Books by Gareth Dylan Smith
A Philosophy of Playing Drum Kit: Magical Nexus, 2022
The author is a drummer with experience in a variety of musical genres and contexts, with emphasi... more The author is a drummer with experience in a variety of musical genres and contexts, with emphasis on rock and related styles. This auto ethnographic Element presents the author's philosophy of playing drum kit. The text explains how playing drum kit matters to this musician and may resonate with others to whom making music matters in similar ways. The Element contains audio files of music in which the author plays drum kit in the ensemble settings described. There are photos of the author's drums and of him drumming. Based on June Boyce-Tillman's non-religious model of holistic spirituality and Tim Ingold's notion of correspondences, the author describes how playing drum kit enables him to experience transcendence – the magical nexus at which Materials, Construction, Values/Culture and Expression meet. Each of these domains, and the magic derived from their combination, is illustrated through examples of the author's live and recorded musical collaborations.
Places and purposes of Popular Music Education: Perspectives from the Field, 2022
An array of diverse perspectives regarding the what and the why of popular music education.
This... more An array of diverse perspectives regarding the what and the why of popular music education.
This book provides a variety of perspectives on popular music education. With a mixture of rants, manifestos, and punchy position pieces, the volume moves from scholarly essays replete with citations and references to descriptions of practice and straight-talking polemics. The writing is approachable in tone, and the chapters are intended to whet appetites, prime pumps, open eyes, and keep cogs turning for academics of all ages and stages.
The book will appeal to those working in popular music studies, communication studies, and education research. It also holds relevance for researchers of the music industry and music ecosystems around the world. International in reach and scope and edited by recognized voices at the vanguard of progressive music education, this is an eye-opening exploration of education in and through the widespread cultural phenomenon of popular music.
Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning, 2020
Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning asserts the fertile applications of eudaimonia—an Ari... more Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning asserts the fertile applications of eudaimonia—an Aristotelian concept of human flourishing intended to explain the nature of a life well lived—for work in music learning and teaching in the 21st century. Drawing insights from within and beyond the field of music education, contributors reflect on what the "good life" means in music, highlighting issues at the core of the human experience and the heart of schooling and other educational settings. This pursuit of personal fulfillment through active engagement is considered in relation to music education as well as broader social, political, spiritual, psychological, and environmental contexts. Especially pertinent in today’s complicated and contradictory world, Eudaimonia: Perspectives for Music Learning is a concise compendium on this oft-overlooked concept, providing musicians with an understanding of an ethically-guided and socially-meaningful music-learning paradigm.
Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Education: Perspectives and Practices, 2019
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Educationdraws together current thinking and practice on... more The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Educationdraws together current thinking and practice on popular music education from empirical, ethnographic, sociological and philosophical perspectives. Through a series of unique chapters from authors working at the forefront of music education, this book explores the ways in which an international group of music educators each approach popular music education. Chapters discuss pedagogies from across the spectrum of formal to informal learning, including “outside” and “other” perspectives that provide insight into the myriad ways in which popular music education is developed and implemented. The book is organized into the following sections:
- Conceptualizing Popular Music Education
- Musical, Creative and Professional Development
- Originating Popular Music
- Popular Music Education in Schools
- Identity, Meaning and Value in Popular Music Education
- Formal Education, Creativities and Assessment
Contributions from academics, teachers, and practitioners make this an innovative and exciting volume for students, teachers, researchers and professors in popular music studies and music education.
The Music Learning Profiles Project: Let's Take This Outside
This book uses ethnographic techniques and modified case study analysis to profile musicians acti... more This book uses ethnographic techniques and modified case study analysis to profile musicians active in a wide range of musical contexts not typically found in institutional music education settings, such as popular and vernacular music. The authors explore music learning in and across these diverse, related contexts. The rationale for this book is twofold:
● A gap in published literature exists regarding music learning in non-school (“outside”) contexts. Community hip hop studios, gospel groups, folk sessions, churches, online studios and communities, and electronic music studios epitomize music education that is thus largely ignored because it occurs outside of traditional academic settings. Recent publications (e.g. Burnard 2012, Burton (ed.) 2012, Green 2002, Higgins 2012, Smith 2013, Snell and Söderman 2014) have begun to explore learning in “outside “ musics for the music education profession; this book will add to the momentum in this burgeoning area of scholarship.
● A recent surge in interest in popular music and popular music ensembles (usually limited to guitar-based rock-oriented musics) in secondary and post-secondary educational settings (e.g. formation of Association for Popular Music Education in 2010, and the almost exponential growth of the Little Kids Rock program) demands further scholarship to describe and analyze models of music learning, including multi-cultural, multi-modal and multi-dimensional music education experiences – what Smith (2013, p. 26) calls “hybridized learning practices” (Chua & Ho, 2016; Powell, Krikun, & Pignato, 2015) .
The cases presented will give voice to heretofore unheard music learners who have been largely misunderstood or at the very least unrecognized by the music education establishment. The authors seek to highlight significant musical experiences derived from styles and genres of music that have touched the lives of millions but have been traditionally excluded from school music contexts. The authors also propose a new methodological approach to the study of these musics, musicians, and practices.
This book thus has four distinct yet interdependent purposes:
● The first and most immediate is to publish a collection of studies of musicians active in contexts that fall outside the traditional confines of institutional or compulsory schooling.
● The second is to illuminate diverse music learning practices, in order to impact music education in classrooms and lecture halls, and beyond.
● The third is to introduce a methodological approach – “flash study analysis,” a variant of traditional case study analysis.
● The fourth purpose is to introduce and describe the Music Learning Profiles Project, a group of scholars dedicated to developing an online repository of flash study analyses generated initially by the authors, and eventually by others, in subsequent research studies.
Punk Pedagogies: Music, Culture and Learning, 2017
This book is the first of its kind to bring together chapters by a collection of international au... more This book is the first of its kind to bring together chapters by a collection of international authors exploring possibilities, practices, and implications of “punk pedagogies”, following a recent spike in interest and paper publications around this subject. The book can also be seen partly as a response to a contemporaneous surge of political activity in the UK, US, and other Western nations, where education – especially higher education – is becoming increasingly embroiled in heated discussions around its aims, utility, and politics. These discussions often strike at the core of deep ideological divisions between and among sectors stakeholders. The book takes readers on a journey exploring the ‘what’, ‘how’/’where’, and ‘why’ of our subject area, presenting the chapters in three sections: I) conceptualizing and applying punk pedagogies; II) punk pedagogies in classes and curricula; and III) punk pedagogies as social and political activism. This book explores and expresses punk pedagogies, above all, as ways of re-engaging with the humanity, humility, vigor, and vitality that educators know are at the heart of their purpose and function in society.
Sociology for Music Teachers: Practical Applications, second edition
The overall goal of this revised 2nd edition of Sociology for Music Teachers remains the same as ... more The overall goal of this revised 2nd edition of Sociology for Music Teachers remains the same as was intended in the first edition: to help aspiring music teacher candidates and experienced music teachers become sociologically informed pedagogues in a variety of school music settings. However, the focus of the revised edition lies on emphasizing its nature as a hands-on textbook with recommendations for action throughout. Although the educational settings referred to in this book speak mainly to music instruction in compulsory education as found in many industrialized nations, the text also speaks to studio teaching and other, possibly less institutionalized, music learning contexts.
A main focus of the 1st edition was to serve as a first academic introduction to the contributions that general sociologists, music sociologists, and sociologists of education have made to understandings of how society shapes the roles of teachers, students, and school curricula of which music is but a small part. This edition maintains that focus as one of its aims but places it alongside the bigger question of how such seemingly academic knowledge can benefit music teachers (and therefore, those with whom they come into contact) in practical ways wherever they work. Thus, while primarily aimed at music education in group settings in schools, the book may also be of relevance to music teachers in conservatories, municipal music schools, and private studios.
Both aims – serving the practical concerns of music teachers and providing an introductory text about the place of sociological scholarship in music and education – shape all seven chapters. Beginning with self and identity of a music teacher, the chapters then move from “teaching as work” and “music learning and teaching as socially situated acts” to major social and sociological theories in music and in education. Brief overviews of the contributions of cultural theorists as well as music sociologists appear next to the work of educational and general sociologists. In all cases, impact on scholarship and implications for practice in music education are emphasized. The last two chapters return to the teacher’s selves, and actions as curricular, pedagogical, and communicative decision maker in light of the theories outlined.
The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education
Popular music is a growing presence in education, formal and otherwise, from primary school to po... more Popular music is a growing presence in education, formal and otherwise, from primary school to postgraduate study. Programmes, courses and modules in popular music studies, popular music performance, songwriting and areas of music technology are becoming commonplace across higher education. Additionally, specialist pop/rock/jazz graded exam syllabi, such as RockSchool and Trinity Rock and Pop, have emerged in recent years, meaning that it is now possible for school leavers in some countries to meet university entry requirements having studied only popular music. In the context of teacher education, classroom teachers and music-specialists alike are becoming increasingly empowered to introduce popular music into their classrooms. At present, research in Popular Music Education lies at the fringes of the fields of music education, ethnomusicology, community music, cultural studies and popular music studies. The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Music Education is the first book-length publication that brings together a diverse range of scholarship in this emerging field. Perspectives include the historical, sociological, pedagogical, musicological, axiological, reflexive, critical, philosophical and ideological.
The Oxford Handbook of Music Making and Leisure
Music has been a vital part of leisure activity across time and cultures. Contemporary commodific... more Music has been a vital part of leisure activity across time and cultures. Contemporary commodification, commercialization, and consumerism, however, have created a chasm between conceptualizations of music making and numerous realities in our world. From a broad range of perspectives and approaches, this handbook explores avocational involvement with music as an integral part of the human condition. The chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Music Making and Leisure present myriad ways for reconsidering and refocusing attention back on the rich, exciting, and emotionally charged ways in which people of all ages make time for making music. The contexts discussed are broadly Western, including an eclectic variety of voices from scholars across fields and disciplines, framing complex and multifaceted phenomena that may be helpfully, enlighteningly, and perhaps provocatively framed as music making and leisure. This volume may be viewed as an attempt to reclaim music making and leisure as a serious concern for, amongst others, policy makers, scholars, and educators who perhaps risk eliding some or even most of the ways in which music - a vital part of human existence - is integrated into the everyday lives of people. As such, this handbook looks beyond the obvious, asking readers to consider anew, "What might we see when we think of music making as leisure?"
Journal articles by Gareth Dylan Smith
Percussive Notes Online Research Edition, 2025
This article describes a one-year study of an amateur drummer’s drumming and other physical activ... more This article describes a one-year study of an amateur drummer’s drumming and other physical activity correlated with their heart rate. The study builds on previous research with professional drummers on stage and in laboratories. A key difference is this study’s focus on a sole, part-time drummer in practice, rehearsal, in performance, and compared with other activity in their day-to-day life. The participant wore an Apple watch for 365 days to monitor heart rate. The researchers sought to answer the following questions: 1) How does one drummer’s heart rate in drumming activities compare with their heart rate across fitness activities such as running, walking and interval training? 2) What is this drummer’s heart rate across a range of drumming activities, including personal prac- tice, band rehearsals, and live performances? 3) How does this drummer’s heart rate during drumming compare to previous findings on professional rock drummers? The study’s findings align with those of previous research that highlighted how, in rock drumming performance, drummers were found to maintain elevated average heart rates. This drummer’s heart rate varied considerably across drumming activity (practicing, rehearsing, playing in different styles) and across other varied activity including walking, running, and cycling. While other recent studies have highlighted the vigorous physicality of playing drums, especially in rock performance contexts, the authors of this article are keen to underline musical artistry as a fundamental goal of playing drums, with fitness as a correlate.
DIY, Alternative Cultures & Scoiety, 2025
This article presents two authors’ duoethnographic exploration of meaningfulness in the do-it-you... more This article presents two authors’ duoethnographic exploration of meaningfulness in the do-it-yourself/do-it-with-others (DIY/DIWO) contexts of an independent rock band in the United Kingdom and a high school choir in the United States. The authors’ duoethnographic method also models a DIY/DIWO approach to scholarship, fostering a collaborative ethos founded in mutual trust and authentic connection. Meaningfulness is explored in relation to themes of fun, fulfillment, friendship and familiality, which are integral to the experiences and ethos of the musicians and scholars involved. This article concludes by suggesting ways in which the DIY/DIWO practices and contexts explored, might point to modes of engagement that can foster successful intimate, sustained relationships in arts, education and research.
Visions of Research in Music Education, 2024
At intersections of popular music education, music technology, and community music practices, mus... more At intersections of popular music education, music technology, and community music practices, music teachers in the United States adapted to teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically from March 2020 to March 2021. The purpose of this research was to better understand the perspectives of modern band teachers regarding the opportunities and challenges of teaching music during the pandemic. The researchers interviewed four teachers who taught modern band (popular music) in public schools in geographically and demographically distinct parts of the US and found that each educator adopted a community music ethos in the online environment. An analysis of emerging themes from the interviews indicates that modern band teachers incorporate a community music ethos through facilitating communal music making, actively intervening to curate experiences for learners, utilizing music technology, and engaging music of existing communities. The authors acknowledge numerous challenges arising from remote learning, while recognizing opportunities that arose for meaningful alternative approaches to school music education. Further research is needed to understand what practices, understandings or approaches from pandemic teaching might apply to in-person teaching.
Visions of Research in Music Education, 2024
At intersections of popular music education, music technology, and community music practices, mus... more At intersections of popular music education, music technology, and community music practices, music teachers in the United States adapted to teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically from March 2020 to March 2021. The purpose of this research was to better understand the perspectives of modern band teachers regarding the opportunities and challenges of teaching music during the pandemic. The researchers interviewed four teachers who taught modern band (popular music) in public schools in geographically and demographically distinct parts of the US and found that each educator adopted a community music ethos in the online environment. An analysis of emerging themes from the interviews indicates that modern band teachers incorporate a community music ethos through facilitating communal music-making, actively intervening to curate experiences for learners, utilizing music technology, and engaging music of existing communities. The authors acknowledge numerous challenges arising from remote learning, while recognizing opportunities that arose for meaningful alternative approaches to school music education. Further research is needed to understand what practices, understandings or approaches from pandemic teaching might apply to in-person teaching.
Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 2023
This short tribute is based on a presentation I gave at the 34th MayDay Group Colloquium in Xalap... more This short tribute is based on a presentation I gave at the 34th MayDay Group Colloquium in Xalapa, Mexico (Smith 2023a). I was and remain profoundly grateful to be included as a panelist at this event along with colleagues Christopher Cayari, Roger Mantie, Danielle Sirek, and Evan Tobias. I know many of us in the room, perhaps most of us, had connected with Janice and/or with her work, so I felt humbled to be doing this as I certainly did not think my relationship with Janice was more special than anyone else’s. Janice intentionally, lovingly, and humorously built a network of authentic connections with others and I feel fortunate to be one of the people with whom, iteratively and deliberately, she built a relationship. Hopefully what I have written mirrors in some ways others’ experiences or triggers some fabulous memories of hanging and learning with someone who I think was one of the best of us. What follows is a short reflection on connection, with and through Janice Waldron. Janice inspired me to be me; which she did for a whole generation of scholars. And she did so with gusto, tremendous generosity of spirit, a smile on her face, and a huge twinkle in her eye.
TOPICS for Music Education, 2023
In this article I describe my affinity for improvisation in music and life, and for free improvis... more In this article I describe my affinity for improvisation in music and life, and for free improvisation in particular as a music making practice. In this self-reflective position paper, I use these practices to help locate and define an authentic sense of self as a music education professor. This paper gives an account of my introduction of free improvisation sessions into a weekly, in-person graduate class in psychology and sociology related to music education. Drawing on relevant literature and a university-wide learning initiative, I present my reflections and those of my students on the experience of doing free improvisation over the duration of one semester, that led to enjoyment, growth, and flourishing. In closing, I consider the potential for doing more free improvisation in music and music education classes.
Music Education Research, 2023
Music education in the United States is typified by students in large ensembles, like band and or... more Music education in the United States is typified by students in large ensembles, like band and orchestra, learning to perform pieces of Western art music. One organisation working to expand curricular offerings within the field is Little Kids Rock (LKR), which has invested millions of dollars training music teachers and providing instrument resources for popular music pedagogy. Though this organisation has demonstrated success in its ability to propagate ’modern band’ programmes, the effects of its investment are not known. LKR administers an end-of-year survey to its participating teachers to assess teachers’ perceptions of their music programmes. However, LKR do not publish meaningful information regarding the outcomes and impact of its activities. The present study examined free-response data from the 2018 end-of-year survey. Using the passive and active identity and learning realisation (PAILR) model as our analytical framework (Froehlich, Hildegard C., and Gareth Dylan Smith. 2017. Sociology for Music Teachers: Practical Applications. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315402345), the authors analysed themes using grounded theory to produce a logic model to describe the effects of LKR’s investment. Results indicate participating teachers perceive a positive impact on students, including being more engaged in their learning, and more musically independent. Additionally, teachers believed they were more engaged and committed to their profession, and more able to teach previously disengaged students.
Research Studies in Music Education, 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a sudden rethinking of how music was taught and learned. Prior to ... more The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a sudden rethinking of how music was taught and learned. Prior to the pandemic, the web-based digital audio workstation Soundtrap emerged as a leading platform for creating music online. The present study examined the growth of Soundtrap's usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using machine-learning methods, we analyzed anonymized user data from Soundtrap's 1.6 million educational users in the United States to see if the pandemic affected Soundtrap's education user base and, if so, to what extent. An exploratory data analysis demonstrated a large increase in Soundtrap's user base beyond five standard deviations beginning in March 2020. A subsequent changepoint analysis identified March 17, 2020, as the day this shift occurred. Finally, we created a SARIMAX model using data prior to March 17 to forecast expected growth. This model was unable to account for user growth after March 17, showing highly anomalous growth rates outside of the model's confidence interval. We discuss how this shift affects music education practices and what it portends for our field. In addition, we explore the role of machine learning and artificial intelligence as a method for research in the music education field.
DIY, Alternative Cultures and Society, 2023
The author explores the liberatory experience of improvised, woodland drumming as DIY music-makin... more The author explores the liberatory experience of improvised, woodland drumming as DIY music-making music and DIY learning in nature. A drummer and music education professor, he presents descriptive vignettes on the transformative possibilities of making music amongst trees and by water. The method is autoethnographic, itself a DIY type of doing and recording research. Using Tim Ingold's lens of correspondence, the author suggests that, more than making music merely on trees and on ice, we channel music together with non-human co-musicians. The author draws on research in eco-psychology and eco-literacy to suggest, more than indulgence, being and making music in nature might be foundational to humanity recovering respect for our world and taking seriously how we might continue to live in it. Moreover, this article explores music making as a DIY pedagogical practice, grounded in the depth of listening and engagement with nature.
Research in Education, 2023
Capitalism and its offspring, neoliberalism, are omnipresent in modern and postmodern societies. ... more Capitalism and its offspring, neoliberalism, are omnipresent in modern and postmodern societies. Illich, Giroux, and McLaren, among others, point to the futility and inequity of current models of education that focus on standardization, vocationalism, and conformity. Running counter to these powerful hegemonic systems, critical pedagogues and educational philosophers such as hooks and Silverman follow philosophers Frankfurt and Wolf in identifying a teaching approach rooted in love. Such an ethic embodies a robust, punk confrontation to potentially damaging, dehumanizing institutional norms perpetrated by current systems of schooling (Hewitt & Smith, 2020). The authors present and discuss vignettes as a duoethnographic study of one teacher's work with a high school choir in Colorado Springs, USA, through which she works to engage young people as compassionate artistic citizens (Elliott & Silverman, 2015; Hendricks 2018). By teaching with love and by modeling love, she teaches young people to love, embracing what Noddings (2005) identifies as an ethic of care. This choral community demonstrates the messy, anarchist ideal that Wright (2019) highlights as a necessary future for music education, wherein the educator diverts from teaching solely to standardized expectations to address the affiliative needs of her students through a love that desires good for her students (Fromm, 1956; Noddings, 2005).
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Books by Gareth Dylan Smith
This book provides a variety of perspectives on popular music education. With a mixture of rants, manifestos, and punchy position pieces, the volume moves from scholarly essays replete with citations and references to descriptions of practice and straight-talking polemics. The writing is approachable in tone, and the chapters are intended to whet appetites, prime pumps, open eyes, and keep cogs turning for academics of all ages and stages.
The book will appeal to those working in popular music studies, communication studies, and education research. It also holds relevance for researchers of the music industry and music ecosystems around the world. International in reach and scope and edited by recognized voices at the vanguard of progressive music education, this is an eye-opening exploration of education in and through the widespread cultural phenomenon of popular music.
- Conceptualizing Popular Music Education
- Musical, Creative and Professional Development
- Originating Popular Music
- Popular Music Education in Schools
- Identity, Meaning and Value in Popular Music Education
- Formal Education, Creativities and Assessment
Contributions from academics, teachers, and practitioners make this an innovative and exciting volume for students, teachers, researchers and professors in popular music studies and music education.
● A gap in published literature exists regarding music learning in non-school (“outside”) contexts. Community hip hop studios, gospel groups, folk sessions, churches, online studios and communities, and electronic music studios epitomize music education that is thus largely ignored because it occurs outside of traditional academic settings. Recent publications (e.g. Burnard 2012, Burton (ed.) 2012, Green 2002, Higgins 2012, Smith 2013, Snell and Söderman 2014) have begun to explore learning in “outside “ musics for the music education profession; this book will add to the momentum in this burgeoning area of scholarship.
● A recent surge in interest in popular music and popular music ensembles (usually limited to guitar-based rock-oriented musics) in secondary and post-secondary educational settings (e.g. formation of Association for Popular Music Education in 2010, and the almost exponential growth of the Little Kids Rock program) demands further scholarship to describe and analyze models of music learning, including multi-cultural, multi-modal and multi-dimensional music education experiences – what Smith (2013, p. 26) calls “hybridized learning practices” (Chua & Ho, 2016; Powell, Krikun, & Pignato, 2015) .
The cases presented will give voice to heretofore unheard music learners who have been largely misunderstood or at the very least unrecognized by the music education establishment. The authors seek to highlight significant musical experiences derived from styles and genres of music that have touched the lives of millions but have been traditionally excluded from school music contexts. The authors also propose a new methodological approach to the study of these musics, musicians, and practices.
This book thus has four distinct yet interdependent purposes:
● The first and most immediate is to publish a collection of studies of musicians active in contexts that fall outside the traditional confines of institutional or compulsory schooling.
● The second is to illuminate diverse music learning practices, in order to impact music education in classrooms and lecture halls, and beyond.
● The third is to introduce a methodological approach – “flash study analysis,” a variant of traditional case study analysis.
● The fourth purpose is to introduce and describe the Music Learning Profiles Project, a group of scholars dedicated to developing an online repository of flash study analyses generated initially by the authors, and eventually by others, in subsequent research studies.
A main focus of the 1st edition was to serve as a first academic introduction to the contributions that general sociologists, music sociologists, and sociologists of education have made to understandings of how society shapes the roles of teachers, students, and school curricula of which music is but a small part. This edition maintains that focus as one of its aims but places it alongside the bigger question of how such seemingly academic knowledge can benefit music teachers (and therefore, those with whom they come into contact) in practical ways wherever they work. Thus, while primarily aimed at music education in group settings in schools, the book may also be of relevance to music teachers in conservatories, municipal music schools, and private studios.
Both aims – serving the practical concerns of music teachers and providing an introductory text about the place of sociological scholarship in music and education – shape all seven chapters. Beginning with self and identity of a music teacher, the chapters then move from “teaching as work” and “music learning and teaching as socially situated acts” to major social and sociological theories in music and in education. Brief overviews of the contributions of cultural theorists as well as music sociologists appear next to the work of educational and general sociologists. In all cases, impact on scholarship and implications for practice in music education are emphasized. The last two chapters return to the teacher’s selves, and actions as curricular, pedagogical, and communicative decision maker in light of the theories outlined.
Journal articles by Gareth Dylan Smith