Characteristics of children's musical inventions using a synthesiser

Abstract

Discrimination of musical concepts and ideas, particularly in early childhood, is closely related to learning through first-hand, trial-and-error experiences using concrete materials. Some researchers (eg, Swanwick and Tillman, 1986) have studied the development of aural discrimination and the process of creating musical order by analysing children's improvisations. However, these researchers have not investigated musical perception and improvisation in relation to other musical dimensions, such as expressiveness, while composing. This paper provides descriptions of preschool, grade 1, grade 3, grade 5 and grade 7 children's compositional characteristics while improvising on a synthesiser. It focuses on children's abilities to incorporate timbral, bodily-kinaesthetic, technical, structural, expressive/imaginative, learned and intuitive dimensions into their musical compositions.