Nursery World - Learning & Development: Music

Does your setting consider the impact of its music choices on
children? Evidence suggests the area needs more thought, argues Nicola
Burke.

Working as an early childhood music specialist across a variety of settings in the UK, I have become increasingly troubled by the recorded music that is being played in the settings I have visited.

When the framework for an early years curriculum was first introduced in 1996, the way we accessed recorded music was very different from how we do it today. In 1996, we were largely dependent on CDs; today, anyone can access thousands of recordings of music of all styles, from all parts of the world, via the click of a button.

music2 I wanted to establish if early childhood education recognises how easy it is to access music to provide young children with a range of listening opportunities. I also wanted to determine if we are encouraging young children to listen and how carefully we think about the audio environments we are creating for young ears.

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