Music for 0- to 4-year-olds: discovering early musical development
Around half of all music schools offer early music lessons for pre-school children. The teaching is provided by qualified music teachers who are familiar with the specific needs of this age group - and those of the parents. At a glance.
It's almost nine o'clock in the morning in Belp, at the’Gürbetal regional music school. The door to the room opens, a little girl of about two enters, holding her mother's hand, another leaps up and brings her a rattle, beaming with joy. Shortly afterwards, course leader Anja Martin intones a welcome song: «Wär isch hüt aues da?» (Who's here today?) Each child and parent is greeted personally. Then, for some 50 minutes, the bells and tambourines come into play, as does the piano, which accompanies a dance, and a number of songs.
Discovering music together
«Children really absorb the music,» explains Anja Martin. «Regularly, parents tell me that they start singing at home. It's a great way to discover music.» A violinist with the Berner Kammerorchester and the Basel Sinfonietta, Anja Martin has been teaching parent-child singing at several music schools for the past five years. At the same time, she also gives children's concerts, and occasionally invites her young pupils and their parents to the dress rehearsal of a concert in which she is taking part. «Dorothee Schmid, director of the Gürbetal regional music school, points out that »playing music at an early age is particularly beneficial, as numerous studies have shown. «What's more, it's great for us that children and parents come into contact with the music school at an early age.» The parent-child music discipline has already been offered for thirty years, she explains. The only fly in the ointment is the lack of subsidies, which don't start until school age. But thanks to a foundation, prices can be kept low, she explains. A new offer combining German courses for migrants and parent-child music will be launched shortly.
An experience for children - and parents
In French-speaking Switzerland too, pre-school music education is a mainstay of the school curriculum. «Young children have a natural musical sensitivity», explains Marie Reymond, director of the’Lausanne School of Music. Whereas in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, classes for children and parents often don't start until the age of two, ’musical awakening« here comprises three levels: for the very young, for 2-3 year-olds, and for the very old. for 3-4-year-olds, always with parents. Around half the children continue with ’musical initiation«, so that by the age of seven they already have a solid grounding in instrumental teaching. »It's very rewarding to be able to accompany children for several years,« explains Wolfgang Leresche, who teaches all age groups. »The little ones approach music in such a playful and joyful way. I've also noticed that the classes offer a space where children and their parents can experience precious moments of complicity together. I find this particularly beautiful.»
Specialized training: including nursery and playgroup training
Music teachers wishing to teach music to the very young can follow a specialized CAS offered by several universities in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. The «Musical space»and the’Eltern-Kind-Singen association also train interested individuals. All training courses include an overview of general and musical development psychology, methodology/didactics, song and play repertoires, as well as the planning and realization of an own course offering for the music school, nursery and playgroup.
Musical and social learning ground
A particularly important aspect of teaching planning is the ritualized sequence. «This is essential for children, as teaching puts a lot of pressure on them,» stresses Andrea Strohbach, from the’Lucerne School of Music. When the process is always the same, after the second or third time, the children know how it goes and become more and more confident,« she explains. Through songs, stories and sound experiments - such as loud and soft drumming, imitating noises, recognizing high and low tones - children gain their first musical experiences. Parents benefit too. »It's good for parents to relax and make music without pressure,« says Martina Felber, co-president of Eltern-Kind-Singen (parent-child singing), an association with which many music teachers are affiliated. She also observes that some families with young children sometimes lack contact with people of the same age: »Friendships are forged during lessons."
Keep singing at home
An observation confirmed by the participants in Belp, where the lesson has meanwhile ended with the farewell song. After a visit to the world of elves, experiments with sounds and noises, and a hectic «dance and stop», the little ones were visibly exhausted. One mother explained that she had been looking for an offer that would enable her and her daughter to have social contact during the week, while another added that such contact was all the more important to her as her child did not go to nursery school. The children are still too small for parent-child gymnastics,« she observes. But not too small to sing »parent-child song" rhymes at home for themselves or their grandparents.
