Want to help your child love music? Here are 10 ways that will definitely get your child started on their love for music! Would you rather watch the video than read the post? Just click on this link
Newborn to Kindergarten
#1 Sing to Your Child
Whether your child is a newborn or 10 years old, let them hear your own personal instrument, your voice! Are you nervous singing alone? Then sing along with a recording, encouraging your child to join you!
#2 Read Nursery Rhymes
Reading nursery rhymes to your child will not only instill a love of reading, it will also develop a rhythmic sense in them. The meter that nursery rhymes use will give them that sense of beat and can be the foundation that other music concepts that can be built upon as they get older.
#3 Move to Music with Your Child
Start with rocking them as babies to dancing with them as they get older. Movement to music is always a sure way to bring a smile to a child. But the fun goes much deeper as they feel the beat and the interpretation of the music without even knowing it!
#4 Expose Your Child to Different Styles of Music
Change things up for your child, but be sure it’s with music you enjoy too. I enjoy classical, country, pop, and some jazz to keep things interesting. My mom is pretty much an all classical listening kind of gal, but fortunately my dad likes big band music, and we sang folk songs as a family. I personally think variety is the spice of life. Plus you might find a genre of music that your child likes more than another.
Elementary Age
#5 Take Your Child to Age Appropriate Music Concerts
When your child is ready to sit and listen, take them to music concerts. Children’s concerts are a perfect starting point. They should have age appropriate selections and hopefully give an introduction to instruments or types of music. The expectation to sit perfectly still and silent is fortunately not required at these. Of course, have your child behave in a way that all can enjoy it, but there should definitely be some interaction at these events.
If you feel like your child is ready for a formal classical concert or even an opera, prepare them ahead of time. Play some recordings of the pieces to them, letting them become familiar with the music. Check out a website or two that demonstrates instruments that will be heard too. Then when your child goes to the concert, hopefully their face will light up when they hear the music that is now familiar to them.
If you choose to take them to an opera, make sure they know the plot, characters, and some of the music ahead of time. (And shorter will be better than longer: Mozart over Wagner.) It’s hard enough to understand lyrics in English let alone a foreign language and you don’t want them to only be reading the subtitles all night. So go over the storyline and the characters and pick out a couple of featured songs. Both of you will enjoy it much more!
#6 Piano lessons
Piano lessons are a great way to take the love of music to a much higher and functional level. I started teaching my own 4 children when they were about 5 years old, and they transitioned to other instruments quite quickly because of this piano background.
If you choose to start your child about the age of 5 or younger, be prepared to help your child at every practice. You will need to attend the lesson so you will know how best to help your child at home. If your child is older and self driven, then you probably won’t be needed at every practice. But you will be needed for encouragement and praise!
#7 Have Your Child Join a Choir/Chorus
Singing in a choir or chorus is an amazing experience with a quality director. Children learn to listen to those around them while the group creates beautiful music together. People who sing in choirs generally are very social people and the experience can be very positive.
There are different ways to find a choir for your child. School choirs are convenient and age groups will depend on the individual school. My choirs have always been for 4th and 5th graders. Community choirs usually have a larger variety of ages, sometimes as young as 1st graders and up to high schoolers. Church choirs are also a wonderful way to participate if your particular church has a youth choir.
#8 Encourage Your Child to Play Another Instrument Like Recorder
For children 3rd grade and older, recorders make an inexpensive and fairly easily attainable way to play melodies. Recorders are not for everyone, either the child or the parent. But if you and your child are up to it, nice recorders are easily under $10 and there are many lesson books as well as videos out there. I have started my own Learn to Play Recorder Series: https://youtu.be/CiJDenUOGZI Check it out if you don’t already have a starting point.
I teach my own students starting in 4th grade and we play all the way through 5th grade. Almost all of them get way past Hot Cross Buns by the end of the 2nd year, and I reward those that make it through the end of the series I use at my school.
#9 Keep Your Attitude Fun and Positive
I can’t say I’ve ever heard about a parent telling their child that they are a terrible singer or can’t play, but I have had heard of music teachers doing this to their students. I don’t understand why a teacher would do this, maybe from their frustration at their own inability to help this child, but it is totally unacceptable in any situation. Every child develops at different rates and responds to learning in different ways. All children can learn to feel a beat and match pitches if given enough experiences and time. Be their number one fan and root for them all the way!
#10 Find a Quality Sequenced Music Program
If your child is enrolled in a public or private school, check with the music teacher or the district fine arts director. Ask about their music curriculum and how it is taught. Ask if it is sequenced, building new knowledge on top of familiar and known knowledge. Check out the last part of my video to see how beat and melody are sequenced in a quality music program: https://youtu.be/_ixUAMaWHmU
Check Out My Music Classes for Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade
I have recorded all my music classes this year for my own virtual students and have posted them on YouTube on my channel CraftyMusicMaker. I teach Kindergarten through 5th grade and have 3 lessons for 4th and 5th grade as well. I will complete the upper grade music classes in the 2021-2022 school year. These are complete music lessons that teach melody, harmony, form and many other concepts, very intentionally sequenced.
If you choose to have your child participate with my classes, here are a couple of tips to help them be successful.
- To discover what level series your child should watch, click here for this post.
- Watch the lessons in order. Everything is chosen intentionally to prepare, teach, and review concepts and skipping around will confuse your child.
- Encourage your child to participate with me by singing and moving with me. Students will be much more successful if they are being active with the lessons.
These top 10 ways should help your child develop a love of music that will continue through the rest of their life, whether they become a top star in shower singing or actually make a career out of music. Please share in the comment section if you have other ways you used that worked well. And be sure to keep singing!
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