The Value of Music Education

Some times, the success of music education is measured in the number of students who become professional musicians. It is wonderful that some people choose to pursue music as a career, but music education can enrich the lives of all, students, amateurs, and professionals.

Why do we teach all children mathematics, not just the future mathematicians and engineers? Why expect all students to study English rather than reserving the subject for developing poets and novelists? We do so because the study of these disciplines is valuable and a solid foundation in these areas can enrich anyones life, regardless of profession.

Music used to be placed in this category as well. A classical education - the educational standard of the Greeks, Romans, and our Founding Fathers. An educated person studied music, not to become a professional but to be a well-rounded individual.

Music trains the brain to work in a different way. It is mathematical and creative in nature, requiring both hemispheres of the brain to work together.

Music is therapeutic. In a world running at an increasingly frantic pace, the study of music requires one to slow down, unplug, and focus on a single task. The music itself can also have a calming or uplifting effect.

Music surrounds us. It is everywhere I our world, in our advertising, entertainment, work, just about everywhere. It should be important for everyone to have a basic understanding of this important cultural element.

Music education is important and it is never too early or to late to start learning!

Practice Too!

Children model their parent's behavior.  This is especially obvious when our children are very young, but it tends to be true throughout our lives.  So, use it to your advantage.  If you what your child to practice music regularly, you should practice music regularly.  

It doesn't matter if you haven't played for a decade or more,  take your instrument out and dust it off.

If you have never played an instrument, now is your chance.  Teach your self piano or take a few lessons if you can.

The important thing is that your children see you practicing regularly, even when you are tired or had a bad day.  If practice is a priority for you, it will likely become a priority for them.  If practice isn't just for kids, your kids are more likely to do it.  Practice what you preach, or nag, about.  Be a role model.

And, maybe you can even play a duet or jam together sometimes!

Finding Your Voice - Improvisation

Improvisation is making up music on the spot.  Usually, there are some general guidelines or rules for the improvisation.  This time, however, the rules of improvisation are very simple.

Just sing something.  

Kids are great at improvising using their voices  They will make up little songs as they go about their play, singing about their actions and imaginings.

So, when no one is around, give some vocal improvisation a try.  Sing about what you are doing, or just sing a string of nonsense sounds.  Just use your voice and experiment with what you can do.  No rules, just have fun!

Finding Your Voice - Theory

Music is written on a staff.  A staff is a set of five parallel lines.  The staff is essentially a graph of pitches.  The circular part of the notes, or note heads, are placed on the staff to indicate how high or low each pitch in a song should be.

The notes may go up on the staff, showing that the pitches should get higher, as in Are You Sleeping.

The notes may go down on the staff, showing that the pitches should get lower, as in Mary Had a Little Lamb.

The notes may also stay the same, showing that the pitch should stay the same as well, as in Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Try singing some music written on a staff.  What type of graph do the note heads create?  Do the notes go up? Go down? Stay the same?  Each song will be a combination of these types of motion and looking at the notes on the staff can give you an idea of the shape of the melody.

Finding Your Voice - Listening

The sound of the head voice can be strange to our ears.  It tends to be used in more formal, art music styles rather than in popular music.  Try listening to some examples of people singing in different ranges and try to identify if the singer is using his or her head voice or chest voice.

For more examples of head voice, try listening to:

• Vienna Boys Choir, Harlem Boys Choir, and other children's choirs
• Just about any opera.  Start with the Chorus of the Street Children from Carmen and the Flower Duet from Lakme. 

For an extreme example, using the male falsetto:

• Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim

And my favorite musical inspiration for finding your voice:

• Sing a Song by the Carpenters

If you have other suggestions, please comment below!

Finding Your Voice - Games

The first step to finding your voice is finding your head voice.  Helping children to use their head voices will also improve their singing as well!  Use the following games with children, or for the kids at heart!

• "Nah, nah, nee, nah, nah" - The children's playground taunt naturally falls into the head voice.  Listen to children sing in their play; that is likely the same range they should be using when singing.
• Sirens - Imitate fire engines, police cars, and British police sirens.  Make it an echo game. These sounds tend to naturally fall into the head voice as well.  
• Roller coaster - Younger children love imaginative play, and even if they are too young to really ride roller coasters, they are very happy to ride a pretend one.  Build up the experience.  Sit down, buckle and imaginary seat belt, and pull down the shoulder harness, because this is an upside down roller coaster.  With hands out in front, palms down, imitate a roller coaster going up a very steep track (add sound effects, like clicking your tongue).  Pause for a moment at the top, then hands mirror zipping down the track while making "whooooooo" sounds in your head voice to mirror the movements.  Try a big turn, corkscrew, loop-de-loop, whatever you like.  Just be sure to stay in your head voice and the kids on your coaster will automatically stay in their head voices too!

Finding Your Voice

Everyone can sing.

Yes, everyone.  

Just as we all have a unique speaking voice, we all have a unique singing voice.  Our individuality is what makes each of our voices beautiful.  Don't try to sing like someone else; sing in your own voice.

Often, people try to sing too low.   There are a lot of popular singers who sing a lot in the lower part of their range, and a people try to copy them.  However, it is a lot harder to sing well in this lower range, called the chest voice.

It is much easier to sing the right notes when using the head voice, but this can sound odd to our ears.  It's okay.  Learn to use your head voice and you can then work on singing lower if you choose.

Practice your head voice alone at first.  To find your head voice, bend over as if to touch your toes.  Now sing.  It feels strange, and probably sounds strange, and that is okay.  Keep singing and slowly stand up.  If you have found your head voice, you should "feel"  the sound, the vibrations, in your head. If you are singing in your chest voice, you will feel the vibrations in your chest.  Focus on keeping the sound in your head.  It will be a lighter, less powerful sound that your chest voice, but it will also be easier to sing accurately and is the first step to finding your voice.

Music in the 20th Century

For most of human history, if people wanted to listen to music, they had to make music.  Professional musicians existed, but only the very wealthiest people had access to their performances.  The average person did not enjoy this luxury.  Instead, they sang to make work pass quickly, to worship, to relax after a long day.  Some learned to play treasured instruments or constructed their own instruments from available materials.  Songs were made up and passed down from generation to generation.  Even the wealthiest people who employed professional musicians were expected to learn to play instruments as part of their basic education.  Music was a participatory activity!

At the end of the 19th century, a great innovation occurred: recorded sound.  Suddenly, people could hear recordings of one another, across distant lands and distant years.  In the 20th century, this technology gave rise to the recording industry.  Now, everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the music of professional musicians, just about everywhere, and just about all the time.  We are more blessed with more music than every before.

The down side is that all these recordings have made music a passive experience much of the time.  With "official," professional versions of songs, anyone who doesn't perform it exactly the same way may be discouraged.  We form ideas of the "right way" to sing and play, and anyone who doesn't measure up, may be told to quit making music all together.

This is a tragedy.  Everyone can, and should, make music.  We don't all need to be professional musicians, but we do need to participate in musical experiences.  We should all sing in the shower or the car.  We should all sing in large groups - at houses of worship or the ball park.  We should all be willing to pick up an instrument and play for fun if that is something we enjoy.  Don't worry about being perfect or professional; just make music and enjoy it!

Positive Practice

Getting children to practice their music lessons can be challenging to say the least.  One strategy for encouraging practice is to keep it positive.


Whenever your child does practice, find something positive to say when they are finished.

The praise should be genuine, especially if your child is a little older.  There are plenty of things for which you can offer genuine praise.  If they have been working on a specific skill or section of music and it is getting better, be sure to let them know!  If they don't seem to be making much progress right now, praise their hard work and perseverance,  or a praise them for practicing at all, especially when tired after finishing chores and homework.  Let your kids know how proud you are of them!

Don't offer any criticism unless your child specifically asks about an aspect of their music.  Let your child's music teacher be the critical one; your  job is to be your child's number one fan.  If you are your child's music teacher, save the detailed comments for designated lesson times; at practice time be a cheerleader.

*If your child's musical progress seems to be stalled, talk to your child's teacher, preferably out of your child's hearing (call them during the day rather chatting at the end of your child's lesson).  Discuss your concern and ask the teacher for suggestions.  Perhaps your child is practicing poor posture, making a beautiful sound almost impossible to produce.  Perhaps your child's instrument is in need of repair; students are often afraid they will get in trouble for repairs or maintenance issues.  Perhaps your child has gone as far as their current instrument can take them and is in need of a larger size or slightly better model to progress to the next level.  Your child's teacher can provide you with some insight to help you support your developing musician.

Sound and Silence - Composition

When sounds and silences are written down, a musical composition is created.

Step 1
Choose an instrument - body percussion, voice, keyboard - and start to play with sound and silence.

Step 2
When you create something you like, write it down.  You can use notes and rests or create your own method for writing it out.  You can use words, geometric shapes, or create your own symbols.  Choose something that makes sense to you, or if working with kids, something that will make sense to them.  The important thing is to create something you like and then write it down to preserve it!

An example of a composition written using notes and rests.

Sound and Silence - Theory

Music is written using notation.  This notation includes symbols for both sound and silence.

The symbols for sound are called notes.  All notes have a note head; this is the round part of the note.  Notes may also have a stem (straight line connected to the head) and flags (curved lines connected to stem) or beams (straight lines connecting two or more stems); these aspects are used to indicate the duration of the sound. Note heads, stems, and flags or beams can be combined in a variety of ways to create several different types of notes.

The symbols for silences are called rests.  Rests vary in appearance, but each notes corresponds to a rest of the same duration.

Look at the piece of music below.  It uses quarter notes and quarter rests, meaning the length of each sound is the same as the length of each silence.  Try clapping, singing, or playing the piece.

Try looking at other pieces of music and identify notes and rests.  How many of each can you find?

Sound and Silence - Listening

Sound and silence are used in every piece of music, every style, every genre.  So, any piece you listen to will be an example of sound and silence.  Here are a few specific examples to listen to, though, if you would like some suggestions:

• Kid's Music: B-I-N-G-O, traditional
• 70's Popular Music: The Sound of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel
• Classical Music: Eine Kliene Nachtmusik, Mvt. 1, W.A. Mozart
• 20th Century Art Music: 4'33', John Cage

Please leave your own sound and silence listening recommendations in the comments section.

Sound and Silence - Games

Sound and silence cannot exist without each other.  Try clapping for example.   It is impossible for one person to create a continuous stream of sound by clapping, or snapping, or stomping . . . Just try.  Play with the speed of the claps.  The slower the clapping, the longer the silences in between. The faster the clapping, the shorter the silences.    No matter how fast you clap, each burst of sound is followed by silence.  Each one is created, and defined, by the other.

There are many ways for musicians of all ages to play with sound and silence:

• Make some noise!  If you are playing with children, establish a signal for silence before you begin.  Everybody make some sound (clapping, stomping, bang on a pot) and when the signal is given, everyone stops.  After a brief silence, start up the band again.  Continue alternating sound and silence.  Let everyone have a chance to be the leader and give the signal for silence.
• Radio silence - Turn on the radio, or iPod, or CD player . . . and let your little musician press the pause button to create a moment of silence.  Then have them turn it on again.  If using a radio, you can add changing the channel to the game.  Even static can be musical when used in combination with silence.  
• Musical chairs - The children's party game is a great way to play with sound and silence. 
• Freeze dance - Turn on the music and dance!  The DJ turns off the music, and all the dancers freeze.  Repeat!
• Sound of silence - Find a quiet place and listen, really listen.  True silence is very rare, so even in the silence, there is probably plenty to hear.  There are all kinds of sounds in our modern world that we regularly tune out - fans, refrigerators, distant traffic.  Some kids, and more than a few adults, are really uncomfortable with silence.  They immediately start talking or doing something else to fill the silence.  Encourage them to just listen and try to become comfortable with the silence.  Start with a very short period of listening at first and go for longer and longer periods on later days.

Sound and Silence

Music is the combination of two elements - sound and silence.  We commonly associate music with sound, but silence?

Listen to your favorite song.  It is probably not one solid wall of sound.  There are brief breaks in the sound, such as when a singer pauses to take a breath.  It may not be completely silent at that point, but perhaps the silence of the singer allows for a guitar or drum solo.  The silence of one instrument or voice creates opportunities for other instruments to be heard, creating interest and variation in the piece.

Moments of complete silence add can add drama and suspense, pulling in the listener and adding greater emphasis to whatever happens next.  In classical music,  a moment of complete silence is known as a "grand pause."  These moments leave the listener sitting on the edge of the seat, waiting anxiously for the next note.

There are many examples of the interplay between sound and silence is every style of music; one cannot exist without the other!

Music for All

Parents always want the best for their children.  Fruits and vegetables become more prevalent in the refrigerator. More time is spent running around the backyard and less in front of the television.  Foreign languages may be heard around the house more often.  Some people begin visiting a house of worship more regularly.  And many people begin seeking out music instruction for their children.

If all of these things are important enough to do for the sake of our children,  aren't they important enough to do for ourselves as well?  We should also eat right, exercise, expand our minds and nurture our souls - because it's not just good for our kids, its good for us!

Whatever your motivation - family or personal - there are many ways to incorporate music more fully into your life.  Start today!  Sing in the car, listen to that dusty CD, make-up some silly body percussion, dance to the radio.  Music is good for all of us!