As I read this book, I pictured a whole team of wise and gracious experts in elementary general music here in my classroom with me, providing me with concise information on a range of topics and suggesting ways to enhance my teaching and my students’ experiences. Engaging Musical Practices: A Sourcebook for Elementary General Music is a needed companion to existing writings on general music. In this work, the distinguished group of authors write with approachable and engaging style, ensuring this work will be accessible and applicable to practicing teachers and undergraduate music education students. The wide range of topics supports the breadth of work elementary general music teachers undertake, with chapters providing an ideal combination of philosophical foundations, clear explanations, specific lesson ideas, and practical considerations. This is essential reading for pre-service music education majors and general music educators, both those new to the profession and those looking to refresh their pedagogical practices and knowledge of the field.

Lisa Huisman Koops, PhD, associate professor & area head, Music Education, Case Western Reserve University

Editors Burton and Reynolds have gathered together the key scholars and thinkers on teaching and learning in the elementary classroom who are able engage readers in strategies for moving, singing, playing instruments, listening, composing, improvising, and reading music with all children in developmentally appropriate ways. The work has a healthy grounding in research and scholarship with a writing style that is readable and practical. Each chapter keeps individual learner musicianship at the core and will be useful for elementary music teachers as well as preservice teachers and teacher educators.

Colleen Conway, EdD, professor, Music Education, University of Michigan

With one foot in two worlds, Engaging Musical Practices… (edited by Burton and Reynolds) blends source readings on tried-and-true topics of literacy and assessment with updates on current technologies and arts standards. Viewed with an eye towards fostering communal musicking, the wide variety of topics covered provides insight into the many ways and modalities in which children experience music. A “who’s who” of leading thinkers, essayists, and scholars in the field, Engaging Musical Practices presents a valuable resource for practitioners, scholars, and administrators in elementary music education.

Corin Overland, PhD, assistant professor, Music Education, University of Miami

Engaging Musical Practices is an important resource for elementary general music specialists, and music teacher educators. This comprehensive text puts musicking at the forefront of a child’s music education while also considering how each child experiences music in their own culture and community. This inclusive approach empowers music educators to facilitate music making among all stakeholders in a child’s life.

Ryan M. Hourigan, PhD, professor, Music Education; director, School of Music, Ball State University