Exploring and Playing

This piece of music was created by a 3-year-old in a children’s centre. I am sure that you can hear the very distinctive pattern in this music.  This piece of music is far from random but could quite easily go unheard or could be disregarded as noise.

Music is trickier as an art form to document compared to visual art as it is live and once it has been created in that moment it disappears - unless we capture it. There are a range of recording devices which are easily available today such as Dictaphones, Easi-Speak microphones and iPads, as well as cameras and video cameras to capture the accompanying visual image.  Playing children’s music back to children and sharing it with parents can be a highly valuable experience; it shows children that we are listening, we can hear them and we value their music. Next time you have the opportunity to observe children making music, try to take time out to really listen carefully to the music that is created and where possible record it.

Enabling Musical Environments

Compare your visual art provision to your music provision – how does it compare? Are there more opportunities for children to engage in visual art experiences? Also compare the range of resources you have in your visual art provision compared to your music provision, carry out an audit of your musical resources. Throw away any broken instruments or invest in some time to repair them. Ensure that your triangles have the string attached and beater in place, untangle the ropes of the Indian bells so that children can actually play them.  

Children will be creative with monochrome pencil crayons but perhaps they are able to be more expressive when they are offered a range of colours, the same can be said of music. Children will be creative with the percussive instruments that tend to be offered, but children may be enabled to be more musically expressive and creative if offered a range of colourful sounds to play with. This does not mean the colour of the instrument itself, this is referring to the sound quality of the instrument. The instruments that are usually offered in early childhood settings are percussion instruments and the provision doesn’t often include tuned instruments. Tuned instruments are instruments that produce different pitches (high and low sounds) e.g. a xylophone. If budget for musical resources is challenging, then keep in mind the phrase ‘less is more’. Invest in 1 quality instrument rather than multiple hand-held plastic instruments that are likely to need replacing.

 You can encourage children to make music by setting out music areas which are inviting for children to create music. Keeping instruments in baskets, drawers or on trolleys can be a very practical storage solution but children may not always remember that they are there and may not access them.  If instruments are set out to invite children to play you may see that children make music more readily. Try setting out instruments inside and outside and explore the use of levels, e.g. instruments on tables, on the floor. Show children that you value their music by actively listening to it and perhaps inviting them to share their music with others.  Some children may love the opportunity to perform to others and this can be included within group activities.  Invite children to create pieces of music 1 by 1 within group activities and encourage other children to listen and then talk about it together.

You can download a report regarding ‘Enabling Musical Environments’ here.

Within the Enabling Environments theme of Musical Development Matters, you will see statements such as:

• Experiment with the use of levels eg instruments on tables, on the floor, instruments indoors and outdoors, group instruments together eg place instruments together in a basket that can be shaken, tapped, scraped.
• Create environments that invite children to make music together, eg a music table against a wall does not promote interactive and social music making, a music table with space around enables children to communicate musically and make music together more easily. Playing with a partner may impact how children make music.

Children’s music can quite easily be disregarded as noise. Next time you hear a child banging a drum, tapping blocks together or playing a set of chime bars, listen carefully to the music they are creating, you may hear patterns, structure and elements of music that may have gone unheard before.

Listen to this piece of music: