As a music educator that works with musicians and music educators I have realised that by giving attention to musical play with young children, and playfulness as a pedagogy, insights can be gained that prove fruitful for every level of music teaching and learning. As an early childhood music researcher embedded in an early years arts organisation, I journey with materials, places, sounds, music and children; artists, caregivers and educators finding strands and threads to weave together to situate knowing and understanding of play and music as emergent phenomena that bring worlds into being. Young children’s polyphonic embodied and playful utterances and movements communicate and express in ways that are beyond words. Their musical play world is wild, extravagant and unlike adult worlds of music. Wild sounds reach out and fill spaces as they travel across porous boundaries. In education contexts they can noisily affect humans and environments, interrupting or disrupting pedagogical moments and human thoughts and feelings. Is the taming of sound and young children perhaps the intention of music, and education? The rich seam of early childhood musical play scholarship opens up ideas and theories for reading through with the more-than-human literacies of early childhood. Playful music making for adults and children is concerned with open-ended, process-led, intrinsically motivated experiences that are material and affective. For some, feelings of awkwardness and embarrassment are felt when playing in an immersive space with few words. Time and space can be experienced differently in the play sphere and new realms of understanding for practice are uncovered. Learning-teaching music in this context consists of tangible and intangible elements commingling to connect and compose in unexpected directions. Music education with young children (and their caregivers) has diverse aims and purposes, takes place in a range of contexts, and has a variety of pedagogical approaches to suit each situation. Through exploration of the notions unfolding in musical play events discussion will be brought to the title theme of the conference: ‘Musical play for and by children’. Its rich potential will be assessed for diverse early childhood music education contexts and approaches.

There is a long tradition of children’s singing games the world over. Such games are often described as short, repetitive, dramatised songs and rhymes; children participate in them via a range of modalities while following the rules of the game. Singing games can be recognised across cultures, but they also vary according to time and place. New kinds of singing games can be added to the repertoire; for instance, this occurs when children make them up as part of their everyday musical play or engage in new singing games offered in digital media. Given this diversity and complexity, how can we make sense of children’s singing games?
This talk starts with two broad and reciprocally connected questions: what do children do with music? What does music do for and with children? More specifically, the talk incorporates two sets of data, one from ethnographic research into children’s musical cultures and one from research into children’s television music. Based on these data sets, it investigates how the concept of Bildung (formation) can contribute to a better understanding of children’s musical play – in this case, singing games. The chosen approach to Bildung underscores several themes in terms of how humans thrive, become team players and develop autonomy. In addition, it underlines the necessity of combining reason and artistic practices, diversity and community to achieve this.
Applied as a sensitising concept for thick descriptions, Bildung was tested on three empirical cases from the data. In these cases, children engaged in the following activities: 1) a traditional singing game, 2) a singing game developed by a group of children while listening to the soundtrack from a children’s television series and 3) a singing game on TikTok.
As outlined in the talk, the approach used in this study illustrates a range of musical participatory options. In the findings, the possibilities and constraints vary across the singing games, but the games all offer potentials for engagement, pleasure, community building, learning and ‘fun’. With a view to analysing participation, as well as inclusion and exclusion, the empirical cases call for sociological perspectives on gender, ethnicity and class. Moreover, although ‘free play’ has several positive traits, the games that may have an advantage when it comes to the inclusion of all children are semi-complex, clear, rule-based singing games.

Early childhood music educators remind us that sounds of early childhood are much more than the reproduction of children’s songs and circle games. The facilitation of playful “arioso” utterances, exploration of sound resources or embodied and vocalized demonstration of emotions requires new spaces and integrated pedagogies.
Lithuania is revising early childhood education guidelines. What will we find that is new? There is recognition that play has been undervalued, often seen as taking a break from serious learning. We have all heard the quote “play is the work of children” (often attributed to Piaget, Montessori, or Froebel, although who knows who actually said it!), but studies show that not all teachers take play as seriously as Albert Einstein who claimed that “play is the highest form of research.” Few are aware of the many forms of play: directorial/literal play, socio-dramatic role play, and narrative play, which are particularly important for children’s mental development and encourage higher-level thinking. The teacher’s role in facilitating play has also been misunderstood–resulting in either excessive intervention or none at all.
The function of music in the early childhood curriculum is also problematic. In some countries music specialists visit one or twice a week for mostly teacher-directed activities that directly contradict the espoused child-centred early childhood philosophy. Visiting specialists rarely integrate their contributions with what goes on throughout the day. In such cases the generalist teachers often do not feel responsible for children’s musical experiences, relegating this obligation to the specialist. In cases where there is no visiting music or arts specialist, the generalist teacher does not have a sufficient grasp of music essentials to harness the highest potential for learning. This is not surprising since there is a worldwide decline in the credits dedicated to music during generalist teacher education. In both instances, the integration of music and play theory is not common in teacher education.
During this presentation we will explore ideas for teacher education and professional development that could open new horizons for both visiting music teachers and generalist teachers who want children to explore the languages of music and play.