Many parents have heard of the benefits of childhood music lessons. Beyond musical skills, studies have shown that lessons, particularly in piano, improve memory, fine motor skills, emotional regulation, and even executive functions like time management. But exactly when should your child start lessons? And how early is too early?
Ready? Set, Go!
What some might find surprising is that music lessons can start as soon as the parent is ready. In particular, mommy-and-me style classes like Music Together® have no minimum enrollment age and teachers at Highland Music Studio have experience with little ones as young as 3 months. Now, we’re definitely not sitting an infant at a piano. For babies, learning happens through discovery and experience. The best way to learn music is to make music!
Experiencing music in this class becomes broken down into its very core concepts: pattern recognition, gross motor skills, and tone matching. These are teachable skills that some might believe children are simply born with– inherent abilities that separate the “musical” from the “non-musical.” But what often goes unnoticed is that the crucial stage when babies are at their most impressionable can also be when they can become their most musical.
Pattern Recognition
“Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little….?” If you found yourself thinking, “lamb!” you may be more musical than you think! Infants process information in pretty much the exact same way– filling in the blanks of an established pattern. During class, they are often “on record” meaning that you may not see them interacting with the music in a very visible way, but play the songs from class at home and you might find your baby cooing and babbling at the ends of phrases or in patterns that match the song, filling in the blanks on their own.
Gross Motor Skills
It’s a myth that people either have a sense of rhythm from birth or they don’t. In truth, babies learn how to follow a beat like they learn anything else– through exposure and experimentation. Many of the activities in Music Together center around different levels of beat and moving to those levels in simple ways. Caregivers clap, tap, sway, and stomp along to big beats, little beats, and every beat in between! Babies will usually then follow suit, bouncing, wiggling, and nodding along to the music in turn. In their quest to follow the group, they are using those gross motor skills in their arms and legs that lead to crawling, walking, running, and dancing!
Tone Matching
Let’s return to Mary and her lamb. “Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as….” If you’re familiar with the song, you likely have already filled in that final note. Even self professed “tone deaf” individuals can sense that the song is moving down in pitch at that point and the last note should at least be somewhere low-ish. In every day use, how can we tell someone is asking a question? The rise in pitch at the end of a sentence is a clear indicator, even when the sentence is a single word. Right?
Babies recognize these same tonal patterns, and will often babble or coo at a song’s resting tone during pauses or at the end of a song. The first time your baby chimes in with a “baa” or a “waa” that sounds awfully similar to the song we just sang in is a magical moment!
So, Can My Baby Take Piano Lessons or Not?
In short, before three years old, children don’t have the cognitive ability to sit at an instrument and learn the finer points of music, but that doesn’t mean they can’t start their music journey!
Babies learn best from important adults in their lives. When they see the grownup who takes care of them singing and dancing, they’re not judging the quality of their dance moves, they’re learning that music is fun! In Music Together classes, grownups are not only instilling musical concepts in their child, they’re engaging them in making lifelong memories and stronger bonds with the people who matter most in their lives.
Want to see for yourself? Click here to check out a Music Together class for 50% off!
Heard enough and are ready to dive in? Click here to enroll in the next session!
Curious about what else Music Together can do for you and your family? Click here to read more blog posts!