Hear, Listen, Play! is a book for all music teachers who are curious about the worlds of ear-playing, informal learning, improvisation, and vernacular music. Starting with a discussion of how popular musicians learn in the informal realm, the book then applies many aspects of their learning practices to three main areas within music education. It first tackles one-to-one specialist instrumental lessons before turning to ensemble work such as band and orchestra and finally to the generalist or specialist classroom. The methods within each section have been systematically tried and tested in research projects spanning more than a decade, and delivered here in a book written in straightforward and direct language which teachers will quickly find applicable to their working lives. Vignettes from the research participants provide depth throughout the book, and give illustrations of how both teachers and learners have experienced the methods themselves.

This book is not a prescription for one particular way of teaching or learning, and it does not aim to critique, replace or change the excellent practices that are already on-going in the diverse world of music education and pedagogy. Rather, it offers something which is likely to be new to many teachers, and which they can add in to the mix.