Getting Your Toddler Interested in Making Music

The love for instrument activities is rooted in infancy. When junior first started kicking the mobile to elicit sounds, he learned that tactile manipulation yielded auditory surprises. Granted, you may not be blessed with a mini Mozart who will take to playing the Baby Grand like butter to a biscuit. Then again, if you lay the groundwork for instrument activities during active play, you can teach your toddler quite a bit about rhythm, math, cause and effect, and music-making. Listening to music is a good first step, but actually making the music creates the love for instruments. Is it easy to get started? You bet!

Know why toddlers are fascinated with making music

What inspire pint-sized musicians to experiment with instruments are the sudden – and occasionally unanticipated – sounds that the objects make. Consider it an acoustic incentive that your toddler comes to look forward to. Since children this young love cause and effect toddler activities, getting them into musical instruments is a natural progression.

Make or buy instruments

Plenty of retailers sell special toddler-sized instruments. Since kids this young are frequently tough on their toys, you may find that the expenses add up quickly. Consider making at least some of the musical instruments yourself.

Maracas: Fill a small plastic soda bottle – emptied, cleaned and dried – with dry lentils or small beans. Add only enough to fill the bottle up to a quarter. Spread glue over the lid threads and tighten the cap. Once the glue has dried and the cap cannot be opened, the instrument is ready for your toddler. Drum and sticks: Spread an overlapping flap of vinyl over the opening of an empty round oatmeal container. Duct-tape the vinyl to the oatmeal container. Super-glue two plain antenna balls to the ends of two chop sticks. When the glue has dried and the antenna balls cannot be dislodged, you are ready for your in-home drum circle.

Toddler-sized xylophones are relatively inexpensive and even a baby piano – usually a plastic contraption with four or five keys – can be fun, too. Go for quantity of instruments, even if you only parent one toddler.

Bringing instruments and toddlers together

Time your activity. Using instruments with toddlers generates noise — lots of it. Do not start your foray into musical exploration when other children are trying to nap. Another word of warning: Do not allow children to take their instruments into the car with them (trust me!). Make time. Even though toddlers usually have rather short attention spans, instrument activities have the tendency to keep the little ones riveted. Do not try to squeeze in a bit of play but instead plan on having plenty of time for exploration. Be consistent. Occasional use of musical instruments creates curiosity. Continuous and repetitive access to them fosters a love for the changing sounds the children can make. Putting instrument activities onto your daily schedule in a predetermined early-morning time slot is perhaps the wisest course of action. Verbalize effects. Explain musical concepts, such as tempo and rhythm, as your toddler is eliciting sounds from her instruments. Use proper terminology and highlight when she changes tempo, adds a riff or changes a tune. Help your child to connect words with tasks. Model music-making. Toddler activities involving musical instruments are not spectator sports! Show how to cause an increase in tempo. Have a drum circle. Accompany your child’s drumming with maracas. Put words to music. Once your toddler is really getting into the action, go ahead and show how telling a story or the singing a song is influenced by music. Play with rhythm, tempo, singing and poem recitals. Dance along. Up the ante by combining body movements with music-making. March, dance, hop or skip as you make noise.

Who knows, you might just be raising a future marching band star, singer, dancer or conductor! Then again, you may be having a child prodigy on your hands after all; do not be surprised if this toddler begins to take an interest in sheet music at a very young age – or if he can play from memory after hearing a melody only once or twice.

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