By Leslie Hart, Music Specialist
At a Bing staff development day in early May, I gave a presentation that drew connections between language learning and music learning, and shared ideas about creativity and musicianship. As in language acquisition, in music we learn to listen, speak (by singing or playing an instrument), read and write (musical notation), compose and analyze. Music, like language, has syntax and vocabulary, patterns (rhythmic, tonal, harmonic, expressive), phrases and forms (analogous to the structure of a story with a beginning, middle and end—larger groupings of ideas). Like language, music is learned and communicated aurally (listening) and orally (speaking) and is conversational. Understanding music learning provides a context for engaging musically with children. This presentation was based on Christopher Azzara’s teaching and research in music learning. Azzara is an internationally renowned music educator and a leading figure in the field of music teaching and learning, incorporating creativity and improvisation. Azzara made recommendations and provided insights as I developed the presentation to the Bing staff.
Imagine a child spontaneously singing a poem with rhymes, reusing vocabulary, following a typical form and demonstrating movement in his body. The transcribed musical example included below, I Like to Hug, is an example of this form of expression. The song was improvised by a child after the birth of his baby brother. If you listen to the audio file, you can hear him telling me that I’m singing his melody incorrectly, and he then helped me to sing it correctly. The transcription makes apparent his reuse of melodic material. His rhythmic patterns repeat and also contain variety. His lyrics are reused, he understands and uses space and silence, and his song has a clear beginning, middle and end. On top of everything else, the entire song is performed while he keeps a steady beat on a triangle.
I Like to Hug by Lincoln D., 4 years, transcribed by Leslie Hart
Sometimes parents ask what they can do at home to encourage musical play. Musical conversations are a great starting point for parents and caregivers. When engaging a child in musical conversation, give the child time and space to respond. “What’s your song today?” is a great way to begin the conversation. Listen to their idea. After they sing an idea, repeat it back. Adults can also expand the child’s idea or change it. To encourage additional musi.cal ideas and musical conversation, sing in a child-friendly range (for example, keys of D and Eb)—it may be difficult for some children to sing in lower keys. Musical play can also include singing songs together in the car, leaving out the last note of a familiar song so the child can imagine the sound, singing the first part of a song and letting the child improvise the rest, and showing different beats and movements in your body, which can inspire children to do the same. Additional ways to play with music include changing the tonality, meter, tempo, articulation and volume.
One might think that my musical interactions with children at Bing are unique, but they’re not. I hear babies in grocery stores respond to a song playing nearby by singing in the same key or moving to the beat. Children are born musical. A baby’s coos and cries are usually based on a specific pitch that the child will continually come back to. As they grow and engage in music, children demonstrate their ability to compare, predict, anticipate and group musical ideas similar to patterns in language learning. Children have potential in music, much like any other area, and some children have the potential to achieve more in music than in any other area.
1. In Chocolate Milk, a child sings a repetitious idea about getting chocolate milk when he goes to the zoo.
2. Cameras and Phone demonstrates a child singing about what is immediately in front of her—an old cell phone and camera.
3. A child sings Bing's well-known Goodbye Children in minor mode.
4. This Land Is Your Land was performed spontaneously by a child (with the first two verses) with steady tempo, time and rhythm on a drum.
5. I Like to Hug demonstrates understanding of form in music as well as syntax. This song is long, more than twice as long as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, yet the child repeats his ideas throughout and follows a normal phrase structure (similar to sentences).
