Although the National Plan for Music Education recognises that ‘music teaching starts in the early years’, Music Education Hub (MEH) funding only covers children from the age of five. This is a sadly missed opportunity – young children have a right to quality musical experiences from birth. Very young children are naturally musical and music weaves through all of their development and learning.
A growing number of organisations and individuals, however, are recognising the value of quality Early Years music education, and the good news is that there are a number of high-quality resources freely available to support educators in developing meaningful and effective work with young children. Below, we will briefly summarise some of these resources:
Resources to support MEHs
- Developing Early Years Music Provision across Music Education Hubs, a Practical Guide
Written by Nicola Burke and Stuart Whatmore as part of the Tri-borough Music Hub's ‘Tri-Music Together’ project, this resource offers support and guidance to MEH leaders who want to develop their Early Years music provision. It explains the Early Years sector and landscape, and offers information, questions, and considerations to support leaders to develop their own strategies.
www.triboroughmusichub.org/early-years/support-for-music-education-hubs-eyfs
Resources for teachers and practitioners
- Musical Development Matters in the Early Years
Musical Development Matters was written by Nicola Burke. In a format familiar to all Early Years practitioners, its overall purpose is to support practitioners, teachers, musicians, and parents to see the musical attributes of young children and to offer ideas as to how they can support and nurture children's musical development by offering broad musical experiences.
www.early-education.org.uk/musical-development-matters
- Sound Communities
Sound Communities, created by Creative Futures and ICAN, contains a bank of resources to highlight some of the commonalities between music practice and speech, language, and communication practice. It shares videos of real-life practice in nurseries and provides practitioners with tools and approaches to support all children musically, including those with speech, language, and communication needs.
- Take Art Case Studies & Video Library
Take Art's website includes a wealth of insightful Case Studies and an Early Years Video Library of vignettes of children's music-making in Early Years settings, and content from training projects and performance work.
- Inspire Music case studies
Inspire Music is an online resource to support the whole of the music education sector. It includes dozens of case studies, a number of which relate to Early Years, providing real-life examples of effective practice and stimulating reflection and practice. The case studies come from a range of contexts such as Magic Adventure's interactive happening and installation featuring voice play, exploration and funniness; or the Early Ears project, exploring new approaches to music making with under-fives, including using music technology.
www.inspire-music.org/case-studies
- Tune into Listening
This resource grew from research conducted by Nicola Burke exploring how to effectively use recorded music in Early Years settings. It offers ideas and inspiration for playing a range of music to young children, including various sections on ‘Listening skills’, ‘Movement’, ‘Personal, Social & Emotional Development’ and ‘Visual Art’.
macbirmingham.co.uk/mac-makes-music/teachers/music-in-the-early-years/tune-into-listening
- Sound Connections’ London Early Years Music Network
The LEYMN website contains numerous reports and resources for those working musically with young children. It includes the video ‘What's That Noise? Recognising and supporting young children's musicality’, which has pointers for recognising the music in children's play and ideas for extension activities based on children's musical interests.
www.sound-connections.org.uk/what-we-do/early-years/london-early-years-music-network
Song resources for EYPs, Music Leaders and Parents
- London Rhymes
London Rhymes is a growing collection of songs created by families for families, with a team of specialist musicians led by Rosie Adediran. Through projects led by Creative Futures, the London Rhymes team has created, recorded and released more than 60 songs and many have also been animated for YouTube.
- Mama Lisa
Songs from around the world, searchable by country, language, or song type.
- Playsongs
Action songs and rhymes for babies and toddlers, available to stream via Spotify or iTunes.
Books about Early Years Music
- Critical New Perspectives in Early Childhood Music: Young Children Engaging and Learning Through Music by Susan Young
- Music and Singing in the Early Years: A Guide to Singing with Young Children by Zoe Greenhalgh
- Music With the Under-Fours by Susan Young
- Taking a Learner-Centred Approach to Music Education: Pedagogical Pathways by Laura Huhtinen-Hildén and Jessica Pitt
For anyone interested in learning more, there are also two highly popular and successful courses at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC): the Level 4 Certificate for Music Educators and the MA in Education (Early Years) (www.crec.co.uk).
Happy reading and music making!
Vanessa Stansall is the creative producer and Julian Knight is the creative director at Creative Futures. www.creativefuturesuk.com
