Your Child is a Musician!  (and you are, too!)

     In the introduction to Get America Singing, Again Will Schmidt wrote, "today many of us are starting to worry about whether people are singing anymore".  This is a serious concern of music educators (and other educators, too) all over the U.S.  Our culture in this country is rapidly becoming a culture of consumers of music rather than music-makers.  We have more adults than ever who consider themselves "non-singers", and many children these days are growing up in households where there is no family singing or music-making.  
     This is due in part to the commercialism of music...children see musical performances on MTV or hear them on the radio, and these performances have been highly polished and "doctored" by the use of recording technology.  If these are the only musical performances that children are exposed to, kids begin to think that any music that is not amplified and polished electronically is inferior.  They soon lose their natural inclination to sing and make music of their own.  
     In addition, children today do not have as many opportunities to make their own music outside of school music classrooms as they did in the past.  Once, a very large percentage of American children participated in singing with their families at home and in children's choirs in their churches.  With the decline of church attendance and the decline of singing as a family activity, two important sources of music for children are lost.  This means that children no longer have "ownership" of songs in the way that they once did.  In order to give kids back their own songs, we need to restore music-making to our homes and daily lives.
     Here in Yancey County, children have an advantage over the children from many other areas.  Here, we still have a large number of families who participate in church music-making, and who sing and play instruments at home.  This is very encouraging, and I hope that we never give up our musical heritage.  
What Parents Can Do

     Even if you do not consider yourself a strong singer, SING to your children!  If you have a toddler at home, make songs like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "I'm a Little Teapot" part of your daily routine.  Sing your children to sleep at night.  Studies have shown that young children respond to the singing of their parents in wonderful ways...it can help them to become better learners in all subject areas, not just in music.  Think back to your own childhood and remember favorite songs or hymns, and share these with your children.  Sing together at Christmastime or other holidays, and use singing as a car travel activity with your family. Ask your child to sing to you, or to teach you a song.  Sing, hum, or whistle as you go about your activities at home.  Find a songbook or hymnbook and look through it with your children.  If you have a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader, your son or daughter will be learning to read pitch this year and can tell you the letter names of the notes in the treble clef (this would be the right hand, or top staff, of the musical system).  And children in all elementary grades are working on reading rhythm in their music classes, and can recognize the difference between many shorter and longer note values in sheet music.  Even if you do not read music, a songbook or hymnbook is a valuable resource for remembering the words to favorite songs.
      Private music lessons on a musical instrument (piano or guitar, for example) can be very beneficial to children.  Besides the musical accomplishment and satisfaction that they gain from such an experience, studies have shown that children taking music lessons do better work in mathematics and other disciplines in school.
       But if private lessons are not a financial possibility for your family, you can still make music an important part of your children's lives in the ways mentioned above.  And your children will be all the better for it!

 
Do You "Own" These Songs?
 

     The book Get America Singing Again!, published in 1996, includes forty songs that music educators all over the country collected...songs that they believed all Americans should know and be able to sing.  Below are a few of these songs...how many of them can you sing?  What about your children?
- Amazing Grace
- America the Beautiful
- Dona Nobis Pacem
- I've Been Working on the Railroad
- Let There Be Peace on Earth
- Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'
- She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain
- The Star-Spangled Banner
- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
- This Land is Your Land


Sing with your family!



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