Type, function and musical features of preschool children's spontaneous songs

This chapter reports aspects of a 3-year study of the singing of eight pre-schoolers. Monthly video recordings were made of the children's spontaneous singing during play. After transcription, these 443 songs and play episodes were coded for demographic, musical, and social aspects; the resultant dataset transferred to a qualitative software package (NUD-IST) for analysis and interpretation. Results exhibit some congruence with prior studies, especially those for which the social context of music making was considered important. The children used songs for specific purposes, but individual patterns of musical development were distinctly different. Findings expand previous developmentally based investigations by showing that conceptions based on a unidirectional model of musical development, closely linked to age, need to be refined to consider the diversity of social contexts and generative processes.