Abstract:
Children have a natural curiosity about sound. This is particularly evident in the context of musical play. The potential of play for music learning may be overshadowed by a teacher-led and performance-focused approach to music education rather than an organic, self-initiated approach. By bringing together the child’s natural curiosity about sound, a rich music environment, and effective teacher guidance, the stage is set for building a strong foundation of musical understandings during a child’s first five years, a critical period of the child’s musical development. This article draws attention to and provides examples of ways that musical play can be fostered and enacted in the New Zealand early childhood context. The unique, holistic nature of the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, does not address music explicitly. Rather, aspects of music pedagogies are embedded throughout the document, within a complex weaving together of principles, strands, and goals.
