Let’s dance! Put on your red shoes and dance the blues…
Remember your first song – the song that opened your mind consciously to music? Mine was David Bowie’s Let’s Dance.
I was just reminded of it recently with the news that Bowie’s creative genius had left us. And singing that song in my head took me right back to sitting on the bottom bunk in my sister’s bedroom as she played it for me for the first time. I can see it perfectly in my mind’s eye: her green bed spread, her cassette player and my very own sister as a newly minted teenager, all as though I was there.
I was also lucky enough to be exposed to a variety of music: my Dad loved the Beatles and my Mom blared Opera and Elvis’s Blue Christmas at the holidays! We went to see the symphony. And like most kids, I complained my way through piano lessons for a good part of my childhood.
Music is powerful! It is wonderful! Helping your kids discover the gift of music is easy and has so many benefits.
Why do it?
Whilst music can encourage creativity and act as a form of expression, it is also very good for teaching discipline through the patience and constancy needed to learn a new instrument. Music can be a means for connecting with others (choir, marching band, singing in the back seat), for gaining confidence, and for retreating and feeling understood.
Listen!
Turn it on, turn it up, tune in; play music in the house, in the car, where ever.
Explore!
Play different types of music – pop, jazz, blues, opera, indie, folk, symphonies, rock, (kid appropriate) Hip Hop.
Sing!
Sing songs you know and learn the songs your kids are singing at school.
Play!
Encourage your kids to take up an instrument.
Dance!
Kids are generally (and naturally) great dancers; get some dance parties going at home.
And most of all, Enjoy! Your love and enjoyment of music will be all the inspiration your kid needs to start their own wonderful journey in life with music.
And if you are looking for another “member of your band” – whether a Nanny or pet sitter or housekeeper – auditioning and finding the right addition is easy!