Navigating and Sustaining Musical Involvement at School and in Lessons

This chapter includes family reflections on musicking in both school music and private lessons, because these settings represented the main areas where parents viewed others as playing a primary role in their children’s music education. Issues of parental decision making, child agency, and family logistics are discussed. These factors were raised by many of the parents in this study when discussing school music and private lesson opportunities, often in recognition of the need to resist using music as a tool for advancement. This chapter argues that a combination of parenting musically and musical parenting skills was needed to navigate and sustain a family’s involvement and experience in music programs. There were four themes that arose from the data related to school and lessons: uneven access to formal music education, the complexity of parental decision making, the role of performance, and the challenges and rewards of home practice.

Parenting Musically and Musical Parenting

Chapter 1 introduces the ideas that form the theoretical frameworks used in this book. There are two interlocking pairs of concepts. First, parenting musically~musical parenting addresses the intention or goal of parental actions and decisions surrounding their family and music. Second, practical musicking~relational musicking expands Small’s (1998) framework of musicking to consider the primary purpose of the musicking: “practical musicking” is musicking to accomplish a set goal, and “relational musicking” is musicking to develop social and emotional connections. This chapter introduces the eight Cleveland-area families who participated in a year of fieldwork as part of this project and summarizes the research process.

Musical Homes and Musical Families

This chapter returns to the frameworks of parenting musically~musical parenting and practical~relational musicking, synthesizing the findings from this study in these areas. In contrast to the parenting musically~musical parenting construct, which tended to shift as children grew older, this chapter notes a balance of practical musicking and relational musicking across age groups and families. It suggests implications for families, teachers, administrators, community members, and researchers interested in enriching family musical life at home, in schools/lessons, and in the community. The chapter argues that a posture of inclusion and a message of multiple ways to build a “musical home” and be musical are necessary to support family musical life.

Media Messaging Surrounding Parents and Music

This chapter begins with a consideration of the broad media messages concerning parents and music as present in parenting books and websites. It then turns to the media messages parents identified as important to their musical parenting and parenting musically. Next it presents five themes drawn from interviews with parents when the content analysis results were shared. Finally, it documents five categories of messages that participants believed would be beneficial to see in the media. The chapter argues that class, race, privilege, and community play a pivotal role in understanding interactions of parents and the media. Participants also recognized and embraced the dialectical nature of media messages, a stance that could be useful for other families encountering these messages. Seeing the participants’ reactions to and relationships with media could be useful to parents in their own approach to media, as well as helpful to professionals working with parents.

Conscious and Intuitive Parenting With Music at Home

Within the sphere of the home and car, the families in this study expressed and demonstrated a broad range of parenting musically and musical parenting behaviors, approaches, and perceptions that were marked by varying degrees of intentionality on the part of parents. Some parents very carefully chose to expose their children to a varied listening diet or use music to reset the mood in the home; others were seemingly unaware of the many musical elements in their daily routines until they started discussing specifics during interviews. This chapter argues that by heightening one’s awareness of the musical moments at home and in the car, parents may increase their enjoyment of family musicking and recognize the multifaceted values of it.

Hopes and Dreams

This chapter presents portraits of the eight families’ hopes and dreams for their children. The general and musical hopes and dreams were often intertwined. The family profiles in this chapter show a wide range of aspirations as well as approaches to reaching those goals, but one unifying thread is the importance of parents, children, and teachers sharing awareness of the family motivations. This chapter argues that clarifying parents’ hopes and dreams for their children’s musicking is essential to finding the right balance of parenting musically and musical parenting; it is also valuable for school music teachers and private lesson teachers to take time to know families’ motivations for participation in music.

Community Musicking as Families

This chapter highlights examples of musicking that occurred outside of the home or school. Analysis was situated in community musicking literature and the philosophy of place. Community musicking was differentiated from most of the music making in the home based on the location, or space, of music making. The community music-making space was important because it brought parents and children into contact with others even as they were engaged in musicking together. Community musicking provided unique places for families to try new things, experience mutuality, be part of a larger community, and enjoy musicking together.