Music enhances all areas of a child’s development. Advancement in language arts, math, critical thinking, problem-solving, testing, and emotional intelligence are all possible when a child practices music early in their life.
Music doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it can be fun! Here are a few ways to make music theory fun for kids under the age of six years.
Before we dive into the creative aspect of music theory, let’s look at what music theory is. It’s made up of seven parts:
The main part of the song. The main parts are overtone, timbre, duration, amplitude, and pitch.
The placement of sound in a timeframe.
The foreground notes you hear in a song.
The background notes you hear in a song.
How the instruments or noise sound together.
Sections or scores with a beginning and end that combine together to make a finite song.
The emotional way a song or musical piece is performed.
Kids tend to do things they want to do rather than things they have to do. In the activity of learning music, there are ways to make it fun so they want to come back for more. Here are a few ways to make it fun:
They are a lot less nervous to sing if you sing with them. Play a simple song and sing along with them using your hand to point out higher notes and lower notes. Use this video to help them sing:
BONUS: Play notes on a piano or guitar and have the child match the note with their voice. Then, go up or down in tone and have them match the sound.
Give each child a tennis ball and have them bounce it once. Then, you start bouncing it and have them match the bounce. Slow the bouncing for a slower tempo and speed up for a quicker tempo. Once they understand, have them bounce the ball to the beat of a metronome.
TIP: If the child is too young to coordinate bouncing, then have them clap instead.
Print a blank sheet of music and draw in four notes evenly spaced out. Using the metronome, play the notes. Explain that the start is the beginning, there’s a middle, and there’s and an end. This is called a “structure” or “form.”
There are many reasons why kids should learn about music. Many of them have to do with cognitive enhancements and motor skill improvement. Here are a few others:
Getting creative with music doesn’t have to be hard. Take advice and tips from others who have gone before you. The Facebook page Music for Young Children – MYC is great for small fun music projects. Instagram accounts misskatiesings and creativeplayforkids have songs and advice to check out.
Happy Piano Online offers easy, at home online piano lessons for children ages 3-6. This course will teach your toddler how to play the keyboard which benefits language arts, math, critical thinking, problem-solving, and test scores. See how Happy Piano Online works or read FAQs.
