The purpose of this study was to investigate music preference of children for tempo and tonality in singing and listening in relation to sex and age. Subjects in this study were 72 children (4 boys and 4 girls of each age) from infant (5-7 year old) to elementary student (8-13 year old). In singing, children were asked to sing two favorite songs and the songs were recorded, then tempo, tonality, and genre were investigated. In listening, music with \'major-fast, major-slow, minor-fast, minor-slow\' were used and children listened to two pieces of music with the same tempo or the same tonality and then were asked to choose preferred ones. Children\'s music preference was grasped by the crossing analysis in the view of difference according to sex and age.
As a result, children preferred fast tempo and major mode in singing. Especially when they sang favorite songs, tempo was as fast as allegro for both male and female. There were no significant differences between tempo and sex. On the other hand significant differences showed between tempo and age(p< .05). Fourth to sixth-grade students exhibited slow tempo than other age group when singing favorite songs. No significant differences were found between tonality of favorite song and sex. Also there were no significant differences between tonality of favorite song and age. Various responses were revealed in listening. There were no significant differences between preferred tempo and sex in the same tonality though male preferred fast tempo, female preferred slow tempo. No significant differences were observed between preferred tempo and age in the same tonality. Infants and fourth to sixth-grade students preferred fast tempo, however first-third grade students preferred slow tempo. There were no significant differences between preferred tonality and sex in the same tempo. Though the older the subjects were, the more they preferred minor mode than major mode, there were no significant differences between preferred tonality and age in the same tempo.