Expanding toddler musical tastes

I’ve referred many times before to N’s ‘interesting’ taste obsession with AC/DC.  I totally blame his father as I wouldn’t class myself a fan of rock music, although I have grown partial to a few of their songs now I’ve heard and watched them over and over again.

I’d say I have quite an eclectic taste in music.  I was brought up largely with classical music after learning clarinet, piano and sax, then threw in ballet music, a bit of opera, 60s music (courtesy of my mum), and lots of pop.  More latterly I enjoy some country, folk and blues after being in the car for a month or so at the time those programmes are on BBC Radio 2.  So I really want N to appreciate a real mix of music.

It’s also my belief that learning music can really help with the discipline of learning and dedication, team work, general cultural depth and understanding, focus – lots of skills that will help as children grow up.  Plus of course that music is just a lot of fun.

When I was on maternity leave, I used to take N to a Rhythm Time class locally.  It was lots of singing, lots of beating instruments and making noises, plus a bit of movement.  All of it was focused on encouraging children to hear a beat and rhythm, and as they moved through the classes getting older, they’d progress to recognising loud and soft, high/low, fast and slow.  Everything to help them learn to listen and understand music which they could progress when they got older.  As I went back to work after a year, it did mean we’ve lost that and I miss it, as well as not really knowing how to progress N’s interest in music other than playing lots of it and singing.

N’s nurseries both do music of some sort, whether it be getting some instruments out (handbells at Christmas – very cute), or singing.  I love that N now has quite a repertoire of songs, although it is sometimes hard to understand all the words he is actually singing!

Although he’s not keen on listening to or watching any music at home other than AC/DC, thankfully in the car he’s a bit more open to other music.  I think I’d go insane if we had to rock all the time.

I want to play a genre or band’s music to him each week (or month) so he can hear lots of different music and so develop his ear as we go.  This week I’m going to focus on The Eagles.  Why? I hear you ask.  Purely because the other day as we drove home, Take it Easy came on the radio (I never really know how loud it is in the back of the car) and N told me ‘I like that music mummy’.  I was quite surprised as usually when he pipes up about music that’s on the radio it’s to say ‘I don’t like it’.

So I’ve tracked down one of their albums on my ipod, playing it in the car instead of listening to the radio all the time.  We’ve been playing it at home as well although N doesn’t tend to sit still and listen to music so it’s just there as background.

Next week we’ll move onto another genre, and I’ll aim to make it a proper sit down session, maybe making some instruments to play along with the music.  Here’s hoping over time I’ll have been able to expand N’s musical tastes.

If anyone else wants to join in on a similar music journey, do let me know what you tried and how you got on.  If there’s enough interest in sharing our ideas and learnings, I might start a monthly linky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzC7_im4_ac