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Musical exploration with children – linky

ByEmma

As I said in this post, N loves music and I wanted to have a musical focus for a time before introducing him to something new.  I have to admit that maybe that was a bit ambitious, and that it probably would have worked better in the winter when we were stuck inside more.  Now the weather’s brightened up, he permanently wants to be outside.  Great for him and healthy wise, but not so good for blasting out music!

So this month I’m going to just do a round-up of where we are musically, and what we’ve been listening to.

The Eagles

This is where I’d decided to start as N had heard a song on the radio and said he liked it.  After finding some Eagles tracks on my ipod and playing them in the car and at home, it appears that N might not tell the truth when I ask him if he likes a certain piece of music.  Take it Easy was acceptable, while others seemed not upbeat enough even if I tapped out a rhythm for him.  I talked him through the guitars which you could hear and asked him if he could hear the drums.

Not much interest in the easy listening charms of The Eagles when he’s used to rocking to AC/DC.  So next time I might find some more upbeat music with a better beat that we can march and beat to more easily.  Or try a genre to focus on for the month.

rock god toddler

On the Radio

I always have the radio on at home.  Usually Radio 2 during the week, with local radio on at weekends if we’re out and about.  N does seem to prefer men singing to women, where he often tells me ‘don’t want that music on mummy’, so I have to find something else to play.

I love to sing along to tracks and he’s obviously starting to recognise a few songs that come on the radio frequently.  I usually say ‘I love this song’, to which he’ll be quiet and listen (meaning it’s acceptable) or tell me to find more music.  One track that seems to be on every Saturday that I love, and he’ll quite happily listen to as I tell him it’s our Saturday song is Pink’s Just Give me a Reason.  I like to blast out and sing to it, and the other week, I heard him trying to sing something of it too which is great.

The app

One app we like is Toddler Music which has pictures of instruments, and if they’re tapped, the instrument plays.  N quite likes this one, as although it’s basic;  it should be teaching him the different instruments and sounds, but he tends to rush past most of the instruments until he reaches the guitars…he does love his ELC guitar so I think he’s a bit obsessed.

Children’s songs

N’s most recent favourite nursery rhyme is 1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive.  He’s been singing it a lot recently, although I’m not sure he’s quite got all of the words included.  He tells me they sing it at nursery, presumably to help him with his numbers, as he does the finger counting thing as he sings as well.  Nursery rhymes and songs definitely help with memorising letters and numbers even if the child doesn’t fully understand what they’re singing.  N can sing (a bit jumbled in bits) the ABC song, and the fish alive one, so he’s getting there in learning his numbers and letters.  Hopefully he’ll then be able to transfer that to visual recognition as well if we use words, songs and pictures.

Alternative sounds

It’s not quite music, but encouraging a child to listen to everything around them is getting them used to tuning in and listening to different things.  I think encouraging quiet listening will help them in future to focus in class, listen to teachers and instructions as well as listening to themselves and others if they progress to play musical instruments.  This weekend we were at Salcey Forest and the birds were tweeting away.   A few times I asked N to stand still and listen to what we could hear.

Next steps I’d hope to look out some bird books and sounds, so we could match them up…I’m very out of practice since my Watch group days in my childhood where I used to be able to recognise different birds from their song!

Finally, our favourite music of the week

We’re a bit hit and miss with showing N interesting clips on YouTube.  Mostly because when we want to go online, it’s really slow with our connection.  But the other morning I noticed a friend had shared the clip below and thought I’d show N to get his reaction.  I was blown away – I’m always appreciative of any musical proficiency, but this was amazing, and instantly recognisable as tracks I used to listen to.  Quite apt that 30 minutes after watching it, we then heard the original on the radio. (if the video’s not there – head for Show Hawk Duos.  Amazing playing.

N loved it.  He couldn’t get enough.  Even though he knows nothing about the genre, just watching people play real instruments was really interesting to him.

I think I definitely have to look up the Cushion Concerts in Oxford to see if they’re running again this year, as I know he would love listening and watching musicians play.

What music have you been listening to with your children?  What would you like to introduce them to, or how are you doing it?

If you have a post about music and your children, or want to write one, then please do link up below.   I’ll be looking for lots of ideas to use with N to broaden his musical exploration, so would love to see what everyone else gets up to.  If you could show the badge as well that will help share the word and point people back to the linky.  Do tell people about the linky (it’ll be run monthly, from mid month) as the more people take part the more it will grow.

Bubbablue and me music linky


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35 Comments

  1. Totally ADORABLE! What a great link party. Good luck with it and I hope more people take advantage of it. If I had a musical post I for sure would link up!

    1. Thanks. Just hoping a few more can get visibility and then think about it in future. Not expecting it to be huge, but would be good to get some linking up (I’m all for stealing ideas for activities off others!).
      Thanks fro commenting

  2. Love this idea for a linky and excited to have found a fellow music loving mummy! I’ll definitely be linking up more and sharing how we explore music, Digs is a bit young to do any musical activities himself yet but I’m working on it 😉 he definitely enjoys music and I think he’ll be banging out some saucepan tunes in the not too distant future! x

    1. Thanks for linking up. Just need to get the work out a bit more, and hopefully will gain lots of ideas and similar minded mums (and dads). With music, I don’t think you can start too early, as babies absorb everything – rhythm, sounds and tunes. Great when you can start them off well.

  3. A really lovely idea for a linky 🙂 Grace has loved music since she was very small and has such a wide taste in music thanks to me and Ross! A lovely post. Thank you for linking to PoCoLo – and thanks for being this week’s featured badge 🙂 x

  4. My 10 months old get super focused in on the TV whenever he hears music. He’s always beating on the table, his toys etc (him making his own beats) I think it’s so cute. I want to get him a drum set.

    1. Drum set’s brave. I’d love to be able to play drums properly – good opportunity for getting into orchestras as noone ever plays percussion well!

    1. It is, but it’s hard with tv to get more of it in the house. Really should have the radio on more for background noise, rather than the tv

  8. We’ve always been such HUGE music people over here. My six kids have all grown up listening to an eclectic taste in music. 80;s hair bands, 70’s lite rock and disco, big band and swing, glam music, metal, symphony…we do it all!

  9. TRANCE ANTHEMS ON GUITAR totally caught my eye.

    That is my language. My future babies will be listening to this.

    Thank you so much for sharing!

    <3 PLUR

  10. Whatta cutiepie! I don’t have a child and I’m not really into music for some reason so I’m not sure ;( But I’m glad to see N’s having fun! 🙂

    1. It’s unusual to hear someone say they’re not into music. I guess it depends what you do to relax – some like background noise, others prefer not to. I find I listen to a lot less nowadays, and also don’t play anymore which is a shame. Thanks for popping by

  12. I have totally slacked off music at home since my kids started going to a school with a great music teacher. We listen to a lot, but we don’t do much more. I like your strategies!

    1. Time is the problem as you can’t do everything. Hopefully we’ll have my piano soon (if the OH doesn’t kick up a fuss as he’s been promising to do for years), so that will help. I do think that listening, the same as reading does, means children absorb lots without realising anyway.
      Thanks for popping by.

  13. Oh, you have a little rock star and he is adorable!
    I think what you’re doing is awesome – teaching your kid to appreciate music at a young age and exposing him to different genres. Rock on \m/

  14. I love this! When mine were little a very long time ago they both loved music. My son was an Elvis fanatic by the age of 4! My daughter liked to listen but wasn’t into it as much as my son was.

    1. Elvis was class, so your son definitely had good taste. We were into 60s as kids as my mum would only let her tapes be played in the car.
      Thanks for popping by

  15. I think having music in you house is so important. We always have something playing, whether it is classical (while we are doing school) or rock when we are cleaning. Music just helps to get you in the mood 🙂 Stopping by from SITS Group 5 FaceBook

    1. Your house sounds like a musical one I’d like. We used to listen to classical during school work (anything without words is better for revision I used to find). There’s just so much choice of music which goes well in so many different situations

  16. He looks like a rock star in that pic! My kids always liked today’s music, but since we listen to 80/90’s music they are starting to like that as well.

  18. I grew up in a house where my Dad always played what he called ‘proper music’ (a lot of ’60s and ’70s stuff) and I’d like to think that he succeeded in giving me decent taste and appreciation of music, even if when I was younger I used to pretend I didn’t like things just to annoy him! These days I so much prefer older stuff than what’s in the charts now – might just be me getting old but I’d like to think growing up in a house filled with great music helped.

    1. We were the same. My mum would only let us play her 60s stuff in the car, so we were used to that. ALong with classical and musicals. I definitely think, like books, that it’s crucial to have a mix in the home when you’ve got children.

      Thanks for commenting

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