“And the rabbit jumped over the fence, and then do you know what he did?” We can get a group of children in the palm of our hand with an expressive story. The imagination is so powerful that children literally become lost in the story. Stopping the story to reprimand or praise a child, or even to respond to an individual child’s answer to the story’s question, destroys the magic. It breaks the spell. It takes the children out of their fantasy and back to reality.
The musical imagination is just as powerful, and children become equally lost in rhythm and tonal narratives. Well-meaning verbalizations to praise, reprimand, coax, or instruct take children out of their musical mind and back to the thinking mind. Little children understand non-verbal communication better than we do. The more we communicate non-verbally, the more musical our classes become and the more children lose themselves in the wonder of the art.
The musical narrative is magic. Both meter and tonality compel the musical imagination, creating a “sound environment” that entrances young children. The more the meter or tonality dominates the activity, the more attentive children become and the longer they attend to meter or tonality.
We must trust the musicality of the young child and the power of meter and tonality, and provide for young children’s intimate rendezvous with rhythm and tonal narrative.
