The Happy Music Play Book by Cordelia Williams was published in 2021 into a world living with the Covid-19 pandemic, in which resources that can usefully and enjoyably fill time for children are a true gift. The playbook's stated aim is ‘fun-filled days with under fives’, and, as I'm sure many parents would agree, that is no mean feat.
Williams is undeniably an accomplished musician, earning her living as a professional pianist, but as she outlines in her introduction, this is absolutely not a book to ‘teach’ children music, but rather to joyfully incorporate it into their daily lives.
Williams’ book is beautifully presented, and her ethos clearly and accessibly laid out. It is incredibly straight forward to follow and the thoughtful layout combined with inspiring ideas and insightful personal reflection make it a real joy to read and use. It is completely undaunting and asks nothing more of the parent than to follow Williams’ very clear instructions. Suggestions of bringing music into your child's life include bedtime songs, waking up songs, and these are not all sung, but often ideas of a particular song to play to a child, making multi-tasking through day and night-time routines that little bit easier.
The book also includes yoga for young children, and checklists to help you work out which activities work well for your child. The ‘tailormade to each child’ approach to learning in this book is another part of what makes it such a good resource, with there being no suggestion of ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’. Rather, spaces are created for different responses and types of exploration and learning to take place.
The book is also what – in more formal music education – would be termed cross-curricular. Music isn't isolated into a box to be ticked but is paired with fun and easy-to-follow movement games and exercises, arts and crafts, and creative play.
The Happy Music Play Book is a beautiful book for any family to use and allows music to become part of life, much like language would. It certainly lives up to what it professes on its cover – helping you to create ‘fun-filled days with under fives’.
