Musical development of the child:
33 answers to parents' questions

Part 1. How to determine the musical ability of a child?

"How do you know if a child has a penchant for music?"
"Does he have ear for music or a sense of rhythm?
“Is my child strong enough to learn music?”

In this part, we will discuss five questions related to determining a child's musical ability. The answers to these questions will help parents make a serious choice - whether to send their child to study music or not.

Question 1: How to determine a child's penchant for music?

There are three ways to determine the presence of musicality and talent, the level of development of a child’s musical abilities:

• Conversation with a child
• Determination of the general musicality of the child
• Musical Ability Testing

How to determine the musicality of a child in early childhood, at preschool and primary school age, as well as various ways musical ability testing, we'll go into more detail a bit later. Now, I want to draw your attention to the first way.

Talking to a child seems to be the easiest and most elementary way to find out about his abilities and inclination to music, but in practice it turns out to be very difficult. If you just start asking a child, he is unlikely to answer you with anything intelligible. This should be done between times, specially preparing the situation so that the conversation goes naturally, and does not look like an interrogation. You can talk to him during the game or after listening to children's music, you can not talk specifically, but return to the topic you need from time to time.

Be that as it may, the conversation with the child should serve two purposes.

1) You need to determine the emotionality and artistry of the child- how deeply he can experience artistic images and how vividly, emotionally he can convey them. These qualities are equally important for poetry and for music. Therefore, if your child loves and easily memorizes poetry, reads them with expression, tries to convey the mood - he already has a certain artistry and emotionality. All this is an indicator that the child has a penchant for creativity, he can easily study music and achieve success.

If a child is shy, reads poetry dryly and inexpressively, do not draw critical conclusions! Perhaps your child is an introvert, and the deep feelings that overwhelm him simply do not appear "outside". Perhaps he still "does not know how" to express his emotions and feelings (do it consciously). There can be no single approach, each child will have their own characteristics. But if you see that the child is bored, he does not like not only to talk, but also to listen to poetry, it is difficult for him to remember them - perhaps in this case it is better for you to go in for chess or sports.

So, you can determine the emotionality and artistry of a child by simply asking him to recite his favorite poem.

2) Determine your child's interest in music and creativity. What does he know about music, would he like to do it? What does he like more - singing or playing an instrument? Find out from your child what kind of music he likes best (or more specifically: from which cartoon or movie)? What cartoons or movies does he like to watch and why? What books, about what does he like to read or listen to more? Does he have favorite songs? Ask him to sing one of them.

So you can determine the child's penchant for music, as well as find out what he is interested in in life, understand whether he needs to study music more seriously, go to music school or enough to attend a music and dance club.

Remember, in order to determine a child's interest in music, it's not so much what he answers (most children of the same age tend to have very similar answers), but how he answers your questions. A certain certainty of the child in his tastes is important. If he doesn't care and he doesn't seem to be particularly enthusiastic about music, you should consider whether musical training the child himself (music classes can captivate him, “open”, but they can also reject him - here everything will depend on the child himself and on the skill of the teacher).

If he can say more or less precisely that he likes cheerful, active music, as in such and such a cartoon; that he loves to sing, dance and play on pillows like drums; he loves cartoons about Spider-Man, because he protects everyone and always defeats “bad monsters”, he loves to read encyclopedias about animals, and his favorite song is “ New Year rushes to us ... ”and not only sings, but also starts dancing ... You have every reason to believe that the child will like to play music and he will be able to achieve certain successes.

Question 2: How to determine the presence of musical abilities in early childhood?

Watching a child (or remembering how he was at this age), you can easily determine whether he has or does not have musical abilities.

The following may indicate that a child has a penchant for music and musical abilities developed from birth:

• increased attention of the child to any sounding background,
• a clear manifestation of interest in the sound of music,
• bright emotional manifestation the joys of the baby while playing his favorite music (some children begin to dance without even learning to walk, sitting in the crib),
• baby loves to listen different music, not only children's and lullabies performed by my mother.

Some time ago, scientists conducted a special study with babies under the age of one year - with the help of simple tests, they found out that most children supposedly have an “absolute” ear for music from birth. This fact confirms the opinion that all people have approximately the same abilities (including musical ones), and only the level of development of these abilities is different for everyone.

This fact also leads to the following conclusion: the mere presence of abilities does not affect the success of a person in a particular field of activity. You can have musical abilities developed from birth - a beautiful, strong voice, absolute pitch, and at the same time hate music. Any education, including music, exists in order to develop the necessary abilities in its field and provide certain knowledge. What then is important for success? What is important is the interest, the inclination of a person to a certain field of activity, which allows you to develop abilities in this area faster than other people can do. In most cases, this is the secret of the talent, giftedness of some people and the apparent mediocrity and “lack of ability” of others.

The tendency to a certain field of activity usually manifests itself quite early. The musicality of a child can be detected already at the age of one year, if already at this age he shows a clear interest in the sound of music.

Question 3: How to determine the propensity for music in children at preschool and primary school age?

At this age, all three methods are applicable - talking with the child, testing (we will talk about it a little later), and determining the general musicality of the child.

What are indicators of musicality and the availability of abilities in children aged 3-7 years and older?

1) Maintaining Interest in Music manifested in early childhood. If your child interrupts his business and listens to suddenly sounded music, if he likes to listen to various music, not necessarily only children's songs, but also good pop music, classics, tries to sing along or starts dancing to the music - all this speaks of the musicality of the child.

It should be remembered that raising a child plays big role in this question, but not the main one. If a child is musical by nature, he will show it, no matter if you played music with him or not. If by nature he has no inclination, "thrust" for art, you can "break your forehead", but only develop in the child an aversion to music. All you can do is help your child discover his musicality, give him the opportunity to express himself. If a child showed an interest in music in early childhood, but the parents did not pay attention to it, the child's interest is likely to fade. But this can also happen if you worked hard with the child - sang and learned songs, listened to music, played on children's musical instruments. What to do, human nature- a complex and unpredictable thing! :)

2) Your child is easy and for a long time remembers songs he likes. More or less "pure" sings, loves "compose"- compiles some of his songs from words and melodies known to him (in this case, some kind of “potpourri” or something completely unbelievable may come out). Less often - he composes (more precisely, improvises "on the go") his poems and songs - depending on how bright and expressive they turn out (of course, only emotionally, and not in meaning) - one can judge the giftedness of the child and the presence of talent. In any case, all this speaks of the musical and creative abilities developed by nature.

3) Does your child love performing in public?, likes to take an active part in matinees and holidays, likes to engage in creativity in any form - sing, dance, draw, sculpt from plasticine. He has a good imagination, he likes to invent - all this is a good indicator of the presence of creativity and music.

Question 4: Does the child have an ear for music?

There are a number of traditional tests to determine musical ear, voice and musical memory. Such tests are usually carried out at an interview when a child is accepted to a music school. These tests are very simple, but they require a minimal set of tests to complete. musical knowledge and skills of parents, and, in some cases, the presence of a piano.

Test 1 Ask the child to come to the piano and turn away. Play two sounds in turn in different registers (upper and lower) and ask him which sound was lower and which was higher.

Test 2 Press one key on the piano and ask the child how many sounds sounded. Now press two keys at the same time (preferably at a great distance from each other), and ask how many sounds have sounded now. If the child finds it difficult to answer, press the same keys in turn. Play any chord with both hands (in a wide range), and ask how many sounds were made (one, or many).

The first two tests check hearing activity, the ability to "navigate in the sound space", to distinguish individual elements from the general sound of music (at the simplest level). They allow you to determine whether the child understands the difference in pitch, as well as the difference between a single sound and several sounded at the same time. If the child finds it difficult - do not worry, it is not so easy to understand these things, usually this is taught in early stage education (preparatory/first grade music school).

Test 3 Sing the note Mi of the first octave (for example, on the syllable "la" or a simple "a") and ask the child to repeat. Then sing the note La of the first octave and again ask to repeat. If you hear that it is difficult for a child to sing in this range, sing the notes higher: Do-Mi of the second octave, or vice versa lower: Small Si - Re of the first octave. Try different notes to determine the range of your child's voice.

It is important that you sing by yourself, without the help of the piano. Use a tuning fork to sing accurately. The fact is that the sound of the piano, as a rule, “knocks down” children, it is more difficult to adapt to it than to what is familiar to them. human voice. If you don't succeed, and it's hard for you to hit the note exactly, it's better, of course, to use the piano. Do not use children's musical instruments - pipes, xylophones, children's synthesizers and others.

Test 4 Sing a simple, short melodic phrase and have your child repeat it. Here are examples of such phrases:

Test 5 Ask your child to sing their favorite song.

So tests 3-5 allow you to check:

• child's ear for music
• musical memory,
• "reproductive" musical ear(can the child repeat the sounded note and melodic phrase),
• child's voice range
• can the child intotone (sing “clearly”).

Remember, if a child shows an average result, if he can catch at least the direction of the melody without hitting the exact note, then he has an ear for music, albeit poorly developed. There are, of course, exceptions, the so-called "hooters". These children can sing in a very narrow range, do not intotone at all and cannot even understand general direction melodies. In fact, there are quite a lot of such children, but in music schools they know how to work with them and, in the end, develop their abilities to a certain level (besides, the inability to sing does not prevent them from being talented pianists or trumpeters).

Question 5: How to determine the sense of rhythm?

Here are some tests for determining the sense of rhythm, which are also used in music schools during opening talk with baby.

Test 1 Tap (not fast) a simple rhythmic sequence and ask the child to repeat. Repeat the test 2-4 times, depending on the child's progress, using different sequences. For example, these:

Test 2 Have your child march in place to the music. Perform or record any popular, marching music. For example, the song "It's fun to walk together ...".

Test 3 Ask your child to clap their hands to the music (as they do at concerts when the audience likes a song). Play or put on a recording of any rhythmic children's music, for example, Letki-Enki.

If a child has a weak sense of rhythm, this does not mean that it cannot be developed. If a child successfully completes all tests, this means that it will be much easier for him to learn music, but this does not guarantee that he will not get bored in a month.

Conclusions:

1) Parents can easily determine the child's inclination to music, the presence of musical abilities and the level of their development in the above ways.

2) Developed musical ability, such as an ear for music or a sense of rhythm, do not mean that a child has a penchant for music. It is the interest, the desire to make music that plays a decisive role in whether the child will achieve success in music or not (it doesn’t matter, on professional level or amateur).

3) The absence of pronounced abilities and a clear desire to study music does not yet give the right to consider a child "incapable", "non-musical". Perhaps it is in the process of learning that the child will reveal his abilities and he will have an interest in music (as they say, appetite comes with eating). Thus, until you start making music with your child, you cannot be completely sure that the child does not have the ability and inclination for music.

To be continued...

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How to develop an ear for music in a child

It turns out that people with a good ear for music have excellent memory, persistent attention and extraordinary thinking. Many mothers think that for the development of an ear for music in a child, it is necessary to practice a lot and hard. But everything is much easier! You can develop musical skills in the form of a game. Being engaged with the baby every day for twenty minutes, you can get very good results.

The voices of loved ones, classical music, the sound of rain and the singing of birds - all these sounds bit by bit form the musical ear of a newborn child. Psychologists have long noticed that it is very harmful for a baby to be in constant silence. He must hear and listen to new sounds, this will provoke an active brain activity so important for its development.

To develop hearing in newborns, you can use:

In the first year of life, psychologists recommend using music in different situations. For example, when you are sad - turn on appropriate music, when you are happy - listen to cheerful compositions, and not be limited to lullabies alone. Thanks to this, it will be easier for the child to determine the mood of the melody in the future.
When the child begins to walk, you can master the rhythm of melodies. To do this, you need to clap your hands to the beat of the melody. Watching you, the child will soon be able to repeat this already without your help.

In the second year of life, you can teach a child to distinguish between low and high sounds. Show him how the mosquito buzzes - this is alt, as the elephant trumpets - this is a very low sound. Introduce your baby to the world of animals - show how a cow mooes, how a dog barks, how a kitten meows.

Introduce your baby to the sounds of various musical instruments - guitar, piano, violin, organ, flute, accordion. You can purchase discs of the sounds of these instruments from a music store or download tunes from the Internet.

For the development of the hearing of children from four years old, this game is ideal: take kitchen utensils - a saucepan, a glass, a crystal wine glass, plastic and glass bottles. Holding the tip of the pencil so as not to drown out the sound, tap on each object. Let the child get used to these sounds. Ask him to turn away, and tap on one of the objects, the child must guess what the sound is.

Folk songs are our wealth. Sing one of these songs to your child, just sing in the old way and draw the letters, otherwise the song will not be as beautiful as it was intended. Our great-grandmothers, bending over the cradles of their children, not only skillfully developed their musical skills, but also soothed them with the help of their songs.

Remember that in this case you can not rush. From birth, gradually begin to develop an ear for music in a child. If he does not like something, do not impose it on him, postpone classes for another time. It's very important role desire plays. Don't push, be patient. And you will see that your work will not be in vain.

Article prepared Elena Barabanova,

especially for Women's Encyclopedia Malinka

What is called in everyday life ear for music, is a whole ensemble of various abilities and inclinations: a sense of rhythm, a modal sense, absolute pitch, etc. Any of these abilities is not only hereditary (innate) and can be created by skillful training. In other words, an ear for music can be cultivated in any normal child: for some it will go easier, for others it will require more effort.

There are widely known cases of early manifestation musical abilities (hence, musical ear) in many outstanding composers and performers. However, for some reason, examples of the opposite kind are known much less well, and there are also many of them (for example, A. Khachaturian began to study music at the age of sixteen).

To develop a child's ear for music, it is not at all necessary to seat him at the instrument, or make him sing, or study with him musical notation. At early preschool age (three to four years) it is more useful to play various games, imperceptibly for the child, training his sense of rhythm, the ability to distinguish between pitch, timbre hearing and musical memory.

What needs to be done for this? Here are some simple games you can play with children preschool age (three years or more) for musical ear development.

The game "Knock and you"

You tap the beat of a simple song or dance (waltz, march, polka, mazurka, Hungarian, polonaise) on the table with a pencil, repeat three or four times at the same tempo, then invite the child to tap this rhythm in the same way. Vary the game: let the child first repeat the measure, tapping the table with a pencil (as you showed him), then on the glass: first at the same pace as you, and then varying the pace (“can you tap the same thing faster? slower ?"). Of course, gradually complicate the rhythm pattern: first, the rhythm phrase is taken from three, five, seven sounds (knocks), then more, as the child advances.

Game "Who sings?"

Place the child so that he does not see you, or go to another room and start with one object (preferably with a stick at first) tapping evenly on another object, swipe it - make it “sing”. The child must guess which object makes the sound. Of course, you need to start with such things, the “singing” of which the baby has heard more than once, and then move on to objects that are new to him (in sound).

Another complication is to take both what you knock on and what you knock on (or drive) as guessed things. A further complication of the game is to teach him to distinguish the voices of individual musical instruments in audio recordings. You can always purchase multiple records for this. solo concerts, and if they are too complex, outline in advance for yourself some very simple part and only play it.

Game "Confusion"

This game can be played only when the preschooler has already memorized (unmistakably recognizes by ear if he himself cannot sing or speak) several different songs. You can sing the words of one song to the tune of another. For example, the children's song "I play the harmonica" to the motive "A Christmas tree was born in the forest", etc. The child must find out what is confused with what, but it is not necessary to sing both songs, but in any way to show that he remembered them, name words of both or names, etc.

Some tips for developing musical ear in preschool children

Definitely helpful and rhythmic gymnastics, and learning to dance to music, and in general the musical atmosphere in the house. The latter does not mean at all that from morning to evening a sort of vinaigrette from jazz, Carmen, Bach chorales and Dubinushki should be heard in the rooms: a sense of proportion is most important. But two or three times a week in the house should sound real music, and the child at this time should not interfere with the elders (what he will do, it does not matter, as long as he does not make noise).

Such musical moments will sooner or later come to life in the memory and feelings of the child.
Of course, when he grows up, at six or eight years old, you can already arrange real quizzes, offering to recognize this or that record by its fragments from the middle and end, coming up with guessing conditions, establishing prizes and participating with the whole family in such quizzes.

It is also useful to talk from time to time with the child about musical works, about composers, invite him to read and retell in the family artistic and popular works about music and musicians. As with games, great tact and imagination are needed here.

Once or twice a week for half an hour - and in a year or two the results will affect any normal child, if you carefully monitor whether he is tired, whether he is bored, whether he understood everything. Avoid any kind of coercion and punishment, but act by suggestion, affection, teasing, humor, "bribery" (prizes, sweets, movies, etc.) and, of course, music itself, the power of which is difficult to overestimate with smart selection musical passages and whole things.

How to develop musical ear in children?

Does anyone know a child who from the first years would not show any interest in music? Wouldn't you try to hum, blow, beat the rhythm with your hand or stomp rhythmically? The world of sounds surrounds the child from the moment of birth. We need to help the child take the right, necessary steps towards friendship with music. Maybe we are talking about it in vain? Almost everyone wants to teach music to their children. But how many later disappointments! After having messed with the child, the parents conclude:

"Incapable of music." And this is where the matter ends. For a long time, the child retains an attitude towards music as something difficult, inaccessible.

In order for a child to be drawn to music, you need to help him as early as possible, listen to different sounds. What mom hasn't used pot lids to keep her little one busy? He rattles them to his heart's content, testing real joy. But such a game is directly related to the development of the child's hearing.

What is a musical ear?Ear for musicis the ability of a person to perceive individual qualities musical sounds- pitch, loudness, timbre, as well as the ability to feel functional connections between sounds in musical works.

Usually the baby purrs something very early, sings. As a rule, children like beautiful, expressive reading poems; attracts a person playing the button accordion, violin, piano. Babies are drawn to sounds and music. Let's help them with this. When buying toys for kids, parents take care of the brightness of the color, the expressiveness of the form. But, as a rule, little care is taken to surround the child with sounding toys or objects. Meanwhile, many children, growing up, are really looking for these sounding objects. First, they throw rattles on the floor, lids from my mother's saucepans. Then other discoveries begin: it turns out that if you hit a pan with a spoon - one sound, a cup - another, and a thin glass - a third. It will be easier for you to lead musical development baby, if you communicate with sounds with the child.

To introduce the child to high and low sounds, you can use your voice (sing or read an excerpt from a poem high voice, then - low), bells of different sound, children's musical instruments (metallophone, pipe).

Sound duration can be studied with a pencil or pen. Let your child draw a line on a sheet of paper while the note is sounding, and when the sound of the note stops, stop drawing. Such a game develops auditory attention and gives an idea of ​​the existence of long and short notes, which is the beginning of the development of a sense of rhythm.

I want to give some examples music games which you can play with your child.

"Guess What Sounds"

For this game you will need several household items that are in every home. Let it be, for example, Glass bottle, saucepan, plate, glass, porcelain cup. Take a pencil (hold it by the very tip so as not to drown out the sound) and tap on each object in turn. Then ask the baby to turn away and tap on any one object. When the baby turns to you, give the pencil to him and let him guess which object you tapped on.

First, the baby will guess by trial. That is, he will knock on each object until he hears the right sound. If he makes a mistake, try again. The more often you play this game, the more better baby will be guided by the sound of these objects.

You can start playing this game with a child from about 3.5 years old. As your child gets older, the game can be made more difficult. For example, add other objects that sound similar, or guess the sound of not one object, but a sequence of sounds.

Game for the development of musical ear

"Musical glasses"

To play, you will need 2 glasses (or 2 glasses, 2 bottles) and a metal spoon.

Pour some water into one glass and tap it with a spoon, holding the spoon by the very edge. Have your child use water and another glass to "make" the same sound. Let your baby take some amount of water into an empty glass on his own, knock on it with a spoon and achieve the desired sound.

If you use 3 or more glasses of water, you can compose melodies. Fill the glasses with different amounts of water and line them up in order of pitch (from lower to higher). Hitting the glasses with a spoon, try to compose a melody, first you, then invite the child to play.

It is very important for the development of an ear for music to teach a child to listen to the sounds of nature. When walking with children, listen to how a tree creaked somewhere, how the wind rustles, how leaves rustle underfoot, how birds sing in different ways. Let him knock with a stick the way a woodpecker knocked on a tree trunk. Please note that a short stick does not sound the same as a long one.

Such work with a child will not be in vain. In the future, not everyone will become a musician, but everyone can be musically educated.

Songs and lullabies, telling nursery rhymes, but not everyone understands the impact this has on development hearing A. According to experts, nursery rhymes and lullabies have a rhythm that is very easy for a child to perceive. And the meaning of what was said is not at all important, the main thing is that at the same time it should be calm and friendly.

Rattles, bells - this is also not a useless invention. With their help, they conduct classes aimed not only at developing hearing but also for development fine motor skills and vision. Ring the bell softly, first on one side and wait for the baby to turn his head in the direction of the sound, then do the same on the other side. With regular practice, they can very quickly learn to find with their eyes an object that makes a sound. This is one of the most effective exercises aimed at the development of sound.

Many parents even before birth begin to make plans for his future. And often the first place in them is occupied by the dream that their brilliant child will definitely be in music and know at least two. Except desire child and abilities to implement these plans, you must have a musical hearing ohm. For its development during wakefulness, it is useful for the baby to turn on the sound background: birdsong, forest noise, classical music.

Developing hearing child, you help him quickly master oral speech. Such people practically do not have any speech defects, since they have a well-developed phonemic hearing: children hear well and distinguish all sounds and, accordingly, can reproduce them both orally and in writing. They are much less likely to make mistakes when writing similar-sounding words, for example, fox-forests. This significantly increases the level of literacy and facilitates the process of learning at school.

Sometimes parents wonder if it is possible to contribute to the development of an ear for music in a child. It happens that adults also want to develop their own musical abilities for singing, playing musical instruments.

Instruction

The most correct decision is to take private lessons from teachers or get courses at a music school ( School of Music) on singing and development of musical ear. A similar option is to order a course, an audio course from a teacher via the Internet and study it yourself. The disadvantage of this kind of activity is that you will not be able to ask questions that concern you in the course of work, requiring permission from professional person, and you will have to solve all the problems yourself.

Get a professional karaoke machine and great choice songs to perform. Sing your favorite songs more often. Try not to shout over the music, but listen to it, adjust your voice to the melody. Change the key of the next song for convenient performance.

Purchase a musical keyboard instrument: piano, digital, synthesizer (non-professional, inexpensive). Ask relatives to press various keys on it. You must repeat their sound with your voice. Or do these exercises yourself. Make it harder over time. Press two keys at the same time and try to sing both sounds. Then three keys and so on.

Taking advantage keyboard instrument, ask your loved ones to press some key on it, turn away yourself at this time. Now go to the instrument and try to find the key you just heard. Complicate the task over time, trying to find the sounds of two pressed keys, three and so on.

Sing in unison with any instrumental accompaniment. Such an exercise can bring the ear to perfection.

Study the notes and sing them from the sheet, sing monophonic exercises, guess the played notes, intervals, chords. These exercises develop the ear. professional musicians in music teaching institutions.

You can even develop an ear for music while sitting at a computer. Download any kind of music exam software. Such programs, if you work with them regularly, not only develop your hearing, but also check your data, give results, and help consolidate your knowledge.

The development of an ear for music in a child depends entirely on the parents. If you take care of this before birth, musical taste the child will be formed very quickly and almost imperceptibly. You have a chance to raise a future composer.