Elementary Music Education

Best Parents’ and Music Teachers’ Resources in Music Lessons for Children

Who Should Make Decisions on Kids and Music

So, your child has excellent (or not so excellent) musical abilities. Who, in this case, should make a decision about kids and music lessons – the parents or the child? Many of you will say, “Need you even ask? Adults always should decide on the extracurricular activities of the child! He does not know or understand anything yet.”

Actually, there are three different scenarios involving parents, kids and music:

The kid shows interest in music. This interest, supported by even the smallest musical abilities, is obvious to parents, close relatives, and friends. The decision will follow naturally and immediately and is mutual – the child is born to play music.
The kid wants to learn to play a musical instrument or to sing and informs the parents. Sometimes it is enough for him to say it once, with zest! And sometimes the parents will repeatedly hear persistent “music” requests of the son or daughter. Some parents listen to their children and approve of the child’s choice. As a result, such children are happy that they got what they wanted and go to music lessons with pleasure.
The parents see their kid’s interest in and positive reaction to music. All children with different genetic abilities show interest in music to some extent. Kids and music go together naturally. It is easy to prove if you just turn on the radio, CD, etc. Only reaction to the played tune depends on the age-specific features of your children and character of the musical fragment or a song.

Conversely, some parents see their child’s interest in music and hear their desire to learn to sing or play a musical instrument, but disapprove the idea of kids and music, or impose their own opinion to their son or daughter.

But why do parents sometimes disagree with the child? Why don’t they want to see the natural combination of kids and music? Why don’t they listen to the child’s own opinion? He is entitled to it! There can be different reasons for this, and here is a list of the most common ones:

1. Parents are absolutely clueless about music education because they never took music lessons themselves.

2. Parents took music lessons in their own childhood but quit at their own will. Such people have unpleasant memories about kids and music – not about music in general, but from music lessons, and do not want their child to be subjected to the similar feelings.

3. Many parents doubt that the child will be studying music for a long time, and the expenses for music are quite costly and immediate.

4. Parents either think that they can not afford it or truly can not afford it.

5. Parents do not understand the advantages of music education and attempt to see some other talents in him, for example, in dancing, art, athletics, etc.

In articles I often write about the reasons parents do not want to take their children to musical school, and the list above ended up being much longer. While talking to people, I noticed that some of them spoke sincerely, but there were cases in which adults covered up their uncertainties and insecurities, fears of responsibility, and their own laziness with phrases like, “Why does my child need this?” or “He is not interested.”

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