I bought this one at Cracker Barrel for 6 bucks. It’s a
Hohner and it’s really great quality. Great sound and it holds up well to the explorations of a young child. It’s really important to get good quality instruments for your child and for yourself.

Quality instruments don’t need to be expensive to have a good sound. The problem is that a lot of what’s marketed out there as instruments are really just noisemakers. Even a non musician can hear the difference. Try to listen and ask “Does it thud or does the sound carry through the air? Does it squeak or does it sing?”

Even if you don’t have a lot of musical experience, you can learn to listen for the difference by comparing the sounds different things make. One thing you can start with is to tap on things around the house and compare the differences and similarities. Try tapping in different places and with different items to see how the sound changes.

It doesn’t take much to start developing your ability to listen and to begin to understand music better. Having that understanding opens the door to having richer experiences with music. We’ve got plenty of noise in this culture. Wouldn’t it be great to replace some of it with music.

Deborah

For the most part, we just make music a casual part of how we live. He has had the benefit of playing with his toys while string quartets rehearse in our living room and he goes to Kindermusik class every week. Even with all of that, most of his musical education at home is very casual at this age.

We sing the Barney clean up song when picking up around the house. We also have lots of musical instruments (real ones and quality toys) all around for him to experiment on. 

Today, a friend came over and the boys had a sword fight with our boomwhackers. These are plastic tubes that are tuned to different pitches. They didn’t realize they were playing an interval of a major 2nd when they hit them together, but I believe these small experiences have helped my son grow musically. 

One thing I do is tap the rhythm on his back when we hear music, even from TV.  Sometimes I will tap the rhythm of the song and sometimes I’ll tap the underlying beat.  It really internalizes the beat for him and will hopefully develop a more natural sense of timing. I struggled with keeping time in my younger years, so I want to make sure he has a solid foundation.

Most of the music making is impromtu, but we do have one regular routine at bed time. We will all pile into bed for family devotion time. We start singing Gloria Patri followed by a Bible story. After that we say our prayers and end with the doxology. He almost always falls asleep after the Doxology.  It’s a great routine for us and it teaches him music of the church. At some point we will add other music from the liturgy. 

If you don’t have kids, you can still incorporate things for yourself.  Try to tap out the beat and the rhythm while you are listening to music.

Keep your instruments in plain sight. You are more likely to sit down and do something with them if they are easily accessible.

If there is a song at your place of worship that you are stuggling with, bring it home and learn it a little at a time. Sing it as you do things around the house. Maybe even memorize it.

There are lots of things you can do to make music part of your daily life. Just remember it is about growth and experience. Little things do mean a lot when it comes to music.

Deborah

He just said “Happy, Sad”.  He’s been talking a lot about happy and sad lately. He’s at a stage where he’s putting words to his emotions and starting to grasp opposites about abstract ideas.

I just started singing the words happy and sad for him making the music sound happy on the word happy and sad on the word sad.  He then said his tummy was happy, his mouth was happy, then his tummy was sad.

I just made up words about how his tummy and mouth were happy because his food was good and then it got sad because he ate too much.

I sang it 3 or 4 times and the melody ended up being different every time. We were having fun being silly and had a little music lesson to boot.  .The best lessons are the ones that don’t feel like lessons.

Deborah