“Something’s Happening Here!”: Popular Music Education in the United States

A music literacy-based rationale for popular music ensembles and experiences in music education

“…Traditional music ensembles (i.e., band, chorus, and orchestra) continue to be the most common form of music education in the United States, with non-traditional music course offerings such as guitar, music appreciation, music theory, and keyboard found in only 25% of schools nationally (Elpus, 2017). The inclusion of popular music in music education has increased during the 21st century (Powell et al., 2015); however, the extent to which popular music is being implemented in American music programs is unclear (Krikun, 2017). In the United States, popular music is often used to augment traditional PK-12 music course offerings (Isbell, 2007), although there are some autonomous popular music courses and ensembles that exist in a variety of forms, such as popular music performance, guitar, songwriting, music technology, acapella, show choir, commercial music, rock band, contemporary music, and Modern Band (Powell & Burnstein, 2017).…”

Applicability of an applied music notation system: A case study of Figurenotes

“…Teaching and learning with notation is widely debated within popular music education (e.g., Green, 2001; Powell, Krikun, & Pignato, 2015), and whether students should be taught using notation or by ear has emerged as a core issue (Björnberg, 1993; Lilliestam, 1996). Learning strategies that are not notation driven, such as copying recordings by ear, have been suggested to be essential to learning popular music repertoire (Green, 2001).…”

General Music Today Music Ideas Series: Viewpoints in Secondary General Music—Article Two: Power Trio: Three Ideas for Renewed Success With Classroom Ensembles

“…Although popular music has been a recommended facet of music education since the Tanglewood Declaration of 1968 (Choate, 1968), participatory modern band ensembles are not yet the norm in most school districts in the United States, though popular music is quite prominent in school music education internationally (Lee, 2004). Still, K–12 popular music education is a growing movement in the United States, due in part to efforts of nonprofit organizations like Little Kids Rock, a charity that helps school establish modern band programs through training workshops and instrument grants (Powell, Krikun, & Pignato, 2015). For the first time in 2019, the National Association for Music Education (NA f ME) will feature a Modern Band ensemble as part of its All-National Honor Ensembles (NA f ME, 2019), and professional organizations and journals such as the Association for Popular Music Education, the Journal of Popular Music Education , and NA f ME’s Popular Music Education Special Interest Research Group are available to provide support and resources for teachers of modern band (Weiss, Abeles, & Powell, 2017).…”