Welcome to my new blog all about playing music with young kids. Many parents have a love/hate relationship with music. We all listen to it for pleasure and the vast majority of us want our children to play it, yet many don’t feel good enough to join in. When singing is required, even the outgoing lower their heads and mumble the words. Though we routinely create art projects, kick soccer balls and bake cookies with our kids, we don’t feel the need to be expert painters, goalkeepers or chefs. Unfortunately, playing music is perceived differently: it’s only for people who are ‘good’ at it. I hope this blog will encourage you to have fun making noise and music with your kids. The theory behind any idea or activity will be explained presuming little or no musical background (hence the blog tagline: no talent required!) Musicians may find some of the information overly simplistic, but I hope the material is still of interest. I can always expand on the technical or theoretical background in the comments for those interested. I’ve written the Method page to give an overview of my approach while Why Play Music? briefly lays out some advantages to a music education. Either of those topics would have made a great first post, but I won’t repeat myself; head over to those pages to read more. So, with such a wide field, where do I begin? Thankfully, Dorian came to my rescue over breakfast this morning… 

Having eaten as much porridge as he felt he needed, Dorian began carefully arranging his spoon as a bridge between his bowl and cup. Once balanced, he grabbed a knife and tapped the spoon. “What does this sound like, Daddy?” he asked. Less caffeine and I would likely have answered dryly, “a knife hitting a spoon”. Less sleep and my response would have been more grumpy: “it sounds like you’re not eating your breakfast”. Luckily, I was enjoying my third cup of tea and, in the spirit of the season, I replied, “It sounds like Jingle Bells!” He beamed, so I think it was the right answer. Next, he leaned the spoon on the bowl and hit it hard, sending it clattering onto the table. Again he asked, ”What does this sound like, Daddy?” “More Jingle Bells?” I suggested. I was right again. After a few more ‘Jingle machines’, he tapped out the rhythm to Jingle Bells and sang along. Then he suddenly ran out of the room and on to a new adventure. I was left thinking about this first blog post and how I ought to start at the beginning: What is music? Addressing this fundamental question will make it easier to understand your child’s first steps on a musical journey. Parents often ask me which instrument is best for beginners; this post will help answer that question, too.

So, what is music? Is it ‘the universal language of mankind’ (Longfellow); ’auditory cheesecake’ (Pinker); or ‘the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting’ (Leibniz)?; or…There is no definitive answer, but, for teaching purposes, I like to define music quite broadly: intentional noise. That is, any sound created primarily for the sound itself.There are still gray areas (what about bird song? wind chimes? the rhythm of a train? mistakes? a performer motivated by money?), but intentional noise is a workable definition when learning and playing instruments.

If music is intentional noise, then a musical instrument is literally anything with which noise can be made. Show two wooden blocks to a child and ask, ‘is this a musical instrument?’ The chances are, you’ll hear “no”. Tap them together – tock! – and ask again. Maybe “yes”, maybe “no”. Tap out a repeating rhythm – ta tick tock tock! ta tick tock tock! – and as if by magic, the blocks become an instrument. Of course, it doesn’t stop at blocks, your home is filled with instruments: drum kits made from pots and pans; whistles from drinking straws; shakers from cereal boxes. There is no need for ‘real’ instruments equivalents either. Squeak a soapy finger across a bathtub; drop a crayon into a glass; drag a comb across a chair leg; there are interesting sounds to play with everywhere. And don’t forget clapping hands, stomping feet and singing voices! To begin playing music, how you play is much more important than what you play. Many great instruments are made for kids (I’ll post about them another time), but never forget that anything you can hit, scrape, tap, twang or blow can be an instrument, even a knife and spoon at the breakfast table.