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It is never too soon to
introduce young children to music.
In this practical handbook for all parents of young
children, Julie Wylie first shows how to introduce unborn
and newborn babies to music as part of their environment,
then explains how to set up a musical playgroup where young
children will derive tremendous pleasure from a range of
stimulating new experiences. She integrates music with play,
exploration, learning and socialisation, and makes it fun
for parents and caregivers to take part too.
The book also shows how to use commonplace objects and
everyday sounds as resources, and how to make simple,
inexpensive musical instruments.
Detailed anecdotes and case histories illustrate how all
children, from all ethnic groups and regardless of their
abilities or disabilities have benefited from having music
as a regular part of their environment.
Even if you can't sing or play an instrument yourself,
this book will show you how to make music an important and
pleasurable part of your children's development.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF JULIE
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
BOOK REVIEW
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Julie Wylie lives in
New Zealand and is perhaps best known for her educational
music resources Sing Upon a Rainbow (a tape/book set), Sing
Baby Dance Baby and Swing Me a Song (audio cassettes), and
her book Music and the Small Child. She is musical advisor
to the children's television programme Chatterbox, is
particularly experienced in running musical playgroups for
young children, and has been an early childhood music
resource advisor for the Ministry of Education. Julie also
works as a music educator for children with special needs at
the Christchurch Early Intervention Trust.
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CONTENTS
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1.
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The music in your child
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11
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The unborn child
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11
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The newborn child
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12
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Twelve to eighteen months
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19
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Eighteen months to three years
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21
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Three to five years
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24
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2.
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Musical parenting
groups
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25
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How to setup a group
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25
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The music session
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29
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Singing
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30
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Listening
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31
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Movement
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34
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Creativity
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37
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A typical session for two-year-olds
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38
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Behaviour
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39
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3.
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Resources for
music-making
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41
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Singing
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41
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Musical instruments
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44
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Making your own instruments
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48
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4.
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Activities for musical parenting
groups
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53
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Found sounds
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53
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Music and movement
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58
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Dramatic play
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64
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Creating songs
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70
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Creating instrumental pieces
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72
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Painting to music
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73
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Creative activities for young children
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75
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The music of different cultures
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76
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5.
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Planning musical parenting
sessions
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79
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Principles
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79
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The first session
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81
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What to do next
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81
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6.
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'Make your own music and go for
it'
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83
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'He shall have music wherever he goes'
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83
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Rediscovering the child within
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84
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Sharing the gift of music
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86
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A precious heritage
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88
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The therapeutic power of music
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89
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Talofa lava!
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90
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May they always have music
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90
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Appendices
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1. General and musical growth of the small child
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92
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2. Songs, chants and games
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95
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3. Music suitable for listening and moving to
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108
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4. Baby games, action songs, nursery rhymes and
finger-plays
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109
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5. The elements of music
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112
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6. The tonic sol-fa system
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113
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Further resources
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114
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Index
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119
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FOREWORD
This book is a product of love and enthusiasm - love for the small
child, and enthusiasm for the power of music to add a significant
dimension to the richness of living.
At the biennial conference of the New Zealand Society for Music
Education held in Dunedin in 1991 with the overall title 'Music is a
Family Affair', one of the papers, given by Helen Willberg, concluded
with an agreement that early childhood support music groups (to be
known as musical parenting groups) should be set up in each region of
New Zealand under the auspices of local societies for music
education.
The seed sown in Dunedin fell on particularly fertile ground in
Christchurch. Julie Wylie, who was already working in the field of
music for small children, soon gathered around her a group of parents
who were also convinced of the value of music, not merely as a
pleasant diversion for children, but as an integral part of their
health and development. Before long the need for a more formal
organisation was recognised. The Society for Music Education
(Canterbury) offered encouragement and financial support for setting
up the Canterbury Musical Parenting Association.
When I suggested to Julie she write a book, her extraordinary
enthusiasm was unleashed, and her knowledge, ideas and experience of
musical parenting were soon translated into words.
Music, Learning and Your Child is a book for parents and
caregivers, and for the devoted leaders of musical parenting groups.
While it is consistent with the aims and objectives of Music
Education: early childhood to form seven, the 1989 syllabus for New
Zealand schools, this book is primarily concerned with those
all-important years before children take their first musical steps in
the formal education system - from as early as twenty-four weeks in
the womb.
A number of excellent publications are available on music
education in early childhood, but most are aimed at helping trained
teachers of pre-school and junior school classes. Music, Learning and
Your Child is perhaps unique in that it is a comprehensive,
informative and practical handbook for those most important of early
childhood teachers - parents and caregivers.
Learning in early childhood is quicker and of more lasting effect
than at any other time of life. The very small child has an infinite
appetite to learn and a huge capacity to absorb experiences. Through
music, we learn to organise our lives through positive experience;
and through musical parenting, parents and caregivers learn to
interact with their children and to share in the growing process in a
way that no other activity can offer so richly.
Masaru Ibuka, founder of the Sony Corporation, said, 'Kindergarten
is too late.' While we may not fully agree with so categorical a
statement, there is no doubt that birth is not too early to begin the
important process of shaping young lives, and that music offers one
of the most positive means of doing this.
David Sell
Former Dean of the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts (retired)
University of Canterbury
Book
Review from "Little Treasures" June/July '96 page
42
Julie Wylie, musical adviser for Chatterbox and a Christchurch
music educator, has a similar passion for music which "can be found
everywhere in our lives, but we need to learn how to listen
consciously in order to hear it."
Her new book Music, Learning and Your Child (Canterbury University
Press, $24.95) teaches us how to do just that. How many sad adults
there are of my generation who as children were cruelly cut off from
direct participation in music because "they couldn't sing in
tune!"
This very well designed book takes the line that there is music in
every child, regardless of abilities or disabilities, from the 24th
week of gestation. Music in every parent too, no matter how
unconfident or discouraged as children - Julie's practical advice
covers learning with your child to "make music and go for it", the
setting up of musical play groups, and suitable songs, finger plays
and games. Particular music to my ears is her emphasis on listening
skills which begin with voices, the sounds of nature and grow through
music to an acute awareness of language, rhyme, rhythm, melody and
words.
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