The influence of discrete versus continuous movements on children's musical sense-making

An increasing amount of research emphasises the influence of body movement on the perception of music. This study contributes to the research by investigating whether varied qualities of body movement, when aligned to music may affect the way children attribute meaning to that music. To address this question, 34 children (aged 9-10) were divided into two groups, each of which engaged in distinct listening activities by aligning with discrete versus continuous movements on diverse pieces of music. As a pre- and post-test, children were first invited to move freely to a piece of music and subsequently to draw a visual representation of the piece. Finally, they were asked to verbally explain how the drawings were linked with the music. Findings, based on the children's drawings and verbal explanations, offer interesting insights on the way different qualities of body movement can influence the categories of visual representations, arousal and voices of the music described. Moreover, the role of visual representation emerges as a way to gain insight into a child's musical sense-making, principally when the product is analysed together with the process and the gestures employed to accomplish it. The findings of this study may offer relevant insights for music education. Firstly, in the way movement may influence music sense-making and secondly, how multimodal interaction (bodily, visual and verbal) may inform the process of musical understanding in children.