Growing up on a farm in a large family, I spent a lot of time in my own imagination. I remember driving my family wild making up songs in the car. Anything I saw I would weave into my songs – apparently ‘clouds’ was my favourite topic. I still remember in year 5, I would always be writing songs during ‘creative writing’ time. Were they masterpieces? Of course not. However, I can still belt out a few of those phrases 20 years later, because I was creating and singing from my heart.

But somewhere between the ages of 10 and 30, this spontaneity slowly disappeared as I became more aware of what others thought of me, and corrections/suggestions led to some unhelpful perfectionism. From then on, I only played or sung music that was written down, and not composed by me.

As I moved more into classroom music teaching, and became a mother myself, I have been making a conscious decision to try to add some musical spontaneity into my home. And I have to say, this has only filled my heart with joy as I watch my little one engage, react and now begin to initiate these moments.

So, how can we work towards this? Firstly, it is important we get out of what some educators call our comfort zone and head towards the STRETCH ZONE.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

I do hope some of these ideas will help you build a little more spontaneity and playfulness into your musical journey.

Always remember: it’s FANTASTIC to make mistakes and show your little one how you learn from them and continue trying. Have fun!