Listening to a siblings’ day: musical interactions in a family setting

This study examines musical episodes occurring in a family with two young children, collected and analysed through the Language Environment Analysis system, interpreting then using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory to understand how the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem influenced these episodes. The focus was on two sibling musical interactions, based on the recorded soundscape of Anna and her younger brother, Albert. The data includes 26 hours of audio recording that enabled us to capture the same episodes from the perspective of each child. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) the type of engagement; (2) siblings’ roles; (3) children’s repertoire; and (4) car rides as a family setting. We hope to support and inform parents and teachers, making them aware of rich musical interactions among children and their potential for development through an expert member intervention in situations of musical parenting and formal and informal teaching.