Abstract
The challenges that emerged over the past 3 years have led many of us to reflect on our work, our families, and our lives:
What brings us joy?
How do we maintain a healthy social-emotional balance?
How do we continue to build and forge relationships that may have diminished?
While I don’t have the answers to these questions, I know that I have certainly spent a lot of time reflecting, wondering how my three, young children will demonstrate resilience, continue to be compassionate, and be willing to share their own fears and anxieties. And many of our family conversations take place surrounded by music.
Music has been central in my life since I was young. It was a way for me to be heard and seen, as an Indian American girl, born and raised in Chicago, singing a Whole New World in middle school, in a salwar, in front of my predominantly White peers. I never felt that I fit in and I don’t know if I was always resilient, but I know that music taught me compassion, gave me a way to escape my fears, and a voice to sing my anxieties.
In addition to the social-emotional, physical, and psychological challenges we have all been through, my wonderful colleagues and I reflected on the work we have been doing, wondered how to expand our own research and understanding of music education, and revamped the journal. If you have read any of my editorials over the past 3 years, you will see my focus on the changes was not only to the journal’s name, but in making general music education more inclusive and more diverse.
I want our journal and our work as general music educators to be heard and seen.
We continue to expand our dedicated group of editorial committee members and columnists. I have placed an open call for two, new editorial committee members to join us this summer in helping to shape our field, support new authors, and collaborate on redefining general music. I also placed an open call for a columnist. More detailed information can be found on the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) website and on the Journal of General Music Education (JGME) website. You can always email me at
I would also love to see more submissions for our Musical Ideas Series—a concept I started a couple of years ago with the hopes of expanding how we think about our work and with the desire to support authors in publishing their ideas under a broader umbrella than just one article. Many people reach out to me with an idea for one article or a column, and I’m thrilled to discuss how that could be expanded into three articles that will be supported and guided into publication.
In this issue, we have the second article in series on Promoting Gender Inclusivity in General Music, an article on transformational learning strategies, and an article engaging multitasking performance ensembles. These articles are also accompanied by our wonderful columns on social-emotional learning, social justice, technology, and connecting with standards.
As you continue to reflect on your work as a music educator, I would love to hear your musical story. We started an open column titled Perspectives—where we invite and welcome stories, moments, and experiences in music education.
You might think your musical story or moment doesn’t fit into what the “general music” mold is supposed to, and that’s precisely the point.
I would love to give each of you a space to be heard and be seen.
I look forward to reading your submissions for the JGME.