You may not hear this often, but music is just like language, and like language, kids have a superior advantage over adults when it comes to learning music.
Teaching music to toddlers may sound as complicated as herding cats, but, on the contrary, it’s one of the easiest things in the world! The best part is that you won’t need to have a musical background or even know much about music to do it.
Find out how in this article.
1. Sing Often With Your Toddler
The most natural way to get kids to learn about music, without even appearing to be actively involved in trying to teach them, is to sing with them often. Kids at that age pick up a lot of what they’re exposed to, and regularly exposing them to music will make music a normal part of their lives early on.
Remember that you’re not trying to make world-class opera virtuosos of them at this stage. The aim is to make them comfortable with making music with their voice. So, you can start with singing folk songs before moving to other types of music.
Singing with your toddler will connect their brain with their voice and develop their ears.
2. Tell Them Stories With Music
Storytime is a great time to teach kids essential values about life in general. Children pick up a lot in these moments because that’s just how they’ve been designed to. You can kill the proverbial birds with a single stone by engaging in musical storytelling with them. By doing this, you’ll be teaching them important lessons and making them comfortable with music, all while having loads of fun.
Musical storytelling can be done in two ways. You may tell the entire story while singing or tell a story that encourages singing at various parts. Musical storytelling creates a relaxed and fun environment for children to get comfortable with using their voices.
3. Practice Steady Beat
Teaching your toddler about beats is an important step in the process. Beats determine the rhythm of any music, and people who don’t understand it may struggle to get other musical concepts.
You can teach kids about beats by moving your body or parts of your body in sync with the music. However, before teaching kids about beats or rhythm, make sure you have a good understanding of it!
4. Don’t Correct Their Musical Missteps
Toddlers will invariably struggle with pitch. They will sing off-key or struggle to hold a key, and they won’t even be aware of this.
Rather than correcting them when they make mistakes, try to encourage them to sing in whatever way comes naturally to them.
5. Play Different Songs At Home
Listening to music is a big part of learning music. Having music on at home is always a great way to get your toddler comfortable with music and help them develop their versatility. Nevertheless, you may have to carefully select the type of music to play in the background. Songs performed with musical instruments that encourage movement are perfect.
