Children’s spontaneous musical engagement is a fluid, multimodal, framed activity deeply embedded in children’s everyday lives. Musicking (Small, 1998) has been adopted by Young and Ilari (2019) to reflect children's everyday musical engagement. Literature highlights that exploration, experimentation, and free improvisation constitute a process of discovery and a means of authentic learning, valuable for children (Siljamäki & Kanellopoulos, 2020).

This study investigated the free musical experimentation/improvisation of a group of six kindergarten children (4–6 years) in a private kindergarten in Greece, focusing on how children approached and interpreted these activities. The research questions were:

1. How do children approach free experimentation/improvisation, and what strategies do they use?
2. How do they interact with each other during these activities?

A qualitative action research study was conducted, with the main researcher being the music educator, across three cycles of instructional scenarios lasting three months. Drawing from Lev Vygotsky’s theory and the Reggio Emilia approach, the design of the sessions was based on learning environment and available materials, which served as stimuli for children’s musical exploration and improvisation.

A major challenge was creating environments rich in stimuli that encouraged active participation, free interaction and self-expression. Activities took place in the school’s yard, the forest, and the classroom. Each cycle’s design was revised according to observations and challenges arising from the previous one.

Data collected through observations (including video recordings), informal discussions with children, and the researcher’s reflective journal and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings showed that children approached musical improvisation through various techniques—including imitation, experimentation, intuitive and impulsive engagement, and observation—and interacted in complex ways, underscoring the social nature of musical improvisation. 

Natural elements (stones, wood, leaves, water) and materials from the schoolyard (barrels, logs) offered limitless opportunities for exploration and creativity. Through authentic experiences and interactions—such as sensory perception, free exploration, and movement—children explored sound in depth (Dartsch, 2024).

The results indicate that outdoor environments and natural materials can strongly promote musical experimentation and improvisation. The study highlights a flexible and open pedagogical stance by the educator is essential—who actively observes, listens, and responds to children's evolving expressions.

• Meaningful musical experiences

Vaia Karasavva is an educator and music pedagogue. She holds a degree from the Department of Preschool Education at the University of Thessaly and completed her postgraduate studies in Music Pedagogy at the European University Cyprus. She works as a music pedagogue and atelierista in private primary school following the Reggio Emilia approach. She has served as an educational collaborator in training programs, webinars, and workshops in conferences. She follows approaches and creates programs promoting children's development through music and arts, focusing on exploration, experimentation, and experiential learning. She has participated in concerts and performances as a guitarist and performer. As an educator, she seeks to extend education outside the classroom, incorporating the natural environment and using materials that foster imagination and creativity, with the child at the center.

Maria Papazachariou-Christoforou, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in Music Education and Pedagogy at the Department of Education Sciences, European University Cyprus. Her research focuses in the sociological dimensions of music pedagogy and musical identities, early childhood music education, musical parenting, and informal music learning practices. She is the founder and director of the LifeLong Music Engagement Research Unit, SosciEAtH, serves on the board of the EuNetMERYC, and she is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Music in Early Childhood (Intellect). She has expertise in Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory and is an active member of the GIML. Her research activities include collaboration with other academic institutions through the Erasmus+ programme and other initiatives. Dr. Papazachariou-Christoforou has presented research papers at numerous international conferences and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.