New Music Education Books from Perpich Library

July 17, 2025

Summer is the main time of year when lots of new books are added to the Perpich Library collection. This year we added several new music education books, most of which are focused on incorporating popular music into your school music program, as well as equity and diversity.

All items on this list are available at the Perpich library. Click on titles for more information.

1. Breaking Through: Disrupting Barriers to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access within a Social Emotional Learning Approach to Music Education by Edward Varner
A growing number of music and arts teachers are embracing the natural alignments between music education, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA). However, these objectives too often run the risk of becoming amorphous, misused, or catch-all efforts lacking authenticity and meaning. In Breaking Through, author Edward Varner helps music teachers understand the purpose of SEL, how it intersects with DEIA, and how to promote quality and equitable experiences for all students.

2. Commercial and Popular Music in Higher Education: Expanding Notions of Musicianship and Pedagogy in Contemporary Education edited by Jonathan R. Kladder
Brings together working examples of pedagogy in emerging areas of popular and commercial music to offer practical insights and provide a theoretical framework for today’s music educators. Written by a diverse group of experts, the eight chapters address a range of contemporary contexts, including digital instrument ensembles, digital audio workstations, hip hop courses, pop vocal performance, rock bands, studio production, and more.

3. Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education: From Understanding to Application, 2nd Edition by Constance L. McKoy, Vicki R. Lind
Presents teaching methods that are responsive to how different culturally specific knowledge bases impact learning. It is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning. Designed to be a supplementary resource for teachers of undergraduate and graduate music education courses, the book provides examples in the context of music education.

4. Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music by Lawrence Sherman, Dennis Plies
Larry S. Sherman, a neuroscientist and lifelong musician, and Dennis Plies, a professional musician and teacher, collaborate to show how our brains and music work in harmony. They consider music in all the ways we encounter it – teaching, learning, practicing, listening, composing, improvising, and performing – in terms of neuroscience as well as music pedagogy, showing how the brain functions and even changes in the process.

5. The Game Music Toolbox: Composition Techniques and Production Tools from 20 Iconic Game Soundtracks by Marios Aristopoulos
Provides readers with the tools, models, and techniques to create and expand a compositional toolbox, through a collection of 20 iconic case studies taken from different eras of game music. Discover many of the composition and production techniques behind popular music themes from games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Mario Kart 8, The Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter II, Diablo, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, and many others.

6. Music for Inclusion and Healing in Schools and Beyond: Hip Hop, Techno, Grime, and More edited by Pete Dale, Pamela Burnard, and Raphael Travis Jr.
Explains that when this music like hip hop, techno, and grime is included in the school curriculum or utilized in therapeutic contexts, huge leaps in healing and wellness can be achieved, as well as educational attainment and enjoyment in school contexts. This unique book seeks to account for those positive impacts, theorize them, and help to extend and advance their impact.

7. Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers: The Producer’s Guide to Harmony, Chord Progressions, and Song Structure in the MIDI Grid by J. Anthony Allen, PhD
As an online and university class, Dr. Allen has had over 50,000 students use this ground-breaking curriculum to learn music theory. Students and producers who have wanted to learn music theory to improve their own music, but have been intimidated by traditional approaches, music notation, and abstract concepts, will find this book to be the answer they have been looking for.

8. Performing Popular Music: The Art of Creating Memorable and Successful Performances by David Cashman, Waldo Garrido
This book explores the fundamentals of popular music performance for students in contemporary music institutions. Drawing on the insights of performance practice research, it discusses the unwritten rules of performances in popular music, what it takes to create a memorable performance, and live popular music as a creative industry. The authors offer a practical overview of topics ranging from rehearsals to stagecraft, and what to do when things go wrong.

9. Popular Music Pedagogies: A Practical Guide for Music Teachers by Matthew Clauhs, Bryan Powell, and Ann C. Clements
Provides readers with a solid foundation of playing and teaching a variety of instruments and technologies, and then examines how these elements work together in a comprehensive school music program. With individual chapters designed to stand independently, instructors can adapt this guide to a range of learning abilities and teaching situations by combining the pedagogies and methodologies presented. This textbook is an ideal resource for preservice music educators enrolled in popular music education, modern band, or secondary general methods coursework and K-12 music teachers who wish to create or expand popular music programs in their schools. The website includes play-alongs, video demonstrations, printed materials, and links to useful popular music pedagogy resources.

10. The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education edited by Gareth Smith, Zack Moir, Matt Brennan, Shara Rambarran, and Phil Kirkman
At present, research in popular music education lies at the fringes of the fields of music education, ethnomusicology, community music, cultural studies, and popular music studies. The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education is the first book-length publication that brings together a diverse range of scholarship in this emerging field. Perspectives include the historical, sociological, pedagogical, musicological, axiological, reflexive, critical, philosophical, and ideological.

All items on this list are available at the Perpich Library.

Title descriptions are provided by Amazon and/or the publisher.