Musical creativity in the baby room – Part 2

In the first part of this series, we looked at why it’s so important to embrace musical creativity in the baby room. In this second part, I’ll introduce some reflective prompts to get you reflecting as a baby room team on what you’re doing at the moment and what you might want to develop for the future.

I’m going to separate the reflective prompts into four parts: 1) enjoying music, 2) appreciating music, 3) creating music and 4) sharing music. Let’s go!

Enjoying music

•How often do you put music on in the room?

•How do you listen to the music? Through speakers, through a phone or tablet – what is the quality of the sound like? Is it worth investing in a new system for listening to music, so that the quality of the sound is immersive and enjoyable? When music sounds tinny, it’s quite hard to fully enjoy it.

•What purpose is the music serving? Is it to smooth transitions? Is it there as background for play? Or are there times of the day when the music is itself more of a focus?

•Who chooses the music you listen to? How much variety is there in the music that you listen to? Is it always nursery rhymes? I want to give you permission to explore music beyond nursery rhymes. I’ve been told by many baby room educators that they’re worried that if they music on in the baby room that wasn’t nursery rhymes, this would be seen as unprofessional. But you are a professional and you know the professional rationale for listening to all types of music with the babies: you are widening their horizons and connecting through music. If you need to beef up your own commitment to this rationale, go back to the first part of this blog post. If in doubt and if it helps, you can tell your manager that ‘Dr Mona Sakr said it was great to listen to different types of music with babies!’ and pass on my details 🙂

•Are there simple ways to broaden the musical horizons of the baby room and also connect to educators’ passions for music, as well as families’ passions for music? What do YOU love to listen to? Find out from your team what kinds of music they each love and welcome it all in. There is no right answer here. Find out from families what they’re listening to and be explicit that you’re not so interested in nursery rhymes; you want to know what music they’re truly enjoying at home together as a family.

Appreciating music

•Do you move your bodies in response to the music? Do the babies see you swaying your bodies and smiling when the music you love comes on? Do they see you singing along and loving it? Do they see you going to that place of musical reverie, where we tip our heads back and close our eyes for a moment and let the music flood our bodies?

•Do you introduce the music to the babies? If so, how? Do you sometimes pause while listening to the music and start to sing or hum along, or hit out a rhythm that echoes what is happening in the music?

•Do you make music at the same time as appreciating music (e.g. shaking tambourines while listening to the music)?

•Do you focus observations on babies appreciating music and share these with families? Signal to your families that you love music and that you love babies’ engagement with music. We are often so excited to share with families that a baby has taken their first steps, but we don’t get nearly so excited about the first time we see a baby move their body in response to music. But it’s huge! They are learning to engage in a whole new communication system. We can support families to see just how wondrous and beautiful this is.

Creating music

•What musical instruments are available in the baby room? Are they part of the core provision? Is there a mixture – with some instruments coming out at special times (e.g. larger drums)?

•What group singing activities and group music-making activities are part of a daily/weekly routine in the baby room?

•How confident are you in using song with the babies? Do you use call and response? Do you experiment with volume, pitch, tone etc.? There are some wonderful artists and resources out there (e.g. Ella Jenkins) that can help to boost your own repertoire of call and response.

Sharing music

•Do you know what the babies are listening to at home? Find out your parents’ and carers’ musical interests and tastes; ask them for music recommendations and let them know you’re not talking about nursery rhymes. Make it simple for them. If you have an online tool you use for communication with families, ask them each week to make one song recommendation for the baby room. You can build a playlist out of all of these recommendations and make observations of how the babies engage with this different music – to show families that you’re taking this seriously.

•Do parents and carers know what the babies are hearing at nursery? It works both ways. Could you share the baby room playlist you’ve made for a) calming down time, b) focused play time, c) party time? Babies love to hear things move back and forth between nursery and home – it’s stimulating and at the same time, deeply reassuring.

•Are there pools of knowledge and understanding about music among your families that you could be drawing more from? Maybe one of the parents plays a musical instrument and they could come in and play to the babies. Maybe there’s an older sibling who is learning a particular style of dance and perhaps they can show it to the babies. This is about getting curious and being genuinely interested in what families have to offer. You’ll need to reassure parents and carers that you’re not looking for experts; you’re interested in everyone getting involved as much as they possibly can, and that you’re so grateful for their time and energy.

Take-home message

Ok, if there’s just one thing I want you to take from reading this it’s that you have permission to explore music in the baby room that is not explicitly designed for babies and children. More than having permission, by inviting in a wealth of music to enjoy, appreciate, create and share, you are giving something so beautiful to both babies and families. You are helping the baby room to be alive with a whole other form of communication that matters so much to us as humans: MUSIC.