Starting a musical journey
Lots of us want our children to access music and a musical education, but getting started can be a real challenge and quite daunting—especially if you yourself are not musical. This is where I’d like to offer some guidance and ideas. There are many different ways to bring music into children’s lives, but for this September blog I’ll focus on the very early years of learning.
The most impactful thing parents can do for their children’s musical interests is to expose them to a wide and varied range of musical styles. It can be as simple as playing music in your kitchen every morning and asking them about their reactions to it. You can have a sneak peek to my little session with Alfie, my oldest one on Instagram.
How does it make them feel?
What type of movement do you think works with it?
Is it spiky or smooth?
What does it make you think of?
Can you make up a story about it?
It’s also really good to challenge your own musical preferences. As with all things in life, our own tastes will inevitably influence our children’s, purely by exposure. However, the more you can introduce a wide variety of styles, formats, and instruments, the more likely your child is to be open to a varied musical education.
Musical styles you could try:
Jazz
Film Music
Choral
Classical Orchestral
A cappella
Rock
Merengue
Indian Classical
Early Music/Baroque
Folk
Flamenco
Samba bossa nova
The list can go on and on…
There are many musical events happening in London throughout the year aimed at young audiences and their families. Many of the major venues host performances and events specifically designed to engage and inspire young listeners. We encourage you to explore these events, and we will also keep you updated in our monthly newsletter, highlighting both these performances and those featuring our teachers, so you can attend and enjoy them too.
When to start?
This is a controversial subject, and one that lots of people differ on. My personal opinion is that starting as young as possible with an instrument is a really positive thing. This is for a number of reasons, one of the biggest being that when starting a skill between the ages of four and six, children’s brains are in prime sponge mode. They don’t worry about something being “hard” in the same way as we “adults” do. They are learning new skills every day from scratch, so learning an instrument doesn’t feel like a challenge to them at all. It also means that quite often they don’t remember the “beginner” stages of learning and, if they continue, will most likely just remember being “able to play”.
What this does mean is that as a parent, the responsibility for the success of this instrument learning lies fairly heavily with you. You will have to be a very active part of their learning, as they haven’t yet developed the skills to self-govern their practice at home—an absolutely vital part of learning an instrument.
It’s so important to remember that enjoyment in learning is strongly linked to a child’s sense of achievement. Let me be clear—that’s not to say they need to be playing recitals within a year, but the feeling of coming to a lesson having improved on the last week is one of the biggest motivators for young students. It’s all very well saying, “I just want them to love music and playing for themselves”, but until they’ve learnt enough to do that, it’s almost impossible for them to get that musical feedback from the mechanics of learning! I can say from experience that however you dress up an open-string violin piece, it is not going to inspire anyone musically!
Another reason for starting early, and maybe one of the most fascinating ones, is that going through those first years of learning makes switching and even trying different instruments at a later stage so much easier. By the time a child has a strong opinion on what instrument they want to play, they are already set up with the foundations of music. Things like note-reading, theory, and even how to practise are already ingrained, which means they can progress much more quickly on their chosen instrument than if they were starting completely from scratch.
This is all to say: providing you are able to be involved in your child’s learning, starting early is, in my opinion, a really good way to establish a lasting relationship with music.
What should my child learn?
This is a really tough question and ultimately a very personal one. Choosing your child’s first instrument is a big decision, but remember—they can always change once they’ve solidified the basics of music learning.
A lot of people choose piano as a first instrument, and there are many positives to support this choice. Children learn both clefs (treble and bass) when learning to read music. They can pretty much choose any instrument later on and already be able to read the music. They also develop good dexterity between two hands, and it’s a very accessible instrument, meaning they can sit down almost anywhere and play. It’s also relatively quick to feel as though you can “make music”, although actual fluency may take longer than with other instruments. Piano does, however, give more immediate feedback than most as well as any people also having access to a piano or keyboard at home or with family. Even if you don’t, you can now pick up weighted keyboards with 88 keys for under £300.
However, the negatives are that piano is not (at least initially) a particularly social instrument. Largely played alone in the first few years, it doesn’t immediately create a sense of community, which I’ve found really helps motivate young learners. Before any pianists come for me, this is mostly down to logistics—there’s often only one place for a piano or keyboard in a school orchestra or ensemble, as opposed to lots of spaces for other instruments.
String instruments like violin, cello, or guitar are fantastic first instruments, especially for four- or five-year-olds. They grow with children (you can get truly tiny beginner instruments), they’re easy to handle for small fingers, and—perhaps more importantly—they are very social. There are so many opportunities for children to make music together on string instruments, even from a young age. Even just playing with their teacher in lessons, the act of making music with someone else can be hugely motivating. This was a major part of my motivation for building / creating Pelican Music, because I wanted children and young musicians to feel part of a community and to have music and friendships that lasts a lifetime.
This goes for many other instruments too, and I don’t want to upset any instrumental teachers! However, instruments like flute, clarinet, trumpet, or trombone—while also highly social in ensembles—require a bit more maturity to begin. That’s why I would always recommend starting with something like piano or strings first. Even if children ultimately want to switch later, by then they’ll already have a solid musical foundation to build on, making that initial stage of learning much quicker.
Final advice
The final piece of advice I would give is: give it time! Don’t expect your child to be a virtuoso in the first year—trust me, it’s harder than it looks! It’s really important that you, as parents, set your child up for success with their instrument.
You do not need to read music or have any musical experience at all to play an active part in your child’s learning. The single most impactful thing you can do for your child’s musical success is simply to be present and engaged with their practice at home. Just 10 minutes a day, every day, going over what they have done will make the biggest difference.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter if it’s not “perfect”; helping them get into the pattern of regular practice is the best support you can give. By doing this, you’ll see a snowball effect in their learning: each week they’ll arrive feeling confident and prepared, the feedback from their teacher will reinforce this, and their own sense of improvement will build an enjoyment that carries them through those early learning years.
