Very young children show their interest in music in obvious ways: singing, dancing, clapping their hands, and trying to play instruments that they may find in a home or classroom.
But many children under the age of five or six (and sometimes, even older) don't have the patience, the fine-motor-skills, the dexterity, and the attention span to take private music lessons and do the necessary practice.
Group lessons for young children are one answer, but parents can also introduce their children to instruments that are more manageable that gigantic pianos, finger-shredding guitars, and finicky violins.
Rhythm Instruments for Small Children
Rhythm instruments are the obvious choice. While percussion players must practice for many years to master the intricate rhythms they play, a small child can get enormous pleasure experimenting with the sounds of drums and percussion instruments such as tambourines, claves, sticks, shakers, rain-sticks, maracas, and hand drums.
Don't just give the children the instruments and walk away! Make this a family activity. Three good ways to use drums to teach rhythm are:
- Teach children to play along in time with a recording.
- Have the child learn and play one pattern, repeated over and over again, while the parent or another sibling plays another, different pattern.
- Practice counting and playing at the same time.
- Do what musicians call "trading eights," which means you make up a pattern for eight beats, then the child makes up a pattern, and you keep trading off, with the instruments "talking" to each other.
- Play "copycat. Gradually get more and more complex.
- If an older sibling takes music lessons, occasionally let the younger child play along on different percussion instruments.
Two Warnings: Rhythm instruments only seem indestructible, but they aren't. A drum set can withstand the tender ministrations of a rock-and-droll drummer better than the poking of a child holding the drum-stick like a sword and pushing it into the drum-head. Supervise the use of drum-sticks. A child can jab a drum-stick straight through the head of a drum – or into another child's eye.
This is also a good time to teach a child basic manners around instruments: Never play another person's instrument without asking first, and play it like an instrument, not a toy.
Wind and String Instruments for Small Children
Ukuleles were once so popular in America that instead of printing guitar chords on published sheet music, music publishers used to print ukulele chords. This instrument is pint-sized, and has a high pitch young children find pleasing. This is a good choice for a child who is asking about guitar lessons.
For wind instruments, harmonicas are a good choice. Given the correct harmonica (they come in different keys and you do need to match the harmonica to the song), a child can play along without having to worry about playing the right notes. A harmonica that comes with a play-along CD is a good choice for parents who don't have the musical education to figure out how to match the instrument to the key.
Two other mouth instruments that work with small children are recorders and pennywhistles (basically, small recorders). Both are lightweight, inexpensive, easy to blow into, and easy to finger.
There are many thousands of different instruments from all over the world, and many of them are inexpensive and can be played on by children. Check out an independently owned music store, the quirkier the better. While the big-box national chains have great deals on telecasters and Casio keyboards, that's not what you're looking for: Your local independent may have a good selection of odd instruments music store, which could have anything ranging from African thumb pianos to child-sized Scottish bagpipes to mountain dulcimers.
Most important: Get a few different instruments, put the whole family to work – and have some fun.
Karen Berger - Karen Berger is the author of 15 books. Please click on her name to read her full bio.
