Who are Musickers?

Despite calls for the inclusion of the body, emotion, and sociality into music education theory and practice, the complex interplay of these aspects of being remains largely unarticulated and ignored. Deleuze and Guattari assert the importance of ongoing interconnections, arguing that multiplicities rather than singularities comprise humans. In this paper, I begin by drawing on their ideas to propose a human ontology based on the inseparability of cognition, embodiment, emotion, and sociality, positing that these four aspects enable and influence musical experiences. Next, I use Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical figuration of a body without organs to explain how the integration of these four qualities can serve to complicate rather than simplify our understanding of ourselves, our musical endeavors, and our music teaching. Lastly, I offer that teachers might begin engaging their inseparably cognitive, embodied, emotional, and social students in musicking by embracing the ongoing processes of complicating, considering, and connecting.