This paper will explore conceptual approaches to participatory music-making, with a focus on the work of John Cage. Cage relied primarily on a performer-audience model of music-making; which seems paradoxical, as a non-hierarchical participatory model seems more in line with his philosophy. While his compositional methods appeared to indicate a desire for self-effacement and collaboration, the resultant works were often quite far from models of non-hierarchical co-creation. However, Cage was a composer who concerned himself primarily with illuminating concepts and demonstrating processes, rather than producing beautiful _objects_ and musical commodities. Embracing a community-based experimental model of participation involves departing from traditional Western art music paradigms that regard _sound_ primarily as a consumable _product_ and the individual composer as all-knowing, all-powerful and central to any experience of music. This movement from selfaggrandisement to self-effacement.....

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