Music gives a soul to the universe,
Wings to the mind,
Flight to the imagination…
And life to everything.
–Plato

My boys both love music. Every day we make music together. Most days we sing, making music with our voices. Today we decided to pull out our bin of instruments and use those to make music too.

We spread out all of the instruments on the ground, so we had a clear view of what was available, then everyone grabbed his instrument of choice and we all began to play. The loud cacophonous sound had us all smiling as we each added our own noise to the mix. Then my 6-year-old asked me if I would sing while he and his little brother played music. The resulting music was loud. It was largely unmelodic (Trust me when I say that no talent scouts will be asking for a demo based on today’s performance). It was fantastically fun. And it was educational to boot.

Making music develops listening abilities. When I sing a song to my toddler, he typically asks me to sing the song again (and again and again and again). When I sing, he’s listening carefully. And all of that listening is helping him to form the scaffolding his brain requires for his own language development and fluency. Aural discrimination is required throughout our lives, whether speaking words – which requires sound differentiation, or trying to figure out who or what is making a particular sound. To accomplish this, we need to listen carefully and accurately. Making music helps us to grow those skills.

Further, exploring sounds is fascinating. As we play, we may ask ourselves: what sound does each instrument make, and how does it vary as I change how I’m playing it? Most instruments can make several different sounds. Music can help us to be alert and teach us to pay attention. Being able to listen and focus on what’s going on around us is important in every stage of our lives.

While some days we make music freely and without any particular structure or form, on other days we practice listening and repeating with our instruments. I make a sound or play a pattern (this works particularly well with percussive instruments), and my boys have fun echoing it back. This mimics the give and take in conversation; it encourages good listening, fosters paying close attention and memory, and engages their motor skills. They also enjoy playing patterns which I then repeat.

By making music, we can change the energy in a room. Think of how you feel when listening to upbeat versus more reflective music: music can energize you or bring you to a place of calm. There is definitely a difference in the room’s energy when we’re all banging on drums than when we’re quietly singing a lullaby. Music can calm a fussy child as well as a stressed parent (I talked about singing quietly with my boys to help us to transition to quiet and calm HERE). When interacting with children, music can work like magic to change everyone’s mood.

It’s fun to make music together. It’s entertaining, emotionally stimulating, and fulfilling. Importantly, music makes learning seem effortless.

If you want to make your own musical fun, the following links are similar to some of the instruments we have (pictured above).  As a note, the nicer your instruments, the nicer the sound, even if played by young children.  Cheap packages with multiple children’s toy instruments tend to sound awful.

A rainstick
A tambourine
A glockenspiel
A zylophone drum
A slide whistle
A spinning drum
A kazoo
A guiro
A wooden flute
A recorder
A shaker
Claves
A tone block
A harmonica
Maracas