Sound qualities in Early Childhood Education: an analysis of textbooks in Spain

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to analyse activities on sound qualities raised in Early Childhood Education textbooks from an educational-musical point of view. The sample consisted of 1391 activities in textbooks from the leading publishing houses in Spain. For data collection an ad hoc instrument called the Protocol for the Systematic Analysis of Musical Activities was developed. It has been used both exploratory statistics for descriptive analysis and confirmatory statistics for a univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis of different variables. Results showed that the qualities which were most worked on were timbre and duration with intensity and pitch being least. Activities that worked on parameters most were those related to playing instruments, with the exception of duration, which was more present in movement/dance activities. Finally, two thirds of musical activities in textbooks were related to qualities of sound, reflecting the importance publishers place on these in the teaching-learning proposals of music in Early Childhood Education textbooks.

KEYWORDS:

• Early Childhood Education
• music education
• sound qualities
• textbooks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 According to the proposal of Vicente Nicolas (2004), timbre is the first sound quality that can be taught because of its easy discrimination, as children from a very young age are able to recognise people by their voice or the sound of everyday objects and instruments. The second parameter would be loudness because it is experienced by children in their immediate environment, e.g.: speak quieter or how loud daddy snores! Musical learning would continue with duration activities working on long and short sounds that will allow the later learning of musical figures. Pitch would be the last sound quality to be taught, as it is the most difficult to discriminate, and the terms high and low are not very familiar to young children. It would be convenient to work on ascending and descending sounds first, as these would help them to recognise low and high sounds.

2 Although all current publishers use the term educational project, in this study we will use the term textbook to avoid possible terminological confusion.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Gregorio Vicente-Nicolás

Gregorio Vicente Nicolás is a lecturer in the Department of Art, Music and Physical Education, University of Murcia, where he teaches courses on graduate and postgraduate levels in the area of Didactics of Music. His research interests include music education and values, movement and music and music curriculum, methodologies and teaching materials.

Judith Sánchez-Marroquí

Judith Sánchez Marroquí is an Early Childhood Education teacher, with a degree in Psychopedagogy and Music (Guitar Speciality). Her main lines of research are music in Early Childhood Education, and music and didactic resources. At present, she works in a Preschool Centre, where she is also a music teacher.