Remixing the Classroom: Toward an Open Philosophy of Music Education

by Randall Everett Allsup

In a delightfully self-conscious philosophical "mash-up," Randall Everett Allsup provides alternatives for the traditional master-apprentice teaching model that has characterized music education. By providing examples across the arts and humanities, Allsup promotes a vision of education that is open, changing, and adventurous at heart. He contends that the imperative of growth at the core of all teaching and learning relationships is made richer, though less certain, when it is fused with a student's self-initiated quest. In this way, the formal study of music turns from an education in teacher-directed craft and moves into much larger and more complicated fields of exploration. Through vivid stories and evocative prose, Randall Everett Allsup advocates for an open, quest-driven teaching model that has repercussions for music education and the humanities more generally.

Genres: Education, Music

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 15, 2016

Reviews

[Susan Waller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author advocates for more open, less rigid, methods of music education. The book is heavy on philosophy, light on practical suggestions.

pg 11
"Oppression, the love of overwhelming control, is by nature an effort to silence alternative voices."

pg 89
"There is a certain disorder in any busy workshop; there is not silence; persons not engaged in maintaining certain physical fixed postures; their arms are not folded; they are not holding their books thus and so. They are doing a variety of things, and there is the confusion, the bustle, that results from activity. But out of occupation - there results a discipline of its own kind." Dewey

pg 110
"Equipping students with the tools, musical and otherwise, not merely to respond or adapt to change, but to consciously shape and direct one's future is a moral end of school and university."

pg 131
"Once a discipline becomes a science, once it becomes defines by the function of its parts, it ceases to be an art form."

[Jordon Gyarmathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allsup packs this book with brilliant ideas, drawing from fantastic education and music education philosophers. Allsup introduces the ideas of openness, freedom, and laboratory learning, drawing from emancipatory ideas of Freire, transformative ideas of Jorgensen, and progressive ideas from his peers. I enjoy the inclusion of all of the block quotes and examples and I really enjoyed the inclusion of the Orpheus chamber ensemble at the end. In content, this book gets five starts. Allsup's prose can be run on, and I believe all of these ideas could be effectively communicated in a 20 page article rather than a nearly 200 page book. Overall I would greatly recommend this book to any music educator.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated what this book had to offer. I took a class with Dr. Allsup's apprentice, and we followed the lessons taught in the book, and it indeed was eye-opening. I will incorporate many of the thoughts and techniques in my classroom. It was a quick read and easy to get through.

[John Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a challenging read for me as Philosophy is not something I really enjoy reading. That being said, this definitely helped put a lot of things into perspective for me and challenged me and my peers during graduate school this summer!

Some great ideas!!!

[Tara Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it for grad school and I’m only recording it to add to my reading goal 🤪

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

msu summer 1