This is a provocative book in many ways as the author presents us with offbeat ways to tackle university music teacher education and the practice of teaching music. New light is shed on possibilities for teachers and the educational institutions in which we work. Four chapters make up the main body of the text. In the opening chapter a rationale is given for why we should reconsider the ways we attend to established musical forms. In particular, an appeal is made for a move away from the prevailing master-apprentice model. Emphasis is placed, rather, on the make-up of formal learning environments in which students ‘act in tandem with their teachers as creators and judges’ (p. 9). Allsup argues that music education should be human-specific, not practice-specific. And if all relationships are two-way then the case the author makes for the teacher as co-author or reader is perhaps justified. Throughout the chapter, he makes reference to the closed traditions which have dominated public education. He makes a number of bold claims which highlight the parlous state in which we currently find ourselves. For example, he is not convinced that we have sufficiently examined the problem of musical expertise; he asserts that routine expertise has no general application in a diversity-affirming classroom; he believes we need to depart from the old-fashioned visions of child-centred learning. At any rate, the reader is lurched from their snug position and an appeal is made for more open encounters.

Chapter 2 is mostly concerned with what constitutes quality music teaching. Following a brief enquiry into the purpose of public schooling, the author snakes his way through various themes making some enticing arguments as he goes. He affirms that a good teacher is: ‘a kind of catalyst, the flint that sparks new learning, the spark that helps light another generation's course’ (pp. 43–44). The common notion that instruction in music is not the same as education in music is reinforced. Any music teacher digesting some of the more hard-hitting assertions is jolted in a second and compelled to reflect on their own practice. One of the more contentious claims regarding institutionalized music participation would almost certainly cause doubts to bristle for anyone working in this type of location. Allsup is solicitous regarding the ideology behind the conservatoire setting, claiming that it halts rather than enhances the general good of our students. In this chapter he returns to the concept of routine expertise suggesting that it holds many dangers for the teacher. There are downsides to the master-apprentice model which have been upheld for so long. He encourages us to think more openly and less predictably about the transference of musical instruction, suggesting that we have been placing product before process and that it is time for a refreshing change of direction.

Chapter 3 looks at what it means to structure an open music lesson. Here we are introduced to a concept that the author calls laboratory learning, ‘a space within the strictures of formal music education that embraces the principles of the open text’ (p. 69). A comparison is drawn between those who partake in the tried and (up until now, one could say) trusted master-apprentice model and the teacher and learner in the laboratory design. The author is interested in school spaces and the ways music teachers shape the formal environments in which they work. This chapter was of particular interest to me as I teach music full-time in a secondary school. I would urge others to engage with Allsup's tantalizing arguments and to draw on the propositions he outlines for an alternative vision of formal music education. He is persistent in his attempts to limit the role the master-apprentice approach has played, and posits that it is not our profession's only option. Later in the chapter he makes the daring prediction that in the near future, formal music instruction will no longer be tied with the master-apprentice line of action. Another forecast is that the music teacher of the future will be a kind of Jack-of-all-trades who is able to dip in and out of a variety of traditions. Before Chapter 3 comes to a close the author touches briefly on the theme of identity, commenting on the role that laboratory learning plays in the construction of new identities.

Allsup's yearning for more open encounters is the result of many years of teaching experience and related to a general dissatisfaction with the absence of variety within his own professional field. Regrettably, schools, by their nature, are often closed and ‘something is missing when a formal music education stays mostly within a closed realm’ (p. 135). But the pleas go out in the final chapter. Yes, there is a longing for a more open school and university curriculum, however, this cannot be achieved if we are unprepared to stray from traditional pathways. Allsup tells us that most of his students have engaged with an open philosophy of music education in one way or another, and their lives have been changed as a result. ‘Remixing the Classroom’ is a stimulating book and will, I am sure, expand the minds of music educators. It is time to pay heed to Allsup's appeal and embrace the ‘discomfort of the new’. For as the maxim goes: if the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.