Posts Tagged musical education
Do Parents Need Any Musical Education?
As you know general education is very valuable. General education becomes more profound and effective when your child starts taking music lessons. However, I am not talking about music lessons taken in a regular public school curriculum. Instead, I would like to talk about private instruction, where children work one-on-one with a professional music teacher and are taught how to master music.
In order to find out about the advantages of playing musical instruments, all you have to do is read a few articles on how the small motor skills influence the development of a child. Besides improving his/her ability to speak, it also stimulates his/her abilities in many other ways. Some of these can be noticed at first glance.
So, let’s say that you agree that music lessons will greatly benefit your child. Moreover, all children to some extent like music and each one is ready for musical education in their own time. Your role as a parent is to notice your child’s interest in music and help them prepare for the lessons and organize the educational process. Participation in motivating and supporting his/her interest in music lessons is important.
If you were to make the teacher responsible for your child learning how to master music, there is definitely a ninety-nine percent chance out of a hundred you would encounter problems during the course of the music lessons. You would spend your time reminding your child to do his/her homework and convincing him/her how important homework is.
Teaching your child how to master music could involve giving them unpleasant lectures about their responsibility in the learning process. However, there is some good news. You are not alone. This happens to most parents who know nothing about musical education. It has also happened to those parents who had a similar experience during their own childhood. This happens because parents do not have special musical education.
I do not mean that moms and dads have to know how to read music although this would be great. I am talking about the basic issues parents encounter preparing their child for music lessons themselves. One example of an issue is how to make a regular child into a musical child. As long as a family has basic knowledge and resources they should be able to develop a child’s musical ear as long as the child was born without any hearing impediments. If the child has good hearing there is almost a one hundred percent guarantee that with the parents help the child will develop a musical ear. Even parents with no musical talents can help their child become a musician.
How can a parent learn to assist their child in his/her musical education? Reading and learning about other people’s experiences of which a few examples can be found in the book “Voices of our children”. This book contains real life stories which serve as examples. You can read and learn from other people’s experiences! It is easy and informative!
Let’s say you got lucky and it is clear that your child is musically inclined. Now your job is to find out the level of his/her musical abilities. The first thing most parents do in this case is start looking for a music teacher who’d tell them that their child is meant to be a musician. This is an absolutely a right and sound decision and nobody is going to argue with you.
The next step is to find a good music teacher and buy (or rent) a musical instrument. You may say this is all fine and good, but what does the musical education for parents have to do with all this? What do you mean by this? Everyone knows that in order for a child to learn music all you need is a good specialist and the parent’s job is to find a good specialist and pay for the lessons! You are partially right but don’t be in a hurry to rush to any conclusions. Now we’ll take a little break from the subject of teaching a child how to master music. We will come back to it later, because from this moment on everything that happens to your child deserves close attention and discussion.
Tags: first glance, music lessons, musical education, professional music, public school curriculum
Babies and the Study of Music
If you have just had a child then Congratulations! I have experienced that joy 4 times.
If you were blessed with a musical education and decided to send your child to music school in the future, that’s great! Don’t wait another second, you might already be too late. When should your child’s study of music start? The answer is – even before the baby is born!
Even during pregnancy, mothers are encouraged to talk and sing to their baby. The child can hear you perfectly. This is proof that the study of music can start at conception. It is recommended you listen to classical music and sing during your pregnancy, especially if you have an ear for music.
Do this every day so that your child becomes familiar with your voice and also familiar with the music. Be careful not to expose your unborn child to music that is too loud or listen to something too loud on headphones. Music that is too loud can stress your baby and the stress you have from sounds over a headset can also transfer stress to your baby.
One common source of overbearing loud music is attending a concert or other public event especially during the sound check stage.
When the child is born, continue to enhance their study of music by softly playing the same music in the background. When you are holding your baby, move to the beat. As your child gets older, start doing exercises or other physical activities while the music is playing. Every little thing will help in the study of music for your child and the earlier the better.
It is also a well known fact parents can control their child’s behavior and temper based on the type of music played in the house. You know what they say, music soothes a savage beast, and children can certainly be beasts from time to time. If your child is too hyper, slow them down by slowing down the music. If they are a little down, pick them up with some upbeat cheerful music. It is like magic and it works all the time.
As your child gets older diversify their study of music by developing their “musical visualization”. This is done by playing soundtracks of natural sounds such as birds, crashing surf or waterfalls. If you only do this for a short time each day, you will seriously enhance their musical abilities and definitely help is their future formal study of music. The future of your child is in your hands.
I must also mention that you should have about 15 toys that make sounds, preferably musical sounds. Break them into 3 groups of 5 each and only let your child use one group at a time. About once a week swap to the next group and pack the previous group away. It is like Christmas every Tuesday or Friday for your child. This will also give you a bit of an idea of what type of instrument your child gravitates towards.
Tags: baby move, cheerful music, move to the beat, musical education, savage beast
Parents play the most central, yet vulnerable roles in children?s music education
Parents Play the Most Central, Yet Vulnerable Roles in Children’s Music Education
The three basic parties who take part in children’s music education are the child, the teacher (or teachers) and the parents.
To best understand how the young musician will regard music lessons, we must ask: “How should parents plan for the musical education of their children and what they know about it?”
As a rule, there are two main things to consider: the choice and cost of the instrument, auxiliary materials and lessons; and the search for a good teacher. After that, the preparation for the child’s musical training is largely complete. However, buying the instrument and paying for lessons are not the most complex part of music education, although many parents think so and believe that the rest is up to the teacher and the child, who is obliged to frequent music lessons on a regular basis and do the homework. In fact, to parents, it all seems very easy! “Did you do your homework today? Have you practiced that piece enough? Have you learned the fingers in an etude? Come on, play the piece you had to memorize!”
Here’s the simple truth: The reasons behind one’s success in music education as well as the loss of interest creep in absolutely imperceptibly, and often during quite a long period of time.
First, then, let’s discuss what happens when a child loses interest.
Again, parents are the most integral and important parts of the equation when it comes to their children’s success or loss of interest in musical education. When a child gets bored with his or her lessons, the parents, who by that point are exhausted by battles with the child to practice and often feel financially pinched from the costs of the instrument and the lessons, must then face the difficult decision of whether to terminate the lessons.
While preparing the materials for my book, Voices of our Children, I talked to parents and teachers and asked them what they considered to be the prime reason behind the child’s loss of interest. Can you guess who a whopping 80 percent considered to be at fault? The child! It was he/she who did not want to continue the education!
What’s more important is that after terminating the lessons, very few parents asked themselves why their child lost interest. Let’s look the perspective of each participant in this scenario:
The child. He is happy! His “tortures” have finally ended. He no longer has to hear unpleasant things about his careless attitude toward music lessons. No one will ever force him to learn music against his will! Now he is free from tiresome lessons and can spend time doing things he likes!
The teacher. Not every teacher, especially not those who often lose students, will search for the real reasons behind a child’s loss of interest in music lessons. It is easier for some teachers to accuse or blame the student than to admit to their own mistakes.
In this case, what does the teacher do? He quickly forgets about former students and places an ad to get new ones – he has to earn a living. It’s just a job.
Parents. Believe it or not, but I think that when the child quits musical training, the parents suffer the most – not only because they have invested in this venture materially, but because along with the termination of music education they must part with their own dreams, hopes, and an opportunity to discover and develop their child’s true talent that might not have been obvious.
Now, when the child quits music lessons, he can quickly redirect his attention to new interests. The teacher, who has lost the student, can compensate for his loss by finding a replacement. But the parents do suffer the most – they cannot “move on” – they cannot replace own child with another!
Therefore, to avoid this problem before it hits home, I strongly believe parents should prepare for their children’s music education ahead of time. They should know beforehand what awaits them in the future, and should be ready for possible hardships.
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Supporting your child in their musical education
Putting your child in musical education requires your involvement as parents. It does not mean that when you put your children in music schools, you’ll just leave them on their own. Your personal involvement will be a lot of help for your child’s personal development.
As parents you need to give your all out support to your child. Accompany them during their practice for the first months of their lessons. This can make them comfortable having you at their side. Aside from that, you can also help them develop self discipline to practice on their own.
Another way to boost the confidence within your child is to give positive feedback. Don’t discipline your child through punishment. Try to show passion and enthusiasm about everything that he or she does. Encourage your child in a positive way. Errors and failures may arise during practice, but this is normal. Everybody makes mistakes. Encourage them to go on despite their failures and mistakes.
Even though music can be fun, but it can be boring sometimes. There may come a time when your child may decide to quit. Music lessons can be tougher as they progress. There are many children who decide to quit after years of doing it and did not return to continue their lessons. If you really want your child to excel and you think he or she has the capabilities, don’t let your child quit. Children who quit rarely return to music lessons. Encourage your child and show your appreciation on what he or she had accomplished. Show them your trust and believe in them that they can reach their goals.
But if your child is really interested in what he or she is doing, quitting is not in their vocabulary. Just remember these simple tips about how you can show support to your child’s musical education. With your help, your child can achieve success and become a musical artist.
Tags: music lessons, musical artist, musical education, personal involvement, self discipline