Get children started on a high note

WHILE I write about music, when it comes to introducing my child to music I have done a terrible job.

It is not that my husband and I haven’t exposed him to music. He has heard a scattershot assortment of favourites and things we thought might appeal to him, from Robert Johnson to the Trio Mediaeval. But he was not getting the kind of exposure I remember from my own childhood, when the stereo system in my father’s painting studio provided the background music to our daily lives.

Most of our listening is done on headphones, with concentration; we don’t often put music on as background. On a day-to-day basis, therefore, our son is barely aware of what we’re listening to.

His niche musical taste is for Halloween versions of nursery rhyme songs.

When it comes to taking kids to live performances, I have a few precepts I hold dear. Let them see you going until they want to go along; don’t build up the experience too much.

Baby’s first concert should probably not involve challenging contemporary chamber music. After a few minutes of repeated notes in the upper strings, my son turned to me and said, “Mama, when is it starting?”

Helping him develop his own independent taste is, after all, the real point. Teaching your kid about music turns out to be more about what your kid can teach you. – The Washington Post