From musical detectives to DJs: Expanding aural skills and analysis through engaging popular music and culture

Many music educators address aural skills and analysis by drawing on strategies designed for the realm of Western classical music. Focusing solely on aural skills and analysis within paradigms of Western music can limit students’ musical learning and engagement to particular ways of knowing music. To diversify and broaden the types of aural skills and analysis that students learn and engage with, music educators might consider contexts beyond Western classical music. This article outlines several ways that music teachers might situate aural skills and analysis in the context of musical engagement related to popular music and culture. Designed with secondary students in mind, the included approaches can be applied in any music learning context if adjusted for developmental appropriateness. The forms of engagement in this article might broaden the types of aural skills and analysis we include in music programs and expand popular music pedagogies that sometimes focus on performing.