Preschool children's listening time responses to free versus directed listening activities were compared. For the free condition, children were instructed just to "listen as long as you would like." The directed condition was a written task designed to focus attention on specific aspects of the music and give children something concrete to do while listening--again, for as long as the children chose to participate. Children listened individually with headphones, as one of the free-choice activities available in their preschool classroom. Each child listened to two classical music examples under both conditions. As a group, children did not listen significantly longer when presented with a specific task to complete while listening. Children's listening times varied widely from one another, including some children who listened longer than might generally be expected for this age.