Why Start Music Lessons NOW?

I've talked to many parents who are super excited to get their kiddo started in music-learning, but just as many who say, "yeah, I hope he learns to play saxophone someday, but why should I be thinking about that NOW? He's too young to be worrying about that."

You definitely benefit from music learning RIGHT NOW and I'll tell you why...

Because of Neural Development

I'm sure you've heard, when discussing learning foreign languages, that it's harder to learn a foreign language in adulthood if you were never exposed to it as a child. This is especially true if it's a language that involves utterances that are very different from those in your native language.

Music is a language in its own right, and likewise, has a world of sounds, pitches, tones, voices, and patterns that require listening, repetition, and training to distinguish and understand. Many will say that your ear is more sensitive when you're young, so you'll be better able to hear all the varieties of sounds.

It's not exactly your ear, but your brain, that is sensitive. A baby hears millions of sounds and needs help knowing which ones are important. Which ones have meaning? Which ones are unimportant and should be ignored? Over time, the sounds your baby ignores become harder for her to notice at all!

When we guide a child to focus on musical sounds, by filling the environment with them, by singing them, and by rejoicing when she sings them, the neurons for hearing those patterns are strengthened. It's never too early to begin this process... in utero is not too early!

A young (or not-so-young) person who has not strengthened the neural pathways has a more challenging path, and much more work to do to retrain her brain to start noticing sounds. Because it can be done, I never tell anyone to give up on music.  You're never too old.

Because the Memory Bank is Empty

Continue to consider music as a language. Two types of memory are used in learning: procedural memory and declarative memory. 

We use the procedural memory system, which develops early in life, to learn complex things like grammar and musical patterns. Much of the time, procedural learning happens unconsciously. The declarative memory is used to learn things like vocabulary words and facts, and takes longer to develop. 

As we age, we have more declarative memory accumulated. Adults trying to learn a new language (or music) draw from declarative memory, trying to piece together the 'facts' about how it all works.  This tendency can actually hinder our ability to internalize the procedural learning. We make learning harder by thinking about it too factually!

Youngsters have it easier; they don't have a memory bank full of facts, so they play with and experiment with the music, and with guidance internalize how it works in a procedural way. (We value play!) Youngsters who start early could speak music in a native tongue!

Because Musicians Trump Pianists

Lots of children will study to play an instrument. A few will actually be musicians using their instrument as an outlet for their art.  In our post, Are Music Lessons Holding Me Back?, I warned that disappointments can come from studying an instrument but ignoring overall musicianship: executive skills, notation skills, rhythmic skills, tonal skills and creatives skills.

Right now, your child is small, so I agree it doesn't make sense for him to be playing trombone or piano or violin. But, if he has no musical training for 8 years, and then jumps into trombone lessons, he runs a risk of become a trombone player but never a musician. Many (most?) private music lessons focus on executive and notation skills only. Before venturing into those lessons, spend preparatory time on rhythmic, creative, and ear-training tonal skills during preschool years.

The foundation you lay now can make a big impact on the type of musician your child becomes.

Because You Are The Student, Parent!

I'm sure you're interested in teaching 'school readiness' skills to your child at home, and I hope now you're also seeing the value in teaching 'music readiness' too.  Can you do it on your own?  Probably! Especially if you are musical yourself.  You can do things like:

* Provide a home with lots of music playing
* Sing together often, and encourage your child to sing
* Clap, stomp, dance to rhythmic music
* Listen to different styles of music, encourage your child to listen carefully and notice/appreciate instruments, mood, tempo, themes in different songs
* Buy or make simple instruments and sing/play often

And because I want you to be a rockstar music-readiness parent (figuratively and literally), I encourage you to get your child into Sound Beginnings or Let's Play Music classes NOW instead of later.  Because you will come to class with your child, you will be a student too! 

In class, you will:

* Learn a plethora of new games and activities to play at home to create the ideal musical environment 
* Meet other like-minded friends to play with
* Bond with your child in a focused playtime together
* Learn music theory and musicianship that's new to YOU, too!

Because We Know She's Young

One word of caution: Now that you've read about the importance of having music in her life now, you may be excited to get her into instrument lessons right away.  Instrument lessons are not the same as musicianship classes.

I generally never encourage anyone to go directly into instrument lessons at a very young age. Sitting on a piano bench for 30 minutes is torture for many 4-year-olds. Even if they don't mind the stillness and focus, I worry that the musicianship skills will be unbalanced in the long run.

Instead, find a program like Sound Beginnings or Let's Play Music that is play-based, with lots of movement and fun. Children and parents will have the most success and learn the most when they are happy and feel loved.  Nothing is more powerful than a first music experience that results in happy, uplifting memories couched in success, and the opposite is a first music experience that is scary or frustrating.

Let's Play Music addresses limitations and development of young players (our keyboard method), so she'll experience success and find room to push herself, too.  This is a program designed just for her, at her age.

If you're ready to jump in, find a teacher near you now.  See you in class soon!


- Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Celeste Stott: Music and the Karate Kid

Celeste Stott: Creating Musicians in Montana

Hi, Everyone!  I am Celeste Stott from Choteau, Montana.  I live at the base of the Rocky Mountains.  We have a cattle ranch about 20 minutes from a tiny town of 1800 people.  Choteau is amazing: the people value music education and make sacrifices to participate.  My studio is unique because I teach in my generous in-law’s home so that my clients do not have to travel quite so far.

I have been married almost 22 years and have 4 children: 2 boys and 2 girls.  I love to scrapbook, sing, play the piano, play the violin and dance.  I love taking pictures of the Rocky Mountain Front, especially on horseback.  My favorite pictures I take are of my children.  I love to cook and bake for others.  A few of my bucket list items are to go hang gliding, play the cello and the harp.  

My sister introduced me to Let’s Play Music in 2005.  When I talked to her on the phone, I would hear my very young nieces and nephews playing advanced piano pieces.  This program called to me and I knew I wanted it for my own children, too.  I saved my pennies and trained in 2008 and started teaching 4 classes. I was thrilled to have had such a supportive response from my music-loving community. My 3 oldest children had the privilege to graduate from my first group of students and have continued in piano, singing and playing other various instruments.  

A Blessing to Children in the Area

I trained to become a Sound Beginnings teacher with the first group to train in 2012.  What a gift this program has been to my studio and children in this area. I am thrilled every day to see the benefits of learning during the music-learning window.  There is no substitute for teaching ear-training during this window of time when young children are most sensitive to it. My daughter is in her second year of Sound Beginnings and loves it. I could tell when she was a tiny baby that she had already learned a great deal about her voice and music.  I am convinced that all my teaching and singing during her pregnancy formed permanent hard wiring in her brain for music aptitude.  She truly was a little mocking bird, matching my pitch as early as 5 months old! This was phenomenal to witness!  I am blessed to see this happen for other children every day.  

My True Passion

From the time I was tiny, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I am thrilled to have found my true passion: teaching music to children.  Children are my favorite people ever and they are pure joy to have in my life.  They are why I do what I do.  My love of music and my conviction of the importance of children learning music is the second reason I teach Let’s Play Music and Sound Beginnings. I have taught piano and violin for over 20 years to anyone who wanted to learn and am blessed to have these two programs that have taken my teaching to a new level.

Music for 'The Karate Kid'

I love how Let’s Play Music teaches music with music, uses as many senses as possible, uses the full body, by “experiencing” music first and it is all done through play!  I am blown away at how in a matter of 24 nonconsecutive months, children are playing in 5 different keys, composing, transposing, improvising, and have a knowledge of chords and their structure!  I love how sneaky we are about teaching theory in a fun way! 

I had a parent compare LPM to “The Karate Kid".  Mr. Miyagi was training Daniel-san in Karate when Daniel only thought he was painting a fence and waxing a car.  This parent was expressing that the things LPM teaches are preparing children to be a whole musician, one step at a time, even if they don’t understand how it will all come together.  I am able to see how these tiny steps have made a difference in my violin and private piano students that have become complete musicians in Let’s Play Music as a primer to further study.  It makes all the difference in the world!

The most rewarding part of teaching Let’s Play Music is that I get to be a part of sharing my love of music with another person.  I know music will be my student’s life-long friend and will help all of their cognitive learning.  

Pay It Forward

My vision is for my students is for them to love music and share it with others.  Talk about paying it forward!  That is my dream….to make the world better by sharing the gift of music!  I hope my students will leave my studio equipped with confidence, a great self-esteem, concrete musical skills and a desire to continue to compose and play music forever.  I adore every one of my students and I am grateful to have them a part of my week!  Their unconditional love, cute stories and things they say and enthusiasm are priceless to me.

You may watch me teach here.

-Celeste Stott, LPM Teacher