But this is actually one big truth! My friend was preparing her piano master’s thesis while being pregnant. She practiced every day. When her girl was born, after several years she sat at a piano and without much effort, she started playing a concert tune she “listened” while she was in her mother’s stomach. Actually, the most beautiful music for baby’s ears is mom’s laughter. And if mom sings, and does so every day, the baby could not be any happier.

Many people think they will completely guide their children towards music if they enroll them in music school. There is truth to that, but only as long as the child looks forward to going to classes. However, I have experienced firsthand (and I still hear my students say this) that sometimes it is hard to go to classes. This is not about not practicing. It’s simply that some teachers and some children “do not click” when working together. That’s when the lessons become torture. I believe that in life, we should run towards anything that makes us happy and that learning should be a pleasure. As soon as we start resisting, all the beauty and joy vanishes.

Imagine having to create music, and doing so under pressure. How much energy and time does it take to create something beautiful from something not so beautiful?

This is why, if you notice your child has an actual problem with their teacher, put them into another teacher’s class. The worst thing you can do is say: “Tough it out for just two more years, and then you don’t have to go to music high school!” Imagine saying that to someone who lives for music, who sees themselves on the global scene and who wants to share the music of their heart with the world. Should they really tough something out? Not two years, not a second!

Truth is, there are children putting up a fight against it because they want to pursue something else. I think the best thing to do, in that case, is to listen to what they want. These children can go from one professor to another, never achieving anything. Perhaps they are born to be painters, poets, actors, mathematicians, biologists, or athletes. If that is so, I do not see why they should “tough out” anything. For them, taking music lessons becomes some sort of punishment.

Hence, you should talk to your children, and avoid using phrases such as “You are still young, what do you know, I know what’s best for you!” Children do know – they have an unerring instinct.

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I want to share with you a story about how I felt when I first started attending music school. It all started in 1968 when my dad and the workers were taking our family piano all the way up to the sixth floor. He thought my sister would be thrilled to take musing lessons. However, that did not happen and the piano soon became just another piece of our furniture. My mom suggested selling it. Although “I was not part of the plan” back then, my dad was adamantly against the idea, saying someday someone will be in a desperate need for the piano. As if he knew.

However, at the very beginning, even I was not interested in music school. I was into basketball, getting ready to take no. 1 place in the world of sport. My mom used to say they should have sold the piano, my dad said that my craze for basketball would be over in a few years’ time, while I was doing my own thing. They constantly switched me from one class to another, for piano teachers did not want to teach a child refusing to practice at home, but was keener on reading musical notes on paper at the sport during the piano lesson. I was devoted to taking all my exams and was even more devoted to getting on my teachers’ nerves. I was eager for my parents to withdraw me from the music school.

However, for some reasons, the basketball had to become a thing of the past back then. So? What am I to do now? I decided to enroll in a music high school and ask to be transferred to take lessons with the best piano teacher. The principal was confused. I, who was not interested at all into the piano and practicing, want to take lessons with the best piano teacher? Still, he was willing to be helpful. And he was not wrong.

All of a sudden, the piano and I started to “breathe together”.

My piano lessons involved singing, laughter and joy. I kept my focus and did my best to become the best possible friend to music. It was not until 1990 that our family piano started to be played the way it was supposed to. It was waiting for 22 long years. I do not know if it paid off for the piano, but I cannot be more grateful to it. I can only imagine how the piano must have felt while I was struggling to hit the right tone. It probably thought: “My god, child, leave me alone!”  Support your children to never give up easily from beautiful things in life. They should be persistent. When they complain that something is boring or hard for them, tell them to give it a new meaning, to refresh it, stir it up and unwind. You will see, it will be magical.

Children are the most honest and most open human beings. You can “pour in” them various beautiful things. Be their joy and their most beautiful music. It does not matter if you have a good singing voice, as long as your song is played with a smile on your face and the melody comes from your heart. How easy it is to be music for a child, if we open the door for them with love, and see them in and out with a smile.

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Music plays a very important part in our culture. When thinking about everyday life, music is present in a variety of social and educational activities. We listen to music on TV or when we go to the movies. Most governmental ceremonies include a component of music while we use songs to celebrate birthdays or to worship god. Given this importance of music, it is no surprise that parents use music instinctively to express joy, and to engage or calm their children.

What Children Learn from Being Exposed to Music

Research undertaken by a team of researchers in the 1990s showed that the exposure to music from early childhood onwards helps children to speak more clearly, develop a larger vocabulary, and strengthen social and emotional skills. The psychologist Howard Gardner already argued in 1983 that music intelligence is as important as logical and emotional intelligence. This is because music has the ability to strengthen the connection between the body and brain to work together as a team. For instance, when dancing and moving to music, children develop better motor skills whereas singing along to a song helps them to practise their singing voice. In general, the exposure to music supports children in their development process to learn the sound of tones and words.

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Music and Early Childhood Development

Many studies have investigated the importance of music in early childhood development since the 1950s. Two facts that are widely accept are that children do not express music in the same way as adults and that the years from birth to the age of six is the most important period for a child’s musical development. This is because even the youngest toddlers receive the tones of music and unintentionally differentiate in frequency, melody and stimuli. According to researchers, the early years of childhood are critical to learn to unscramble the tones of music and to build up a mental organisation system to memorise the music. This means that, like language development, toddlers develop their musical skills through imitating and memorising rhythms and tones of songs such as clapping to a beat and singing in tune. Without this ability children would not be able to develop their musical skills.

However, this ability to develop musical skills is influenced by positive and negative factors. Therefore, sufficient stimulation and exposure to music and musical play is necessary to help children to turn their potential into actual musical growth. In terms of instruction, the most typical negative influence on developing musical growth is when parents are not musically orientated and do not actively expose their kids to music.

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Parents’ Important Role in Musical Education

Parents play the most important role in musical education when it comes to expanding a child’s musical horizon. For many years, researchers have been pointing out that children whose families are more musically orientated are considerably more developed in their musical behavior than children who experience a less musically orientated environment. Research undertaken by Kelley and Sutton-Smith explains this situation well with clear examples: the two researchers developed case studies that followed the early childhood years of three girls whose families had different musical backgrounds. While the parents of the first girl were professional musicians, the parents of the second girl practiced music from a non-professional background. Finally, the third girls’ parents made the least musically orientated choices due to their own non-musical background. The researchers’ findings suggest that there was a major difference between the two families who exposed their girls to a varying degree of music and the family who did not engage in integrating musical education at all. They concluded that a rich musical environment at home fosters a child’s exposure to music and improves a child’s music ability. Further research also indicates that parents develop a stronger bond to their children when they enjoy music together. This way music is not only a tool that contributes to the growth and development of a child but it also helps the family to spend quality time and have fun.

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The Grand Finalé

Since there is no negative consequence to the idea to connect children with music, it is an activity that parents can enjoy with their children as often as possible. Even if the regular dose of listening to classical music is not likely to result in sudden ability improvements, it has a positive impact on a child’s rhythm, movement, and social and listening skills in the long run. Additionally, there are many short-term benefits. Listening to music can be calming, entertaining and fun for parents and children. In this sense, it does not matter whether the setting is a quiet room with a parent or a busy outside or inside music class with other children as long as the youngsters enjoy it.

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