Engaging Multitasking Performance Ensembles Through World Music Pedagogies

Abstract

In world music ensembles such as African and African Caribbean percussion ensembles, the Gamelan ensemble, and the Latin marimba ensemble, members may sing a song, play instruments, and dance simultaneously. This practice is known as music multitasking. For musicians in Western art music traditions, music multitasking can be a challenge. This article discusses four teaching strategies for helping beginning learners or musicians who are new to music multitasking ensembles. The four teaching strategies are movement and dancing, rote learning, switching performance roles, and embodying the intended aesthetic and performance practice of the music and the style.