[Aditya]

Build Life Skills With Music

Love, respect and appreciation for music are easy to share with our children and build life skills at the same time. During the first years of our child’s life, musical skills build self-esteem and enhance expression. Musical rhythms spur motor development. Learning melodies and words stimulates listening capacity and help children develop receptive language.

Specific areas of child development and learning are positively affected by exposure to and training in music. Preschoolers given piano and voice lessons, for example, have been found to improve dramatically in their ability to put together picture puzzles of animals. Playing the piano at the preschool age influences development of the cortex, the part of the brain used for thinking, talking, seeing, hearing and creating.* Music training contributes to the ability to learn or enhance mathematics skills.

Music clearly is a resource for living, growing and learning and can be an integral part of our children’s growing experiences.

Music is controlled movement of sound, in time.* Music is three basic components: sound + rhythm + melody = music.

Exploring sound

To help children understand music, it is helpful to look at each component separately. First there is sound, one that we make or one from another source. A few examples of sound are a bird chirping, a teakettle whistling and a child banging on a pot with a spoon. If music were compared to a painting, sound would be the background color.

In our bodies, sound corresponds with our central nervous system. A pleasant sound opens and expands us. It can energize or calm us. A shrieking sound puts our nerves on edge. Like the background in a painting, sound is the first step in creating music.

Here are some ways to explore sound with our children.

• Have your children listen to the sounds around them. How many different sounds can they find in the kitchen or backyard?

• Encourage children to be creative making sounds. Have them use their voices or household objects to make sound. Allow them to make pretty, irritating or silly sounds. They are all music if they reflect creative exploration or honest feelings.

The purpose for creating sound is not necessarily to make “beautiful music” but to foster self-expression and open up our children’s ears to the world around them.