The referent of children's early songs

Musical creativity during early childhood is readily exemplified in vocal behaviours. This paper is a discussion of observations on children's performance of learned songs and self-generated songs. Longitudinal observations suggest that self-generated songs may be seen as referent-guided improvisation using source materials derived from learned songs. It is hypothesised that interactions with the environment, such as a need for the child to communicate emotions in play settings, could autonomously abstract novel sensory input into existing categories or distort aspects of existing ones to assume novel parametric combinations. Hence, using learned songs as referent, a child possesses a repertoire of learned musical features that allows her to create and improvise as a reaction to environmental stimuli. The resultant early songs, therefore, exhibit a distinctive sense of ownership endowed with rich creative instincts.