Sound possibilities: listening for the new in early years music-making practices

Posthumanism points towards a relational understanding of embodied processes of becoming musical in and with the world which readily combine with existing aspects of early years music practice. In this article I describe the potential of this resonant encounter to develop alternative approaches to listening, opening further possibilities for both research and practice. Drawing on the experience of researching with young children, musicians and Zoom during COVID-19, I describe the pandemic as a 'ruption' (Chappell, Turner, and Wren 2024), a disturbance from which new things may emerge. I contrast listening as usual with 'emergent listening' (Davies 2014), describing how the latter has potential to expand our understanding of children-making-music and to make space for more diverse players to enter the scene, both human and other-than-human. I provide an example of using emergent listening in research documentation, holding the space open for divergent understandings of an emergent practice to develop.