Reframing Part-Work Pedagogy: Three Portraits

Part-work is a skill through which an individual performs and maintains one musical part while another part is performed at the same time. Rich and varied part-work experiences feature prominently in the musical lives of children. Despite this, elementary general music teachers often frame part-work as a skill needed in the short term to perform specific concert repertoire or as a skill needed in preparation for future participation in choirs, bands, and orchestras. In this article, three vignettes involving part-work in general music are juxtaposed with vignettes involving part-work beyond school settings. These narratives are offered in an effort to reframe part-work pedagogy as a means of enabling personally meaningful engagements with and through music. Practical considerations of this reframing are explored using Georgia Newlin’s teaching sequences for part-singing development as a foundation.