This paper reports the development of a discrimination task to investigate the sensitivity of children aged 3–8 years to a range of timbral stimuli. The paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of other research exploring timbral perception and explains how the findings from these studies shaped the methodological approach of this study. Specifically, it describes how the qualitative data collected gave rise to deeper insights concerning the quantitative data, so questioning the rationale of continuing research in this area through a single quantitative methodological approach.