The current study sought to clarify musical activities and teachers’ perspectives of music teaching using a questionnaire-based survey for directors and teachers in nine Montessori kindergartens in Hiroshima prefecture. Although the basic form of the Montessori method involves the care of children of different ages with individual guidance, approximately 90% of all nursery teachers were found to teach children of the same age in group musical instruction. This situation is likely to have occurred because many kindergartens are involved in instrumental ensembles and singing among children of the same age. The following three characteristics were identified as tendencies in teachers’ perspectives of music teaching: 1) until musical activities were performed by the group, the teacher conducted guidance according to the interest and developmental stage of each child; 2) the teacher intended to help the child clearly grasp the musical instrument rendition style using the Montessori teaching method called “presentation”; and 3) teachers placed importance on children listening to sound in a natural way. In each Montessori kindergarten surveyed, elements of the Montessori method were clearly distributed throughout the musical activities, apart from the musical activities devised by Montessori and colleagues
