Child's musical development:
33 answers to parents' questions

Part 1. How to determine a child's musical abilities?

“How do you know if a child has a penchant for music?”
“Does he have an ear for music or a sense of rhythm?”
“Is my child developed enough to learn music?”

In this part, we will discuss five questions related to determining a child's musical ability. The answers to these questions will help parents make a serious choice - whether to send their child to study music or not.

Question 1: How to determine a child’s aptitude for music?

There are three ways to determine the presence of musicality and talent, and the level of development of a child’s musical abilities:

• Conversation with a child
• Determining a child's overall musicality
• Musical ability testing

How to determine a child’s musicality in early childhood, preschool and primary school age, as well as various ways testing musical abilities, we will look at it in detail a little later. Now, I want to draw your attention to the first method.

A conversation with a child seems to be the simplest and most elementary way to find out about his abilities and aptitude for music, but in practice this turns out to be very difficult. If you just start questioning your child, he is unlikely to answer you anything intelligible. This should be done casually, specially preparing the situation so that the conversation goes naturally and does not look like an interrogation. You can talk to him while playing or after listening to children's music; you don't have to talk specifically, but return to the topic you need from time to time.

Be that as it may, a conversation with a child should serve two purposes.

1) You need to determine the child’s emotionality and artistry- how deeply he can experience artistic images and how vividly and emotionally he can convey them. These qualities are equally important for poetry and music. Therefore, if your child loves and easily remembers poetry, reads them with expression, tries to convey the mood, he already has a certain artistry and emotionality. All this is an indicator that the child has a penchant for creativity, he can easily study music and achieve success.

If a child is shy, reads poetry dryly and inexpressively, do not draw critical conclusions! Perhaps your child is an introvert, and the deep feelings that overwhelm him simply do not appear “outwardly”. Perhaps he still “does not know how” to express his emotions and feelings (to do this consciously). There cannot be a single approach here; each child will have his own characteristics. But if you see that the child is bored, he does not like to not only tell, but also listen to poetry, it is difficult for him to remember them - perhaps in this case it is better for you to take up chess or sports.

So, you can determine a child's emotionality and artistry by simply asking him to recite his favorite poem.

2) Determine your child's interest in music and creativity. What does he know about music, would he like to do it? What does he like more - singing or playing an instrument? Find out from your child what type of music he likes best (or more specifically: from which cartoon or movie)? What cartoons or films does he like to watch and why? What kind of books does he like to read or listen to? Does he have any favorite songs? Ask him to hum one of them.

This way you can determine the child’s inclination towards music, and also find out what interests him in life, understand whether he needs to study music more seriously, go to a music school, or just attend a music and dance club.

Remember, in order to determine your child's interest in music, it is not so much what he answers (for most children of the same age, the answers are usually very similar), but how he answers your questions. It is important for the child to be somewhat clear in his tastes. If he doesn't care and isn't particularly enthusiastic about the music, you might want to consider whether you should music training to the child himself (musical classes can captivate him, “open him up,” but they can also reject him - here everything will depend on the child himself and on the skill of the teacher).

If he can say more or less accurately that he likes cheerful, active music, like in such and such a cartoon; that he loves to sing, dance and play pillows like drums; he loves cartoons about Spider-Man, because he protects everyone and always defeats “bad monsters”, he likes to read encyclopedias about animals, and his favorite song is “ New Year rushes towards us...” and not only sings, but also starts dancing... You have every reason to believe that the child will enjoy playing music and will be able to achieve certain success.

Question 2: How to determine the presence of musical abilities in early childhood?

By observing your child (or remembering what he was like at that age), you can easily determine whether he has or does not have musical abilities.

The following may indicate that a child has a penchant for music and musical abilities developed from birth:

• the child’s increased attention to any sound background,
• clear expression of interest in the sound of music,
• a bright emotional manifestation of the baby’s joy while his favorite music is playing (some children begin to dance, without even learning to walk, sitting in the crib),
• baby loves to listen different music, not only children's songs and lullabies performed by mother.

Some time ago, scientists conducted a special study with children under the age of one year - using simple tests, they found out that most children supposedly have “absolute” ear for music from birth. This fact confirms the opinion that all people have approximately the same abilities (including musical ones), and only the level of development of these abilities is different for everyone.

This fact also allows us to draw the following conclusion: The mere presence of abilities does not affect a person’s success in a particular field of activity. You can have musical abilities developed from birth - beautiful, in a strong voice, perfect pitch, and at the same time hate music. Any education, including music, exists to develop the necessary abilities in its field and provide certain knowledge. What then is important to achieve success? What is important is the interest and inclination of a person to a certain field of activity, which allows one to develop abilities in this area faster than other people can do. In most cases, this is the secret of talent, the giftedness of some people and the apparent mediocrity and “lack of ability” of others.

An inclination towards a particular field of activity usually manifests itself quite early. A child’s musicality can be detected as early as the age of one year, if already at this age he shows a clear interest in the sound of music.

Question 3: How to determine the aptitude for music in children of preschool and primary school age?

At this age, all three methods are applicable - talking with the child, testing (we'll talk about it a little later), and determining the child's general musicality.

What are the indicators of musicality and abilities in children aged 3-7 years and older?

1) Maintaining interest in music manifested in early childhood. If your child interrupts what he’s doing and listens to music that suddenly starts playing, if he likes to listen to various music, not necessarily only children’s songs, but also good pop music, classics, tries to sing along or starts dancing to the music - all this indicates the child’s musicality.

It should be remembered that raising a child plays big role in this matter, but not the main one. If a child is musical by nature, he will show this, no matter whether you studied music with him or not. If by nature he does not have an inclination, a “craving” for art, you can “bruise your forehead,” but you will only develop an aversion to music in the child. All you can do is help your child discover his musicality, give him the opportunity to express himself. If a child showed an interest in music in early childhood, but the parents did not pay attention to it, the child's interest will most likely fade. But this can also happen if you worked hard with your child - sang and learned songs, listened to music, played children's musical instruments. What to do, human nature- a complex and unpredictable thing! :)

2) Your child can easily and for a long time remembers songs he liked. More or less "clean" sings, loves "to compose"- compiles some of his songs from words and melodies known to him (this may result in some kind of “medley” or something completely incredible). Less often, he composes (more precisely, improvises “on the fly”) his own poems and songs - depending on how bright and expressive they turn out (of course, only emotionally, and not in meaning) - one can judge the child’s giftedness and the presence of talent. In any case, all this speaks of naturally developed musical and creative abilities.

3) Your child loves performing in public, likes to take an active part in matinees and holidays, likes to study creativity in any form - sing, dance, draw, sculpt from plasticine. He's good imagination, he likes to invent - all this is good indicator presence of abilities for creativity and music.

Question 4: Does the child have an ear for music?

There are a number of traditional tests to determine musical hearing, voice and musical memory. Such tests are usually carried out during an interview when a child is admitted to a music school. These tests are very simple, but require a minimum set of musical knowledge and skills of parents, and, in some cases, the presence of a piano.

Test 1. Ask your child to walk up to the piano and turn away. Play two sounds in turn in different registers (upper and lower) and ask him which sound was lower and which was higher.

Test 2. Press one key on the piano and ask your child how many sounds are heard. Now press two keys at the same time (preferably at a large distance from each other), and ask how many sounds are heard now. If the child finds it difficult to answer, press the same keys in turn. Play any chord with both hands (in a wide position) and ask how many notes were played (one or many).

The first two tests check hearing activity, the ability to “orient in sound space”, to highlight individual elements from the overall sound of the music (at the simplest level). They allow you to determine whether the child understands the difference in pitch of sounds, as well as the difference between a single sound and several sounded at the same time. If the child finds it difficult, don’t worry, it’s not so easy to understand these things; usually this is taught at an early stage of education (preparatory/first grade of music school).

Test 3. Sing the note E of the first octave (for example, on the syllable “la” or a simple “a”) and ask the child to repeat. Then sing the A note of the first octave and ask him to repeat it again. If you hear that it is difficult for a child to sing in this range, sing notes higher: Do-Mi of the second octave, or vice versa lower: B minor - D of the first octave. Try different notes to determine the range of your child's voice.

It is important that you sing yourself, without the help of a piano. To sing accurately, use a tuning fork. The fact is that the sound of the piano, as a rule, “confuses” children; it is more difficult to adapt to it than to what is familiar to them human voice. If you can’t do it, and it’s difficult for you to hit the note accurately, it’s better, of course, to use a piano. Do not use children's musical instruments - pipes, xylophones, children's synthesizers and others.

Test 4. Sing a simple, short melodic phrase and ask your child to repeat. Here are examples of such phrases:

Test 5. Ask your child to sing his favorite song.

So tests 3-5 allow you to check:

• child's musical ear,
• musical memory,
• "reproductive" musical ear(can the child repeat the sounded note and melodic phrase),
• child's voice range,
• can the child intonate (sing “purely”)?

Remember, if a child shows an average result, if he can catch at least the direction of the melody without hitting the exact note, it means that he has an ear for music, albeit a poorly developed one. There are, of course, exceptions, the so-called “buzzers”. These children can sing in a very narrow range, do not intonate at all and cannot even understand general direction melodies. In fact, there are quite a lot of such children, but in music schools know how to work with them and, in the end, develop their abilities to a certain level (in addition, the inability to sing does not prevent them from being talented pianists or trumpeters).

Question 5: How to determine the sense of rhythm?

Here are several tests to determine the sense of rhythm, which are also used in music schools during introductory conversation with baby.

Test 1. Tap (not quickly) a simple rhythmic pattern and ask your child to repeat. Repeat the test 2-4 times, depending on the child’s progress, using different sequences. For example, these:

Test 2. Ask your child to march in place to the music. Perform or play a recording of any popular, marching music. For example, the song “It’s fun to walk together...”.

Test 3. Ask your child to clap their hands to the music (as they do at concerts when the audience likes a song). Play or put on a recording of any rhythmic children's music, for example, “Letki-Enki”.

If a child has a weak sense of rhythm, this does not mean that it cannot be developed. If a child successfully completes all tests, this means that learning music will be much easier for him, but this does not guarantee that he will not get bored after a month.

Conclusions:

1) Parents can easily determine their child’s inclination towards music, the presence of musical abilities and their level of development using the above methods.

2) Developed musical abilities, such as an ear for music or a sense of rhythm, do not mean that the child has a penchant for music. It is interest, the desire to study music that plays a decisive role in whether a child achieves success in music or not (no matter professional level

or amateur).

3) The absence of pronounced abilities and a clear desire to study music does not yet give the right to consider a child “incapable”, “non-musical”. Perhaps it is during the learning process that the child will reveal his abilities and develop an interest in music (as they say, appetite comes with eating). Thus, until you start playing music with your child, you cannot be completely sure that the child does not have the ability and inclination for music.