Groups in Music: Strategies from Music Therapy

by Mercedes Pavlicevic

Overview

Music in Groups happens all the time: in the street, the classroom, in music colleges, community centres, hospitals, prisons, churches and concert halls; at raves, weddings, music festivals, public ceremonies, music therapy sessions, group music lessons, concerts and rehearsals.

Some group musicking seems to 'work' (and play) better than others; some sessions feel exhausting even if things are going well; and at other times, we can't begin to explain the complex musical and relational textures of group music work to funders, employers, friends, colleagues, or line managers. In this book, music therapist Mercédès Pavlicevic develops a broad-based discourse to describe, analyse and guide the practice of group musicking, drawing on her own extensive experience. The text is illustrated with vignettes drawn from a range of formal and informal settings that include spontaneous public occasions, collective rituals, special and mainstream education, music therapy, the concert hall, the music appreciation group and community work.

This book makes you think about balancing individual and group needs, the development of group time, dealing with over-enthusiastic performers who 'hog' the group sound, undercurrents in music groups, the complications of dealing with institutions, preparing music listening programmes and buying instruments for group work - if you're involved in any kind of group musicking, this book is for you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843100812
Publisher:	Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Publication date:	04/03/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.77(w) x 9.69(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Mercédès Pavlicevic was Associate Professor and Director of the Music Therapy Programme at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Visiting Researcher at the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre in London. She authored Music Therapy in Context - Music, Meaning and Relationship and Music Therapy - Intimate Notes, and co-authored Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies - A Practical Guide, all of which are published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Music, society, and shifting music therapy. PART ONE: Planning: Thinking ahead. 1. Planning our discourses. 2. Institutions, idiosyncrasies, and the larger picture. 3. In-groups, out-groups, norms and membership. 4. Instrumental thinking and sound thoughts. 5. On being formed by music. 6. Considering the music space. 7. Aims, tasks, roles and the outer track. PART TWO: Executing: ‘Doing'. 8. Forming groups and groups forming: Quick time, music time and sound deeds. 9. Group flow, group pulse - finding the groove. 10. Whose group? Whose music? (And whose expectations?) 11. Group rituals. 12. Live meanings - listening to music. 13. Team building and conflict resolution. PART THREE: Reflecting: Thinking back and forth. 14. How formed is your listening? (And how informed is your speaking?) 15. Persons as music (and finding the groove). 16. Group music, identity and society. 17. Absence, presence and climate control. 18. Group process and the ‘inner track'. 19. Evaluating and ending. In Conclusion. Recommended Reading. Index.

Editorial Reviews

I wish we had read Pavlicevic when we set up our Blues band - Information is easily accessed through a detailed Table of Contents and numbered sub-headings to allow the book to be read straight through or dipped into as a reference or instruction manual. A colleague has already found that my review copy has changed his approach and made him more ambitious bringing live music on to inner London psychiatric wards.

British Journal of Music Therapy

It is certainly a book to revisit - to have at hand when planning a project, to dip into it at points during a period of active practice- but also one to read with time to ponder for the broadly applicable insights it holds.

British Journal of Music Education

What impressed me the most is that throughout the book Pavlicevic is not afraid to show her work in a full manner. In her own vignettes, where she personally conducts the group, she writes not only about successes, good feelings and interventions that went well, but also about mistakes, failures, interventions that did not work., and uneasy and uncomfortable feelings she had while conducting the session. I find it very refreshing, important, and useful for music therapists as well as other music group leaders. In summary, I recommend the book for music therapists who work with groups, and especially for the beginner music therapist. The book helps to understand group music work from its various angles and dimensions.

Nordic Journal of Music Therapy