Music Around the World

© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care. All rights reserved.

Most children love to listen to music. As they listen, they begin to understand the value of music in their lives.

Play music from around the world as you go about your daily routines to help your child notice differences and similarities in the sounds from around the world.

Local libraries are a great resource for finding CDs of music from around the world such as “Animal Playground,” Putumayo Kids, World Music Adventure.

Find a place indoors or outdoors where your child can dance and move around freely for this activity.

• Play one of your child’s favorite songs or tunes. As you listen, name the instruments you hear and talk about the music using sound vocabulary such as loud/soft, high/low, etc.
• Then play a piece of music by a different performer. As you listen, talk about the music. What instrument made that loud BOOM? Did you hear that in the first song? Which music is softer? Is it making you dance faster or slower?
• Now play the two pieces of music again, grab a scarf, dance, and have some fun.

For bedtime reading, you may want to also check out of the library a storybook that relates to a type of music you might listen to. For example, Kitchen Dance by Maurie Manning relates to tango music.