How to nurture music behaviors by Macarena Cossio

Early Childhood

Birth to Six Music Behaviors and How to Nurture Them Susan Kenney

usical behaviors of infants and toddlers begin soon after birth but often go unnoticed by parents and other caregivers. A child’s first word, roll-over, crawl, or step is celebrated and often recorded in baby’s book of firsts, while the first time they match pitch, respond to music with babbling sounds, or create spontaneous song may go unnoticed. The table in the appendix summarizes musical behaviors of infants and preschool children and can be used to help caregivers become more aware of those behaviors. In addition, the table suggests ways that parents and other caregivers can respond to and nurture the musical behaviors, thus strengthening neural connections and helping to build a strong music foundation. When children’s musical behaviors are celebrated, they learn to value their own music making. When adults imitate their musical sounds and provide models of singing, playing simple rhythm instruments, and moving to recorded music, the children learn to value music because their parents love it. As infants grow, they want to do what they see others do and have a desire to continue to make music. Three-year-olds who have had a rich music environment tend to sing and respond to music at more sophisticated levels than three-year-olds who have not. Because the foundation for all future music growth is built in the first years of life, music educators must continue to find ways to help parents and other caregivers understand the musical behaviors of the young and to learn strategies for nurturing musical growth. While the

table here does not provide strategies, it does give an overview and suggestions.

Resources Alvarez, B. (1981). Preschool music education and research on the musical development of preschool children: 1900–1980. Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan. Boswell, J. (Ed.). (1985). The young child and music: Contemporary principles in child development and music education: Proceedings of the music in early childhood conference at Brigham Young University. Reston, VA: MENC. Bredekamp, S., & Copple, C. (Eds.). (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: NAEYC. Deliege, I., & Sloboda, J. (Eds.). (2003). Musical beginnings: Origins and development of musical competence. New York: Oxford University Press. Flohr, J. W. (2005). The musical lives of young children. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. McDonald, D. T. (1989). Musical growth and development: Birth through six. New York: Schirmer Books. Moorhead, G. E., & Pond, D. (1978). Music of young children. Santa Barbara, CA: Pillsbury Foundation for Advancement of Music Education. Peery, J. C., Peery, I. W., & Draper, T. W. (1987). Music and child development. New York: Springer-Verlag. Simons, G. (1978). Early childhood musical development: A bibliography of research abstracts 1960–1975. Reston, VA: MENC. Wilson, F. R., & Roehmann, F. L. (Eds.). (1990). Music and child development: Proceedings of the 1987 Denver conference. St. Louis, MO: MMB Music, Inc.

Susan Kenney is an associate professor of music education at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. E-mail: susan_kenney@byu.edu.

Kenney / Birth to Six 33

Appendix Music Behaviors: Birth to Six Age

Music Behaviors

What Adults Can Do to Promote Learning

Birth to 3 mo.

• • • • •

Calmed by music. Can discriminate between two pitches almost from birth. Can hear melodic and rhythmic structure. Will babble in response to singing or recorded music. Can match pitch and melodic contour sung by mother (2 months). • Shows pleasure from the sounds they make.

• Sing gentle songs in a medium high voice while rocking, bouncing, and stroking infant to the beat. • Chant rhymes and talk with expressive voice. • Play recorded music of many kinds as taste is being developed.

3 to 8 mo.

• Hits, kicks, or shakes objects to make a pleasant sound continue. • Bounces to get an adult to repeat a bouncing song or chant game. • Joins in singing with a loving caregiver. • Shows preferences for some music over others. Musical taste is beginning to form, usually depending on what they hear the most. • Imitates rhythmic movement responses to music. • Vocal play pitch range is often more than three octaves. • Before age 1, infants can distinguish songs by their actionsthey seem to know songs before they can sing them.

• Provide objects that make sounds when touched or kicked by child. Toys that make music independent of child do not stimulate child-initiated music making. • Play bouncing singing games and rhymes with child, letting feet bounce on adult's lap. • Imitate sounds from baby. (Vocal imitation of infant by caregiver may be crucial to development of vocal imitation necessary for singing in the future.) • Play recorded music of many kinds-classical, jazz, folk, etc. • Chant nursery rhymes using expressive voice, modeling wide voice range. • Sing, sing, sing. (The development of ability to sing depends on hearing many songs in the first year, beginning at birth.) • Incorporate gentle rhythmic movement while chanting nursery rhymes and singing.

8 to 18 mo.

• Reproduces what is heard. • Awareness of past and future begins to develop, making memory possible which is necessary for song acquisition. • Tries to match movements to music rhythm (try to keep beat, etc.). • As listening becomes attentive, may move less and focus more. • Movements have more variety and are more self-expressive. • Begins to pretend. • Loves to explore sounds and is driven by motor energy. • Loves to play extremes in dynamic levels. • May begin to run.

• Sing and encourage children to sing along. • Provide lots of kinds of recorded music and songs. (The music during first 3 years becomes the material from which later musical creativity and understanding grow.) • Play music and move children's feet, legs, and hands to beat or rhythm. • Teach repetition of patterns in voice, sounds, and movement. • Explore motor skills (walk, run) in response to simple musical instruments. • Provide simple percussion instruments for free exploration. • Encourage exploration of found sounds such as pots and pants, metal and wooden spoons, and plastic tubs, by celebrating the sounds children make and playing with them to create duets. • Imitate sounds children make on simple instruments, found sounds, and toys. • Play simple percussion instruments to model behaviors.

18 mo. to 3 yrs.

• Vocal range depends on range of caregiver but ranges from low A-flat to high G. • Interest in flow of words rather than meaning of words. • Words, rhythm, and melodic contour are usually accurate when singing songs, but pitch is probably not. • Spontaneous song flourishes. • Loves to improvise on simple percussion instruments, which becomes a way to exert independence. • Improvisation is the key to musical creative development. The musical play during these first 3 years provides the foundation for successful study, practice, and creative production in middle childhood and adulthood. • Increasing in ability to play games with singing and dancing.

• Continue to play with the expressive, extreme range of the voice by chanting rhymes and telling stories. • Sing many songs and singing games. • Repeat same songs many times. • Make up songs to describe the child or his play-spontaneous songs. (Creativity occurs during spontaneous play, not groupdirected play.) • Provide an environment of simple percussion instruments for children to freely explore. • Model appropriate ways to play instruments but allow children to explore in their own way.

(continued)

34 General Music Today

Appendix (continued) Age

Music Behaviors

What Adults Can Do to Promote Learning

3-year-olds

• Enjoys playing group games like “Ring Around the Rosy.” Singing helps form relationships. • Begins to master the sound structures from the culture, which continues until age 7. • Spontaneous songs become longer and more imaginative, which is a sign of lively intellectual activity and is based on past experiences with singing. • At age 3 it becomes apparent that children who have had singing in their environment have a definite advantage over those who have not. • Can identify songs by the tune alone. • Variety of movements in response to recorded music increases and movement energy is more controlled. • Can imitate rhythm with voice or rhythm sticks. • Begins to create patterns through repetition of rhythmic ideas. • Experiments with short and long sounds on instruments, especially drums. • Fascinated with tone and resonance. • Beginning to skip, gallop, balance on one foot, combine two locomotor movements or movement ideas. • Can coordinate movement to steady beat and sometimes rhythmic pattern.

• Play many group singing games that involve working as a group. • Sing the same songs over and over for mastery. • Recite poems, nursery rhymes and finger plays that use numbers, count beats, etc. • Continue to make up songs describing group activities as well as individual play. • Play “Guess My Song” by humming tunes to familiar songs and let children guess the song. • Play a variety of recorded music and encourage free movement. • Play music while encouraging children to walk, run, skip, or gallop in response to appropriate music. • Help children develop muscular control by stopping and focusing on stillness or balancing on one foot sometimes while moving to music. • Begin to work with instruments as a group. Encourage children to imitate patterns you make. Accompany singing with instruments. • Continue to provide many opportunities for free instrument exploration and found-sound exploration. • Clap or play simple rhythms on a drum and invite children to respond in movement. • Encourage children to create rhythmic patterns and illustrate with body or clapping.

4- and 5year-olds

• Wants to conform, do things “correct” way • Those who have not sung many songs before the age of 4 will tend not to sing and will need extra encouragement. • Generally does not sing entire songs with pitch accuracy. Words, rhythm beat, phrase structure, and melody direction are expressed, but tonal accuracy is still developing. • Can conceptualize music ideas. • More expressive spontaneous singing. • Has 2-octave range with spontaneous songs. • Learned song range varies according to experience and individual child. A general range is from middle C to high C. • Can echo tonal patterns and rhythms with voice. Harder to echo with clapping. • Order of song acquisition is (1) words, (2) rhythm, (3) melodic contour, (4) pitch accuracy. However, children who have experienced a great deal of music before they turn 4 tend to sing melodic contour first followed by rhythm, words, pitch accuracy. • Has ability to clap and march to beat. • Musical taste is becoming established. They prefer what they have heard in years previous. However, musical taste can still be influenced. • Can walk, run, jog, gallop in response to musical cues. • Very interested in exploring percussion instruments and playing long, rambling tunes. • Explores extremes in pitch, rhythm, and repetition. • Compositions influenced by type of instruments being explored. • Repeats music fragments and rambles. • Expresses feelings with sound. • Sense of tonality emerges when improvising on pitched instruments.

• Provide many opportunities for children to hear you sing and to see you play instruments followed with opportunity for them to try. • Children who do not sing need extra encouragement and direction. • Lead vocal play to explore extreme range of voice. • Continue to chant rhymes and tell stories, encouraging children to use voice expressively and with wide range. • Describe musical events such as high/low, fast/slow, steady beat, same/different, etc., and begin to form concepts about pitch, duration, form, dynamics, tone, color. • Provide opportunity to see and hear traditional orchestra instruments to learn names and sounds of the instruments. • Sing songs in the appropriate range. • Provide many opportunities for children to imitate tonal and rhythmic patterns. • Continue to play all styles of recorded music to help expand listening taste and to become acquainted with names of composers and instruments. • Provide opportunities for children to march, walk, jog, gallop in response to musical cues. • Allow plenty of free time for children to explore music instruments. Observe their playing patterns then imitate what the child does. • Use instrument sounds to enhance stories • Sing the first part of each line of a song and let children sing the end to encourage awareness of tonality.