Inclusion, children's groups, music therapy: Music and communicative musicality

Music has a rare ability to affect us directly. Pulse and rhythms make us move, and notes and harmonies inspire and express our inner emotions in a direct and immediate way that goes beyond what words or even other art forms can rarely achieve (Panksepp & Trevarthen, 2009). Music creates a delightful build-up of tension or soothes us, and its narrative character gives rise to mental imagery or memories. Music brings people together and helps build communities across languages and common divides. And – not least – music captures children’s immediate attention, so when the music starts, so do the children! Initially by rocking in time to the rhythm, and then with dance moves or spontaneous singing. In this chapter, we demonstrate how music and music activities can be used as a means of including vulnerable children in school or preschool settings. Based on experiences from music therapy, we have selected six case vignettes from Denmark to illustrate how musical interplay can promote attention, concentration, emotional attachment and social skills in groups and, in the last of our case vignettes, also the quality of parent-child interactions. The specific cases were selected because they involve fairly simple musical activities, some of which can be used by preschool, school or music teachers without requiring additional instruction, while others require supervision or collaboration with a music therapist. With this chapter, we aim to offer specific ideas for inspiration but also a more general portrayal of the qualities of musical interplay that promotes well-being in group settings and, thus, the inclusion of vulnerable students. Therefore, we open the chapter with a focus on musicality and on the importance of applying a musical approach in relation to the children.