Musical Play for the Non-musical Teacher

A Story of Sound

I noticed Mei enjoyed intently listening to the small shaker blocks, testing out each different sound. Later, while other children filled and emptied small containers, Mei created her own shaker by adding a few stones to her pottle and placing her hand on the top. “Can you hear the stones inside?” I asked. In conversation, Mei’s Mum shared that Mei often heard planes in the sky long before others. As a second language learner, Mei was attuned not just to the new language being spoken around her, but to the many varied sounds in her environment. She was interested in reproducing sounds as well, coming up with unique ways to experiment with sound-making.

This is true for all children. Hearing is the first sense to be developed, long before a baby enters the world. Infants actually hear their mother’s voice as music, because the same area of the brain that processes music is also responsible for language learning. The sound environment, therefore, is one that can provide comfort and tune the ear to language. Research shows even young infants can discriminate between changes in melodic contour, tonality, dissonance and metric structures in music. This essentially means that children’s brains are pre-wired to tune into sounds. It’s our responsibility as kaiako to stimulate children’s relationship with the sound environment and nurture their identities as sound explorers.    

How Can Kaiako Support Musical Play?  

Musical play is a rewarding and joyful aspect of Te Whāriki (our curriculum), particularly reflected in the Communication Strand. While ‘music-time’ is often limited to singing along to music or dancing with props, there’s a whole world of opportunity available to children to explore their own musicality and be “creative and expressive” (Ministry of Education, 2017, p.42).  

Musical play can be thought of as two main areas: sound exploration and listening skills. If you have limited musical knowledge, aim to teach through music, rather than about music; this doesn’t require a great singing voice, or an understanding of in-depth musical concepts. Music and sound exist in the moment, so be present, curious, and open to a sense of wonder.

‍Your Voice is Your Power

We talk about rhythm, pace, tone and pitch in people’s voices just as we describe the elements of music. Our voice is a musical resource that we all have available regardless of singing ability!  

• When doing roll call or greeting a group of children, try using different types of voices – loud, boomy, squeaky, whisper, high, low. Invite children to respond in the same way, or their own unique ways.
• Sing versus of songs in a variety of voices (as above). This can remove the barrier of not feeling confident and supports children to discern between sounds.
• Change your voice for different characters in a book. Don’t be afraid of sounding silly, the children will approve!
• Use pauses in your voice to create drama. Mozart is quoted as saying ‘the silence between the notes is more important than the notes themselves’. Pausing hones children’s listening skills as they anticipate what is coming next and gives them time to process the sounds and language.

Cultivate a Sound-rich Environment

• Notice and acknowledge when children’s attention is captured by a sound, e.g. ‘Wow, that was a loud bang wasn’t it!’ This is especially beneficial when working with infants.
• Tuning into sounds is easier when other senses are minimised. Invite children to lie on the ground with their eyes closed and listen to the sounds of nature, this practice enhances children’s auditory attention.  
• ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, and also in the ear of the listener. ‘Found sounds’ like banging a cupboard door shut repeatedly is an important part of sound exploration but are often discouraged. Find ways to empower children instead by acknowledging their interest in the sound and providing alternatives.
• Offer interesting and unconventional sound props such as tin foil or scrunched up newspaper; these are good ‘soft sounds’ to have available indoors. Learn alongside the child, modelling curiosity for the different ways you can manipulate the materials to create sounds.
• If you have observed a child exploring sound in a unique way (e.g. banging found objects together), consider how you can reflect this in your planned music experiences (e.g. using those objects in a familiar board story).

These simple ideas will help to build your courage in exploring the world of sound alongside tamariki, no matter your musical background. The magic of musical play is that it is inclusive, grounded in natural human behaviour and a shared joy attainable for all.  

To learn more about the role of music in ECE, and practical ways to implement music into your centre curriculum, join Kerry’s workshop ‘Music in ECE – Amuse, delight, excite’ on 4 April.

References

Bull-Crossan, G.(n.d.). Early Musical Learning. https://theeducationhub.org.nz/early-musical-learning/Main

Gudmundsdottir, H. (2017). The Importance ofMusic in Early Childhood: Perspectives from Research and Practice.Perspectives: Journal of the Early Childhood Music & Movement Association.12. 9-16. 10.1386/IJMEC_0349_1.

Ministry of Education (2017). Te Whāriki:He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa/Early childhood curriculum.Author.