This research aims to understand how to process the music education of teachers of the municipal education network building its relationship with the cultural spaces of the city. Having in Paulo Freire and Perrenoud as theoretical framework, the empirical data were taken from teachers who are part of the Cultural Horizons Program, Rio de Janeiro, from 1997 to 2002. Through the reports of their life stories, it was sought to understand schemes and strategies constructed in the musical education carried out in the family life, in the school organization and in the wider social context, contributing to representations in adult life. The boundary between music and play is marked by a set of schemes of thought and actions, which put on one side the musical experience in the family context and on the other side the school musical experience, preventing this teacher to recognise his knowledge and to attend without constraints all the cultural spaces of his city; defensive and protective strategies guarantee the survival in the daily life of these adults (camouflage of their cultural identity, denial of the spontaneous and use of "command songs").