The best books about music teaching and learning

The title clearly outlines the premise of the book, and it delivers what it promises.

Although these essays are related to teaching and learning music, the overarching principles are applicable to the development of any skill. Duke challenges any approach that would promote difficult over beautiful, or fast over meticulous, championing music teaching itself as an art.

We’ve read this book dozens of times, used it as a text for classes over the past 25 years, and included it on every suggested reading list that has anything to do with teaching and learning. If a reader takes time to deeply consider the messages in this book and put the recommended strategies into practice, the efficiency and effectiveness of every lesson will improve. 

Booth wrote this book to be a complete guide for musicians seeking to expand their careers by offering educational concerts and in-school residencies, but the unusual title is likely a subtle reference to “lessons” that challenge widely accepted assumptions in the world…of music performance.

Open to any chapter to read important, focused information on designing a compelling educational concert, but it doesn’t take long to come shocking statements like “being a teaching artist makes you a better artist” (is it possible?) or a demand that we answer the question “why an inner-city fifth grader should give a damn about Mozart” (you mean they don’t?).

Whether Booth is astutely defining the difference between entertainment and art, exploring the importance of good questioning, or reminding us how play is essential to learning and growth, the nuggets of teaching wisdom embedded in these pages are worth their weight in gold.

Neurologist Frank Wilson wrote this smart, funny, insightful book to connect his understanding of neuroscience to his own experience learning to play the piano as an adult.

While sharing his expertise about neural pathways and auditory perception, he pokes fun at himself, offers amusing anecdotes about other “experts” in various fields, writes lymmerics, and makes jokes when you least expect it: “We all know about biceps, triceps, deltoids, and ‘pecs’ but who ever heard of somebody having a knockout set of abductor digiti quinti minimi, or a breathtaking flexor pollicis brevis?”

His light touch creates an engaging and enlightening balance of science and music, and one can’t help but be encouraged by his enthusiasm and love of learning.  

Psychotherapist and string teacher Edmund Sprunger addresses the complex challenges parents face when trying to help their children learn.

Violin is the subject matter here, but it’s not a stretch to transfer his understanding to virtually any other learning situation (piano lessons, math assignments, baseball practice, etc). It’s also easy to replace “Helping Parents Practice” with “Helping Mature Students Practice” and “Helping Teachers Teach” because the wisdom in this book is so universal.

What makes us lose patience with the learning process? Or why, when we try to please others, we feel like it’s never enough? Sprunger teaches us how to recognize and respond to underlying issues—often tangled up with the love we desire and deserve or don’t deserve—to discover a more internally-motivated and peaceful way to learn. 

Most teachers have a clear vision of where their students are headed: the sequences of instruction required, the stages and pacing of learning, and what students will be able to do at the end.

However, if knowledge of that end goal is not shared with students, the momentum generated by the learning, even with successful completion of each step, can be lost. When students can see where they are going, and trust the pathway designed for their optimal learning, there is a ‘buy-in” that supports their internally-driven focus and the investment of time necessary for achievement.

We have enjoyed reading, rereading, and recommending this book that clearly explains research-based and consistently effective teaching strategies.