The Practice of Early Childhood Musicality Education in Germany
Leli Kurniawati
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Musical Education, Early Childhood.
Abstract: Music has an important role to play in a child's life, especially in children's development. Therefore, this paper
discusses the importance of music in optimizing tasks of early childhood development in accordance with the
stages of his development. Things that are discussed is a result of direct observation and experience of playing
music with children at an early age. The purpose of music education for the child is to introduce more to
various related parties both in the school environment and around about the importance of music as a powerful
medium to stimulate all the basic potential of children in order to develop properly and optimally. Thus, music
education held in PAUD institutions is not just a child learning to sing and play musical instruments so they
have special skills in that field or just to channel their interest and talent in the field of music, Far from that,
music can be understood as one of the areas of science that have a special role for the development of their
lives. This paper presented about various "suggestions" of playful music activities for children, including how
the methodology of delivery as the main discussion in this paper so that it can be used as an alternative model
of music education for children in the early childhood education level. And it is expected that teachers who
do not have qualifications in the field of science can implement it in accordance with the needs in the field.
1 INTRODUCTION
As it is known that Indonesia is one of the developing
countries in line with the time following the
development of increasingly sophisticated
technological science, it causes the increasing
competition of human resources quality. So, the
younger generation should choose to survive with a
better quality. In order to strengthen the stance and
clarity of the child's identity, then educators should
not only equip them with science. However, there are
more important things, especially in relation to the
formation of identity, namely through the building
attitudes and characters from an early age. So the
Indonesian Children have a good attitude as a human
being. The real Indonesia is a man who has a balance
in carrying out religious values in his everyday life.
Building a good attitude should be invested early,
because the early age is the golden age that will affect
someone’s life in the future. If at this stage of age
children get optimal stimulus, then the tasks of
development will grow and run well, optimally, and
productively. Through this, children can be prepared
to become productive human resources in the future.
So as to compete in the era of globalization.
With regard to human resource development
efforts, including the development of attitude,
knowledge, and skill competencies, attention should
be paid to the needs at every level of education.
Because there will be different formulations for each
level especially in relation to the effort of developing
the competence. The earlier the educational level is,
the greater the composition of planting each of these
competencies should be. Because the formation of
attitudes and character development in early
childhood will be a strong foundation. It will not be
realized if the formulation is not in accordance with
the proportion. Therefore, there need to be good and
appropriate strategies in order to build the expected
attitudes effectively.
Another thing that need to be taken into account
by teachers and facilitators is that every child is
unique and different from one to another so that they
are not as easy as managing elder level child.
Children at the same age can be compared. Their
needs are different even though they are in the same
level of development. This must be considered
carefully by teachers and parents so as to not
misunderstand the upbringing technique. In this
condition, creative and innovative teachers are
needed to create more comfortable and fun learning
Kurniawati, L.
The Practice of Early Childhood Musicality Education in Germany.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 2, pages 339-343
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
339

atmosphere. If this can be achieved, the educators’
competences are also achieved.
The educational process leading to the
development of attitudes and character in early
childhood education is not an instant thing and can be
achieved in a short time. It needs long, consistents
and continuous process in line with the children
learning diversity. Any education process that will be
applied to children should consider how early
childhood learning is done through "learning by
playing" and "playing while learning". If the learning
process is carried out through playing activities, the
learning process will be more comfortable,
meaningful and child-friendly. Playing is also one
way of introducing real world situation. Zulkifli
(1995, p:41) stated that “the real world situation will
be introduced and known through playing activities”.
Playing may introduce children a new things that they
had never found at school or at home. Playing can
also stimulate the children to experiment based on
their interests, needs and skills. This can bring joy to
the children. They experience no compulsion or
pressure from others. According to Hurlock (1991,
p.320) “playing is an activity that has no rules except
those set by the players themselves and no final
outcome intended in the external reality". This
statement makes it clear that in play, the child is not
charged a responsibility as the adult game does to
achieve a certain goal.
Based on observations in several kindergartens in
Bandung that the author did in last three years, the
growth of the competences above are in a less
successful process. The main problem is the presence
of a gap between expectations and reality in
achieving the goals of early childhood education. The
main cause is the mismatch of teaching methodology
applied by the teacher, and the lack of understanding
to the child's development.
One example is that in early childhood there are
reading, writing, and arithmetic lessons using
approaches as for school-aged children. Ironically,
this is used as one of the benchmarks of successful
implementation of education at that level. Actually
this activity is not entirely wrong, if the approach
made by the teacher adjusts to the abilities and needs
of the children. In reality, the teacher seems to get
pressure or demands from parents, which causes them
can not avoid this situation. So that this condition as
if forced to not care about the limits of the ability of
the child's reasoning power. Therefore, learning as
intended, contains elements of coercion so that
children can successfully achieve the objectives of
the activity.
Though such a learning process can be done
through playing activities so that reading, writing,
and arithmetic for children are not complicated
matters. Learning while playing is nor rarely seen in
PAUD. The fact is that the teaching and learning
process is a monotonous atmosphere. In this
situation, the teacher just runs the routine, so there is
almost no effort to create activities that can foster
children's creativity. If only this is done, then the
learning activities while playing will bring
excitement for children. In addition to this, if the
process of such activities can take place in early
childhood, then the basic competence of the child can
be built positively. Through this effort, the cultivation
of children's social attitudes will develop properly
and optimally so that they can later become good
members of society. One of the other play activities
is through music to overcome child boredom. Playing
fun music can stimulate the development of all the
basic potential of the child. Nevertheless not always
learning music can be said to be fun if the learning
methodology is not tailored to meet the needs of the
children. Because there is often no communication
between the children and their teachers.
2 THE ROLE OF MUSICAL
EDUCATION FOR EARLY
CHILDHOOD
As already discussed at a glance above that music has
an important role in helping the early childhood
development. The basic potential of children in the
physical, emotional, cognitive, creative, language and
social aspects can be developed optimally at an early
age through various musical activities. Therefore, this
basic potential needs to be stimulated well in
accordance with the development of their age. In
addition to this, music can stimulate children to move
actively, express things freely, so these two things can
be a means to create a fun atmosphere for children. In
general, the outcomes of these activities can be
beneficial to foster a child's overall development and
foster a healthy personality and a strong soul.
Gruhn (1998, p.11) said that:
“ children need music. It does not have to be
if it's a majestic or simple, classical, jazz or
rock, but they need a sound that sounds and
its rhythm stimulates them to move. They
need it for the developmental needs of all of
their senses and cultivate a creative attitude
to develop their experience of space and
time, and to describe the structure of music
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340

that can all be reinforced under their
consciousness. "
The above statement is meaningful to explain that
music has a very important role for the needs of child
development. This should be recognized by various
parties, especially by art educators. They understand
that music has become an inseparable part of the
world of children. Only, they have the limitation to
apply the right formula, according to the level of
development and characteristics of early childhood.
So the music games have not been fully applied in the
form of musical activities that are meaningful and
beneficial for the child.
3 PLAYING MUSIC
METHODOLOGY
Playing music is identical only by teaching singing
only. The picture of the activity is that teachers teach
repetitive songs without any other activities that can
involve children actively. If this continues to happen,
then playing music will be a very tedious activity. In
fact, singing is one of the musical activities favored
by children.
Based on the author's observation, there are
various limitations that become obstacles for the art
teachers in Early Childhood Education, among
others, is no curriculum of Early Childhood Musical
Education which can be an orientation to develop
learning materials.Then the limitations of teaching
materials that can provide a musical experience for
the children. Haselbah (1989, pp. 10) adds that "there
should be teaching materials that focus on a variety
of activities related to aesthetic values". Teaching
materials available so far, the portion contains more
about theories that express the notion of the various
terms, not the instructions for conducting practices
that lead to the experience of sound. This fact is
obvious to most teachers, but teachers feel powerless
to implement it all because they have limited musical
competence.
4 MUSICAL EDUCATION FOR
EARLY CHILDHOOD MODEL
Below are a variety of music play activities that can
be done with early childhood that is expected to
increase child creativity and develop child sensitivity.
4.1 Singing
Singing is one of the musical activities that is
considered very easy and preferred by everyone even
if the person cannot sing well. What is needed to sing
is actually very easy, because the required media is
the sound that is generally already available to
everyone. Only what is needed is how to process the
material to be said to sing with "good", that is singing
in accordance with the rules that exist in the grammar
of music in effect so that people can enjoy the strains
of a song sung by someone. Why does singing
become an important activity in music education?
Haselbach (1989, p.12) said that:
"Singing or in general the use of sound is
considered important and important in the
education of early childhood musicality.
Sound is something that has been available
since one was born. Our body is the resonance
of the musical instrument and the sound we
carry throughout our lives. They are bridges to
advance musical experiences such as the color
of sound, rhythm, melody. We sing it alone or
together. Thoughts and experiences on the
feelings of the soul are found in addition to
singing but also in the composition of speech,
expression, and togetherness ".
The statement above illustrates that singing
activities in music education for early childhood can
actually provide many benefits for the children
themselves. The requirement is the teacher must
always be able to function the song according to the
needs of their situation and needs. In addition,
Haselbach (1989, p.12) said that:
"Singing can be used as a way to
communicate with others, initiating themes
and ways to assist in preparing sound, distance
of tone, sound of space, rhythm. Also as a
picture of the past, it stimulates an
improvisational attitude to continue singing,
dancing, encouraging to play, learning
musical instruments as a companion,
repeating the meaning of important texts,
singing on their own because they love to
sing."
The above quotation explains the teacher to be
able to overcome the monotony and boredom that
occurs when teaching a song that is always repeated
and repeated until they memorized the songs. Thus it
can give an idea that only with one of the material
children can actually learn many things. All of that
depends on the creativity of teachers in processing the
learning materials. About the method of teaching
Haselbach (1989, p.14) adds that:
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341

"Boredom in repetition can be avoided by
doing some variations in singing. For example
humming, repeating parts that have a
particular accent or in a memorable part,
singing alternately between teacher and
children, moving the basic tone, deepening the
various expressions of sound and making the
song as a game to learn various musical
parameters.
Another process of activity related to sound or
singing is to find and use different colors of sound.
Spontaneity and fantasy are two factors that play a
major role in the process of the activity, considering
that at the age of the children both factors can be a
bridge for their active involvement. Mastery of
material on children's songs and game songs is a
must-have for a teacher. Thus the concentration of
teachers will not be much divided on the material
itself, for example, because it has not memorized the
song text and or other things. Thus, the whole time
can be used to answer the response given by the
children. It is very important to note because it will
be associated with the smooth process of these
activities. Singing for children is an activity that can
add vocabulary, improve speaking skills, and can add
insight into things they do not know yet. Thus singing
is not only one of the arts activities but also relevant
to the language education for them.
4.2 Simple Musical Instrument Game
Simple musical instruments assumed with a game of
percussive pitchless musical instrument. Why is this
thing said simple for children to play? Because the
process requires no special game techniques as a
piano, guitar and so forth. Rather it only hit the hand
either with the bat or directly with the hand on the
instrument without the need for the complexity of
coordination between the hands and eyes. The game
of simple musical instruments is also said to be easy
because it does not require high concentration. The
process of basic game activity of a simple musical
instrument is done to give the child a chance to get
the sound experience from various musical
instruments. The series of activities that can be done
are:
1. They can identify sound.
2. They can explore and find various sounds and
they can distinguish the sound.
3. They are introduced to different music
parameters (octave, dynamic and tempo)
This activity can be deepened with discussions
about what they feel and tell all that they experience,
including mentioning the various parameters of
music they have experienced. Once they have basic
experience on various basic game techniques of
playing a musical instrument, activities can be
continued on deepening of the musical instrument,
for example about body percussion. Children can be
invited to know his own body as one source of sound.
It can be used as a musical instrument and can be
sounded in various ways. The body itself can be two
functions simultaneously, as the source of the sound
itself, and as a means to sound it, such as hands with
other body parts such as clapping with thigh, picking
fingers and stomping feet. Other games are for
example: we can explore gestures with sound
accompaniment, such as imitating the animals’
motion and sound.
In addition, musical activities with children can
be done by using clean waste in their surrounding
environment. We can use the waste as the musical
instrument. With children, we can create maracas by
utilizing aqua bottle bottles filled with nuts. We can
make tambourine with bottle caps. We can function
buckets as drums, and more effort to utilize the tools
around the students. Through these tools, children
have a great interest in playing "noise". This activity
will also build the child's hearing becomes more
sensitive and build their interest in music. This
activity is a valuable experience for children, because
playing music in group will indirectly shape the
process of adjustment to the social environment.
4.3 Motion and Dance
Early childhood requires a strong and natural
movement. Through motion, children learn to gain
experience of themselves and their environment.
They need this to understand their motoric needs that
are interconnected with each other. Children have an
interest to observe and recognize the situation in the
surrounding environment, they can be invited to play
mimic and gesture. It is useful to fill space and time
by playing roles with their fellow friends. They
usually play a role with motor movements agreed by
their own group. Hurlock (1991, p.171) states that
"childhood is mentioned as the ideal time to learn
motor skills because the child's body will be more
flexible than adults".
Children have a motor development that can be
interpreted as the development of elements of
maturity and control of gestures. In the development
process, gross motoric develops better than fine
motoric. When they play music together, often they
accompany the sounds with irregular gestures
according to the will of their hearts. Naturally, these
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activities have been practicing their body taste and
balance so they have good dexterity.
5 CONCLUSION
The material model presented above is just an offer
for teachers who teach music at an early childhood
level. Of course not all the material should be
mastered by the teacher and does not even have to be
taught to children, but teachers can pursue one such
material as a fun music learning orientation. If the
above material offer can be implemented optimally,
then there will be a positive impact on the cultivation
of attitudes and the formation of creative children's
character that will be facilitated and even developed
well through music art learning. Important notes for
the music teacher in particular as well as the
classroom teacher in general is make the class into an
experimental class together with the child. No need to
fear to try with things that are considered new in order
to give birth to creative and innovative attitude as one
of the competencies needed in the present and future.
REFERENCES
Gruhn, Wilfried. 1998. Musiksprache-Sprachmusik-
Textvertonung. Moritz Verlag.
Haselbach, Barbara. 1989. Improvisation, Tanz, Bewegung.
Stuttgart: Klett Verlag.
Hurlock, B.E. 1991. Psikologi Perkembangan. Penerbit
Erlangga.
Zulkifli, L. 1995. Psikologi Perkembangan. Bandung:
Penerbit Rosdakarya.
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