Community-based Traditional Music in Scotland

This book examines the community-based learning and teaching of 'traditional' music in contemporary Scotland, with implications for transnational theoretical issues. The book draws on a broad range of scholarship and a local case study of a large organisation. A historical perspective provides an overview of new educational formats emerging from the mid-twentieth century folk music revival in Scotland. Practices through which participants encounter and perpetuate the idiom of traditional music include social music-making, learning by ear and participatory and presentational elements of musical performances. Individuals are shown as combining these aspects with their own learning strategies to participate in the contemporary community of practice of traditional music. The work also discusses how experiences of learning contribute to identity formation, including the role and practice of 'tutors' of traditional music. The author proposes conceptualising the teaching and learning of traditional music in community-based organisations as a 'pedagogy of participation'.

Josephine L. Miller is an ethnomusicologist and community musician based in Scotland. Her main research interest is the transmission of traditional music. She holds an MLitt from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of Sheffield. In 2017, she received the Hamish Henderson Award for Services to Traditional Music at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards.

List of Figures List of Music Examples Acknowledgements Preface - Learning and teaching traditional music: Refocusing the questions Introduction Transmission and enculturation 'Traditional' music Community-based settings A 'non-formal' setting? Communities of practice Masters and apprentices Family Oral tradition and music literacy Socialisation Researching the case study Methods and ethics Notes - 'A passport into a community': Setting the scene Learning and teaching: the revival and post-revival contexts Learning and teaching: formal education 'Take off': community-based organisations Introducing Glasgow Fiddle Workshop Locality: a sense of place Introducing the tutors GFW in a stylistic community of practice Notes - 'I'm a better learner now': In the class Joining a class Learning the shared skills Learning and teaching a tune The role of listening Playing it through Varying, ornamenting and arranging tunes Dealing with notation Choosing repertoire Notes - 'Actually doing it': Participating in performance Participation or presentation? GFW sessions Slow session and pre-class warm-up Prepare for the pub Very slow session Islay Inn session Concerts Cèilidh dances Member-led groups Notes - 'You can make it your own': Individual musical trajectories and organisational constraints Encouraging agency at GFW Self-directed learning Making progress: reflecting on learning 'Expressing' the tune 'Learners' and 'musicians' Music as leisure and levels of involvement Non-participation and dissent Musical trajectories beyond GFW Notes - 'A sense of who we are': Creating a musical identity A GFW identity A community-based identity A traditional music identity Tensions and boundaries: 'who we are' vs. 'who we are not' Notes - Community-based learning and teaching: Towards a pedagogy of participation Learning and teaching traditional music in a post-revival landscape The ethos of the 'community-based' organisation Repertoire Tutors Learning and teaching practices: between participatory ethos and individual musical trajectory Conclusion: A pedagogy of participation