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Things You Can Do Without a Teacher Beginning Music for Parents of Toddlers What place does music have in your life? What place do you want music to have in your child’s life? In order to get a perspective on your musical goals for your child, it is helpful to reflect on your own past and present musical experiences. The fact that you have arrived at this site means that you’ve already begun the process of exploring what’s out there. Whether you are just beginning to think about sending your child to lessons or are looking for an alternative to something that isn’t working, these questions will help you organize your thinking about things that will inform your decisions. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers. The point is to become aware of the lens through which you view musical involvement as it relates to you and your child. PART I: MUSICAL SELF-REFLECTION 1. Do one or more of the following describe your perception of your own musicality? I consider myself to be: • competent in one area of music making
• musically insecure • a well-rounded musician • tone deaf • musically confident • comfortable trying musical things 2. Did you take lessons as a child? • What did you get out of the experience?
• What did you like/ not like about the lessons? • Did music lessons reinforce or refute your musical self-image? 3. If you had general music in school, what is your recollection of the experience? • Did it connect with your life beyond the classroom?
• Did it reinforce or refute your musical self-image? 4. Do you think you have found your inner musician? 5. Is musical involvement a joyous, ongoing and meaningful part of your life? PART II: YOUR GOALS FOR YOUR CHILD 1. Why do you want your child to take music lessons? Is it because: • you profited from your childhood music lessons and want her/him to have a similar experience?
• you want him/her to have an opportunity that you never had? • she/he has been asking for lessons? • other children are taking lessons? • musical enrichment should be part of a well-rounded education? • he/she is showing signs of being musically gifted and you think this talent should be developed? • studying an instrument has been shown to help develop discipline and concentration? 2. Where would you like your child to be musically ten years from now? 30 years from now? 3. Would you like to see your child pursue music as a career? A hobby? Things You Can Do Without a Teacher You need not be a trained musician to create a Musical Household. There are several things you can do, regardless of your level of expertise, which will provide a musical environment for your child. When you take this brave step, your child is likely to end up more competent, confident and open to trying musical things than you yourself probably are right now. Here are some things that are very easy to do. Do you have a piano or keyboard? If so, have you tried exploring it? I strongly urge you to get your hands on a piano (literally) if you have room for one. If you don’t, then go get a keyboard, preferably one with at least 76 keys (a piano has 88), a nice, piano-like sound, a foot pedal if possible and not too many fancy buttons (my preference for exploring). Also, make sure that when you push down a few notes at once, you hear all of them together rather than one at a time. Spend time Exploring the Keyboard by yourself and with your child. If you’re not sure what to do, encourage your child to make things up or try out the instrument. His imagination and creative impulse will probably lead the way once he’s sure no one is going to judge or correct him. If you need more help, call a nice, piano playing person in your area, explain the situation, send him to my website and then let him show you a few things. You may always email or call me with questions. Other Instruments Having a few Percussion Instruments around automatically makes your house a more musical place. You and your child can jam together or play along with a recording. She can conduct other family members. If you can find a little conductor’s jacket and baton, watch the transformation! An autoharp is also a wonderful instrument to have around. Don’t worry if, after making the investment, your child goes for some periods of time without seeming to pay attention to the instruments. Let her own the experience without pressuring her. Even the presence of instruments in your house makes a difference. Do you often have recorded music playing? Children usually develop a love of any kind of music they’ve heard from a young age. When my kids were babies, we used to have classical, folk and jazz playing in the background, and it kind of seeped in without anyone noticing. No one said, “Okay everyone, listen up, Beethoven’s playing.” It was just part of the atmosphere. When we wanted to bring the girls to a concert, we would find out what music was going to be performed, get ahold of it, and play it fairly often while they went about their business. By the time we took them to the concert, they’d learned it so well that they would sit transfixed for the whole two hours. Choose music you already love or experiment with other genres. Listening toone of the regular NPR programs is a nice ritual for many families and recorded music is just too good a tool for developing musical sensitivity, comfort and taste to not be used. Of course there are also wonderful children’s records. I’m partial to Burl Ives and Pete Seeger. If a child is able to have his/her own tape or CD collection it gives him even more ownership of the experience. Children need not, however, listen exclusively to “children’s” music. Children have mysterious and wonderful ways to connect to music that is sophisticated and profound. Live Music There is something special about live music. The fact that every performance is new together with the intangible interaction of performers and audience make live performance quintessentially human. Are there various kinds of concerts going on in your area? Lots of outdoor concerts are free. Bring a blanket and have a picnic. Not only is it beneficial to take your child to concerts for the musical value and because it’s something you can do together - Bringing your child to concerts says that you consider this a worthwhile and important activity, and this message is subtly transmitted to him. For anything but a classical music concert, you can be spontaneous. Remember that for classical music, it’s best to have heard the pieces a number of times before you go. Not just for your child – for yourself, too! If you are … • Thinking about sending your child to private music lessons … then the following links to pages in this site will be particularly helpful. The sections in which the pages can be found are in bold. I hope that these will spark your interest, and that you will browse the rest of the site as well! I hope that reading these articles will give you some “musical empowerment” explore musical avenues together with your child • get a piano or keyboard
WHAT IS MUSIC HOUSE? WHO IS MUSICAL? • William How it Works – An Introduction
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© Meryl Danziger 2004