If Music in EYFS gives you a headache...read this guest blog

Coming from a very musical family I always think that the hills (or at least our settings) should be alive with the sound of music! Music has SO much to offer the EYFS curriculum and is not as hard as you think - even if you are tone deaf and without a musical bone in your body!

I am pleased to say that I am not alone in this way of thinking and am chuffed to be able to share the following guest post. Thanks to Kate Davison and Helen Nixon for sharing.

There is so much good stuff to share that is going to take up two blog posts. This is the first installment!

MUSIC TO MY EARS!

by Kate Davidson (and Helen Nixon)

Over the past six months I have been working on a music project with private nurseries in County Durham. The outcomes have surprised all concerned. I met Alistair at a conference and talked to him about our findings and he invited me to write an article for the blog.

Where did we start?

My background, education and first love is music although it isn’t what I do for a living now. Music has always been a major part of my life having played instruments for over twenty years. Once my daughter, Ella, was born I suddenly entered the early years world and was really surprised at how limiting the musical experiences were for young children.

Firstly, most of the commercially available music for children was horrible. It largely consisted of twee, nursery rhyme recordings occasionally with “characters” performing in an empty, soulless monotone – Pinky and Perky murdering the Grand Old Duke of York finished me off!

Oh.....the........Grand Old Duke of York!

Secondly the classical music available to children is generally boring and classical can be so powerful and exciting! I work on the basis that if I’m bored by something, the average child will be too.

I found that in my limited experience of settings, music tended to be very compartmentalised, into “sing time” or “musical instrument fun”.

This frustration increased after reading an article in a journal that implied that settings needed to buy in a professional musician to deliver music. Now to be clear, I would love every single child to be taught music by a musician but I am a School Finance Officer (helping schools prepare budgets) in my day job and so I am very aware that generally resources just don’t stretch to that. My fear was that the tone of the article would make practitioners feel that they just couldn’t do music themselves and that if they couldn’t afford a musician, not to bother.

I have links to the Early Years team in County Durham and so began working with Helen Nixon, Quality Promotion Officer. I was convinced that with Helen’s early years expertise and my musical knowledge we could create some exciting resources. From this our project was born and we began working with a selection of interested practitioners.

The Project

Our underpinning research objectives were defined as:

1. Can non-musicians lead innovative, exciting musical activities?

2. Can non-musicians lead innovative musical activities and enjoy it?

3. Can musician and early years professionals collaboratively produce

The practitioners involved in the project have a reputation for being receptive to new ideas however most were quite open that they were indifferent to because of bad experiences with school music lessons. It was also suggested that some of the other staff in the setting may not be open to changing the styles of music played.

My specialism during my degree was in film music. This is an amazing field because if it is done well you shouldn’t notice 95% of it but if you watch a film without it, it wouldn’t have half the impact. The music is there for creating mood, atmosphere, emotion and building drama. This is where our starting point came from; we asked each of the nurseries to choose their favourite stories and I choose short extracts of music (largely classical) that told the story.

The list consisted of the contemporary titles like The Gruffalo and also, some fairy stories and some well loved favourites like the Hungry Caterpillar.

Almost all practitioners had asked for the Bear Hunt so we started with that and Dear Zoo as it was my daughter’s favourite story. We asked them to take the CD away with a list of the tracks I had chosen with an explanation and to use it in their setting but gave no further instructions.

For illustration the Dear Zoo list is included:

1 Elephant - Entry of the Gladiators: Triumph March. By Fucik

This is a big sound and has a larger than life feel. It has a feel of happily stomping!

2 Giraffe - The Love of Three Oranges Suite: March. By Prokofiev

This always feels very aloof and as if it is looking down at you which makes it seem to fit a giraffe.

3 Lion - The Firebird: Infernal Dance of Kastchei. By Stravinsky

This sums up fierce! The low tune suggests the beast tugging and fighting restraints with the higher instrument stabs sounding like snarls and growls.

4 Camel - Peter and the Wolf: Grandfather. By Prokofiev

The low bassoon tune has a surly quality which seems to sum up the camel.

5 Snake - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Parade of the Slave Children. By John Williams

There is a threatening quality to this. The pulsing accompaniment makes it feel like the snake is slithering. The high snippets of melody evoke the image of the snake tongue darting.

6 Monkey - Wallace and Gromit Theme. By Julian Nott

There is an exuberant cheekiness to this which suggests a naughty monkey.

7 Frog - The Comedians: Gallop. By Kabalevsky.

The bounciness of the accompaniment makes the jumpiness of the frog come to life.

8 Dog - You Got a Friend in Me. Randy Newman.

This gives the feel of friendliness of the relationship between the child and the dog.

The practitioners were encouraged to take the project in any direction they or their children chose. We were amazed at how creative and interesting the different directions had been; in fact this has been an ongoing theme of the project. Most nurseries had gone with the Bear Hunt and it had centered around dramatising the story. The reflections included children planning their Bear Hunt, taking their Bear Hunt outside with the music or creating a powerpoint presentation which the children had narrated and helped design.

All said the music had made the story come to life and had engaged children who were not usually interested in story. Practitioners reported their delight with an impact on a vulnerable child’s emotional well-being and a few settings reported boys being especially engaged.

The nurseries were asked to build on their current work and to try another story.

The next meeting came and the reflections were equally exciting. One nursery in an affluent area had a video taken at home of a two year old reciting the entire Gruffalo story. She said she was able to remember it because of the musical cues. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a nursery in an area of extreme deprivation said the stories were just too much for her children as they have such severe CLL problems.

From this came the launch of the DVD versions of the stories. I was very clear in my mind that I wanted the children to use their imaginations in how they responded to the music and not to create image associations. I put the DVDs together based on the playlists but with a series of photos to help bring the story to life.

The DVDs have been very popular but especially beneficial in the setting where children need early intervention of CLL support. It has helped the children understand the stories and learn to love them in a media that is more familiar to them. They have then progressed to investigating the books.

Another unexpected consequence has been with improving engagement for parents’ with basic skills problems. An extreme example is of a severely blind father being able to watch the story on a large screen with his son and so now he understands the story, he is able to help his son engage with the book.

From this meeting it became clear that the settings were all developing their own interest areas. As practitioners were becoming confident with leading musical activities they were understanding the potential and feeling able to identify areas where they could create (or ask for help to) musical resources. From this point it is easier to discuss the settings and their interests separately however we have kept the central theme of stories running through the project and are adding more titles as requests come in. We are also using themed play lists that are matched to events, topics or activities e.g. dinosaurs, countries, Christmas, Royal Wedding etc

Each setting has their own story so more individual stories to follow…

Thanks Kate, I will look forward to the next installment!

All this talk of the Gruffalo reminded me of a couple of things that you might be interested in. One is the use of Story Stones as an alternative way to illustrate/tell a story. Given what Kate has just said in her post they would be a great to use alongside the music/sound effects that the children had created. These ones were made by my very clever wife but I have also made some brilliant versions where the children have created the illustrations on the stones.

More info on Gruffalo story stones here

Now then, while doing some work with Salford LA on the launch of their 'Book Time' initiative one of their advisory team played this video of a 4 month old baby boy LOVING being read to by his dad.

It is clear that he recognises not only the images but also the rhythm and 'music' of his dad's voice. I ever there was proof that babies benefit from being read to - this is it!

Thanks to the star of the video, his dad and Salford for passing it on for me to share.

Alistair

6 Comments

Loved the idea of putting music to stories, sadly, I dont have a background in it. We are doing all things Gruffalo for however long the children are interested and learning. Where can I find the recommendations for music to accompany and enhance learning from this fabulous text?
By the way Alistair, have just downloaded the disco version of star wars for our first phonics lesson, my daughter has transferred Forget You to memory stick for dough gym (how do you know about Cee Lo Green??) and I have a bag full of used teabags for colour recognition. looks like a busy week in Kent. regards, Sylvia.

Posted by: sylvia | 25/09/2011 at 02:10 PM

Hi,
is it possible to get the suggested list for Bear Hunt. I'm teaching music in Reception as PPA cover. They are about to begin a topic on We're going on a bear hunt and it would be lovely to link in.

Thank you,

Helen

Posted by: [email protected] | 10/01/2013 at 10:12 PM

I would also love Going on a bear hunt music. This sounds so good. I am so not musical but love the idea of stories and music linked. Thanks

Posted by: Lynda | 02/07/2013 at 05:37 PM