Musical Training Can Be Started Early
by Elizabeth Mills
- A child’s powers of observation and ability to imitate are tremendous by the age of two.
- If the child hears music instead of random sounds its profound love of music becomes intuitive and provides the best foundation for rational responses later in life.
- Challenges, such as the differentiated tasks for each hand, are coordinated with the ear. They help to develop neurological control patterns.
- When the child is very young it is more likely to accept a learning relationship with its parent than when it is older and seeking autonomy.
- Children are less self-conscious in the early years and like to share their enthusiasms with friends in and out of school. They develop healthy self-images as their friends respond to their ability to play fine music.
- Before they are eight, children have more time for music than they will later. If they have reached a level of self-confidence by the time they are eight they are less likely to drop-out of their later musical studies.
- Young children LOVE to play – unless someone spoils things. The study of music after the age of seven is apt to become more intellectual and mechanical.
