This article describes a didactic experience concerning the interaction between young children and the Continuator, an Interactive Reflexive Musical System (IRMS) elaborated at SONY- Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. The general aim was to analyse whether and how the Continuator can be used in the kindergartner during the daily school…

This article discusses the adoption of a wiki to support the processes of collaborative research between members of an international team involved in the project MyPlace: MyMusic. The focus is on how new technological communications, here specifically the wiki, can enable and transform the methods and processes of research. We propose two main…

This article focuses on the early childhood years and describes research that has examined children's music experiences in formal care and education settings in Melbourne, Australia. This research uses a contextual view of children and their learning and is based on an assumption that learning is social, involves engagement with others and is…

This article reports on information gathered from a set of interviews carried out with 88 mothers of under-two-year-olds. The interviews enquired about the everyday musical experiences of their babies and very young children in the home. From the process of analysis, the responses to the interviews were grouped into three main areas: musical…

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gesture use on young children's singing with regard to improving pitch accuracy. The second purpose was to examine the differences in gesture use among boys and girls and different melodic motions. Eighty Taiwanese young children, five to six years old, participated in this experiment.…

This article evaluates the impact of an innovative early years music project developed on the Isle of Wight, UK, which aimed to enhance the role of music-making in educational settings for three- to five-year-old children. The MusicStart Project designed an original model for training practitioners working in such settings to increase their…

Listening preferences for two pieces, Prelude and Forlane from "Le tombeau de Couperin" by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), were assessed in two experiments conducted with 8-month-old infants, using the Headturn Preference Procedure (HPP). Experiment 1 showed that infants, who have never heard the pieces, could clearly make a distinction between the…

In this case study of the impact of professional development (PD) activities in music on staff at a childcare centre, the researcher was also the provider of PD. The needs of the staff and their preferred mode of PD delivery were negotiated with the researcher, resulting in a number of sessions where new resources and teaching ideas were modelled…

The challenge for music education is to nurture and develop each individual's basic musicality. Assuming normal neurological functioning and development, we are all musical. Our musical development begins pre-birth, with musical behaviours in one form or another being evident across the lifespan. Nevertheless, early enculturation can both foster…

Neurobiological and anthropological reasons call for high-priority attention to the human need for music as a rhythmically organized sound experience and an expressive tool for communication. Every human being is born with a certain level of musical potential. The most powerful neural networks and behavioural attitudes are developed during…