Community-based Traditional Music in Scotland: A Pedagogy of Participation (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series) PDF
Preview Community-based Traditional Music in Scotland: A Pedagogy of Participation (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)
Community-based Traditional Music in Scotland This book examines the community-based learning and teaching of ‘traditional’ music in contemporary Scotland, with implications for transnational theoretical issues. The book draws on a broad range of scholarship and a local case study of a large organisation. A historical perspective provides an overview of new educational formats emerging from the mid-twentieth century folk music revival in Scotland. Practices through which participants encounter and perpetuate the idiom of traditional music include social music-making, learning by ear and participatory and presentational elements of musical performances. Individuals are shown as combining these aspects with their own learning strategies to participate in the contemporary community of practice of traditional music. The work also discusses how experiences of learning contribute to identity formation, including the role and practice of ‘tutors’ of traditional music. The author proposes conceptualising the teaching and learning of traditional music in community- based organisations as a ‘pedagogy of participation’. Josephine L. Miller is an ethnomusicologist and community musician based in Scotland. Her main research interest is the transmission of traditional music. She holds an MLitt from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of Sheffield. In 2017, she received the Hamish Henderson Award for Services to Traditional Music at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards. Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series Series Editors: Lori Burns, Professor, University of Ottawa, Canada Justin Williams, Associate Professor of Music, University of Bristol, UK Popular musicology embraces the field of musicological study that engages with popular forms of music, especially music associated with commerce, entertainment and leisure activities. The Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series aims to present the best research in this field. Authors are concerned with criticism and analysis of the music itself, as well as locating musical practices, values and meanings in cultural context. The focus of the series is on popular music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a remit to encompass the entirety of the world’s popular music. Critical and analytical tools employed in the study of popular music are being continually developed and refined in the twenty-first century. Perspectives on the transcultural and intercultural uses of popular music have enriched understanding of social context, reception and subject position. Popular genres as distinct as reggae, township, bhangra, and flamenco are features of a shrinking, transnational world. The series recognizes and addresses the emergence of mixed genres and new global fusions, and utilizes a wide range of theoretical models drawn from anthropology, sociology, psychoanalysis, media studies, semiotics, postcolonial studies, feminism, gender studies and queer studies. The Genesis and Structure of the Hungarian Jazz Diaspora Ádám Havas One-Track Mind: Capitalism, Technology, and the Art of the Pop Song Edited by Asif Siddiqi The British Folk Revival: Second Edition Michael Brocken Community-based Traditional Music in Scotland: A Pedagogy of Participation Josephine L. Miller Paul Weller and Popular Music: Identity, Idiolect and Image Andrew West For more information about this series, please visit: www .routledge .com /music/ series /APFM Community-based Traditional Music in Scotland A Pedagogy of Participation Josephine L. Miller Cover image: Josephine Miller First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Josephine L. Miller The right of Josephine L. Miller to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-367-24274-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-33550-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-28149-5 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9780429281495 Typeset in Times New Roman by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Dedication In loving memory of my parents John Miller (1931-2013) and Kathleen Miller (1936-2013), and with gratitude to my teacher and mentor Peter Cooke (1930-2021). For Steve, with love and thanks. Contents List of Figures x List of Music Examples xi Acknowledgements xii Preface xiii 1 Learning and teaching traditional music: Refocusing the questions 1 Introduction 1 Transmission and enculturation 3 ‘Traditional’ music 4 Community-based settings 5 A ‘non-formal’ setting? 8 Communities of practice 9 Masters and apprentices 11 Family 12 Oral tradition and musical literacy 13 Socialisation 14 Researching the case study 16 Methods and ethics 18 Notes 20 2 ‘A passport into a community’: Setting the scene 23 Learning and teaching: the revival and post-revival contexts 23 Learning and teaching: formal education 27 ‘Take off’: community-based organisations 28 Introducing Glasgow Fiddle Workshop 29 Locality: a sense of place 32 Introducing the tutors 35 GFW in a stylistic community of practice 41 Notes 43 viii Contents 3 ‘I’m a better learner now’: In the class 46 Joining a class 46 Learning the shared skills 48 Learning and teaching a tune 49 The role of listening 51 Playing it through 53 Varying, ornamenting and arranging tunes 55 Dealing with notation 55 Choosing repertoire 61 Notes 66 4 ‘Actually doing it’: Participating in performance 68 Participation or presentation? 68 GFW sessions 69 Slow session and pre-class warm-up 73 Prepare for the pub 75 Very slow session 76 Islay Inn session 78 Concerts 80 Cèilidh dances 86 Member-led groups 87 Notes 92 5 ‘You can make it your own’: Individual musical trajectories and organisational constraints 93 Encouraging agency at GFW 94 Self-directed learning 96 Making progress: reflecting on learning 99 ‘Expressing’ the tune 101 ‘Learners’ and ‘musicians’ 106 Music as leisure and levels of involvement 108 Non-participation and dissent 109 Musical trajectories beyond GFW 110 Notes 114 6 ‘A sense of who we are’: Creating a musical identity 116 A GFW identity 116 A community-based identity 122 A traditional music identity 126 Tensions and boundaries: ‘who we are’ vs. ‘who we are not’ 130 Notes 133 Contents ix 7 Community-based learning and teaching: Towards a pedagogy of participation 135 Learning and teaching traditional music in a post-revival landscape 136 The ethos of the ‘community-based’ organisation 137 Repertoire 140 Tutors 140 Learning and teaching practices: between participatory ethos and individual musical trajectory 143 Conclusion: a pedagogy of participation 145 Notes 147 References 149 Index 165
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