Advice for Putting Music in Children's Lives

This is mostly directed at the Emilys but I think works for anyone.

Music is a wonderful thing, and being able to do a wonderful thing is a wonderful thing.  Learning how to do things is enormously more easy for children, their brains are growing and teaching is basically altering the growth of brains so that certain tasks are easier.  My only introduction to music growing up were the three albums my parents owned and about a month of trying to play a very cheap recorder in school.

At the age of thirty I was introduced to playing music again, and have worked to be able to play it now for eleven years.  i think in those eleven years I have learned as much as I would have in two years as a child, and a foundation of childhood skill would mean that all my learning of music in the future would be much easier.

I don't want to suggest that all children should learn music, just like I don't think all children should be forced to play sports, or made to paint.  I do think all children should be introduced to these things to see if they like them, because they can all add great depths of richness to a life.

The first piece of advice I have is to get the right sort of instrument.  If your child likes to sing this is the greatest instrument that a person can have, but learning an instrument will help them to sing and result in a more full musical experience.  The right sort of instrument is a quality instrument that a child can play.  Too often parents buy a full-size cheap "beginners" guitar because they don't want to waste their money if their child gives up after a while.  This is a terrible choice.  A cheap instrument will sound terrible if almost anyone plays it, and much worse for a beginner. 

A a full size guitar is too big for a child to operate, my hands are really too small for a guitar, and a child will have difficulty with the long neck.  The guitar also requires significant strength in the fingers and callouses on the tips of the fingers that are earned through painful practice.  A reduced size quality instrument will be easier to play and will provide vastly more encouragement because of the more beautiful sounds produced.  Find your local used music shop, set a budget, and consult with the staff.  You'll be hard pressed to find someone working in such an establishment who will cheat a child out of the opportunity to play the best instrument for them possible.

I really recommend starting with an electronic keyboard, you can get new ones for around $100.  These have numerous advantages, the first being that they always make the right tone, the second that they are easily portable, the third that they require no physical strength or endurance to play, and the fourth is that the keyboard is by far the most intuitive way to learn music theory.  The keyboard is laid out as music theory.  Most keyboards have programmed songs in them and a vast array of different sounds.  I recommend smashing these optionsto smithereens if possible for your own sanity and the learning of music.  People do the most efficient thing and having the machine play songs for you or make lots of cool noises is the most efficient way to "make music" for a child of any age.

The second piece of advice I would give is to get a teacher early, and get one that teaches with tunes rather than theory and scales at first.  Only when the child wishes to get better should these other approaches be introduced.  It is fun to play songs but not fun to practice technique.  You can make a child become great at an instrument, but if they associate music with drudgery they will quit as soon as they have the power to do so.  It is not necessary to have a music teacher for your child at all times during their childhood for the child to become very good at music.

My third piece of advice is to let the child be the motivating force.  It is unlikely that your child will make a living playing music or require competence at music to survive the adult world.  Music is not a requirement but a beautifully enriching luxury.  Music should be played for fun, not because a parent wishes it to be played.

My fourth piece of advice is to encourage performance.  There is nothing that will make music more fun than finishing a song and hearing people clap and cheer.  From a parent clapping for a pre-school child singing to a crowd cheering ten year olds in a rock band at the local coffee house, it all makes it more wonderful.

My fifth piece of advice is to find some fun group activity for child musicians to play together.  Music at its best is a collaborative activity, and understanding this as early as possible can only be good.  One of the greatest examples I have seen is The Black Peppercorns who started out of a wonderful project called The Rock and Roll Camp for Girls.