The Big Picture

Abstract

Creating, performing, responding, and connecting are often central foci in the development of music education curricula. While these meta-organizers provide a sense of direction for planning instruction, greater depths of knowledge and skill could be achieved if these actions were viewed as means rather than ends in music education. The profession needs a more artistically driven mind-set to ensure that engagements with performing, creating, and responding support both intellectual and musical growth. A critical examination of each organizer reveals specific capacities that should be nurtured as students discover/explore the relationships between music and feeling. These musical capacities can help students clarify artistic goals, enhance artistry, expand expressivity, and build technical skills. This article examines how teachers can actively engage K–12 students in the development of these capacities as they compose, perform, and listen to music.