The role of folk tradition in increasing musical creativity of students of Kindegarten Teacher Education at University of Helsinki Our national heritage of folk music and poems are collected by Elias Lönnrot and published as National Epic Kalevala 1849. The new interest in Finnish folk music started probably in Kaustinen, where the first Folk Music Festival took place in 1968. Prof. Martti Pokela worked a lot for folk music in Sibelius Academy and music teacher education during 1970-80. Nowadays we can say that Finnish folk music has come to stay in our music culture and education.

In earlier times all people participated in musical activities. We can say that environment of children in past times was filled with living song. Adults were singing to children when putting them to bed, feeding or dressing them, comforting them etc. Mothers sang to their children while keeping them on their laps, swinging children from side to side. Children learned their musical language as they learned to speak and even before it. All children sang spontaneously also nowadays if children is surrounded by songs.

In past times environment of children was perhaps more encouraging it. Singing and improvising was part of the work and leisure. Songs were sometimes made by one person but they were also made by singing groups. Collective song making is described by Samuli Paulaharju: “Young people were the best song makers. ”In winter times in farmhouses people were sitting in living-room around the fireplace until the bedtime and song making was their leisure and work. When the new song was finished and Sunday came the song was sent forward along the village road and then to fly over the open plains”. Our present time music culture does not provide many opportunities for people to improvise or make their own music. Much more importance is placed on the shared reproduction of well- known music. The music culture of day care centres starts mainly from kindergarten teachers and their possibilities and ways to create musically rich and living environment in day-care-centres together with children and their parents. There is a great challenge to music education of kindergarten teacher education to make experiences for students so that they realise the old fact again: there exist words and melodies in every person. We have enormous resources for spontaneous music situations in our music education: nursery rhymes, singing in Kalevala style, traditional plays, proverbs, nonsense rhymes and the 5-string kantele. The meaning of tradition is not to move back to birch-bark culture, but to learn from the richness, genuiness, creativeness and humanity of our tradition. We can apply it to our time, we can keep it alive and develop and create new traditions from it. Nowadays everyone of our students learn to play 5-string kantele. They are also encouraged to teach children to play kantele and in many day care centres kantele playing is very alive and the kantele is often used together with Orff-instruments. The basics of kantele playing is very easy. The range of a 5-string kantele is small. It can be tuned ti a major or minor pentachord or to a pentatonic scale or to any fantasised tunes. Pentachord scales leads to melodies which can be easily sung by anyone. The sound of kantele is tender and soft.

At the beginning of kantele studies students and children start to listen sounds and experiencing all kinds of sounds. Then they learn to find accord (I) and they start singing familiar nursery rhymes or making own songs mainly with so-mi-(do) –melodies. After that they learn to find some melodies by plucking strings. Then they learn more accords ( V, IV) and sing more songs accompanied by kantele. We play kantele in a traditional way, we play by heart and not to stick so much to written music.

By improvising students learn to make their own melodies or interludes. Students and children like to play kantele together. It gives them joy and self-confidence when they notice that they can accompany their favourite songs and make also own music. Many students buy themselves own kantele and some of our students have even constructed their own instrument in technical handwork. We have had song making workshops with 5-string kantele. The main goals with this project is first of all to bring alive this former song making tradition in groups and secondly create new songs for children. Students are working in groups of two to five persons and when the songs are ready every groups teaches heir own song to others. Songs are often playful songs, they can tell a story, they can be lullabies or they can be part of a drama or a theatre play for children. Some of these songs stay alive and some are forgotten. The most important is not that you make a hit, children will choose which of them will become popular. The same process that happened when folk songs were sang and some of them survived because they were liked. According to students the best thing in this workshop is the process of making words and melodies in group and the joy of creating a new song. At the beginning of the workshop it is hard for the most of them to believe that they can create a new song but afterwards many have said that this was the most impressive part of their music studies. Students make notations for their songs and they are also recorded.

The goal of song making and kantele playing is that we would like to see music, singing, kantele playing and song making as a natural part of kindergartens learning environment and daily life. By increasing spontaneous singing habit we would like to make kindergarten activities also more relaxing. Singing and rhymes can be part of the everyday routines. Music is also easy to integrate into various activities like painting, movement, literature and drama. These pictures of children playing kantele are from our practice day care centre, Keski- Mankkaa, where Kindergarten teacher Ritva Kaartinen is specialiced in music education. Children from 5 to 6-years are playing both 5-string kantele and recorders together with Orff-instruments in their pre school years.

8.1.2003 Inkeri Ruokonen, lecturer of music didactics

Collected: Inkeri Ruokonen