Abstract

Music in Groups happens all the time: in the street, the classroom, in music colleges, community centres, hospitals, prisons, churches and concert halls; at raves, weddings, music festivals, public ceremonies, music therapy sessions, group music lessons, concerts and rehearsals.

Some group musicking seems to 'work' (and play) better than others; some sessions feel exhausting even if things are going well; and at other times, we can't begin to explain the complex musical and relational textures of group music work to funders, employers, friends, colleagues, or line managers. In this book, music therapist Mercédès Pavlicevic develops a broad-based discourse to describe, analyse and guide the practice of group musicking, drawing on her own extensive experience. The text is illustrated with vignettes drawn from a range of formal and informal settings that include spontaneous public occasions, collective rituals, special and mainstream education, music therapy, the concert hall, the music appreciation group and community work.

This book makes you think about balancing individual and group needs, the development of group time, dealing with over-enthusiastic performers who 'hog' the group sound, undercurrents in music groups, the complications of dealing with institutions, preparing music listening programmes and buying instruments for group work - if you're involved in any kind of group musicking, this book is for you.

I wish we had read Pavlicevic when we set up our Blues band - Information is easily accessed through a detailed Table of Contents and numbered sub-headings to allow the book to be read straight through or dipped into as a reference or instruction manual. A colleague has already found that my review copy has changed his approach and made him more ambitious bringing live music on to inner London psychiatric wards.
British Journal of Music Therapy
Mercédès Pavlicevic is Associate Professor and Director of the Music Therapy Programme at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Visiting Researcher at the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre in London. She is the author of Music Therapy in Context - Music, Meaning and Relationship and Music Therapy - Intimate Notes, and co-author of Beginning Research in the Arts Therapies - A Practical Guide, all of which are published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
What impressed me the most is that throughout the book Pavlicevic is not afraid to show her work in a full manner. In her own vignettes, where she personally conducts the group, she writes not only about successes, good feelings and interventions that went well, but also about mistakes, failures, interventions that did not work., and uneasy and uncomfortable feelings she had while conducting the session. I find it very refreshing, important, and useful for music therapists as well as other music group leaders. In summary, I recommend the book for music therapists who work with groups, and especially for the beginner music therapist. The book helps to understand group music work from its various angles and dimensions.
Nordic Journal of Music Therapy
It is certainly a book to revisit - to have at hand when planning a project, to dip into it at points during a period of active practice- but also one to read with time to ponder for the broadly applicable insights it holds.
British Journal of Music Education