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The author argues that context affects both the musical content children learn (choice of repertoire, stylistic conventions) and how they attempt to learn it (problem solving skills and strategies). Through exposure to multiple contexts where music learning occurs, (formal and informal, school, home church, playground) children acquire different understandings about what it means to be a music maker and learner.The paper describes musical learning as it occurs informally on the playground, based on a number of studies of playground music, including the author's research at an after school club for African American girls. Lave's analysis of situated learning as legitimate peripheral participation in an ongoing community of practice provides the conceptual framework for the description of musical learning in playground contexts.

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This article focuses on children's musical play, including that involving interactions with popular music and popular culture. It outlines features of musical play, especially as found in communities of practice in the playground, and the disjunction that may often occur between children's challenging, social, and participatory enactment of play and the pedagogical characteristics of classroom music. The article suggests a child-centered approach to music learning and teaching that endeavors to bridge the gap between children's external, informal music-making and musical experiences in the school.

No abstract