Music is a joyful and living experience that comes from the human heart and soul. Music lives in all of us especially children. Music is the child's primary form of communication, have you ever noticed your child sings everyday? It is our pleasure as parents and home educators to provide a music
foundation for our young children. We can teach it to our children in a natural and artistic way. Here are a few tips on how to get started even if you have little or no musical training
1. SING TO YOUR CHILD
- Sing every night. Pick a favorite lullaby to sing every night.
- Sing a wake up song that greets your child
- Sing as you transition from one activity to the other throughout your day. I have had amazing results with my young children. Often it is hard to get a child out of one activity to the next, but the child
will become one with the song and move right into the next activity.
This is a song I wrote to help mothers understand how important it is to sing to her children. This song is based on Rudolf Steiner’s lecture of “Mood of the Fifth.”
A mother’s singing voice is very unique,
Her singing voice follows the rhythm of speech;
Enfolding the child in stillness and peace,
Creating a mood that connects with heaven.
A glimpse of heaven is the secret key
For the mood of stillness is in this melody.
Although the child keeps moving along,
He will always find stillness and peace in her song.
2. LISTEN TO LIVE ACOUSTIC MUSIC
- Develop children’s listening skills by going to live acoustic musical performances (no loud electronic amplification, speakers, microphones, etc.)
- This will also develop your children’s love for music appreciation
- Develop a deep connection to our culture - music brings people
together as one body
There are many places to find live acoustic music, many of which are free:
- folk festivals, holiday festivals
- What’s in your community? We have a local 4th of July festival with
great live music from early America
- local high school marching bands and parades
- local high school chorus concerts
- local high school band concerts and festivals
- piano, guitar, flute, violin, etc. recitals
- local college recitals and concerts
- local churches
- at friend's houses
3. LIMIT MEDIA AND RECORDED MUSIC FROM YOUNG CHILDREN
- instead of fancy recordings and media, human voices and acoustic instruments strictly give young children all they need.
- Instead of observing music from a machine, the child observes the human making the music, thus they gain a natural connection to being human.
- In art we look at a painting and see beauty; in music we become beauty, we observe natural music coming directly from the heart and soul of the performer and as the child observes this, it penetrates
his inner heart and soul.
4. LEARN THE IMPORTANCE OF PENTATONIC SONGS
- A great way for children to begin making music is by starting on pentatonic notes in songs that consist of five certain tones. As there are no wrong sounding notes, every note works nicely. We can
start and end on any note because every note is pleasing.
- When making music using pentatonic notes, we create a soothing, pleasing, and nourishing mood for our children.
- There are many pentatonic instruments to explore such as the pentatonic lyre, pentatonic recorder, pentatonic xylophone, the harmonica, the black keys on the piano.
- You can start with these pentatonic notes D, E, G, A, B on any instrument to get started. And Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, Bb are the notes on piano.
- In Waldorf School and Waldorf homeschool, we begin children in grade1 on pentatonic songs as Rudolf Steiner suggests, founder, of Waldorf Schools.
- For more understanding, read an entire article on “THE PENTATONIC SCALE, How to Use in Waldorf Homeschool. http://homemusicmaking.
5. TEACH YOURSELF A WIND INSTRUMENT NOW
- “As early as possible the children should come to feel what it means for their own musical being to flow over into the objective instrument...if you can you should choose a wind instrument, as the
children will learn most from this and will thereby gradually come to understand music...” - Rudolf Steiner
- If you have very young children, take the time now to learn a wind instrument and it will be easy to teach it to your child when he reaches six-years-old.
- You will be setting a great example of continuing education, as the child sees you continuing to learn new things.
- As you practice the songs, your young child will internalize the songs that you learn, and when he is older, he will already know the songs from hearing them in his younger years.
- I choose the traditional American recorder called the penny whistle because of its ease, and the connection to early American history. Other beginning instruments you can choose are the recorder, or the pentatonic flute.
- The joys of playing the flute: a recent mother told me that she took her pennywhistle out to the apple orchard to practice while her children played around her and she is so grateful for her new talent she has acquired.
6. TEACH YOUR CHILD IN THIS NATURAL AND ARTISTIC WAY
- Get started right away with this step by step music lessons called Living Music From the Heart: Music Curriculum Volume 1 which is an easy and creative approach for the parent to teach the child when he turns six. A parent can begin to teach him through his world of play using the pennywhistle, pentatonic flute, or recorder by singing, and movement along with the aid of the music lessons and lesson ebook.
- It is a natural and artistic approach based on imitation. Learn to use creative ways in discovering sound and learn how easy the penny whistle is to play.
- Song selections are based on well known rhymes and folk songs so you can get a feel of the rhythm of speech.
- This natural method is based on how we learn language; first by hearing, then by imitating, next by learning a word, then phrases. There will be no reading music at this stage because that comes much
later, just as we learn to read and write much later, there will be no reading music at this beginning stage.
- The lesson plans have ideas on how to integrate singing, rhythms, verses, games, and songs in a fun and playful way.
LIVING MUSIC FROM THE HEART: MUSIC CURRICULUM VOLUME 1
1 Lesson ebook
27 Video Music Lessons
What’s on the video music lessons?
* 7 Teacher Lessons
* 20 Lessons to teach your child - enough lessons to last one year
* Games, live in action
* Watch step by step instructions of the many hand clap rhythms such
as “Miss Mary Mack”
* Instructed by Jodie Mesler, private music teacher of 20 years
The Instrument Choices
2 Pennywhistles- make sure it is made of tin, has a wooden fipple mouth piece, and in the key of D
2 Pentatonic Flute
or
2 Recorders
*you need 2, one for you and one for your child
1 Lesson ebook
27 Video Music Lessons
What’s on the video music lessons?
* 7 Teacher Lessons
* 20 Lessons to teach your child - enough lessons to last one year
* Games, live in action
* Watch step by step instructions of the many hand clap rhythms such
as “Miss Mary Mack”
* Instructed by Jodie Mesler, private music teacher of 20 years
The Instrument Choices
2 Pennywhistles- make sure it is made of tin, has a wooden fipple mouth piece, and in the key of D
2 Pentatonic Flute
or
2 Recorders
*you need 2, one for you and one for your child
