<b>Children sing before they can speak! some considerations on early childhood music education

Abstract

This paper discusses the bases of music education in early childhood formal education in Brazil. Its particular context is that music became recently mandatory in all Brazilian basic education after the 11,769/2008 Law enactment. The article discusses subjects such as the children's musical culture, the relationship that early childhood teachers have with the music as an area of knowledge, the functions of music in education, and methodological suggestions for music teaching in early childhood education. The main objective of this paper is to present some theoretical backgrounds that put the music as an area of knowledge that is essential in human formation since very early age, when many children begin to attend to nursery school. The ideas developed in this paper allow drawing de following statements: music is an inseparable element of children's culture; all teaching staff engaged in early childhood education has some musicality, even without having previous opportunity of formal music study; the functions of music in children's school must overcome the utilitarian role. Finally, three fundamental principles that should be part of the practice of music education in early childhood education are proposed: practicing music (with an emphasis on singing); exploring objects’ sounds; and music listening. Some didactic guidelines are presented for each one of these principles.