Many parents ask me if their baby is too young for music classes.
Of course, the answer is emphatically, ''No.'' Ever since I began teaching music to children of 18 months old I began to notice their baby brothers and sisters in arms were following my voice with their huge eyes. Even before these infants could sit up alone they were taking a full part in the activities of the older siblings.
It should not come as a surprise since all human babies spend nine months at close quarters to a regular beating pulse and recent research has proved that unborn babies 'hear' external sounds.
So I present in this article of ideas for extending the abilities that very young babies have and gradually moving on to teaching older infants more about rhythm and intonation.
I have discovered that more and more parents are keen to introduce their children to music at an early age but they do not feel confident to set about it. Music teachers,
can build upon this desire to enjoy and share all aspects of music-making: singing, rhythm, dancing and listening. It is our job to develop the skills that each child has so that he or she can express him/herself musically.
The music sessions must be relaxed in atmosphere and the parents must feel at ease whilst being encouraged to join in with all activities. This is a sharing experience and much of what goes on in the half-hour class will be taken back into the home. Every effort and contribution is warmly accepted and the parents play an active part in creating this positive atmosphere.
With children aged from three to nine months the parents are encouraged to sing rocking songs (traditional nursery rhymes) and games and rhymes that involve touching parts of the body (toes, ears, cheeks, etc.). Marching round the room to either recorded dance music or piano accompaniment is also a way of reinforcing a sense of pulse and gives the parents the enjoyment of sharing activities. Small bells are an ideal instrument to attract the baby's attention and train his/her ear to sounds. Small maracas provide a contrasting sound. Singing and experience of rhythm through body movements are the basis for these lessons.
From 9 months old
The child can sit up and begins to enjoy songs that are a little more active- galloping (dotted rhythms) to accompany songs with a strong pulse and rhythmic meter. Tambourines and tambours become interesting instruments to beat as are maracas and drums.
Home made instruments are even more fun for children to use. The child of this age needs limitless experience of feeling pulse whilst sitting on a parent's knee. The ''
Oxford Nursery Songbook'' has an excellent range of rhymes and traditional songs for this purpose. '
Songs Children Love to Sing' also has an extensive range of rhymes and games.
Each lesson lasts for half an hour and contains the same format each week so that the tiny child begins to anticipate the activities. We always begin with a 'hello' song and then three or four clapping reaction songs, a rhyme and then a circle activity, such as walking to music. The content remains the same for three weeks and gradually one new song or rhyme is introduced over the forthcoming weeks. The session ends with a goodbye song and then a quiet few minutes listening to gentle recorded music. The selected piece will remain the same for two or three weeks.
From 12 months to 2 years old.
More finger games are introduced; i.e 'Tommy Thumbkin', 'Five little ducks' etc, and we begin to trace patterns in the air to describe the music we are listening to.
Further repetitive rhymes are introduced gradually more humorous ones in order to sustain interest and surprise. By the time the child can walk we are beginning to move in a circle with parents supporting each child in order to do simple clapping and slapping knees to country and dance music, or singing looby loo whilst doing the actions (but one foot in as opposed to left or right).
We can begin to make a chain and move round the room to music with a strong pulse and we can also move freely to music whilst waving ribbons or scarves. The child is beginning to become more independent of his/her parent. He can move to the instrument table and select a small drum, bell, maracas or claves and can return them, gently when asked. I use soft toys to encourage tender feelings at the end of a session when we lie down to listen to recorded music.
2-3 Years
By this time the repertoire of songs and rhymes has increased. Again the format of lessons (greetings, action rhymes, songs, circle games, more songs instruments, free movement, gentle songs and listening to music) remains the same. A small child has a sort of attention span but a good memory.
They quickly become accustomed to the lesson structure and therefore feel secure enough to learn new skills. By two years old, if not before, I have begun to introduce a specific repertoire of songs that are designed to encourage good intonation. Traditional nursery rhymes contain a pitch range too wide and too difficult for children under the age of five to attempt. However songs built on the falling minor third (so and mi) and then adding 'la' and later 'do' (building up a pentatonic scale) give very small children the opportunity to sing a variety of songs in tune. Many of the songs are about animals and all are introduced with a large picture and a simple story to give the children as many memory clues as possible. All the senses are involved in committing songs to memory. If we also sing hello and goodbye together with questions and answers, on 'soh', 'mi' and ‘doh’ the children find it perfectly natural to sing both tutti and solos.
After all, what is the musical interval of that ubiquitous whine "mummy"?
Every song is accompanied by a pulse kept on the knees or hands and parents are encouraged to help the child keep this pulse.
Claves are an ideal instrument for this age group as they act as an extension of the hands in keeping a regular pulse while we sing questions and answers to each other.
Anticipation of the beat is encouraged through songs such as:
• Two fat sausages frying in the pan,
• one went sizzle (child shakes maracas)
• And one went bang (child bangs on drum)
A typical session would end with each child selecting a soft toy and rocking to and fro to "row row row your boat". We then sing a "goodbye song" and lie down with the toys to listen to some music. By two and a half to 3 years old the children can concentrate long enough to lie down and listen to several minutes of recorded music. I use many styles of music from baroque to modern female vocal but the common factor is high-quality of intonation and tranquillity. The teacher must lie down with the children and be seen to be enjoying and sharing this precious experience.
After one or two years of musical activities, besides having a working knowledge of a variety of nursery rhymes, action songs and rhymes these children can sing in tune on a pentatonic scale, they can recall a repertoire of up to twelve songs from aural memory, they can keep a regular pulse and can discriminate between fast and slow, high and low, loud and quiet and sound and silence. They can handle simple percussion instruments and use them to keep a pulse or tap the words of a known song. By three years old most children are more than ready to enter the music class without the support of a parent.
