Increasingly researchers are trying to show how new technologies can be used to provide opportunities for creative and more expansive music education for young children. Accepting that young children’s capacity for self expression is vastly underestimated, two young students and I set about musicking through an example of collaborative songwriting. Drawing on case study methodology using digital visual and audio technology, I offer the reader and listener an experience of the affective dimensions involved in composing music with two preschool-aged children. I challenge preconceived notions of music pedagogies for young children, and provoke implications for generating far greater vitality, self expression, and imagination in music education.
From Seed to Song: Affective Dimensions in Multimodal, Collaborative Songwriting
Claire Hollingsworth is a postgraduate student in the Faculty of Education at Monash University and the founder of Songs from Afield (songsfromafield.com), a collaborative songwriting project with children. Correspondence to: Claire Hollingsworth, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Building A, Peninsula Campus, McMahons Road, Frankston, Victoria 3199, Australia. Email: claire@songsfromafield.com.
Avis Ridgway is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Correspondence to: Avis Ridgway, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Building A, Peninsula Campus, McMahons Road, Frankston, Victoria 3199, Australia. Email: avis.ridgway@monash.edu.
Claire Hollingsworth, Avis Ridgway; From Seed to Song: Affective Dimensions in Multimodal, Collaborative Songwriting. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research 1 September 2014; 3 (3): 314–335. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2014.3.3.314
Download citation file:
