Take your child on a musical learning journey that will last a lifetime
As a mother to a 13-year-old young violinist, and as a music teacher to children, birth to pre-school, for the last 10 years, I have tried and tested various methods to make music an enjoyable group activity and an integral part of daily life. Here are some ideas to help your little ones along on their music-learning journey. “Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inner places of the soul.” This quote by the philosopher Plato explains how every one of us, no matter how young or old, has the natural ability to appreciate music.
1) Join a small music group for babies or toddlers to brush up on your nursery rhymes and learn more songs to sing to your child. Through lots of smiles, giggles and cuddles, your child will gather that music is a pleasurable activity, and will bond with you through the shared experience of music and singing. Joining a small friendly group will also help you and your child make friends, and form personal relationships through the joint activity of making music.
2) Start your child’s first musical experiences with lots of action songs to help them identify parts of their body, and to encourage them to clap, wave, sway and bounce to the rhythm of music. Place them on your knees and bounce them to music with a strong beat and try dancing with them in your arms so they can start to feel the rhythm of the music through your body. Sing calm and soft lullabies to your child with lots of rocking and cuddling so they associate this with quiet and relaxation.
3) Attend a weekly music education programme. To get the full benefit out of your music class, discuss with your child what they think they might be doing before the music class, and talk about the activities after the music class. This helps you gauge how much your child has learned from the class, and helps your child describe this verbally as well. Group music sessions will teach turn-taking, enhance your child’s ability to listen and follow instructions, give them the opportunity to make choices and encourage confidence to join in with the group activities.
4) Sing to your child at home. Songs teach children speech and language structure, and help build up their vocabulary. Choose songs that are repetitive, have fun with rhymes and words said out loudly with a steady beat. Songs can teach children about their daily routines, colours, counting, seasons, weather, etc – the learning themes are endless!
5) Expose your child to a variety of simple percussion instruments. Make sure they try various instruments that sound different – ones that rattle, jingle, bang, click-clack or tick-tock, for example. Let them try the different ways to create sound by drumming, tapping, scraping, shaking, knocking, clicking, twisting and so on. One of my favourite things to do in a music session is to watch how little hands figure out how a percussion instrument works! For a change, have a go at kitchen percussion and make music with bowls, pots, pans struck with wooden or metal spoons. Exploring body percussion with the different movements of hand-clapping, foot-stomping, tummy-rubbing and knee-knocking also makes for a good laugh!
6) Have a music session at home. Show your child different rhythms, patterns and beats, such as the simple marching rhythm or if you are more ambitious – the waltzing rhythm with repeating beats of 1-2-3. Always encourage your child to play feeling the beat of the music. Try making music loudly and softly, or play the instruments fast and slow. Incorporate starting and stopping with the instrument-playing when the music starts and stops.
7) Have a hunt for everyday household items that make a sound and discuss the quality of the sounds with your child. Listen to the clock tick, pop bubble wrap, pour water out of a jug, pay attention to the humming of the hoover – are these sounds loud or soft, long or short, high or low? If you are out and about, listen out for the fire engine sirens, how the birds tweet and a dog barks and let your child describe different sounds using these basic elements of music. This will help your child start to appreciate the fundamentals of music.
8) Help your child hone their ability to copy sounds and actions. Being able to imitate gestures is so important to a child’s learning. Start with copying different animal sounds, then try clapping out words with different syllables. Tap out different friends’ names with claves. Have fun making up rhythms and see how well your child copies them. You’ll be surprised at what they can achieve even from a very young age.
9) Add “listening music” to your child’s bedtime routine. Have a selection of calming classical music such as those by Mozart, Bach or Chopin to play before bed. Children will associate the music with calming down and relaxation, which is one of the benefits of music. Once this is established, then add on classical music as part of your child’s daily routine while having breakfast or in the car. My personal favourites are The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens, Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev, and the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten. These classical collections are in story format and help your little ones learn how music is used to tell a story.
10) Spark your child’s interest with books and audiobooks about music. From age 3 years, it will be about the right time to introduce your child to classical music composer names, names of musical instruments and sections of the orchestra, as well as some simple music terminology. Have a visit to a local orchestra performance so they can get acquainted with the sounds made by the different musical instruments, as well as how these are played. Here are some of my favourite music books for children: My First Classical Music Book from Naxos, The Musical Life of Gustav Mole by Kathryn Meyrick, and Different Voices by Debbie Wiseman on CD.
Music has so many positive effects on children, especially when exposed from a very young age. Little ones attend my classes from being a baby, to a toddler, to a pre-schooler and I see them develop and progress through the musical stages. I watch them get more and more confident with their singing, show me great creativity and imagination through the music and learning themes, and amaze me with their ability to understand and demonstrate the music concepts taught. The hope is that the children will build on this musical foundation we have given them and channel this towards learning to play a musical instrument in the future. I am very privileged to have music in my life to share with very young minds every day and know that parents everywhere will be proud to see their children able to express themselves through music. So have fun with these ideas and make music your everyday activity!
Written by Mun Wah Wong, Teacher and Regional Coordinator for Music with Mummy Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.
