Early Childhood Music

Warning: This is long.

One of the only areas that I can claim to at least be a bit of an expert in is early childhood music. I started teaching early childhood music in Michigan then taught at MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. Both places had different ideas about curriculum but the idea remained the same, that giving your child the gift of music was priceless.

Luckily we know more about education in early childhood now than we did a few decades ago. Your child experiences peak learning times throughout their young life. The book, Music Play, states “Unless cells are used to make neurological connections and synapses related to each of the senses at appropriate times, the cells will direct themselves to enhancing other senses, and the sense that is neglected will be limited throughout life.” To develop their music potential, our young ones should be a part of a rich, musical environment. Until age 8, you child has the opportunity to develop his/her music potential that will serve them the rest of their life.

The goal of early childhood music is not necessarily to create professional musicians. It is just to give children the experiences that will help them to enjoy and participate successfully in music throughout their lives and hopefully bring music into their children’s lives.

So what can you do?? Bring music into your home and into your lives. Sing and dance with your kids. Tap the steady beat to songs. Listen to a variety of music. It’s that easy.

If you’re interested in more, sign up for an early childhood music class. There are some programs that are nationwide like Music Together, The Music Class, The Music Playhouse, Kindermusik, etc. I personally have never taught with any of these and couldn’t tell you which ones are better than others. But also look and see if there is a community music school in your area like MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. Sometimes Schools of Music in Universities have Early Childhood Music programs in the community. Example: Michigan State University and University of North Texas.

Classes are usually parent-child classes and consist of informal learning. (It’s all about exposure and environment.) It is a special time for you to be with just that one child. You participate throughout the entire class, but the teacher provides all the activities and a good portion of the energy. So even though you’re very active in the class as a parent, it is somewhat of a break for you since the teacher provides most of the fun. It’s also a great social outlet for both you and your child.

I have not found the right place to continue teaching early childhood music in my area, but I love it and want it to be a part of my daughter’s life so I teach one class in my home every week for my daughter and a few babies who are within weeks (or even days) of her age. So far it’s a blast for all involved, but I think that I am having the most fun.

If you would like to know more about what I personally do in my classes, here is a letter I sent to the Moms in my daughter’s class:

Classes consist of:

1) Songs and chants:
Our class will always start with a "Hello Song" and end with a "Goodbye Song". Songs throughout the class will be sung with or without words and of various tonalities like Dorian, Mixolydian, etc. (not just Major and minor). This gives our babies' fresh brains exposure to a rich variety of music. Some songs will be sung without words because children tend to focus more on words (particularly as toddlers) when they learn songs instead of the tones. I usually follow up repetitions of a song by reinforcing the "resting tone" or "home pitch". Chants will also be with and without words and of various meters.

2) Movement
In most activities we will be doing either steady beat movement, flowing movement, and/or body awareness (where parts of the body are!). Movement activities may also include fast vs. slow, heavy vs. light steps, bound vs. free movement, and direct vs. indirect (straight lines vs. curvy lines).

3) Dance
Sometimes we will get up with our babies and just DANCE! I will be playing various recordings. Sometimes we'll dance with scarves or dance in a "move and freeze" type game.

4) Pattern Instruction
I will be singing or chanting tonal and rhythmic patterns interspersed throughout the class and related to the song or chant we are currently singing or chanting. For example, I may sing some Major tonal patterns in between repetitions of a Major song. This is informal learning. It is just exposing the kids to patterns in music which is analogous to how we expose children to words that make up our verbal language.

5) Props
We will try to read a book at each class. Other props will include things like egg shakers, rhythm sticks, bean bags, scarves, and a parachute.

Just wanted to share one more example. When I was in college, Edwin Gordon, famous theorist in the world of music education, was a guest speaker in one of my classes. He was singing patterns in one of the unusual tonalities: Dorian. After he sang a pattern, he would point to one of us and we would sing a pattern back in Dorian. After awhile he stopped and expressed how each of us who had sung alone had avoided the pitches that were unique to the Dorian scale. We were singing pitches of Dorian that were also found in the natural minor tonality. He said it had a lot to do with the fact that we just weren’t exposed to it as children. Now as music majors we were all working our buns off to sing comfortably in all of the tonalities. I feel really comfortable now, but it took some time. Anyway, the point is, much like with verbal language, if you are exposed to it from an early age you can become fluent in it.

Well ladies, thanks for reading my attempt at a condensed post on early childhood music. It’s certainly a passion of mine and I think music brings joy to everyone’s lives. Hope you can find a way to put more music in your day! Have fun!