Cultivating an interest in music.

A genuine interest in and love of music can be one of the best motivators in a child's musical education, and of course, a source of inspiration and pleasure throughout their lives. If you're playing the target musical pieces constantly in the background, as is wise, it can be easy to sometimes forget that there are a lot of other excellent examples of musicianship your children can learn from and enjoy. Parents often start with the famous classical pieces that were written specifically for children, such as Peter and the Wolf

and The Carnival of The Animals

But there is no reason why any other classical piece cannot be played for your children's enjoyment.

It is said that if you want your child to read, read yourself. I believe the same applies to music. It is difficult to encourage musical appreciation and understanding in a vaccuum. Similarly, if no one shows an interest in your child's playing, they will understandably be less inclined to play. So, if you want your child to have a good attitude to music, the answer is to lead by example.

Listening at Home
In our household, we're in the habit of always playing music in the background at family dinner times. Not only does this expose my son to good quality music, it also teaches him that enjoying music is a normal part of everyday life. Sometimes the music is a topic of conversation too; usually it's our appreciation of it or occasionally why we want to turn it off! But the idea behind this habit is that my son's musical interest is being fostered.

Of course, you needn't confine background music to any particular time of day. I have only instituted evening meal listening time to ensure that we heard some music every day. Another possibility, and something else we do, is to always play classical music stations on the car radio. Whenever there is no other background noise to compete with there is an opportunity to put on something beautiful. At the very least, it improves your quality of life.


Attending concerts and operas
The next time, (or perhaps the first time!), you attend a classical concert or operatic performance, take your child along with you. We generally don't give children much credit for their ability to enjoy classical music and opera. In fact, we give them the message that it is difficult, boring and inaccessible, by dumbing things down to their 'level'. In my experience, with the right preparation, children can successfully attend and enjoy sophisticated musical events from a young age, certainly from the age of eight with most children.

The key to not having a child squirming in their seat and embarrassing you by loudly asking when it will be time to go, is to prepare the child properly for the event. For example, when my son was 5, a performance of The Magic Flute was coming to my town. We had three months or so to go before the performance, so I bought a couple of dvds of the opera and started to sit down and watch it myself. My son was initially just interested in just one or two parts, such as the Queen of the Night's arias, but as I watched it several times and explained the story to him, he became genuinely interested in the whole opera.

These are the versions we have: this one and this one.

As the performance date drew nearer we explained to my son that we had tickets to go and see it live and emphasised what an important occasion it would be. On the night, we all got dressed in our best clothes and went to the performance with a view to leaving at the interval, thinking that would be quite enough for a 5 year old. In fact, not only was my son amazingly and unusually quiet (we had bought tickets towards the back of the theatre to make a quick exit if he became noisy) he actually wanted to stay and see the rest of the performance!

Lives of the Composers
Children understand and are interested in concrete things that are relevant to their lives. Abstract thinking is something that develops with time. As adults, we know that the music we hear has been written by a real person who had, or still has, a real life. It can be of great interest to children to find out about the composers of the pieces  they are listening to and learning to play. Just a little research into Mozart's or Beethoven's life reveals many interesting facts, and even things such as the fact that a composer was a child once with brothers and sisters, and that they had lessons and practiced too, can be a revelation to a child.

Why Beethoven Threw the Stew is a good example of a book that provides some interesting tales. It can also help to have portraits of composers on display, or watch films based on their lives, though 'Amadeus' is apparently not  historically accurate!

In short, your child's musical education need not be , and should not be, confined to the music they play. There is a world of listening for them that will enhance their playing, help them relate what they do to the wider world, and give them enormous pleasure.