The Art of Teaching Music

By: Estelle R. Jorgensen

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

The Art of Teaching Music takes up important aspects of the art of music teaching ranging from organization to serving as conductor to dealing with the disconnect between the ideal of university teaching and the reality in the classroom. Writing for both established teachers and instructors on the rise, Estelle R. Jorgensen opens a conversation about the life and work of the music teacher.

The author regards music teaching as interrelated with the rest of lived life, and her themes encompass pedagogical skills as well as matters of character, disposition, value, personality, and musicality. She reflects on musicianship and practical aspects of teaching while drawing on a broad base of theory, research, and personal experience. Although grounded in the practical realities of music teaching, Jorgensen urges music teachers to think and act artfully, imaginatively, hopefully, and courageously toward creating a better world.

©2008 Estelle R. Jorgensen (P)2011 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The beauty of this book lies in its embrace and discourse of the ways in which people become music educators, develop their craft over the course of their lives, and influence those around them." ( Music Educators Journal)

ZZZZZZZZ!!!!!

As a music educator I bought this book hoping to be inspired or gain some new insight. This book is very clinical. The author enjoys stringing together long words and hearing them read back. There is little here that will be useful if you are able to listen past the the first hour. It may be good to try using this book if you are an insomniac who is not responding to therapy.

Writing style is a bit dry.

Author has some solid concepts, but unfortunately it feels like an academic journal most of the time. Would love more case studies, real world examples, and stories to illustrate the methods. Instead it’s a lot of caveats, asides, and multi-point sentences which make it feel like a training manual. The emphasis on being comfortable with ones self in order to be an effective teacher was well argued and probably my favorite takeaway. Narrator has a nice voice, but her inflections, particularly on long sentences, is distracting.

Estelle R. Jorgensen is fantastic!

Nice book, nice reading.
There is one moment when Estelle says,
"My objective in this book is not to define music education, for I have
tackled this task in an earlier book, In Search of Music Education. Nor is it
to examine the changes that are needed in music education, because I have
begun to do this in my book Transforming Music Education."
I would love to listen to both books as well!!
Really liked when she puts: "Regrettably, in the pervasive search for propositional knowledge in
education, the objective is too often what Paulo Freire aptly calls “banking
education,” in which the teacher’s purpose is to deposit knowledge in students’ heads so that they acquire a certain stock of knowledge. She continues, "Freire’s liberatory education
stands in stark contrast to “banking education” in its call for “conscientization,”
or developing a felt critical response to one’s own and another’s
predicament and the commitment, disposition, and courage to act against
oppression."

I was so happy to listen to this. I've stopped the CD, and listen over and over to write it down here for you. Because I think Paulo Freire is the greatest philosopher of Education, and it is recognized by the people really concerning education, like Estelle R. Jorgensen does.
- But as any work of art, it is incomplete -
I just think that she should mentioned as well Freire's "Pedagogy of Freedom", where the big gap of this book is reminded: The teacher is always a student. Maybe in the next edition she could put an additional chapter called: "Student"? As Salvador Dali, who used to go to museums to paint on his own paintings, Estelle R. Jorgensen probably will need to revisited this book many times...
As I will do as well
- Keep Teaching means Keep Studying -
Thank you, Estelle R. Jorgensen

All Music Teachers Should Read

I teach music both freelance and for a company. And I found this book to be very useful, full of insight and information. For all the people giving bad reviews... I don't mean to be rude but this book is simply not for you. This book is for the deep thinking, thoughtful, and passionate music teacher who cares more about teaching than making money.

This book covers all aspects of the life of a music teacher and all of the things we may encounter on our journey. But reader beware: If you're afraid of big words, psychology, and long books? Then this book is not for you.

I'm a serious teacher and I want to become the best teacher I can be or the best teacher out there period (lol) and this book helped me.

we need more academic books

it is a point of view this book - egocentric, true - but we need more academic books around - that's why five stars -

I want my money back

What disappointed you about The Art of Teaching Music?

This is by far the worst book I have ever downloaded. This book is nothing but meaningless blather. I was hoping to learn something, and I kept waiting for the book to get better. It got worse. Here's a tip for the author: have a point!

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

This book had no redeeming qualities.