Portrait of
Early Music Competence
lIn infancy, normal children
sing, babble, produce undulating
patterns, and imitate tones sung by others.
lAn important transition in their musical lives occurs in
the middle of the second
year of life when them begin to emit tones that explore small intervals from seconds to fourths.
lThey begin to invent spontaneous songs and imitate short patterns from familiar songs.
lBy age three or four, the
original tunes and exploratory sound
play give way to conformity as they begin to limit themselves to the songs of the dominant
culture.
lBy school age, children know what a song should be according to the cultural practice. They can
produce a fairly accurate
rendition of common melodies.
Gardner,
1983