Babies & Music

BabyMusic

Introducing your baby to music

How soon should you start introducing your baby to music? There is a simple answer with a complicated explanation. You should start introducing your baby to music soon after birth in an age-appropriate way. Research shows that developing musical ability, like language ability, has a critical time phase, say from birth up to the age of nine or ten, and after that time the ability to learn new musical skills has diminished. The important thing to know that early learning is not about any formal learning or listening to music, but rather a buildup of knowledge of rhythm and sound patterns, learning about pitch and identifying differences in sound. Active and passive experiences when a child is small build up “musicality” learning patterns in the brain.

Even the most musically insecure parent can engage their baby in music in a number of different ways: [Read More...]

Toddlers & Music

Toddler Trumpets

Instruments and your Toddler

Young children that have been sung to and exposed to music as a baby will already have learnt important things about rhythm and tunes, toddlers won’t really learn to read or really understand music at this stage, such as learning notes, for example. But may experiment with pitch when they are singing – they can often make up their own songs that may well vary in pitch and rarely have rhythms. They have, however, learnt how to keep a beat to the music together with you when you sing. [Read More...]

Older Kids & Music

Childrens Guitar

Buying your child a guitar

Buying your child a guitar just because they fancy it is not such a good idea unless you know that they have a real interest in music and you have plans for them to learn how to play their instrument. Nowadays more and more children and young people are becoming interested in learning a musical instrument through playing a musical themed video game and opening their ideas to playing music. [Read More...]

Make your House a Home

Paint and redecorate your home

Painting and decorating is a low cost way to upgrade and put new colour and interest back into your home. You will need to prepare your surfaces well by rubbing down until smooth before starting to repaint the woodwork. Whilst you are making the effort remember to paint the skirting boards and even old wood furniture so tying the colours together and maximising the upgrade. Take care on painting larger surfaces such as doors so as to prevent drips and runs – you can be sure if you leave them it will be the first thing that eyes are drawn to when looking at your doors. (You may not always be able to paint windows and doors if they are PVC or supplied by double glazing companies like SEHBAC as the paint will not stick to the surfaces.) If the finish is not good enough, let it dry, rub down and use another coat. The finish is worth working on as it will last you for years. Always check to make sure the paint you are using is fume free if you have children or babies living in the space whist decorating as any heavy fumes may affect their breathing! [Read More...]

Music Equipment

Recording Children

Recording your child’s music at home

It is possible to set up quite a professional set up for recording music so you can encourage your child to not only perform their musical skills, but to listen to that performance and develop a critical and appreciative ear.
If you child like to sing then a good microphone is an investment, but if he or she wants to play electronic keyboard and such ,then perhaps other accessories and software will be important. To develop a basic but useful hone recording facility you will need the following- but you will need to check suppliers of electronic components to get the right equipment and a competitive price. [Read More...]