K​eeping Music Joyful, What You Can Do at Home

Music, which was originally a way to express oneself, communicate, feel deep emotion, and unite families and communities, has been swept into the chaos of competitiveness. But you can push back against that starting right at home. Here are a few things you can do to keep music making fun, engaging, and inspiring for your child.

Sing. A lot.

When you sing, your child sees that singing is a normal thing that humans do. It doesn’t matter if you think you sing well, it’s all about letting both you and your child know that singing is safe and normal. In spite of the way we’ve all been programmed, it really is okay to just sing, for no reason at all.

mom and toddler playing piano

Let your child watch you learn

When your child watches you learn new things, whether you’re already an accomplished musician or not. They see that learning is fun and normal. Take a music class. Work on a new aspect of your musicianship if you’re already experienced. Pick up an instrument and fiddle around with it. See what sounds you can make!

Have fun creating music

Tell stories with your music. Dance while you sing. Laugh when you make mistakes. When your child watches you make up new things and enjoy it, they see you express your deepest emotions through music, laugh at the stumbles, and reset your own nervous system by taking it to the keys, your guitar, or your kazoo. They learn to adopt really healthy ways of processing their own emotions through musical expression.

Try to never compare

I say “try,” because it’s genuinely hard. When we compare musicians against one another, especially when we compare ourselves or our children to other musicians, we’re inadvertently telling our kids there are stakes, and that they might not measure up. For some children, because music is so deeply tied to the soul, this is enough to keep them from ever trying. And it tends to be the most sensitive kids, the ones who most need a form of expression, who fall hardest into the comparison trap.

baby playing piano

Be kind to yourself in the process

This might be the most important one. The way we treat ourselves will ultimately be the way we treat others, especially our kids, and it’s how they’ll treat themselves and others. When we make a conscious effort to treat ourselves with respect and kindness, it naturally showers onto our kids, and they feel worthy of respect. The effects of that kindness will last for generations.

Doing all of these things with music is the best way I know to practice and offer civility and compassion to our kids, because music is the language of love and connection.

As always, have so much fun!

P.S. At Little Bird Piano Academy®, we’re coming up on our annual Ensemble Festival, making music together and creating those connections with other musicians that give us purpose and belonging outside ourselves. Like team sports, but without the competition. If you’re part of this group, please be thinking about ways to keep it fun and non-competitive. You’ll never regret having patience, and fun, with your child and with yourself!