This paper offers an invitation to higher music education communities to think differently about the significance of the connections between music and play. We highlight the many texts that articulate these connections and draw together a speculative ontological claim that all musicking is an enactment of play. In other words, we ask how "musicking-as-play" might be a catalyst and an orientation for pedagogic innovation in higher music education. Adopting Huizinga's concept of a "play force," this philosophical study reveals multifarious ways in which play is enacted "through" musicking, leading us to coin the new term "musicking-as-play." "Musicking-as-play" recognizes, values, and nurtures the particular play force that manifests with/in music genre performance practices. We thematically explore play's manifestations in the materiality, relationality and transgressionality of a selection of genre practices, specifically heavy metal, Western art music, and jazz. We put forward "Musicking-as-play" as a new concept that acknowledges the entanglement and interrelationship of materiality, relationality, and transgressionality as domains that are fundamental and present within acts of "musicking." Subsequently, we speculate on what "musicking-as-play" might invite for higher music educators.