Musical Creativity and Collaboration in Early Childhood
Musical Creativity and Collaboration in Early Childhood
This session will explore settings and activities that encourage children to share different roles in the common improvisation/creation of music. Creative activities should encourage problem solving, self-expression, imagination, and empathy.
Creativity grows from a combination of known factors (knowledge, skills and understandings gained from our own experiences) and the freedom and encouragement to invent and experiment in new and interesting ways. We must be willing to look outside of the box, break out of a mold and allow ourselves and our young students to open their
creative doors – to reach out and try new ideas. As we begin this creative process – often one experience leads to another and the true flow of creativity immerges.
Collaboration may be addressed on many levels:
Teachers may collaborate to provide crossover experiences within curriculum units.
Teachers collaborate with parents to bring special knowledge bases and skills into the classroom and encourage parents to continue to build on the creative activities that have been introduced in the preschool environment.
Children collaborate freely during play, in a large group sharing new learning experiences and developing skills, and in smaller groups exploring new ways to express
musical ideas and activities. Children tend to improvise more freely in small groups.
When ideas are shared, children gain confidence, learn tolerance and empathy, develop leadership skills, and enjoy their mutual accomplishments and performances.
Kinesthetic engagement with body movement is an integral part of the creative process.
Children experience pulse and meter as they explore ways of playing various instruments. Children process their creative ways of moving and playing instruments within their group and communicate physically and verbally (show and tell) how they want to respond. Groups should be given the opportunity to experience and explore many musical styles and cultures in environments that encourage group interaction and creativity.
The combination of creative ideas and collaboration can lead to maximum satisfaction of our teaching objectives. Children will learn to experiment and explore the parameters of movement, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, tempos, and instruments. This exploration allows them to develop confidence in their own music making skills.