Experimental Music with Young Novices: Politics and Pedagogy

The author describes an experimental music-based pedagogy developed for workshops with untrained musical novices. He discusses the political impetus and implications for teaching music outside the traditional framework of instrumental skill-development and reproduction of extant works. Instead, he suggests an anti-hierarchical and empowering pedagogy through which anyone can exercise authorship and agency with music composition. Finally, he shows how the open-ended sonic inquiry—“the outcome of which is not foreseen”—that is characteristic of Cagean music resonates with trends toward STEM education.