Music Lessons: The Importance of Music Education for Children

Thanks, Robin! Matt is doing so very well - I am so proud of him! We weren't sure if he'd be ready for formal piano lessons, since he's only in kindergarten, but we went for a "test session" and he did very well. He's been taking lessons for about a month, and he loves it! It is really great for learning that some things take time to learn, and that boring practice yields a skill that brings joy!

cloverleaffarm, music lessons are so wonderful for kids. My six year old often goes to the piano and just plays for the sheer joy of it - he's playing songs far ahead in his lesson book. We chose piano for lessons because he would learn to sight-read music from both clefs, which makes learning other instruments easier!

GoodLady, I'll have to look up that book. It sounds very interesting - I wonder if our library would have it? My four year old knows the months of the year and the days of the week, because they are put into song format. Music is very useful for teaching a great number of things! I bet there are even songs for multiplication tables and that sort of thing. I have a feeling my son may move on to a different instrument as he ages - he loves the guitar!

Thanks, sankari! I feel music is extremely important in early childhood - whether you choose piano, singing, or another instrument, it only benefits young children!

Melovy, there are so many benefits from singing and learning an instrument. Our younger son was born with a significant hearing loss and it has been vital for us to sing to him, as it helps him hear voice tone better - music has the ability to help with listening skills, too!

Some kids will begin piano at a rather young age - we have a friend with a four year old in piano lessons. They aren't doing Suzuki (which can be started at about the age of three), but found a piano teacher who would slow the pace and use fun techniques to encourage his interest. We chose a more formal route for our six year old, and we love his teacher. We will enroll our four year old in music lessons, too - for now he enjoys singing and copying what his brother does on the piano.

Thanks for your congratulations, practicalmommy!

We are so glad that we can provide piano for our son. Of course, just singing to a child has a lot of benefits - and I'm sure you sang with your kids when they were young, Ms. Dee!

Thanks, anglnwu - we hope that our boys will learn the skills and will find great enjoyment in music. Even if they stop taking formal lessons and don't play very often, the basic skills are there for life (and it makes learning other instruments or abstract skills easier)!

Music education provides so many benefits to young children! Thanks for the positive feedback, Happyboomernurse. I love watching my son learn new things and he will always have the joy of music at his fingertips!

Purple Perl, you can definitely embed my music education video in your blog - I really think music lessons are important for kids. Not every child is ready for formal instrument lessons, but all kids should be exposed to singing, dance, and movement at a young age.

I'm glad you found it useful, Purple Perl~ our son is absolutely thriving with his musical education and is nearing the end of his first book. Listening to him play all of his songs is such a delight for us - and his abstract thinking skills are really quite impressive for a six year old child. Learning to read music is definitely important for young kids, particularly for developing mathematical concepts!

klanguedoc, we have certainly noticed a benefit for our son. He is now almost 7 years old and advanced with math. He also uses music as a way to calm down - if he is upset, he will go to the piano and start to play. We involve our children in music and sports - both of our children play tennis at the moment, and our seven year old plays the piano. We will start our youngest in piano lessons when he is in first grade.

I really love the way that music helps kids to sit down and focus for an extended period of time. There is a certain quietness involved with learning music that benefits children. My son also makes up songs, ktrapp - they are fairly basic songs at this point in time, but I delight in the names he comes up for them. One was titled, "Unicorns and Sunshine." Music inspires creativity in addition to all the other benefits!

I really think that an education in music helps a child's emotional development, pstraubie. Both of my boys will sit and listen to concerts, and express their feelings when they play. My younger son doesn't take lessons yet, but he likes to "play" the piano to make up his own songs. Thanks for the congratulations and comment!

Mary615, practice time can definitely be a struggle with children. My son often struggles against practice, particularly now that his lessons have become more difficult. I take the long view - we are not only teaching him the technical aspects of music, but some very important "life lessons" as well. With great struggle and hard work, great rewards are obtained. He is turning 7 years old this month and will play in the piano guild in 2013. He is quite excited about that prospect - but it is a long slog of hard work to get there. I should include a video of his more recent music - I am amazed by how far he has come in less than a year!

Music is really important - it opens so many doors and rounds out a child's education. Even if they don't continue the education into adulthood, it still provides so many benefits! It sounds like your musical education was a great experience for you, lovedoctor - I hope my son reaps the same benefits.

It is amazing how well those little brains soak up the information, isn't it, Emma? My jaw was on the floor when we took Matt in for an evaluation to see if he could understand a few basic concepts - I had no idea he could intuitively figure out fractions, for example. His piano teacher told him a whole note was 4 counts, and asked him how many counts a quarter note would be. I thought to myself, "OK, he's in Kindergarten - that question is way out of his league." To my surprise, my little kindergartener looked the teacher right in the eye and said, "One count." Kids are so smart - they will soak up the information quickly and easily, particularly if they are young.

Four years in John Thompson's beginner piano book! Oh, my, DzyMsLizzy - that is absolutely ridiculous. Finding an appropriate methodology and teacher is absolutely vital, as well as determining a child's developmental readiness and interest. My older son was ready and interested, and his teacher focuses on each student as an individual. My son finished the beginner Thompson book in about 5 months, and started on the Edna Mae Burnam Book 2. He's doing well in that book, but had some difficulty with eighth notes (understandable for an early first grader). We moved him back to a Mother Goose book to help him develop some of the timing concepts, and now he's back in his Edna Mae Burnam book - and nearly done with it.

While this method has worked for him, it may not work well for my second son. Nolan (my five year old) is not yet ready to begin formal lessons - at least, not with the method used for my older son. He can't write well enough for the theory portion of the work, and doesn't have the ability to translate the idea of written notes to the keyboard yet. He might do better with Suzuki, but that requires a lot of learning "by ear," and Nolan is deaf... so I think a more traditional method will be better for him, when he's developmentally ready for it.

I agree that a disinterested child should never be forced into music - the goal is to provide increased opportunities for the child, not to make them hate music. On the other hand, most children do not want to practice on a regular basis (just like they don't want to clean their rooms or do homework) - so consistent encouragement is needed from parents to be sure the child is progressing and doing the regular work they need to do.

With my older son, we often remind him that if he doesn't practice, he'll simply have the same song to practice again next week. This is usually enough to get him up to the piano and working on his required songs. We also praise his hard work, and usually sit next to him on the piano bench as he practices. We want him to know that we are proud of his efforts.

It is an absolute shame that music education funding has been cut in so many school districts, spartucusjones. Music is not "just" about singing songs, but about learning rhythm, understanding written notation, assisting language development, and aiding abstract thinking skills. My younger son is severely hard of hearing (he cannot hear any spoken language without the use of technology), and one of the techniques we used in his early days was to sing - all the time. We sang out our routines and sang nursery rhymes. The singing helped him to develop a good voice tone quality and he has excellent language skills. He is scoring above his hearing peers in a mainstream kindergarten classroom.

You really had a doozy of a teacher, DzyMsLizzy! Matthew's teacher has him say the counts out loud while he's playing each piece of music - but we also discuss how long a note is relative to the other notes. If you see his head moving slightly in the video above (and his jaw moving), it is because he is counting as he plays. Since he is so very young, this gives him an intuitive feel for how long each note should be played. He will say "One" for each quarter note, "one, two" for each half note, etc. The eighth notes are a bit tricky for him, as he has to say, "one and" for the two notes played within the space of a quarter note. He understands the concept now, but it is still a trickier idea for a young child to master.

Matt has music theory work in addition to the actual playing. I really like the Edna Mae Burnam book - it is an old book (the illustrations look like they're from the 1950's), but the music theory worksheets are included in the book and are perfect for young children. The names of the notes are written on mailboxes so that the letter can be "mailed" to the right address, etc. - very appealing for little kids.

The songs in this book are also short, so that a child can master a song very quickly - and all of the songs are played with both hands, so the music sounds pretty. My son really likes this book - he has to do a rather boring exercise in eighth notes, but gets to move on to "Jingle Bells" next week. Just in time for Christmas!

There are very few children in my son's classroom who are taking music lessons, dianetrotter. He may be the only one, though our school district still has music class for all children from Pre-K through high school. Matt is probably the only first grader who can sight read music, though. Private music lessons can be expensive and not all families can afford them - though for us, it is a priority and I'd rather spend money on piano lessons than on a cell phone plan.

We decided against Suzuki because some children have difficulty transitioning to sight-reading music - though the method does work well for many families, we decided it wasn't for us. Matthew loves playing his songs and he can sight-read anything at his level - the doors are wide open to him for any future instrument he would like to take up. He wants to play the violin, guitar, and trumpet at the moment - I'm sure he'll narrow down that list as he gets older!

I love hearing from parents who have older kids that are farther down the road, NCBIer. I really hope it helps during adolescence, too. I think it is important to build competencies - it gives kids a broader base of experiences to expand on. My son may never become a musician, but the world of music will always be open to him.

Music is really wonderful, Mhatter99. My son actually wanted to start on the guitar, but we couldn't find a teacher for young children in our small, rural area. He does love piano, and when he gets older, he can add in other instruments.

I agree, BinauralBeats! Both of my children take piano lessons now, and both participate in the National Piano Guild. Their piano playing has improved dramatically over the years and we love having a house filled with music. My older son (he is now 8 years old) does not enjoy practicing very much, but he loves playing for others and the positive reinforcement that comes along with performances!