This has been the summer of trying new things! My dear friend, Jayme had shared on Facebook that her son, Ryan was home from college and was available for guitar lessons. We had seen Ryan play with some his friends at various venues around town and Stella and Sophia were intrigued with his band!
Ryan has done an awesome job with the lessons with Stella and we have chatted about the powerful role music can play in the lives of kids. I asked Ryan to write a guest post about kids and music. As you will see, Ryan is highly creative, clever, and passionate about music.
Playing guitar is easily the highlight to any of my days - tips to promote musical growth in your kids
By Ryan Zobel
Learning an instrument is no easy task, but the benefits of learning music as a child truly changes your brain for the better. You might be asking yourself how and why you should teach your child a musical instrument, and that’s where I come in. My name is Ryan Zobel, and I have played guitar for 14 of my 19 years alive. Playing guitar is easily the highlight to any of my days, and I am extremely happy I kept moving along with my lessons at a young age. In my time of learning, and teaching, I have learned a few things that promote the growth of a young student from the parent’s perspective. In the articles I pulled, I found a few tips and tricks that rang true to me as helpful ways to promote musical growth in your little ones.
From the article titled “6 Easy Ways To Encourage A Love Of Music In Kids”, Will Stroet shoots out great ideas to bring music into kid’s lives. His first reason was to “Listen”. Listening to music was what got me into playing guitar. Stroet claims children have no musical bias, but I’m not sure how entirely true that is. I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Stevie Ray Vaughan CDs in my dad’s car as a kid, and those two artists have definitely rubbed off on me. That being said, I naturally like that music and my dad never forced it on me. Play the music your kids enjoy, but also try broadening their horizons to see what artists they truly love.
By Ryan Zobel
Learning an instrument is no easy task, but the benefits of learning music as a child truly changes your brain for the better. You might be asking yourself how and why you should teach your child a musical instrument, and that’s where I come in. My name is Ryan Zobel, and I have played guitar for 14 of my 19 years alive. Playing guitar is easily the highlight to any of my days, and I am extremely happy I kept moving along with my lessons at a young age. In my time of learning, and teaching, I have learned a few things that promote the growth of a young student from the parent’s perspective. In the articles I pulled, I found a few tips and tricks that rang true to me as helpful ways to promote musical growth in your little ones.
From the article titled “6 Easy Ways To Encourage A Love Of Music In Kids”, Will Stroet shoots out great ideas to bring music into kid’s lives. His first reason was to “Listen”. Listening to music was what got me into playing guitar. Stroet claims children have no musical bias, but I’m not sure how entirely true that is. I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Stevie Ray Vaughan CDs in my dad’s car as a kid, and those two artists have definitely rubbed off on me. That being said, I naturally like that music and my dad never forced it on me. Play the music your kids enjoy, but also try broadening their horizons to see what artists they truly love.
Picking an instrument is a whole other ordeal. I remember the day I walked into my mom’s room and told her I want to play guitar vividly, but not every kid picks an instrument from the get-go. Number 19 on Dr. Kimberly S. Moore’s article titled: “43 Easy Ways to Engage Young Kids in Music” says to “Buy a kid-friendly xylophone”. If you want your kid to pick an instrument but it is not quite the time to buy a guitar or piano or what have you, a xylophone is the way to go. Xylophones are laid out just like a piano, and makes it easy to play simple melodies. This is a good starter instrument because it is an easy transition into piano, and if your child does not like it, try something with strings or even a drum set.
If you would rather not invest in a xylophone, there are other great ways to promote musical learning in your child. The very first tip in the “43 Easy Ways to Engage Young Kids in Music” article is “Let them bang on pots and pans… and maybe buy some headphones?”. This may sound like a bad idea on paper, but truly letting your child or children go bananas on the pots and pans is better than it sounds. If you do it with them, try to find different pitches different utensils and pots make. With this knowledge, show them a short beat of your own, using the different sounds. After that, they will try to mimic your sound and even make some of their own.
The final step to starting your child’s musical career is found in Yuval Kamina’s article titled: “5 Tips to Interest Your Child in Playing an Instrument.” The final step is to find an instructor that works well with your child. One that encourages him or her to play the songs they like and work towards sharpening their skills.
Thanks for reading and I hope your children enjoy music as much as I do.
Ryan
Thanks for reading and I hope your children enjoy music as much as I do.
Ryan
We definitely found an instructor that works well with Stella! Huge thank you to Ryan for giving Stella guitar lessons this summer and for helping foster a love of music! Thank you also for the fantastic tips for encouraging musical growth in kids! We love seeing the positive impact music has had on you and look forward to following your musical career! Parents, we hope your kids will pick up a musical instrument too and in the meantime break out the pots and pans!
Thanks for stopping by!
Meg
Thanks for stopping by!
Meg
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