You already knew that music could calm an infant, and help him drop off to sleep. It’s why you instinctively hummed to your child, if not Brahm’s Lullaby, then perhaps a nameless soft melody, you invented on the spot. All you know is that it worked: it put your baby to sleep.
And that’s good enough for you.
But did you know that babies hear and respond to music even before they are born? Researchers in Barcelona, Spain, piped music into the womb and witnessed babies bopping and grooving in utero as early as 16 weeks into pregnancy.
Now, that’s powerful.
Beyond babyhood, the power of music to enrich your child’s life is indisputable. Rhymes like Hickory Dickory Dock, and Pease Porridge, teach infants and toddlers to enjoy the sounds and rhythms of notes and words. These rhyming songs are a crucial part of teaching children pre-literacy skills. Mother Goose teaches children how to make sense of text, and that the sounds of words and music can be pleasing to the eyes and ears.
Also, like the lullaby of the earliest days of a child’s life (and before birth!), at some point, a child realizes that music can be a refuge, a restorative: something that makes you feel good. Teens use music to soothe adolescent turmoil, or express the pent up feelings they have about love and life in general. At some point, music becomes the background to everything we do and we have different types of music for different occasions.
Introducing Your Child To Music
Just as exercise tones the body and builds muscles, music builds memory. It has been proven that intensive music training of at least 15 months, changes the structure of the brain (in a good way!). Music improves auditory and motor skills, and increases vocabulary leading to better reading skills. Music helps children retain what they learn. But the greatest benefits of this sort of music training are seen when training is begun before the age of seven.
What can you do to make sure your child gets all the benefits of music? Make sure you actively introduce your child to music and music expression. Try singing that breakfast is ready instead of announcing it. Play classical music, jazz, or rock, as you do your housework to ensure your child is exposed to the building blocks of music. Take time to sing nursery rhymes to your baby. Encourage your child to sing and make music, even if it involves loud rhythmic banging of a toddler’s spoon on a highchair tray (or potlids!).
Prevent Attention Difficulties
Researchers have found that music helps us learn to pay attention, to stay focused. Using imaging scans, scientists from Stanford University found that when people listen to symphonies, they anticipate upcoming music passages. Their brains knows how to interpret and process music as chunks of information with meaning. The brain knows how to segment what it is hearing and how to put it into context. Music can keep us engaged over a lengthy period of time, teaching us (and our children, of course!) how to focus.
Keeps Them Off Those Screens
If you are a parent in the 21st Century, you know the frustration of trying to pry children away from the various screens associated with current technology. Computers, tablets, phones, and notebooks: they are perched in front of them 24/7. But give your child music lessons and watch your child engage in producing music instead of sitting in front of a screen. Hear, hear (literally) for the constructive hobby that changes your child from a screen-zombie to a wannabe musical prodigy.
Aesthetics
Part of the pleasure of parenting involves teaching children a sense of color and design, and showing them the joys of the arts, whether it is visual arts, music, or theater. Each of these lead to the other. But music is the only art appreciated in the womb, and arguably a child’s first exposure to the aesthetic beauty of our world. We are lucky to have music. This is something children should understand and appreciate.
Math and Even Logic!
Music is based on mathematics and logical correlations: the eight notes of an octave, the rhythms and tempo of a piece of music. Music even has question and answer phrases. Music teaches children about patterns and the application of logic. Listening to music or playing music is soothing and even cathartic, because it follows logical patterns and wholly engages the mind.
Einstein said, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. . . I get most joy in life out of music.”
Of his famous father, Hans Einstein said, “Whenever he felt that he had come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in his work, he would take refuge in music, and that would usually resolve all his difficulties.”
Einstein’s sister Maja described the way her brother would play piano and then suddenly rise up from the piano bench announcing, “There, now I’ve got it!”
Music clearly helped Einstein find a way forward with his research.
Music Instills Confidence
Learning a piece of music, or even finally nailing down a difficult passage, builds a child’s confidence and makes him feel better about himself and his abilities. You get that through hard work and practice. And the feeling is grand.
Social Skills
If you want your child to learn team work, try putting him in a choir or a youth symphony. Working together is the only way to sound great. Sounding good means matching sound and matching sound is a great equalizer. Singing or playing at just the same volume and tempo is an amazing exercise in learning to get along with others.
Don’t Push It
Does your child hate his music lessons? Don’t push it. You want him to appreciate and enjoy music. Try a different teacher, a different instrument, or perhaps, skip the lessons and buy season tickets to the symphony and make it a parent/child weekly activity.
There are so many ways to bring music into a child’s life, all of them worthy and good. Be thankful for the gift that is music, and expose your child to this gift as often as you can. It can only enrich both your lives and minds, for the long term.
About Varda Epstein
Varda Meyers Epstein serves as editor in chief of Kars4Kids Parenting. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Varda is the mother of 12 children and is also a grandmother of 12. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Learning Site, The eLearning Site, and Internet4Classrooms.