Sequencing Home Musical Education: Experiences and Surprising Early Results

Have you ever played charades with music? I remember, when my family played, that my parents would be on a team against two of us children. The trouble was, while my dad knew all the tunes, he couldn't reproduce them. Meanwhile, my mom could reproduce them accurately, but didn't know them. The question then is: How does one raise a toddler in the best of both worlds?

Our Backgrounds in Musical Education/Experience

When we met, and re-met, Husband and I knew that the other had a musical background, which certainly has helped our relationship! Hopefully, some details of that background will help to explain why we did what we did in our parenting thus far.

Bibliovore

Husband attended a liturgical Lutheran (LCMS) church throughout childhood and early adulthood. As such, he grew up with congregational singing accompanied by organ, choir, and other instruments. Features of this singing included (1) refrains and variations repeated weekly (e.g., Introit, Kyrie, and Sanctus); (2) cycling through nearly the full hymnal (Lutheran Worship until 2006 with 113 hymns, Lutheran Service Book after that with 635 hymns) each year or few church years; and (3) participating in choir when old enough.

I'm not sure when he started (or stopped) playing trumpet, but his main instrument has been his voice. In college, he took voice lessons to train his bass range, then used that range in the audition-based choir that went on tour over semester breaks.

On one note I was quite surprised to learn that he likes Metallica. This came about during the years when he was most into weightlifting, since that genre (with surprisingly theological lyrics at times) lends itself to focused physical effort needed during workouts.

His Wife

I had a parallel background in several aspects, especially growing up in a liturgical (relatively high-church) LCMS church and participating in church choirs. There are a couple of points where we differ, and those points have had an influence on how we have oriented ourselves toward Child's musical environment.

First, both sides of my family have been musically oriented for a few generations. This is less so on my father's side--the extent of his family's involvement seems to have been regular liturgical church attendance and taking up of an instrument of choice in middle school, sometimes high school. His instrument was a trombone, even though the case was almost as long as he was tall.

On my mother's side, there is more formal musicianship. She is classically trained in piano and has conducted church choirs, and her father played multiple instruments as part of a touring band in Germany. That side of my family has also been Lutheran for a few generations, meaning regular hymnal usage and weekly liturgical worship.

In early childhood, I had the benefits of an environment filled with song, access to a piano to noodle on, and a variety of ways to be involved. When I was a little older, my mom gave me piano lessons, and at a little older still, arranged for violin lessons through high school. In our homeschool group, another mom organized an orchestra, and from second grade onward I was richly blessed by choral training from a professionally trained jazz musician-turned-church-musician.

What We've Done So Far

Child is approximately 2 years old right now, in the middle of toddlerhood. Much of what we've done "educationally" so far has been extension of the better parts of each of our childhoods. There are four things in particular that we've integrated into our routines (after a newborn stint of using Metallica to "calm the savage beast". . .).

First, we've simply continued weekly attendance and participation at a liturgical church. Babies start to hear and process auditory input while still in utero, so this meant about 20 repetitions of the order of service as well as some hymns and songs before Child was even born. After delivery, we've tried to sit more toward the front because, as one of our pastors is fond of saying, "children shouldn't see people's butts in church!"

Second, we are trying to go to at least one classical concert as a family every year or two. We'll see how that actually materializes! That said, our first date was Mozart's Requiem, and during third trimester with Child we attended another concert which was clearly enjoyed.

Third, we encouraged (supervised) noodling on whatever instruments were sturdy and accessible. In our case, this includes a plastic ukelele, xylophone "piano", and electronic keyboard. When we visit another church or house with a piano or organ, Child gets some time on that as well.

Finally, we included some Kloria Press board books of Lutheran hymns in Child's stash. These are now among requested favorites, sung 3-4 times at a time. Even though most are technically lullabies, they work at any time of day. Child especially likes We All Believe in One True God; I am Jesus' Little Lamb; Before the Ending of the Day; and Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow.

What Do Music Educators Recommend?

There is tremendous variability in children's abilities as well as those of their teachers. That said, I was able to find some good general tips from the National Association for Music Education, National Association for the Education of Young Children, and Carnegie Hall.

One - make music education play-based. I forget where I've heard it said that children's work is to play, and I agree 100% with that. Taking the playful aspect out is a quick way to make anything stultifying.

Two - start exposure in utero. Babies can hear and process voices and notes starting around 5 months' gestation.

Three - offer diverse opportunities, not a one-size-fits-all approach.

Four - combine individual and group-based activities. Introversion can manifest itself from infancy, and approximately 1/3 of people are introverts. Different numbers of people in an activity can also offer different aspects of musical exposure (e.g., harmony, polyphony).

Five - get creative with "ordinary" things. One suggestion is to sing instructions rather than speak them.

Six - use rhythm and body parts. Most people learn best in multiple modes (e.g., combination of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile), especially children!

Where We Are Now

Typical musical abilities expected of infants and toddlers include:

• Infants (up to 12 months) should respond to one-on-one singing with eye contact and smiling, brief semi-rhythmic body movements, and paying attention to short tunes
• One-year-olds should (inaccurately) imitate high and low pitches and volumes, alter their movements based on the music's tempo, increase use of shaker-type instruments, and perform somehwat specific actions in response to words in songs
• Two-year-olds should (less-inaccurately) imitate tunes and rhythms, tell between different instruments, slightly improve rhythm of body movements, and (relatively accurately) reproduce lyrics to songs

Child is currently singing several tunes with vowel sounds and easy consonant sounds ("BEE"), sometimes completely in tune, but mostly 80-90% in tune. These are the weekly or most-requested songs, i.e., the Doxology and We All Believe in One True God.

This allows fuller participation in the order of service, which at our church is very music-based. Here's the order, starting on page 123 of the 2019 Book of Common Prayer:

• Acclamation - spoken responsively
• Collect for purity and summary of the Law - priest speaks
• Kyrie or Trisagion - spoken responsively (though we'd prefer sung)
• Gloria in Excelsis - sung to the same tune each week
• Collect of the day and Lessons - read by lay lector(s)
• Gospel verse/processional before and after the Gospel reading
• Sermon - Child gets stir-crazy so uses the nursery at this time
• Nicene Creed, Prayers, Confession & Absolution, and Comfortable Words - spoken
• Sharing of the peace - among congregants
• Offertory - varies by week, sung during the offering collection
• In our congregation, this is followed by the Doxology, which Child sings in tune
• Sursum corda - "Lift up your hearts" - spoken, followed by the Prefaces
• Sanctus - sung to the same tune each week
• Prayer of consecration - priest speaks
• Lord's Prayer - congregation speaks (Child imitates the sign of the cross)
• Fraction - "breaking" of the main wafer - spoken responsively
• Prayer of Humble Access - sung to the same tune each week
• Agnus Dei - sung to the same tune each week
• Distribution hymns/songs - varies by week and ideally by church season
• Post-Communion prayer - congregation speaks
• Recessional hymn and final blessing/dismissal - varies by week, then spoken responsively

Finally, with continued noodling on the keyboard, Child's musical intervals and rhythm are sounding more and more harmonious . . . we'll see when that turns into tunes!