Pacing is the summation of your handling of energy—children’s energy, the energy of movement, the energy, design, selection, and ordering of activities, the energy, placement and choice of songs in your lesson plan, the energy of transitions, the energy of prop distribution and collection, and your energy.

Fast or slow is not the issue with pacing, nor is your personal tempo. Rather, effective pacing—the sculpted flow of energy throughout a class of little children—has to be efficient. The “seamless children’s play” has to have momentum from start to finish. Dead space in a staged children’s play generally indicates that characters forgot their lines or missed their cues. Similarly, dead space in an early childhood music class generally indicates a lack of lesson planning and disregard for children’s energy. Inefficient pacing produces fidgety children, disorder in the classroom, difficulty pulling children back in, and a frustrating experience for all.

You are a musician. Teaching a music class of little children is the artistic execution of the composition that you are to perform in ensemble with children and parents, rehearsed by quality lesson planning, so that you can smoothly turn every phrase musically, build each line, shift dynamics, hasten or slow tempo, moving from start to finish with momentum, expression, joy, and artistry.