Concepts of informal learning in music education have been developed from adult interpretations of the ways in which young people are perceived to learn. Informal learning can therefore be reified or transformed into pedagogy that prioritizes an adult understanding of the processes of learning. This article presents the first part of an analytical lens, created through a meta-synthesis of ethnographic literature, that allows a comparison of an academic understanding of informal learning with the "real-life" experiences of children. It draws on data collected from an empirical study into the ways in which children and young people learn informally in and out of school to illustrate three key themes; subversion, embodied understanding and participatory performance. It concludes that it may be more fruitful to conceptualize "informal learning" as "informal learnings" to better capture the multi-faceted and complex nature of children's informal learning experiences.