Every so often a parent comes to me with this question: “You’ll tell me if she’s talented, right?”
“No,” I laugh.
It’s really not their fault, and if you’re wondering the same thing, it’s not yours either.
We’ve been fed a diet of misinformation about musical ability for a long time. We’ve been led to believe that some people are born musical and that others simply aren’t. The other day I heard a grown adult lamenting that she wished she’d been born with the “musical gene.”
I’m here to tell you: if you have a heartbeat and you’re breathing, you have musical genes. So does your baby.
What it really means when someone says your child isn’t talented
If you’ve ever been told by a musician or music teacher that you or your child lack musical talent, what they’re really saying is: “I’m not skilled enough to help you find your musical ability, you should find someone who is.” And there are teachers out there who can help.
The first time I really understood this was when a teenage friend of my daughter’s wanted to audition for the school musical. She was in drama but had no musical experience whatsoever and she really, really wanted to be in that show. Her mom asked if I could help her learn to sing. I tried, but I didn’t know how to help her find pitch or sing in tune. I had been a musician since I was very young, but I simply didn’t have experience in that area. Time got away from me. When I went to see the musical, because my daughter had gotten a part, I was delighted to discover that the girl I had failed to help was singing a solo. In tune. It turned out the school choir director knew exactly how to help her.
I’ve since learned that skill myself. It’s not complicated, and it starts with one fundamental belief: everyone has musical genes, because making music is part of being human!
It’s not genetics, it’s experience
The past 12 years of my musical life have been devoted to teaching very young children, especially babies, and their parents. Many of those parents come with no musical experience at all, the kind of people who were once told they lacked musical genes. The great news is that these parents learn to sing in tune, and their kids learn to play by ear, compose music, and read sheet music, like the kids who come from homes where parents had years of prior training.
It’s not genetics, it’s experience, and an understanding of how things work.
Music, like so many things, has been dominated for centuries by people in power. Now that recorded music is everywhere, it’s easy for almost anyone to feel insecure about their own abilities and to just let the recordings do the work. Leave it to the professionals. But that’s a loss for all of us.
In a society where everything has become a competition, the divide has grown wider and wider between people who believe they “have musical genes” and people who don’t. The truth is, music making comes more easily to some people than others, but like most things, that’s more about experience, environment, and exposure than DNA.
Okay, great! So now what? Check back next week for- So… Is My Child Going to Be Musical? What Parents Really Want to Know.
And in the meantime, make some music together and have so much fun!
Check out the Baby-Led Piano® Books and Have So Much Fun With Your Little One!
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