Dear
Suzea Millerhebert,
Exposure to a variety of music types during early childhood has been found beneficial across multiple developmental domains time & time again! This is true for music created for children specifically and also music made for a general audience. You are correct that playing music that varies in rhythm, tone, & cultural background is an essential ingredient to helping children develop their ability to recognize pitch & tempo- seeing adult caregivers making music, and being allowed to sing & play along are two more pieces critical for primary musical development. Ideally, young children should have a chance for musical play every day! One great source for research in this area is Music Together. Their teacher training is an amazing resource and rich in DAP and guided play. The program is research-based, and includes songs carefully selected to be multicultural, and expose children to different tones and rhythms, helping them develop their "inner ear." You can find the Music Together app online, even without enrolling in a class, the app has great songs to share!
Another wonderful source for research on music in early childhood is NAEYC! Just search the topic and you will find many great NAEYC article on music in ECE. I linked to one of my favorites below. It highlights the work of Ella Jenkins-she was my starting point when I put together my own weekly music classes: her song collection is multicultural and multilingual & reflects the wonderful musical heritage of the USA.
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/aug2018/now-sing-ella-jenkinsI definitely suggest using some current top 40's music, but I would not recommend playing a commercial station in class- just too tricky to be sure what is heard will be appropriate and creates the risk that the children are exposed to advertising- I try to give kids a break from advertisers during school!
However, at home I love to listen to Sirius XM's Kids Place Live channel (channel 78 in your car if you have the service). They play a great variety of independent Kid's Music artists like Elizabeth Mitchell, Justin Roberts, Dan Zane, They Might Be Giants, Recess Monkey, Ralph, Agent 23 Skiddo, Laurie Berkner and so many more!
When I was searching for songs for a Spring concert ( mind you, I think concerts are not great for preschoolers as they often stress out children, parents & teachers, a sing along Party is much better), I deliberately searched for a top 40's song I thought children had likely heard played in their own homes, and found Bruno Mar's "Count On Me"- it was a a little stretch for the children to learn the words, but they loved both the song & singing it! I felt like it wove us all together in a musical community.
And speaking of creating community- that is one of the top benefits of singing together- it creates community and relieves stress! Don't be afraid of "imperfect singing" by adults- you can't hurt their perception of pitch with out of tune singing. Especially if they do get to hear in pitch singing & music from other sources, singing with real adults is only beneficial!
While a variety of recorded music every day is wonderful, please give them plenty of quiet time too, or I mean time without recorded music. Children need quiet time to process in between songs, and the chance to "hear" the music in their head, and plenty of time to play at creating tones and melodies themselves.
please don't play music with words, or recorded stories during lunch or snack - mealtimes are really fantastic opportunities for conversation skill building with teachers & peers, and trying to quiet chatter during meals by playing songs with words is disruptive to children's social skills learning. Meal talk should be child centered, and spontaneous- not extra lesson time...
Also please, as you play a variety of music from all over the world, remember to play music without words too! Children tend to focus on verbal content of songs over pitch, tone or melody. Playing music without words ensures that young children deeply attend to the melody and rhythm - without words includes just singing la la la, humming, or other non verbal vocalizing- meowing, barking, mooing, & all other animal sounds are great for this!
hope this helps; coming from New Orleans, with it's amazing, rich & diverse musical roots, I bet your classrooms sound fantastic!
Margro Purple,
Rockville, MD
here are a couple more links to great ECE music research & articles:
https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=a-multicultural-music-sampler-for-childrenhttps://www.incultureparent.com/2012/10/why-multicultural-music-is-important-for-children/https://www.brighthorizons.com/family-resources/music-and-children-rhythm-meets-child-developmenthttps://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1151097.pdf------------------------------
Margro Purple
Rockville MD
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2019 11:27 AM
From: Suzea Millerhebert
Subject: Classroom Music
I'm wondering what kind of music teachers play in birth to five classrooms. Do you use music made for children, or listen to adult music and stations, such as oldies. I want to ensure that children are exposed to different rhythms and musical cultures, but there are a lot of music made for children that has this diversity. I've tried to look for research on this with no luck. Can anyone help me with this?
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Suzea Millerhebert
Early Childhood Coordinator
New Orleans LA
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