While all of our children experienced music lessons of some kind or another my third child and second daughter was the only one who embraced the concept fully.  After years of lessons with excellent teachers, she became quite an accomplished pianist.  The other children never found the same joy in learning to sing or play an instrument.  One daughter played the flute in high school band, and while the boys took music lessons, none of them are musicians still today.

However, all of our children have become responsible, disciplined and creative people, enjoyed their youth and young adulthood, and have an appreciation for the arts in one form or another.  Is this just a coincidence, or did it have something to do with the process of music education?

Traditionally, fathers find themselves of encouraging children to become involved in organized sports or other activities where children work in teams, while mothers are frequently the big supporters of music lessons.  The truth be told, there are important lessons to be learned in the process of both kinds of endeavor in the life of a child, and both parents should be fully engaged in helping their children learn important skills that can be learned in both youth sports and music lessons.

What Can Music Education Do For A Child?

Educational and child development researchers have found a number of important and statistically significant benefits that accrue to children from music education.  Consider the following from the Music Empowers Foundation.

• Students in music programs score 63 points higher on the verbal sections of the SAT score and 44 points higher on the math sections of the test than do those without a music background
• Students involved in band or orchestra at school are more than twice as likely to perform at higher levels academically than those who did not
• Piano lessons condition the brain to increase spatial awareness and the ability to think ahead
• Music students have significantly increased second-language performance and greater fluency and competency than non-music students
• Music students develop self-confidence, have lower levels of drug and alcohol use, and exhibit greater discipline, patience, collaborative skills and personal motivation.

So, with all of these important reasons for having children take music lessons, when should we have them start and how should we make it a good experience for them?

Bring music into the home.  Filling a home with good music can set the stage for children to love music and want to be involved.  Consider investing in a reasonably good sound system and play the kind of music that you want your children to enjoy.  We tried an eclectic mix of jazz, classical, instrumental and country in our home, and our children learned to enjoy music and felt better about the idea of music lessons because of it.

Start young, but not too young.  An introduction to music lessons can start as children hit the preschool years, maybe around 3-4 years of age.  At this age, music education should take the form of group lessons with children their age.  Focusing on rhythm and singing is good at this stage.  Once the children hit elementary school age, they can begin to focus on instruments.  Individual lessons can start as soon as the child is ready. 

Get the best teacher you can afford.  Many parents of children who learned to embrace their music lesson experience emphasize the need to have a good teacher.  Ask around among parents who have musical children and see whom they recommend.  Don’t just pick the lady next door unless she happens to be really good at teaching music.  As our musician daughter started to really embrace the piano, we decided to find a great teacher, but her only openings were during the day when our daughter was in school.  So we arranged a weekly music lesson during her regular “singing time” at school, picked her up, took her to the lesson and then back to school.  The cost was greater and the time commitment a little heavier, but the results were worth the effort.

Develop a sense of commitment.  Young children often have not developed the discipline of setting up a schedule and following it, but even the earliest music lessons are a great tool for getting to that habit of commitment and discipline.  Consistent practice is important and making and keeping commitments is an important byproduct of music education.

Set practice goals.  My musician daughter was always self-motivated to practice the piano, even from her earliest experiences.   But the others often had to be encouraged to practice.  Many parents I know set up a reward system associated with music practice.  Dr. Robert A. Cutietta recommends setting daily music goals rather than defining a specific time objective.  Getting a few measures played perfectly is more important than practicing 30 minutes.  He suggests breaking the week’s goal into seven equal parts, so that, for example, the child perfects the first eight measures the first day, perfects the next eight measures the next day, etc.  Then practicing is not just something to be endured, but practicing yields a measurable and intrinsically rewarding outcome.

Music education is important for children, and is very effective way of teaching important life skills like responsibility, commitment and discipline.  It is not the only way to achieve those skills, but it is a way that works for many children, and is worth the time and money invested to create a love for music and a pattern of achievement that will serve the children well long after their childhood.