Analysing Applications of Teaching Methods Observed in Young Children's Free Musical Play

Abstract

Implementation of musical play in children’s pedagogy has received extensive investigation from a range of researchers. From Marsh’s (2010) seminal work documenting instances of play in primary school playgrounds to Campbell’s (2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2015) comprehensive exploration into the importance of musical play in the social and personal development of young children, musical play has been demonstrated to have a positive effect on the outcomes of young children’s learning.

Musical play refers to the “everyday forms of musical activity … that children initiate of their own accord and in which they may choose to play with others voluntarily” (Marsh & Young, 2006). This definition was expanded upon through the work of Nieuwmeijer et al. (2021) and is still used in contemporary literature to define and outline essential features of musical play. This thesis presents an investigation of musical play in early childhood and suggests tangible processes and interactions of musical play for children aged two to five years and explores their potential applications in music teaching.

This research was conducted as a single-site ethnographic study of manifestations of musical play activities at Edith Cowan Early Learning Centre* in Sydney and involved the analysis of observational data to generate potential strategies for encouraging and supporting musical play activities in early childhood music settings. * pseudonym used

The findings suggest that important features of musical play included imitation, experimentation, movement, social interaction, and accessibility. Strategies to support musical play in the early learning context include providing adequate access to numerous sound-producing objects, teaching a range of appropriate repertoire to the children, ensuring adequate space for learning activities to take place, and demonstrating leadership strategies such as counting in or repetition of a musical phrase to focus group learning activities.