Over the past few decades, we have seen the theories surrounding childhood development evolve quite significantly. However, one skill that children have always been encouraged to learn is music. While many of us believe that this is solely because music is a healthy hobby for children to have, that is not the only reason. Music is known to help children develop essential skills and abilities during their early years that help with emotional growth and brain development.
If you have a young child and want to help them get the most out of their early years, encouraging them to learn music is a fantastic way to do so. In this article, we discuss the benefits of learning music for children and also discuss how you can give your child the right push on this path.
How to Encourage the Love for Music in Your Child
For most children, a love for music develops quite naturally. From listening to lullabies as babies to watching cartoons and shows with music, all children have a favorite tune that they love listening to. As they age, children become exposed to more music at school, in church, and mostly through the media.
During early childhood, you should play your favorite songs for your child to help them experience different kinds of music. Then as your child passes the toddler age, it is the perfect time to introduce to them the art of making music. There are many easy-to-learn instruments for beginners that you can bring to your child, or you can take them to the music store and let them pick themselves. Once they have an instrument, enroll them in a music class in your area to help them start their journey toward learning a unique art form.
Reasons to Encourage Children to Learn Music
As discussed above, there are many reasons you should encourage your child to learn music. Let’s look at some of them in detail.
- The Right Age to Learn
Music is one of the most beautiful forms of art. The way a symphony of sounds and words takes over your senses and speaks to your soul is nothing short of magic. At the same time, there is an entire science that goes into creating music, which makes it one of the most difficult skills to learn.
However, children possess an innate ability to learn new and complex things with ease. For instance, science shows that the best time to start learning a language is before age 10. This makes childhood the best age to start learning music.
- Improved Brain Development
By learning music, children can learn how to identify the different elements of compositions, including melody and rhythm. Listening to music also helps improve memory and the ability to recognize emotions.
Learning music improves children’s cognitive functioning, which leads to better attention spans, enhanced logical reasoning, and critical thinking skills.
- An Outlet for Creativity
Like all art forms, music is a great outlet for creativity. For children, learning music can help them expand their minds and help develop creative thinking skills. A musician with their instrument is no less than a painter with a paintbrush.
Learning this ability as a young child helps children hone their creative side and become open-minded individuals that have the capacity to think outside the box. Further, since making music is about creating new things, learning this skill also helps children grow into adults who are not afraid of experimenting in life.
- Build Emotional Intelligence
Anybody can sing on key, but it takes more than that to be a good singer. Have you ever noticed a singer close their eyes and allow their emotions to come through when starting a long note? Making music is about letting out your emotions, and this is one of the core teachings that any good music teacher imparts to their students.
The best musicians in the world use their emotions to fuel their talent. Whether it’s love, anger, frustration, or happiness, these exceptional people know how to channel what they feel to create a composition (or even just a melody) that reflects their emotions. Thus, using your emotions to inform your creative expression can help build emotional intelligence.
- Increases Self-Confidence
Self-confidence is an essential quality one must possess to lead a fulfilling life. Learning music can help your child develop this. As humans, we all take pride in our work, but our chest further swells up when another appreciates our efforts.
Music is a skill that you can share with others. When your child sings at the talent show at school or plays their guitar for their friends, the appreciation and applause they receive will boost their self-confidence. For shy children, this can be a fantastic way to get over their social fears and come out of their shells.
- Practice Discipline
Music has strict rules that you must follow. It is a rigorous and draining activity at times. Have you ever seen an opera singer at a theater or a violinist in an orchestra? The intensity with which their vocal cords or their fingers work is unimaginable for a regular person.
Oftentimes, professional musicians end up temporarily losing their voice or developing calluses in their hands while performing. When your child starts to learn music, they automatically start to learn discipline as well. From playing with a certain level of control to balancing technicality and musicality, musicians have no less complicated practice sessions than athletes do. Even if your child doesn’t pursue music as a profession, the discipline they learn when becoming a musician will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Conclusion
There is a famous quote by the philosopher Plato that goes along the lines of how teaching music to children is essential because this art form has patterns that are pivotal to helping young minds learn and grow. So, while the sciences and the theories we teach our children have value, music is one skill that can help them grow into creative, disciplined, and emotionally intelligent human beings.
With that, we hope you’re convinced to teach your kid music. While you’re at it, maybe also sign up for that guitar class you always wanted to take. After all, it’s never too late to learn!
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