Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-177) and index.

Musical Childhoods : Theoretical Background and New Directions / Susan Young -- The Project Wiki : Enabling and Transforming the Methods and Processes of Research / J�aessica P�aerez-Moreno -- Public and Secret Musical Worlds of Children / Claudia Gluschankof -- Belonging and Identity : Exploring Gendered Meanings and Musicking in Seven-Year-Olds / Elizabeth Andang'o and Caroline Brendel Pacheco -- Nurturing MyMUSICal Child : Parental Perspectives and Influences / Theano Koutsoupidou -- Middle-Class Musical Childhoods : Autonomy, Concerted Cultivation, and Consumer Culture / Beatriz Ilari -- Nurturing the Musical "Open-Earedneess" of Seven-Year-Olds / Diane Persellin -- Musical Childhoods in South Africa : "The Times They Are a-Changin" / Sheila C. Woodward -- The Influence of Parental Goals and Practices on Children's Musical Interests and Development : A Perspective on Chinese Families in Singapore / Chee-Hoo Lum.

"This book offers a fresh and diverse perspective on home musical activities of young children from a variety of countries, including; Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Kenya, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, the UK, and the United States. Narrowing their study to seven-year-olds from middle-class families, the articles in this volume argue that home musical experiences provide new and important windows into musical childhoods as they relate to issues of identity, family life, gender, culture, social class and schooling. Though childhood musical engagement differs considerably, it has direct implications for a better understanding of music education and childhood development. Using a wiki to share data and research across time and space, this volume is a model for collaborative cross-cultural research and is centered on the home as a primary research site for children's musical engagement."--Publisher's description.