Music Education Journal

Music Education Journal

Music Education Journal

Celebrating Musical Communities is the theme of the 2007 National Conference of the Australian Society of Music Education. Teaching music well and passionately could be a powerful but neglected way of building communities and making world peace. Although the idea is not new it should be examined with much more determination and coordination across the globe.

Music education to facilitate community building

The surge in popularity of “world music” as a genre raises hopes of bridging cultures and national borders. Intuitively some have said that music is the “universal language”. Maybe those arguing the negative case are thinking of it more as a listening experience rather than the activity of music-makers. When musicians from different cultures seriously play or sing together divisions disappear. Now current scientific research suggests strongly that humans developed the first music principally as a social binding agent.