The Early Ear, Ages Two to Five

It's a Saturday morning in October. Sunlight streams in the windows of a large room in a church basement, lending warmth to an already brisk fall day. Parents are seated on folding chairs, some reading, some attentive, some napping, some struggling to keep their babies quiet. In the center of the room, a dynamic woman in her early sixties stands in front of twelve children, all between three and four years old, arrayed in a half-circle facing her. She is holding a violin bow, using sweeping gestures to accompany the words of a rhyme, demonstrating how to keep a steady handgrip on the bow while the arm is moving. The children hold tiny bows — some as small as eight inches — and chant along with her, mimicking her actions.

Up like a rocket, down like the rain
[moves bow straight up and down]
back and forth like a choo-choo train
[moves bow horizontally]
'round and 'round we go like the sun
[makes a large circular movement]
up on our heads and now we're done.
[moves straight up to top of head]

This is a Suzuki violin class, one of the first that this group of children have had together. While copying the teacher's movements, the children engage their bodies in the chant's rhythm. Like other Suzuki rhymes, chants, and games for beginners, it is a purposeful exercise to help students develop coordination for the small and large movements needed for playing their violins and to help them move with a steady rhythm. The teacher points out who is holding the bow correctly and gently adjusts the children whose hand positions are not quite right.

The thirty-minute lesson is playful. Children march around the room with their bows, learn to move rhythmically in unison, sing the unofficial Suzuki anthem, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and respectfully bow to their teacher at the end of the class. This ensemble class exemplifies, at a glance, the benefits of the Suzuki Method: the children enjoy doing something novel in a group; the teacher is playful and engaging; and parents are present in the background to support their young children and to absorb the lessons that will need to be repeated at home.

Various paths brought these three- and four-year-olds and their parents to this basement on this beautiful fall morning. Lucas's father, a doctor, who paid much of his way through medical school playing jazz piano, kept noticing how fascinated his son was with musical instruments. Lily's parents wanted to give her all the lessons they never had. Daniel's stay-at-home mom wanted her children to engage in a creative activity that also helps develop self-discipline. All these parents believe that learning to play an instrument will be beneficial to their children, now and for years to come.

This kind of class, familiar to the scores of children who start Suzuki lessons every year, may appear to be these children's first step in music. But children begin their musical introduction in infancy — whether their parents are deliberate about their musical exposure or not.

This chapter addresses how we, as parents, shape our children's musical world, even when they are just babies and toddlers, and how creating a home environment filled with music can kindle a child's musical interest. Included here are descriptions of accessible and popular programs geared to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.

First Steps

In their earliest years, children are an embodiment of their musical experiences. Fascination with sound, singing, humming, chanting, and moving rhythmically are their natural activities and responses to the world. Newborns turn toward a human voice, seeking the source of the sound; within days they can distinguish their mother's voice from that of others. Musical explorations and interactions with sound help babies and toddlers develop linguistic and other cognitive skills. Indeed, very young children are capable of developing critical thinking, some of which stems from learning to interpret "motherese" — a term psychologists coined for the very musical, expressive way that parents, particularly mothers, and other caregivers speak to children. Babies' mimicry of sound and rhythm are the building blocks for language acquisition — and also for the musically educated child.

Psychologists are finding that hearing song is one of the fundamental ways that babies learn to recognize the tones that add up to spoken language. By channeling and creating opportunities for musical processes — active listening, responding to music, and creating sounds and rhythms — parents can help their children build a lifelong involvement with music.

During infancy and early childhood, parents are the main gatekeepers of their children's listening and musical experiences. Parents with musical training or inclinations often replicate their own positive experiences: they sing frequently, point out pleasing sounds in nature, and play a variety of music in the house or car while naming instruments as they hear them. Spontaneous interactive listening and music making of any kind can be, for some households, as natural and essential to their family life as having a pet.

For other parents, their young child's relentless fascination with music and sound inspires them to follow through on behalf of their child, and may kindle their own interest in music. For still others, the current widespread belief that children benefit from studying a musical instrument may encourage them to steer their children toward formal music activities or lessons. A 2002–2003 Gallup Poll conducted to gauge attitudes toward music participation found that a large majority of the 1,000 households surveyed believe that music is an important part of life, that it brings families together, and that playing an instrument is fun and relaxing and can provide a sense of accomplishment. Eighty percent of respondents "completely or mostly agree that making music makes you smarter." (This was the first time this question was included in this poll.)

Many conversations with parents about studying music today inevitably turn to higher SAT scores or how studying music can even enlarge one's brain. But whatever prompted your decision to include music prominently in your child's life, creating a musical environment in your home is the best way to begin. Singing, making and playing simple musical instruments, active listening, and moving to music are exploratory and experiential ways for children to acquire a musical sensibility that can easily be transformed into musical skill in the future.

The following suggestions are easy ways for you to incorporate more music into your home and your young child's world.

* Listen with new ears: if you've been a rock 'n' roll fan for most of your adult life, try making orchestral music an everyday listening experience for your family.

* Familiarize...