Early Years Music
Early Years
The Octagon Music Hub supports early years music-making across Dorset and Somerset through a mix of direct delivery, workforce development and specialist resources. Funded activity includes music in nurseries, community settings and at home – including Babigloo’s 8-week baby-and-parent singing programmes (0–12 months, Shaftesbury and Sturminster Newton, each block ending in a celebration concert), Take Art’s early years strand, and singing and staff-training programmes from Somerset Music and Dorset Music Service reaching nurseries and Family Hubs across both counties.
Who’s funded to deliver it here
Early years music resources
Instrument Access: Somerset Music offers an accessible instrument and technology library alongside specialised early years equipment.
Evidence of benefits
Musical Development Matters in the Early Years — Nicola Burke / Early Education, funded by Youth Music. Makes the case for music as a core, woven-through part of EYFS learning rather than a bolt-on activity.
Early childhood music education research: An overview — Susan Young, British Journal of Music Education (2016). Argues babies and young children are innately musical, and that spontaneous musical play matters as much as adult-led “lessons.”
LEYMN Evidence Review — Sound Connections. Reviews evidence that regular group music-making in babies’ and toddlers’ first years supports bonding, communication and social development, especially for disadvantaged families.
Sounds of Intent in the Early Years — Voyajolu & Ockelford, Research Studies in Music Education (2016). A developmental framework showing musical engagement — including for children with complex needs — follows identifiable stages from birth.
Communicative Musicality — Malloch & Trevarthen (OUP). Foundational work on how infants and caregivers communicate through shared musical patterns before language develops.
Sound Connections – Decolonising music in the early years.
Also making music with under-5s locally
Not funded by OMH – signposted for parents and practitioners looking at what else is on locally.
Wriggle and Rhyme: free rhyme-and-song sessions at BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole) libraries.
Sing and Sign: baby-signing-through-song classes, Bath & NE Somerset and Frome.
TinyTalk: baby-signing and toddler-talking classes across North Dorset and South East Somerset.
Monkey Music: franchise music classes for babies to age 4, in Frome, Sherborne, Dorchester and Weymouth.
Adventure Babies: sensory storytelling combining books, music and play, across Dorset and Yeovil.
Jolly Melodies Music Company: long-running live-music programme for birth to preschool, Wiltshire/Bath & NE Somerset/Dorset.