Parent Circle / December 201120

You like listening to classical music, though you may never have had any formal training. Or you may have had formal training, but

somehow you did not quite enjoy your music classes when you were young and did not pursue the journey further. Or you may have enjoyed the learning and even now, enjoy going to concerts. Perhaps you also play the veena and can sing very well.

Whatever your background of music has been, you may want your child to learn music, because you understand that learning and listening to music brings definite benefits, tangible and intangible. But the child of today is growing up in a different environment. You may have been unquestioning in your childhood, but today, your child needs to be taught music suitably, to get adequately interested, and develop a lifelong love for it.

How then, to make a child appreciate and take to music with readiness and enthusiasm? How should music be taught to him? At the moment we are restricting ourselves to the appreciation of Carnatic music, but the basic tenets apply to Hindustani music and other styles of music as well, whether vocal or instrumental.

You should identify an appropriate teacher, who not only understands music, but understands children and handles them sensitively. You may also need to be objective about your own attitude and ideas, so that the child as an individual, is finally benefited.

UNDERSTANDING THE CHILD’S CAPABILITY As a parent, you need not worry about this as long as your child is like most other children. There is a Sanskrit verse which states that every living creature in this universe can recognise aesthetic

sound, and hence music. No child is really tone deaf, or pitch poor. As it is with the learning of any subject, the pace of learning may vary due to reasons in the external environment. For instance, the child may have too much of school-work to do, and may focus less on music. The teacher thus, has a great role in identifying the need of the child and catering to it appropriately – and your child will soon love this initial ‘distraction’ of music.

WHEN CAN THE CHILD ENROLL FOR MUSIC CLASSES If a child can talk, she can surely sing. We never question whether the child is too young to start going to school at age three. And he does learn his alphabets and nursery rhymes. The level of assimilation in music and its reproduction in children as little as three and four years invariably comes as a pleasant surprise to the teacher and parent. The parents should however give time to the tutor and the

The hidden notes that will appeal to your child BY SUDHA RAJA

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