The Child as Musician

The new edition of The Child as Musician: A Handbook of Musical Development celebrates the richness and diversity of the many different ways in which children can engage in and interact with music. It presents theory - both cutting edge and classic - in an accessible way for readers by surveying research concerned with the development and acquisition of musical skills. The focus is on musical development from conception to late adolescences, although the bulk of the coverage concentrates on the period when children are able to begin formal music instruction (from around age 3) until the final year of formal schooling (around age 18).
There are many conceptions of how musical development might take place, just as there are for other disciplines and areas of human potential. Consequently, the publication highlights the diversity in current literature dealing with how we think about and conceptualise children's musical development. Each of the authors has searched for a better and more effective way to explain in their own words and according to their own perspective, the remarkable ways in which children engage with music.
In the field of educational psychology there are a number of publications that survey the issues surrounding child and adolescent development. Some of the more innovative present research and theories, and their educational implications, in a style that stresses the fundamental interplay among the biological, environmental, social and cultural influences at each stage of a child's development. Until now, no similar overview has existed for child and adolescent development in the field of music. The Child as Musician addresses this imbalance, and is essential for those in the fields of child development, music education, and music cognition.

- Section 1: Development - 1: Richard Parncutt: Prenatal Development - 2: Sandra E. Trehub and Franziska Dege?: Reflections on Infants as Musical Connoisseurs - 3: Donald A. Hodges: The Child Musician's Brain - 4: Susan Hallam: Musicality - 5: Kathleen A. Corrigall and E. Glenn Schellenberg: Music cognition in childhood - 6: Jackie Wiggins: Musical Agency - 7: Adam Ockelford: The potential impact of autism on musical development - Section 2: Engagement - 8: E. Glenn Schellenberg: Music and Nonmusical Abilities - 9: Janet Mills and Gary E. McPherson: Musical Literacy: Reading traditional clef notation - 10: Chris Philpott: Musical Literacy: Music as language - 11: Andrew Brown: Engaging in a sound musicianship - 12: Emery Schubert and Gary E. McPherson: Underlying Mechanisms and Processes in the Development of Emotion Perception in Music - 13: David J. Elliott and Marissa Silverman: Felt Experiences of Popular Musics - 14: Sharon G. Davis: Children, Popular Music, and Identity - 15: Paul Woodford: The Child as Music Critic - 16: David J. Hargreaves, Adrian C. North, and Mark Tarrant: How and why do musical preferences change in childhood and adolescence? - Section 3: Differences - 17: Paul Evans: Motivation - 18: Gary E. McPherson and Aaron Williamon: Building gifts into musical talents - 19: Judith A. Jellison: Inclusive Music Classrooms: A Universal Approach - 20: Costanza Preti and Katrina S. McFerran: Music and Wellbeing during Illness - 21: Katrina S. McFerran: Adolescent Music Is Not Problematic - Section 4: Skills - 22: Gary E. McPherson, Jane W. Davidson and Paul Evans: Playing an instrument - 23: Margaret Sarah Osborne: Building performance confidence - 24: Graham Welch: Singing and vocal development - 25: Kathryn Marsh and Susan Young: Musical play - 26: Pamela Burnard and Hsu-Chan Kuo: The Individual and Social Worlds of Children's Musical Creativities - 27: Peter Webster: Computer-Based Technology - Section 5: Contexts - 28: Gordon Cox: Historical Perspectives - 29: Frank Abrahams and Daniel Abrahams: Child as Musical Apprentice - 30: Patricia Shehan Campbell: Global Practices - 31: Alexandra Kertz-Welzel: Transcultural Childhoods - 32: Lee Higgins: My Voice is Important Too: Non-formal Music Experiences and Young People - 33: Susan A. O'Neill: Transformative Music Engagement and Musical Flourishing - 34: Jane W. Davidson and Robert Faulkner: The transition from adolescent to adult music learner - 35: Stephanie E. Pitts: Fostering lifelong engagement in music