Beth Bolton talks about the benefits of early childhood music.

Beth Bolton's CDs are available from the VOSA website (see the links in the side bar). Her lovely song collections expose children to music in different tonalities (modes) and metres (time signatures).

Granny had the right idea

When you were a child, who sang to you? Was it your Mum or Dad? Was it your Grandma?

Dr John Feierabend, the US the psychologist and music educator, has made a disturbing finding. He has interviewed people of different ages, and asked them what songs they sing to children. The older the person interviewed, the more songs they remembered. With each generation, we are losing repertoire. The art of singing and rhyming with children is dying out.

When it came to music, we used to be a participation culture. We sang around the piano, danced together, and used singing and rhyming in games with children.

These days, we prefer to watch other people singing and dancing. We are moving from a participation culture to an audience culture. As for the kids, we think we can out-source all that to "childrens' entertainers".

Parents are told that certain CDs and DVDs are "educational", but Feierabend found that they are actually making our children dumber. Rather than stimulating the brain and turning our babies into famous scientists (as one product seems to imply) they cause the viewer's brain to enter a zombie-like state.

What can we do? It wouldn't be a bad start to ask Nanna what songs she used to sing as a child. Encourage her to pass them on to your children. These valuable "heritage" songs link the generations.

Music and intelligence

We all know that babies are learning a phenomenal amount in the early years.   They learn a whole language, for a start.

In his article Music and Intelligence in the Early Years, Dr John Feierabend graphically illustrates just how important early learning is.  Most neurological pathways are built within the first two years of life, and atrophy if they are not maintained.

We talk and read with children to help them learn our language, and Feierabend believes we also need to be singing, rhyming and dancing with them, to help them learn to be musical.

We cannot wait for the school years.  As the child learns to communicate, talk and walk, they also need quality music education.

It is unrealistic to wait until a child is seven and then throw them into lessons on an instrument, without any preparation.  If they cannot keep the beat, sing tunefully and appreciate the beauty of music, their playing will only ever be mechanical and sub-standard.  A baby needs to grow up knowing music.  As Feierabend so often says, a musical child is tuneful, beatful and artful.  These are the prerequisites for a rich musical life.

Even though music improves many other aspects of a child's learning, musical intelligence is a goal in its own right, and one well worth pursuing. It's a great article.