Music Acquisition of Children in Rural Zimbabwe: A Longitudinal Observation.

Kreutzer, Natalie Jones

Abstract. Children in sub-Saharan Africa have been observed to participate in their society's music as fully competent musicians by the age of 5. This study provides a qualitative description of the behaviors that bring children to musical competency in the Nharira Communal Lands. The narrative focuses on demographics of the area and on the community's people, musical influences, musical interactions of individual children with caretakers and peers, and caretakers' musical belief systems. The three villages observed are composed of multiple extended family groups. Their main income is from crops and livestock. The primary caretakers of the children studied are grandmothers and mothers. The majority of fathers have jobs away from home and visit only rarely. Musical influences in the communities are the European-style music of the churches and schools; the Shona-language songs from the pre-European oral tradition, including many children's educational game songs; and the modern-day commercial music styled "Afro -pop," heard occasionally on radios or brought to the village by urban relatives. Music is a central factor in social communication in the Nharira Communal Lands. Musical interactions occur in live performances conducted for ritual, in celebration, and to pass leisure time. All of the adults interviewed believe that every person is able to sing and dance. The majority observed that children can sing as well as adults by age 5. They hold music to be a powerful force for comfort and happiness in their lives.

In Piaget's model of cognitive development, the transition between the sensorimotor and preoperational stages is marked by the rise of the semiotic function. "Semiotic function" describes the use of symbols to retain in memory the abstract images of environmental stimuli (Flavell, 1985). For most children, this symbol-using capacity arises at the age of 18 to 24 months and is signaled by observable activities, such as deferred imitation, symbolic play, drawing, and use of language. Piaget (1977) considers acquisition of language the prime accomplishment of this stage of development. Music is another symbolic-representational skill that begins to appear at the same time. Although music and language are different systems in obvious ways, a case can be made that the cognitive schemes for language and music develop simultaneously. Allusions to this possibility can be found in the literature on linguistic and musical development and cognitive psychology (Anisfeld, 1984; Dowling, 1988; Gardner, 1982; Winner, 1982).

Most of the research on cognitive processing of musical information has been carried out with children from European or Euro-American cultures (Davidson, McKernon, & Gardner, 1981; Dowling, 1984, 1988; Gordon, 1990; Moog, 1976; Moorhead, & Pond, 1978). The findings have not been corroborated or contradicted by similar studies in non-Western traditions. Few ethnomusicologists have reported on children's musical behavior, perhaps because adults have tended to judge children's play as insignificant. Most ethnographies focus on adult musical performance, with observations of children limited to their preparations for initiation rituals or their peripheral participation in events of the adult society. Among researchers who have examined children's music, the emphasis is on representative repertoire, not on individual musical efforts (Addo, 1996; Blacking, 1967; Ribeiro, 1996).

The literature of musical development includes four major longitudinal studies. Moorhead and Pond (1978) carried out a landmark analysis of young children's natural musical production in Santa Barbara, California, from 1937 to 1940, observing between 12 and 27 pupils each year. Sponsored by the Pillsbury Foundation, this work focused on the self-initiated music of children between 1-1/2 and 8-1/2 years of age. Both learned and spontaneous songs were transcribed and categorized. A generation after the Pillsbury study, during 1960-61, Moog (1976) conducted a large-scale study on children's musical development. The core of the research project was a series of musical tests that were played for 500 German-speaking preschool children. Their responses were observed, their attempts at singing recorded, and their parents were interviewed for information on general development and the musical environment of the home.

More recent research in children's song acquisition has examined tonal production and perception from what has been called the symbol system approach (Hargreaves, & Zimmerman, 1992). Begun at Harvard in 1978, Project Zero was a longitudinal study of the development of competence across seven diverse symbolic domains, including language, dance, music, and visual arts. Subjects were nine first-born children from middle-class families observed from the age of 12 months to 6 years. As a check on idiosyncrasy, 70 other children were also followed cross-sectionally. Results were reported as trends became evident (see Bamberger, 1978; Bamberger & Brody, 1984; Davidson, 1982; 1985; Davidson & Scripp, 1988; McKernon, 1979).

Gordon (1990) systematized a music learning theory for children that is based on the developmental literature and his own long-term testing of children for music aptitude, using the instruments he devised--the Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA), and the Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation ( IMMA). His outline of observed stages of music acquisition provides a useful synthesis.

Evidence from these longitudinal studies and from a handful of smaller-scale observations points toward cognitive internalization of musical structure before age 5 (see also Davies, 1992; Dowling, 1988). Children as young as 6 have demonstrated the ability to utilize mental schema for the organization of musical sound on a level nearly equal to that of older children and adults. The mode of this cognitive organization is postulated to be through tonal material.

A synthesis of the major production-based longitudinal studies of music acquisition among children outlines the following broad developmental stages (Davidson 1985; Davidson, McKernon, & Gardner, 1981; Dowling, 1984; Gardner, 1982; Gordon, 1990; Moog, 1976; Moorhead & Pond, 1978):

1. Children imitate tonal patterns of language and match pitch at a better-than chance rate during their first year.

2. Around age 1-1/2, after a period of creating undulating waves of vocal sound, children begin to use repeated fragments of rhythmically patterned discrete tones.

3. By age 3, children seem to have mastered the outline of song form.

4. Between the ages of 3 and 4, children produce structured songs with an approximation of their broad contours; the pitches of early songs seem to float within the vocal range; intervals, although correct in direction, are often compressed to be smaller than those in the correct rendition; and finally, children at this age do not reproduce the wider skips.

5. At age 4, children begin more accurate production of discrete pitches in songs; intervals are increasingly precise.

6. Most 5-year-olds can sing a recognizable version of a learned song.

7. Productions exhibiting a consistently stable tonal center and scalar organization generally do not occur until age 5 or after (66 months, according to Gardner, 1982).

The author conducted a study (Kreutzer, 1997) to see if the age-related stages of music acquisition described in the literature could be observed in children of non-Western cultures. She observed over 200 children in the Nharira communal lands of central Zimbabwe over a year's time. She video-recorded vocal productions of six subjects for each of the six-month age categories between birth and age 7, and followed their musical development by recording the same productions four to six months later. Data analysis was conducted with feedback from community members and Zimbabwe music specialists. Input on the level of performance was given, based on whether children were advanced or delayed for their ages. In conjunction with these holistic assessments, the researcher's detailed analysis of each production quantified accuracy of intervals, the direction of melody, the end points of musical phrases, and vocal ranges used. Capabilities of children deemed average for their age were charted and assessed. The analysis of these Zimbabwean case studies revealed a common sequence in the development of song among Nharira children that parallels the age-related phases observed in children of other cultures (Davidson, McKernon, & Gardner et al., 1981; Moog, 1976; Moorhead and & Pond, 1978). The milestones of development coincide with those listed above.

Purpose

Childhood music specialists concur that the optimal environment for early music acquisition is one in which personal music as opposed to music recorded or performed for an audience, is as accessible as language for children's imitation (e.g., Gordon, 1990; Kalmar and & Balasko, 1987). In choosing a site for fieldwork in Zimbabwe, the author looked for a place where music was functional in daily routines, where music was performed by people instead of media, and where there was a population large enough to provide a pool of children between birth and age 7. In order to attain in-depth familiarity with musical behavior in the children's environment, a single locale was needed for the data collection, rather than several sites across the country. Because the focus was on children's musical enculturation within their own community, no specific musical tradition was deemed preferable to another. A place was needed where people would allow the author to conduct research without arousing suspicion.

Method

The Nharira Communal Lands of Midlands Province, Zimbabwe, provided the research environment (see Figure 1). Observations centered on festivals and church services, classrooms and informal gatherings in three contiguous communities there--Hokonya, Chivese, and Madondo. Thus, the researcher acquired a comprehensive view of the musical environment that influences children's formal and informal learning.

Data were secured through oral interviews with teachers and caretakers of the community. Information on subjects' lifespace (e.g., household setting, radio ownership), caretakers' belief systems concerning the nature of musical achievement and learning, and the social context of musical interactions was gathered through questions adapted from Slobin's (1976) outline for cross-cultural linguistic studies. Answers were transcribed as field notes by the researcher and the Shona-speaking translator. A synthesis of narrative observations and field notes reveals the following.

Results

Demographics of Nharira Communal Lands The villages in the Nharira Communal Lands surrounding the three primary schools--Madondo, Chivese, and Hokonya--are composed of extended family units; new arrivals must apply to a headman to be granted a plot of farmland and a place to construct a house. Surrounding the cultivated fields are grazing lands that are used cooperatively for cattle and goats belonging to individual families. Maize is the major cultivated crop, often interplanted with groundnuts. A few families raise sunflowers and rapoko, a small grain. Household gardens provide table greens, tomatoes, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. Most families have chickens, but meat and eggs are a special treat, since the hens are saved for production and most eggs are left to hatch. The staple food is sadza (ground cornmeal) cooked over a wood fire. Tea, sugar, cooking oil, and soap are the only necessities that are purchased.

Some basic demographics of the area serve to describe the local family structure and lifestyle, and thus the musical environment of the children observed. For the 75 families of the 92 primary subjects, the mean household contained 5.6 people, ranging from 2 to 13. Most families had two or three children. In nine families, the father was dead or no longer involved with the children. Slightly over half of the remaining fathers worked at jobs away from the communal lands. They were builders, drivers, security guards, machine operators; one was a miner, one a photographer, one a veterinarian. Although the fathers may have sent home money and come to visit during the holidays, the primary care of the majority of children was in the hands of mothers or grandmothers. Of these caretakers, 65% categorized their occupation as farming. Nine of the women called themselves housewives. Eight of them supplemented their income with sewing or crocheted handwork. Observation indicated that all of these women farmed as well. T he caretakers included five school teachers and four shopkeepers. The largest category of caretakers (19) had completed Grade 7. Twenty-three had stopped at varying grades before Grade 7; 24 had finished several grades more, including 12 women who had completed Form 4 (approximately equivalent to the third year of secondary school in the United States). One caretaker was a graduate of a teacher education course.

Daily work for the families of Nharira includes travel to and from the boreholes (wells) for water (or, during a drought, to the one running river), and forays out into the bush for firewood. There is no electricity in any of these households. However, 36% of the subjects have, or had at one time, a battery-powered radio. The overwhelming choice for a music station is a Shona-language station that plays Zimbabwe pop, traditional, and religious music of several Zimbabwean language groups, as well as American and European pop, including country/western. The radios, if owned, are used sparingly. The author heard them played on only four occasions.

The area is served by a large Roman Catholic mission, Assisi, and nearly half of the families studied were Roman Catholic; 16% were Methodist; 15% African Reformed (previously Dutch Reformed); 8% Anglican; and 3% each Seventh Day Adventist, Apostori, and Zioni. Only three families claimed no church affiliation. Thus, the music of the church is a strong influence in the area. At community funerals and weddings, songs from all the churches are sung. One informant observed that most children like the Roman Catholic choruses best because they are so singable.

Musical Influences

Four major types of music influenced the vocal productions of Nharira children: a) the religious: sung in the churches, reflecting a dual tradition, or sometimes a blend of Western hymnody and indigenous African elements; b) the didactic: songs for teaching in the British tradition, learned by rote and with solfege syllables (do-re-mi, etc.) in the schools; c) the pasichigare: the old-time traditional music of Zimbabwe, passed down in the oral tradition by elders and performed during certain rituals with mbira (metal keyed instrument), hosho (rattles), and ngoma (drums); and d) the commercial popular: mostly Shona-language songs, learned more often through oral transmission than directly from the radio.

These strands mix and mingle in community life. A popular song, "Chitekete" by Leonard Dembo, was the choice for urging on school sports teams. Traditional children's games like "Amai Varona" (Mrs. Varona) were played in juxtaposition to "Mombe Five" (Five Cows)," a European counting tune, in the creches (preschools). Children herding goats might sing a church chorus such as "Johanne 14, verse 1." At a children's moonlight play in Deshe Village, the researcher heard traditional planting and harvest songs, as well as a Michael Jackson number.

In the communities observed, music functions in nearly all daily and seasonal routines. It is transmitted by people rather than through electronic media. Children in rural Nharira experience music in every aspect of their daily lives. Adults sing while working and when they are "just sitting." Families sing before and after meals. Singing games are a favorite form of recreation whenever there is leisure time. Interviewees reported that they sing when they are happy, when they are bored, and when they are praying.

Musical Interactions

Mothers (or primary caretakers, who may be aunts or grandmothers) are the ones who sing most often to children. The researcher asked 76 mothers/caretakers when they sing to their babies. The most frequent answer was "when he cries." Some mentioned singing in the evenings. The next most frequent answer was "any time". They sing mostly songs they learned in church (N=33), from their parents or grandparents (N=30), or from their friends and elders of the community (N=14). A smaller number (N=16) said they acquired their songs from school, books, or the radio. To the question "Who else sings to your child?," the responses were brothers and sisters (N=29), neighbor children (N=24), and grandmothers (N=10); then fathers, aunts, adult neighbors, and uncles (see Table 1). Because the villages consist of extended family groups, even a first-born child will encounter other children as singing role models. Thus, musical enculturation begins at birth (or arguably before) and continues with strong encouragement to imitate family and peers. These informal processes are at work long before a child attends school and is exposed to formal instruction.

The descriptions of children's music making that follow illustrate seven categories of informal musical behaviors observed in the Nharira community: interactions a) between mother and child, b) between family and child, c) between extended family and child, d) among peers, e) within the institutions of school or church, f) self-initiated songs, and g) as a response to media. The events described feature children in chronological order, from youngest to oldest.

Example 1. Mother and child: Yuvon Chikahe, 5 months. Amai (Mother of) Yuvon elicits Yuvon's response to sounds. She claps and vocalizes short percussive sounds. Yuvon appears startled at first, then is curious and attentive, and finally reacts with laughter.

Example 2. Family--Aunt and siblings: Yuvon Chikahe, 11 months. In their home, Yuvon sits on the lap of her aunt, who is singing "Kuda kwa Baba" (Stay Near to God) along with other members of the family. Yuvon is attentive and involved; she bounces, claps, and swings her arms to the music. During pauses, Yuvon agitates for more music by reaching for her siblings and humming. In the silence at the end of the song, Yuvon stands, begins to bounce with a rhythmic pattern, and attempts to create music of her own with clapping and humming. Her clapping is not a steady beat, but rather comes in bursts of two or three. Once, she accompanies her humming with eight claps in succession. All present encourage her efforts with laughter and comments.

Example 3. Extended family: Tinashe Mutizwa, 20 months. Tinashe is at home with his 10 siblings, his grandmother, and the next-door neighbors, who have just sung the church chorus "Tipeiwo masimba' (Give Us Strength). Sitting on his mother's lap, Tinashe begins to sing softly, repeating a fragment of the text to a five-note pattern that he starts most of the time on a consistent single pitch. At his mother's instigation, he stands up and begins to clap a beat. The assembled singers pick up the song to his steady clapping. Tinashe responds to the group by singing with a rhythmic right- then left-step alternation, punctuating the strong steps with a bentarm push, elbow out, and clapping his hands once for every two steps. His grandmother ululates encouragement, and he dances with even more vigor. The music specialist feedback group identified the dance step as one from the Apostori sect. They noted that Tinashe changed styles during the dancing, and they attributed his ability to "a feel from the mother's pregn ancy."

Example 4. Peers-Neighborhood children: Melody Nhinhi, 27 months (2 years, 3 months). In the Hokonya tuck shop (a small dry-goods store), Melody is surrounded by older children who are encouraging her to participate. They are singing the call-and-response game song "Amai zvipo," which requires clapping to the rhythmic vocables "Ah-huh, ah-huh." Melody rocks and claps while she performs the response, first with the other children, and then independently. The spectators in the store laugh and applaud.

Example 5. Institutions-Church: Talent Tokoda, 53 months (4 years, 5 months). At the preschool, Talent performs the Roman Catholic processional song "Panogara Yesu Kristu" (Jesus, Stay With Us), imitating the graceful arm movements that she has observed the older girls doing in church. She is aware that she is in the limelight and sings with great poise, a strong voice, and long sustained phrases.

The researcher's outsider/watcher status inhibited many of the children's natural musical behaviors. Some of the children in the community were too shy to perform and had to be cajoled or even bribed by their caretakers with sweets. Others were eager to show off and sing the songs that they thought a murungu (white person) would want to hear them sing-that is, religious songs in the European tradition. Therefore, plans to record individual spontaneous song creations for each subject were never realized. During times of 'just sitting" with families, the researcher witnessed four events that could be labeled improvisation. One production sparked debate in many feedback sessions on whether or not it was music.

Example 6. Self-initiated music making: Mike Chidyiwa, 58 months (4 years, 10 months). Mike was waiting along with the other pupils at Madondo School for the government-issued drought relief porridge to be cooked. He had his dish -- a commercial plastic ice cream container -- and his spoon. He began pounding the plastic lid of the container with the spoon in a steady beat. Then he began to speak, to the continued accompaniment of the spoon and lid. The researcher perceived the words as a chanting rhythm: "Dega dega zvangu (Give us ours) [three duplet pairs]...[some-thing some-thing] wangu (mine) [another three duplet pairs]..." The early childhood music specialists concluded that the chant was not musical, because there was no relation between the tapping and the talking. They said he was simply thinking out loud about how happy he was that the children were getting food. Most of the Shona-speaking informants concurred with that opinion. On the other hand, if one accepts the most basic definition of music as patterned sound, this production qualifies. In performances of learned songs, Mike was judged to be far behind the average child of his age in terms of musical development. He was rated lowest of all 92 in the subject pool. If Mike's production could be considered music, however, it illustrates that even the least musical child in Nharira can respond to an inner urge to create song.

Example 7. Media: Prince Muchena, 62 months (5 years, 2 months). Prince imitates a guitar sound with repeated vocables "ta-t'na," performing a harmonic line from the instrumental interlude of a popular song, "Gomo m'sina muchero" (Hill Without Fruit). He follows with another tune, "Ndourayiwa," from the same album, Boterekwa, by the Zimbabwe artist Simon Chimbetu. It is likely that Prince learned the songs he performed by imitating the album, because his family once had a radio/tape player, before it was stolen. The fact that he sang two songs from the album in tandem supports the probability. However, he may have picked up the sequence by imitating others in the family who learned it from the commercial version.

The commercial songs sung in the Nharira community are not generally learned directly from recorded renditions; rather, they enter individuals' repertoire mediated by human transmission. Nearly all adults and children in Madondo's Deshe Village could sing a variant of Leonard Dembo's urban pop song "Chitekete." Recorded and disseminated electronically, the song might have been heard occasionally at the beer hall and in the few homes with radios. It was made popular in the communal lands by itinerant community members -- those employed in the cities who return kumusha (to the home village) for holidays and special occasions. They sang the song for the people at home, and the community adopted and adapted it. The version the researcher heard was a condensation of the original recorded text, with melodic alterations and several verses collapsed together. After more than a decade of performance, the changes to "Chitekete" were sung consistently by all community members. Such a process of oral transferal of media music has been termed "secondary orality" (Ong, 1982).

Caretakers' Belief Systems

About Musical Behaviors

Caretakers of the Nharira subjects were asked for their observations on children's singing, dancing, playing instruments, and creating music. Figure 2 represents a compilation of the community's observations of the onset of children's s musical activities. For ease of comparison, the responses have been computed as percentages and expressed as the number of children out of 100. Thus, a hypothetical group of 100 Nharira children would exhibit the listed musical behaviors at the given ages.

One answer to the question about the age that children begin to sing was "When they start to talk." The answer evokes the often-quoted Zimbabwe adage: "If you can talk you can sing; if you can walk you can dance." A distinction emerged between singing (when words are used) and humming (musical tone patterns). Children are observed to be humming long before they acquire language. Over a third of the respondents placed the onset of singing/humming at 18 months or younger.

Observations about when children begin to dance followed suit; 12% of the respondents said, "Before they walk." One connected dancing with standing, at about eight months. Fully half of the caretakers agreed that children have begun to dance by the time they were 20 months old. Dancing continued to be the favored response to music observed by caretakers for children up to age 5 (60 months), at which point singing overtook it, with 95% of children singing, 90% dancing, and 66% playing instruments. (Ssee Figure 2.).

Movement is an integral component of music-making in the Zimbabwe culture. Many children's vocal performances included some form of bouncing, stepping, or clapping. Moog (1976) reported that movement responses to music peaked in German children before age 3. After that, he observed, subjects listened more quietly. That was not the case in Nharira, where children's adult role models dance throughout life. Even the oldest grandmother does not sit when music is playing. A Roman Catholic priest at the local mission praised the church policy of incorporating traditional pasichigare music into the mass. He said he supported the changes because "my mother should not have to stand still in church."

Asked if children play musical instruments, three people answered that they do not, and one said that they "play the radio." The rest, however, named the instruments that children do play. Drums were mentioned most often (30 times); the traditional shakers, hosho, next (13 times); and the complex metal keyed instrument, the mbira, next (7 times). A scattering of respondents named guitar, marimba, chipendani (musical bow), and the bottle. Answers to the question about the age at which children begin to play were affected by whether the respondent inferred sound exploration or actual performance. Several made a distinction: children play at 3 or 4, but they play well, with rhythm, at age 10 (see Figure 2).

The Nharira caretakers were asked at the interviews if children create their own songs. Opinions were closely divided among the 59 respondents; 58% said yes, 42% said no. The few who elaborated said that children create songs at sports events. One woman remembered making up songs herself as a child, when she sat alone in the yard behind the house. Two said that children create songs at age 3 to 4, while another said that children create them beginning at age 5.

To gather perceptions on when children begin to sing as well as adults, the researcher asked the caretakers, "Vana vanoimba rini nziyo nzinofanana ne nziyo dze mhunu mukuru": When do children sing songs that sound just like the songs of adults? The answers of the 60 people from the Nharira community who answered that question are recorded in Table 2.

In the opinion of 18.3% of the respondents, children 4 years old can sing as well as adults. Combined with those who identified an earlier age, almost half, or 42.3%, think that children can sing as well as adults by the age of 4. An additional 21.7% of observers see children singing as well as adults by the age of 5. Another 13.3% think that children sing as well as adults by age 7. The next surge of opinion comes at age 10. A cumulative 96.5% of observers say that by age 10, children can sing as well as adults. It is interesting that not much improvement is observed after age 10, the age that Western researchers typically identify as the time when music aptitude development plateaus (e.g., Gordon, 1985).

The underlying assumption of those interviewed in Nharira appears to be that all people who have hearing and voices can sing. When asked, "Do some adults sing better than others--why and who?," 45 respondents agreed that there are differences. Only one person said that there are adults who cannot sing. Another said that there are poorer singers, but when asked to name one, said, "No one is a poor singer." The reasons given for why some adults sing better than others ranged from global to very specific: some people are more clever than others (N=7); some people sing discordantly (N=4) or are not well-tuned (N=1). Some people know the words better (N=2) and some can pronounce them better (N=2). Many comments focused on the quality of the voice: there are good and bad voices (N=3). "Good" was synonymous with "clear" (N=2) or "soft" (N=3), as opposed to "hoarse" (N=3) or "harsh" (N=4). One respondent said that a thick voice is better than a thin one. Another said that having either a deep or a high voice was bett er, because harmony is important. Practice (N=3) slightly outweighed training (N=2) as a reason why people become good singers. Some people are too shy to sing, even if they are good (N=2). Two respondents answered the question from the perspective of an audience, rather than as a participant: a good singer must have good tunes (N=1) and be entertaining (N=1).

The majority of the 18 people who specified an answer when asked, "Who is a good singer?" named family members--a father, a grandmother or grandfather, an older child. Four people named themselves. The rest identified people from the community, except for two of the teachers, who named the professional musicians Simon Chimbetu, Thomas Mapfumo, and Oliver Mutukudzi. An implication of these answers is that people affirm that they and others they know personally are singers; they do not think that the only good singers are those who have achieved national recognition.

The Nharira caretakers were asked, "Is it important that people sing? If so, why?" Every respondent said yes, it was important for people to sing. Their stated reasons confirmed the value of music for its ability to make people happy, to relieve sadness, and for entertainment (see Table 3). Some of the individual comments testify to music's importance in the Nharira Communal Lands:

"If [there were not singing], the world would be very down, very terrible without singing" (Amai [mother of] Brandina Matirongo).

"[Music] helps [us] to forget what has happened previously and what will be going on in the future" (Amai Prince Dondo).

"When you think of a friend [who is] far away or dead, you think of her by singing a song" (Amai Gamuchirai Bimha).

"If you have been thinking very deep, when you sing it will go away. But if you keep being silent, you will think very deep" (Amai Marlven Deshe).

"It's how life comes. If you not sing, you are so poor" (Amai Tsitsi Chidyiwa).

Conclusions and Implications

In the Nharira environment, music performance is an interactive process between mother and child, among family members of all ages, and between community members. Through daily musical communications, children develop into functional musical beings who are able to take their roles in the adult life of the community. Zimbabweans style themselves as members of a singing society. In a post-research job at the University of Zimbabwe, the researcher observed teaching practices in rural and urban schools across the country. She witnessed the use of songs for teaching in nearly every subject area, and encountered no primary teacher who could not sing. Colleagues in music at the Teacher Training Colleges confirmed this reality; they do not have to remediate singing skills at the tertiary level.

The findings of this study underscore the importance of musical experiences in early childhood, long before formal primary music education begins. Interestingly, no special educational strategies are employed to instruct young children in making music, other than modeling and the uncritical encouragement of imitation. The music existed as a component of daily routines. Adults used music to make themselves and others happy. Just as conversation is the curriculum for early language acquisition, communal music-making is the impetus for developing latent musicality.

From this tapestry of observations and opinions, four major threads emerged. In order for musical development to unfold, the environment must provide:

* music as a valued means of communication

* a relaxed expectation that every person will be musical

* emotional experiences manifested in musical interactions

* opportunities for children to move in response to music.

What does this mean for parents and early childhood care providers who want their children to develop their full music potential? They must find ways to communicate with and through music. They must applaud all efforts to make music, so that children feel safe expressing themselves musically. The natural sequence of musical development stems from modeling and imitation--that is, from doing music, not just listening.

The literature, especially the work of Gordon (1985, 1990), points to the preschool and early primary school years as crucial for musical development. The ages between 5 and 10 are a window of opportunity for certain kinds of cognitive growth, including musical aptitude. By this time, children are ripe for skill development. Classroom teachers and music specialists need to offer an environment that stimulates musical behavior. Music activities should include movement, as well as time for singing and playing instruments.

These ideas are not new. Perhaps they can carry more impact as parents and educators raise their expectations of what is possible for all human beings to achieve musically. Parental awareness of the positive effects of musical exposure has recently been sharpened by widespread media coverage of the connections between music and brain development. Music specialist Fox (2000) sifted through much research to determine what types of early music experiences affect brain development. She identified four conditions as critical to both musicaltiy and brain development: children must be actively engaged with the music, not just be passive listeners; the musical interactions must result in some type of meaningful communication; the use of imagination--learning through play--must be linked to the music; and finally, the musical learning must come through positive interactions with other people.

Recommendations for Further Research

The researcher's year among the people of Nharira strengthened a growing personal conviction that the human brain is hardwired for musical communication, that alongside language-making capacity, people have the cognitive structure for perceiving, and transmitting within, a musical symbol system. Several findings from this study raise questions for future systematic research. One is the effectiveness of holistic presentation of musical content. Is it necessary to employ "musical motherese," or simplification of musical materials, or do children employ their own ways of sequencing learning as their capacity for understanding develops? It would also be interesting to pursue the relationship between children's emotional attachment to people who make music and their inclination to emulate. Closer to the study itself would be replications of the work in other cultures and by people who are fluent in the language and traditions. For cross-cultural comparisons, it would be informative to have specialists from other t raditions evaluate the musicality of the Nharira subjects.

Natalie J. Kreutzer, former doctoral student at the School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, is now Assistant Professor of Music at Lionel Hampton School of Music, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. This article includes research conducted between 1992-94, assisted by a grant from the Joint Committee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. Funds were provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. All research was carried out with the permission of the Research Council, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Ministry of Social Welfare of Zimbabwe. A full account of the work is available from: Kreutzer, N. J. (1997). The nature of music acquisition among selected Shona-speaking people of rural Zimbabwe as reflected in the vocal productions of children from birth to 7 years.

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[Figure 1 Omitted]

Figure 2

Onset of Nharira Children's Musical Activities

Behavior Profile of Every 100 Nharira Babies

Adjusted from caretaker responses: When do children begin singing, N=65;
dancing, N=59; playing instruments, N=50, * represents one child

 Age in Months Singing Dancing Playing Instruments

 2 ******
 3
 4 **
 5 ** **
 6 ****** ****
Cumulative Total 8 2 12
 7 **
 8 **** **********
 9 *****
 10 ** **
 11
 12 ********** ********** ******
 **** ****
Cumulative Total 28 35 18
 13
 14
 15 ***
 16 **
 17
 18 ****** *** ****
Cumulative Total 34 43 22
 19
 20 ** ********
 21 **
 22
 23
 24 ********** ********** **********
 ********** ********** ******
 *****
Cumulative Total 63 71 38
 30 ****
 36 ********* ********** ********
 *******
Cumulative Total 76 88 46
 48 ********** ** ********
 **
Cumulative Total 88 90 66
 60 ******* ********
Cumulative Total 95 90 66
 72 *** *** **********
Cumulative Total 98 93 74
 84 ** *** ****
Cumulative Total 100 96 88
10 Years or more **** **********
 **
Cumulative Total 100 100 100
Table 1

Caretaker Response On Who Sings to Childen

Who sings to your child?

Answered by 76 caretakers in the Nharira community

Response N

Mothers/Caretakers 76
Brothers and sisters 29
Neighbor children 24
Grandmothers 10
Fathers 5
Aunts 5
Adult neighbors 2
Uncles 1
Others 2
Table 2

Caretaker Responses on When Children Can Sing As Well As Adults

When do children sing as well as adults?

Answered by 60 caretakers in the Nharira Community

Response Percent of Respondents Cumulative Percent

at 1 year 1.7
at 2 years 11.6 13.3
at 3 years 11.6 24.9
at 4 years 18.3 43.2
at 5 years 21.7 64.9
at 6 years 3.3 68.2
at 7 years 13.3 81.5
at 8 years 5.0 86.5
at 9 years 3.3 89.8
at 10 years 6.7 96.5
at 12 years 1.5 98.0
at 13 years 1.7 99.7
Table 3

Caretaker's Responses On Why It Is Important for People To Sing

Is it important that people sing? If so, why?

Answered by 70 caretakers in the Nharira community

Response Percentage

1. To be happy 24%
2. To comfort loneliness, sadness, 22%
3. For entertainment 20%
4. To use brain, gain knowledge 8%
5. Physical exercise, keep children 7%
 active
6. To praise God in church 6%
7. For traditional ceremonies 4%
8. For personal pride, to win 3%
 competitions
9. Single responses: 6%
 Good for the throat--to
 keep it soft
 Make people social
 To make time go