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| Stella Skinner |
| Useful Resources & Tips for
your setting |
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| Music |
| Most music making in the early years
should involve singing and rhythmic work using hand held
un-tuned percussion instruments. These are instruments
that produce a rhythm rather than a tune. However, many
children of nursery and reception age are ready and have
the enthusiasm to experiment with tonal instruments such
as xylophones and electronic keyboards. |
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| Essential range of instruments |
| • Hand held percussion suitable
for early years children, such as egg shakers, claves,
tambourines, tambours, maracas, triangles, Indian bells,
sleigh bells, small drums, woodblocks, agogos. It is highly
recommended that you buy high quality instruments, fewer
if necessary, rather than a lot of cheaper plastic instruments. |
| • Several tuned instruments
such as the little xylophones sold by the Early Learning
Centre have coloured keys and enable the children to invent
a tune and recall it by a pattern of colours. |
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| Desirable additions to your range
of instruments |
| • A range of ‘real’
instruments, some examples of which follow, reflecting
the richness and diversity of our culture. These can be
ordered from general educational suppliers or local music
shops. Consider the cultures, which are represented in
your setting and ask for advice from the families. |
| • Mbira (African thumb piano). |
| • Djembe (African drums). |
| • Darabuka (Middle East and
North African drums). |
| • Panpipes. |
| • Electronic keyboards. |
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| New ideas |
| • Keep a look out for new developments
in musical resources as they are constantly evolving.
For example, Boom-Wackers are tuned plastic tubes which
can be beaten on different surfaces to produce single
notes, chords and patterns. They are a particularly effective
way to draw boys into music making because they involve
large-scale movement to create sounds. These and related
music resources are available through main-stream educational
suppliers and good music shops. |
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| Make your own instruments. |
| • Ensure you keep a well-stocked
range of items to enable children to explore the possibilities
of making their own instruments to produce a required
sound. These will include card tubes, Clingfilm, dried
pulses, and sticks. It is also well worth exploring the
shops at specific times of the year, for example Easter
time, as you can find reduced plastic egg containers to
make into simple egg shakers. |
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| Record your music |
| • Make sure you have a reasonably
good quality cassette player or similar to enable the
children to record their music making. Don’t forget
many mobile phones will record sound. |
| • You will also need an extensive
range of different types of music for the children to
listen to. We would recommend that young children are
not automatically exposed to ‘background’
music all day long because they begin to lose the ability
to really listen to a piece of music, which is a skill
in itself. |
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© Sage Publications Ltd.
