Kristy, aged five, has a karaoke set in her bedroom. Every morning before she goes to school, she plays a CD of her favourite boy-band and sings along with some of the tracks using the microphone. Her singing can be heard throughout the house. When I interview her parents, they tell me how well she can sing and how much they enjoy hearing her.
Aadesh, aged three, is looked after by his grandparents each morning, before he attends nursery school for afternoon sessions. At their house he watches a religious programme first thing in the morning and there are often Bollywood movies playing during the day. He has a small dholki (a barrel-shaped drum that is held horizontally) among his playthings.
These glimpses into the musical lives of two children were collected as part of research studies in which I talked to 20 children and parents about their musical activity at home. They remind us that children live and learn in different worlds that include - as well as their early childhood setting - their homes, the homes of extended family members, friends and carers, out-of-school clubs, community and cultural centres, outings, travels and holiday places.
Each of these learning places is further connected to wider musical networks beamed into homes via radio, TV and the internet. How their families and the adults in their communities create musical environments and occasions contributes importantly to the children's musical experience and growth. Music is part of the fabric of life. How all the people children encounter allow for, support and encourage their participation in musical experiences will have a profound influence on their musical identities and sense of belonging to musical communities.
Research suggests that parents' encouragement is one of the most crucial factors in children taking up instruments and continuing in adulthood (McPherson and Davidson, 2006). In the two cameos of family life described above, parents were supporting and encouraging musical activity. They supplied the instruments and technologies; they allowed their houses to be places - 'soundspaces' - where their children could sing, play and listen to music.
Children arrive in early childhood education with lives already well under way; with histories, experiences, preferences and opinions. These abilities, expectations and connections with music will shape how they approach musical activities in the nursery or reception class. Whether consciously or not on the part of the adults who work with them, the children's everyday musical experiences provide the context in which teaching begins and continues. We have some - but need more - information about home-based musical experiences and how these interact with the musical cultures of early childhood settings.
Family influences
'Starting with the child' is a mantra of early years education. But in reality, what is taken from children's home experiences is often highly selective. Educators look out through a small window, framed by their own priorities and, for the most part, if we are honest, seeing only what we choose to see. Although the concept of 'parents as children's first educators' is tacitly acknowledged, most of the influence is expected to be one-way, with educational activities to be drawn down into the home, rather than vice versa. Thus the home is subtly 'curricularised', while the nursery practice remains unchanged.
Contemporary musical childhoods are lived within dynamic and changing cultural contexts. The increasing movement of populations means that, in any one group of children, in many areas, there will be multiple cultures represented and multiple musical traditions. Some children who are newly arrived may have started life in communities that contrast markedly with what they find in their new communities. Their families may bring with them a musical heritage from their home country that uniquely defines them. Some children, alternatively, may belong to first- or second-generation ethnic minority families and move easily between different groups, adapting their identity to each. Some children belong to extended and to fragmented families, perhaps shifting between two or more homes, as Aadesh did. They may be adept at slipping between what seems, to those of us on the outside looking in, to be a cultural hotchpotch of languages, dress, food and music. But the children themselves experience all this as one blended whole.
For these families, the music of their 'old world heritage' may emerge at religious and family celebrations. The families revitalise their ethnic identity on special occasions. So, among groups of children in early childhood settings, cultural and social diversity is to be expected.
Making choices
Twenty or so years ago, what became known as multicultural approaches to music education seemed fairly straightforward. Curricula expanded to include songs from far-away places, often with simple words that could be learned by rote and from recordings of music from 'other countries'.
The range of educational percussion expanded to include instruments with African, Asian and South American origins. There was perhaps confusion about whether the musical experiences were to be inclusive of the cultures present among the school population, for reasons of representation, or whether broadening the musical experiences of children was considered important in terms of freeing up children's music learning from the dominance of classical, Western music.
Gerry Farrell, an ethnomusicologist with a strong interest in music education, once joked that if he, a Glaswegian, had migrated to India, his school might provide him with lessons on the bagpipes, swathes of plaid material draped over displays and singing of 'Auld Lang Syne'. His joke draws attention to the dangers of reducing culture to mere tokens. In interviews with multi-ethnic parents about what music is heard in their homes, their responses matched the exciting variety of contemporary music that is available now - all manner of pop, folk, traditional and religious music.
How, then, to select from such an overwhelming variety and diversity of music? This is one of the challenges of music now, for everyone - how to sort, select and decide from the wealth of music available.
Are there any guidelines for selecting music to use in a setting? It may be appropriate to anchor music education in the practices that make up the lived experiences of young children, the various subcultures to which they belong and the local musical practices in the neighbourhood. This allows the children to find continuity between home and setting and, from these anchor points, we can then allow the selection of styles and types of music to range freely, simply holding on to criteria that will ensure that opportunities for experiencing and learning about music are broadened.
What is clear, however, is that, in aiming to support, reflect and encourage musical diversity, early years professionals must call up other musical sources and resources beyond those they can provide single-handedly. This will involve ensuring that the collection of recorded music in the setting is extensive - not only sound, but audiovisual and multimedia. And it will include planning opportunities to hear and participate in live music by musicians in the community.
Susan Young is a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter. She also provides research, consultancy and mentoring for a wide range of early years arts projects.
Music 3-5 is the latest in the Nursery World/Routledge Essential Guides for Early Years Practitioners (£14.99). For more books in the series go to www.nurseryworld.co.uk/books
FURTHER READING
- Campbell, P Shehan (1998) Songs In Their Heads: music and its meaning in children's lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- McPherson, G E (ed.) The Child as Musician: a handbook of musical development. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Smithrim, K and Upitis, R (eds) Listen to Their Voices: research and practice in early childhood music. Toronto: Canadian Music Educators Association
