The Good Musician

5 Ways to Make Children More Interested in Music

by Arjun Muralidharan on February 4th, 2008

Photography by carf.

I often wonder what the best way is to teach my little brother, age 10, music.

The boy goes to piano classes, and he’s actually quite talented, being able to read music quite fleuntly and playing all major and minor chords with ease after little more than a year of training.

During this time, I did find ways to contribute and help him on his journey, and there are a few tricks you may find useful yourself.

1. Gift them music.

I bought my brother a colorful storybook of The Magic Flute by Mozart, which included a CD that comprised the most popular pieces from the opera (like this one we’ve covered). He immediately took interest in operas and spent a good week hooked on his iPod with his frightful arias and powerful quintets.

Gift them music, even if it’s just an iTunes gift card.

2. Install the listening habit.

This is really hard. But it goes hand in hand with the previous tip: By giving music you’ll entice them to listen to music on their on. In fact, a trip to a good, peaceful CD store can work wonders on his or her curiosity.

3. Pick an instrument together, showing full range.

I think when it comes to choosing an instrument, you need to weigh in the child’s preferences with a good pinch of your own opinion. I say this because kids often like to go for electric guitars and drums, not because they like the instrument or know whether they’ll enjoy playing it, but due to obvious reasons like the media.

Still, don’t force them to learn anything, nor let them go wild, because they might just loose interest after a month.

4. Practice together at least once weekly.

As a musician myself, I could help my brother in places liek practice routine and technique. I’m not a great pianist, but the rules of slicign music up for practicing apply everywhere.

Sitting with a kid and motivating it while actively coaching is important if done right: Don’t condemn, criticize or try to know better. The teacher is there for that.

5. Engage with the teacher.

I found that some of the best tips of how to improve my brother’s piano skills came from his teacher. Since I had some basic knowledge of how things worked in the music teaching world, I tried to ask him what I could do on my part. Useful tips included timetables, a practice diary and actively searching for pieces my brother wanted to play (like Happy Birthday and Silent Night).

I think that, under the line, the most important thing you can do is to support your child’s musical endeavors by building it into the daily routine, making it a larger chunk of your kid’s hobby. But: Don’t try to intervene too much, or you might end up messing around with the teacher’s plan. Bad thing.

Just find ways to motivate kids and the rest will come naturally: After all, everyone loves music if they can see progress!

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