How to develop musical intelligence in your child?

We had discovered musical intelligence in a previous article, it is now time to discover how to stimulate it in very young children as well as slightly older ones.

Songs and nursery rhymes

• Sing nursery rhymes, children's songs, or even popular songs regularly.
• Play a game where you sing a simple melody and ask the child to repeat it.
• Have him memorize the choruses first and mime the words to help him.

Listen active of music

• Let your child listen to different types of music: classical, jazz, rock, folk, etc. This will allow them to learn about various musical genres and develop culture. It will make them more curious and give them more opportunities to create their own songs.
• Talk to him about the instruments you recognize, the rhythm, the tone, teach him to recognize the sounds of different cultures and the particularity of voice timbres.
• Listen to different instruments separately (zither, harp, mandolin, etc.) that they may never have heard before.
• When he is old enough to talk, ask questions like
  • “What instruments do you hear?”
  • “How many instruments do you think there are in this music?”
  • “ How does this music make you feel? ”

This last question is important because it will also promote the ability to connect emotionally with a melody, a piece of music or a song.

Homemade Musical Instruments and Rhythmic Exploration

• Playing a musical instrument is the best activity to improve your children's musical intelligence. And the good news is that you can start very young (as soon as the child can hold an object in their hands), particularly with rhythms and sound creation.
• Make maracas with plastic bottles filled with rice or beans.
• Create a drum with an empty box and a sheet of plastic and use chopsticks or kitchen utensils to vary the sounds.
• Make simple rhythms (with your hands, on the table or knees) and ask the child to reproduce them, this f will enhance the ability to improvise rhythmic sounds with any object.
• Teach your child to measure time using a metronome, have them follow the slow rhythm of a metronome and gradually speed up.

Games and movements

• Choose upbeat music and encourage your child to dance or move to the beat.
• Invent a simple choreography to develop memory in addition to the sense of rhythm (raise your hands, touch your feet, spin around, cross your arms, etc.)
• Mime the lyrics of the songs and turn the song into a little play, let the child recount the song by miming.
• Combining the body and music is an excellent way to express yourself and disinhibit yourself. It also allows you to exercise in a healthy way and develop a physical connection with music.

Interactive games

• Sound games can be a parent's nightmare, but educational instruments are nevertheless an excellent way to awaken children to music and introduce music theory to children.
• Some musical games offer simplified learning methods that allow you to develop the ability to decode music simply, to develop motor memory, fine motor skills and a musical ear.
• Hape's “ Baby Einstein ” games are a good reference.

Educational apps and games:

• A quality music app can also be a great way to introduce children to music. (Follow the World Health Organization's recommendations for screen time, see Parent Folder ).
• There are several apps designed to introduce children to music:
  • Mussila , allowing learning and playful practice in a very fun way,
  • Loopimal which is an excellent music loop game (sequence of sounds),
  • Melody James , a game that lets you assemble different instruments to create an ensemble, is fun and entertaining,
  • Meludia for older children, which is a great application to better understand music.

Listening and drawing

• Play some music for your child and ask them to draw what they feel or imagine while listening to it.
• In many nursery rhymes there are funny lyrics that can be the subject of a painting or a drawing.

Music theory and learning an instrument

• Check with your school or local music schools to see if they offer musical awakening workshops for toddlers.
• Learning music theory is often perceived as a complicated exercise, but it's like learning a new language that opens the doors to a new world. With the right methods and the right environment, music theory can be introduced to children early and become a wonderful tool for discovering multiple instruments.
• Enrolling in instrumental lessons is an excellent way to learn both music theory and an instrument. Some methods allow you to move away from learning notes to focus on learning melody and hand placement. This is quickly effective but can limit the child's learning later on.

To learn more about musical intelligence, visit our file on the subject .