Music Lesson Blog

Music for Babies, Toddlers & Preschoolers. Part 2

  

  

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In the next several blogs, we will continue to explore the four essential principles every parent of a baby, toddler or preschooler in Champaign Urbana should know in order to create a musically rich enviroment and nurture their child's innate musical intelligence. In the previous blog we explored the First Essential Principle: All Children are Musical. In today's article, we will explore #2 - All Children can acquire Basic Music Skills (Competence) and enjoy making music! Here's a recap of the Top 4 Principles:

1. All Children are Musical
2. All Children can acquire basic Music Skills and enjoy making music!
3. Participation and modeling of Parents and Primary Caregivers is essential!
4. A playful, musically rich and non-performance-oriented learning environment is best!

All Children can achieve Basic Music Competence (BMC)

Back to our wedding guest adult who can't dance on beat and our enthusiastic choir member who can't sing in tune....If all children can achieve basic musical competence, ie move with accurate rhythm and sing in tune, why don't they grow into adults that can do the same?

Unfortunately many of us have not had the opportunity to grow in a rich music making environment. This is necessary for music learning to occur!

Gone are the days when the family gathered around the piano and made music together. Nowadays, most children experience music passively through the TV or CD. While this is important to a well rounded music education, only active music-making experiences develop basic musical competence. 

In cultures where active music making such as singing and dancing is still part of daily life, children generally achieve basic music competence about the same time they become competent in their language - about ages 3-4. They are fortunate to have a musical environment that is as interactive and rich as their language environment.

In our culture, lacking the musically rich environment, children, often, don't learn to sing in tune until age 5 or 6. Many never learn though it would have come naturally if they had been given the opportunity to experience and experiment with developmentally appropriate musical activities. This is an unnecessary loss of our childens's natural talent and intelligence. The lack of a rich, interactive environment is why musically gifted children turn into musically incompetent adults.

In order to counter this and nurture your child's musical intelligence, parents with the help of effective early childhood music classes and teachers must give children the opportunity to actively explore "making" music through a collection of sung and recorded songs that include not only a broad range of styles: folk, jazz, lyrical, world music but also various tonalities and meters.

Just as importantly, these musical experiences must be presented in a relaxed, playful setting that is ideal for learning. Fundamental to this environment is the parents' active participation and modeling because the child learns best from his parents and caregivers. This brings us to the third point and topic of next week's blog: The participation of Parents & Primary Caregivers is essential to a child's musical growth!

Find additional information on the philosophy & method of our brand new Early Childhood classes at: www.MusicTogether.com