This article discusses some of the relations between music and time, in particular the temporalities of groups of children and youths I have researched, and certain properties of music making time. In my research with students from a government musical education project (Guri Project/ São Paulo), the main reason given for studying music was their need to ‘kill time.’ From a common sense point of view, ‘idle’ time is dangerous time. Parents and project organizers stress the need ‘to occupy the time’ of children and youths, ‘to take them off of the streets.’ Here I analyze the negative evaluation of free time and the specificity of music making time. Musical time is compared with play time, characterized by an immersion in the activity and by the suspension of daily life. Finally, I ask how the time for music, initially an interval, overflows into the rest of the daily life, determining rhythms, filling empty spaces and building meanings.
Temporality; Music; Childhood and Youth; Free Time; FEBEM