected in the scholarly literature on music and education. But kit drummers are increasingly difficult to ignore. While exponents of the drum kit are frequently mocked in popular culture, they are also widely acknowledged to be central to the musical success and aesthetic appeal of any musical ensemble in which they are found. Drummers are also making their presence felt in music education, with increasing opportunities to learn their craft in formal contexts. Drawing on data collected from in-depth interviews and questionnaires, Gareth Dylan Smith explores the identities, practices and learning of teenage and adult kit drummers in and around London. As a London-based drummer and teacher of drummers, Smith uses his own identity as participant-researcher to inform and interpret other drummers' accounts of their experiences. Drummers learn in multi-modal ways, usually with a keen awareness of exemplars of their art and craft. The world of kit drumming is highly masculine, which presents opportunities and challenges to drummers of both sexes. Smith proposes a new model of the 'Snowball Self', which incorporates the constructs of identity realization, learning realization, meta-identities and contextual identities. Kit drummers' identities, practices and learning are found to be intertwined, as drummers exist in a web of interdependence. Drummers drum; therefore they are, they do, and they learn - in a rich tapestry of means and contexts.

The Music Learning Profiles Project: Let’s Take This Outside uses ethnographic techniques and modified case studies to profile musicians active in a wide range of musical contexts not typically found in traditional music education settings. The book illuminates diverse music learning practices in order to impact music education in classrooms. It goes on to describe the Music Learning Profiles Project, a group of scholars dedicated to developing techniques to explore music learning, which they call "flash study analysis."Twenty musicians were interviewed, invited to talk about what they do, how they learned to do it, and prompted to: Identify key learning experiencesDiscuss their involvement in formal learning environmentsPredict how they see musicking practices passing to a future generationThe Music Learning Profiles Project offers a nuanced understanding of the myriad approaches to music learning that have emerged in the early part of the twenty-first century.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Educationdraws together current thinking and practice on popular music education from empirical, ethnographic, sociological and philosophical perspectives. Through a series of unique chapters from authors working at the forefront of music education, this book explores the ways in which an international group of music educators each approach popular music education. Chapters discuss pedagogies from across the spectrum of formal to informal learning, including “outside” and “other” perspectives that provide insight into the myriad ways in which popular music education is developed and implemented. The book is organized into the following sections:- Conceptualizing Popular Music Education - Musical, Creative and Professional Development- Originating Popular Music- Popular Music Education in Schools- Identity, Meaning and Value in Popular Music Education- Formal Education, Creativities and AssessmentContributions from academics, teachers, and practitioners make this an innovative and exciting volume for students, teachers, researchers and professors in popular music studies and music education.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Educationdraws together current thinking and practice on popular music education from empirical, ethnographic, sociological and philosophical perspectives. Through a series of unique chapters from authors working at the forefront of music education, this book explores the ways in which an international group of music educators each approach popular music education. Chapters discuss pedagogies from across the spectrum of formal to informal learning, including “outside” and “other” perspectives that provide insight into the myriad ways in which popular music education is developed and implemented. The book is organized into the following sections:- Conceptualizing Popular Music Education - Musical, Creative and Professional Development- Originating Popular Music- Popular Music Education in Schools- Identity, Meaning and Value in Popular Music Education- Formal Education, Creativities and AssessmentContributions from academics, teachers, and practitioners make this an innovative and exciting volume for students, teachers, researchers and professors in popular music studies and music education.

Despite their central role in many forms of music-making, drummers have been largely neglected in the scholarly literature on music and education. But kit drummers are increasingly difficult to ignore. While exponents of the drum kit are frequently mocked in popular culture, they are also widely acknowledged to be central to the musical success and aesthetic appeal of any musical ensemble in which they are found. Drummers are also making their presence felt in music education, with increasing opportunities to learn their craft in formal contexts. Drawing on data collected from in-depth interviews and questionnaires, Gareth Dylan Smith explores the identities, practices and learning of teenage and adult kit drummers in and around London. As a London-based drummer and teacher of drummers, Smith uses his own identity as participant-researcher to inform and interpret other drummers' accounts of their experiences. Drummers learn in multi-modal ways, usually with a keen awareness of exemplars of their art and craft. The world of kit drumming is highly masculine, which presents opportunities and challenges to drummers of both sexes. Smith proposes a new model of the 'Snowball Self', which incorporates the constructs of identity realization, learning realization, meta-identities and contextual identities. Kit drummers' identities, practices and learning are found to be intertwined, as drummers exist in a web of interdependence. Drummers drum; therefore they are, they do, and they learn - in a rich tapestry of means and contexts.

This book provides a manuscript-megaphone for a variety of perspectives on popular music education, including those we do not usually hear from, but who are doing far and away the coolest, most relevant and most interesting things.It includes rants, manifestos, and pieces that are pithy and punchy and poignant, which have resulted in a wide tonal variety among chapters, from more traditionally scholarly pieces replete with citations and references, through descriptions of practice, to straight-up polemics. It is more about beliefs, experiences and motivation, about frustrations, aspirations and celebrations. The chapters are intended to whet appetites, prime pumps, open eyes, and keep cogs turning. This book is organized into four parts:  Beyond the Classroom, Identity and Purpose, Higher Education and Politics and Ideology. This book is intended for academics of all ages and stages, but the writing is often deliberately non-academic in tone.The book will appeal to those working in popular music studies, communication studies, education research, and should be of interest to those involved in policy decisions at national and regional levels. It is also directly relevant to researchers looking music industry and music ecosystems nationally, regionally and internationally, as education and popular music industry, DIY and community sectors continue to enmesh in complex and evolving ways.

This book provides a manuscript-megaphone for a variety of perspectives on popular music education, including those we do not usually hear from, but who are doing far and away the coolest, most relevant and most interesting things.It includes rants, manifestos, and pieces that are pithy and punchy and poignant, which have resulted in a wide tonal variety among chapters, from more traditionally scholarly pieces replete with citations and references, through descriptions of practice, to straight-up polemics. It is more about beliefs, experiences and motivation, about frustrations, aspirations and celebrations. The chapters are intended to whet appetites, prime pumps, open eyes, and keep cogs turning. This book is organized into four parts:  Beyond the Classroom, Identity and Purpose, Higher Education and Politics and Ideology. This book is intended for academics of all ages and stages, but the writing is often deliberately non-academic in tone.The book will appeal to those working in popular music studies, communication studies, education research, and should be of interest to those involved in policy decisions at national and regional levels. It is also directly relevant to researchers looking music industry and music ecosystems nationally, regionally and internationally, as education and popular music industry, DIY and community sectors continue to enmesh in complex and evolving ways.