May showers and Kindermusik

As I sit listening to the rain drops fall, I find myself having another "Thank Goodness for Kindermusik" moment. Our world is so full of visual (over) stimulation--everyone's blinking lights trying to grab us and pull us to their store, product, video game, or movie. Even sound becomes overwhelming, the bustle of car engines, children playing, and construction all around. But in a Kindermusik class, we exist in the moment of a song, exercising our listening skills, taking a breather from the cacophony of everyday life. Through this practice, I've come to appreciate the quiet times I can simply listen to the soft, staccato sounds of rain drops falling.


All day long, we hear many sounds, but it takes a little different brain power to listen. Heanne M. Machado, in her book Early Childhood Experience in Language Arts: Emerging Literacy, points out that "Hearing and listening are quite different. Hearing is a process involving nerves and muscles that reach adult efficiency by age four to five. Listening is a learned behavior, a mental process that is concerned with hearing, attending, discriminating, understanding, and remembering." 


Active listening is a skill that requires practice. In class, we have instruments and recorded examples of different sounds in nature, around the house, and out in the busy world. We also have music from many different cultures to experience. Inside the class walls, active listening can be a challenging task, despite being free from many distractions in the out side world.


At first our children may be merely taking in sounds, interpreting what they hear, and learning to identify the sound and where it is coming from. Taking this a step further, they can quantify the sound, perhaps as loud or soft, high or low. Now we start to get into analytical listening like when recreating the sound of water running. Analytical listening requires children to - evaluate what is heard and comprehended, contemplate and reflect, weigh new information against what is already known, discuss by sharing thoughts, opinions, and viewpoints.


It is so much fun for me as a teacher to then take listening and apply it to music language learning. Our Young Child 2 class is currently learning about legato (long) and staccato (short) sounds. We've listened to many examples of instruments playing legato and staccato. Then the class recreated the sounds on the glockenspiel with short bouncing strokes along to "Hop up Squirrel". Finally, they internalize the concept  with movement as they danced with scarves to the two types of sound. 


Our six and seven year olds have been actively listening to vocalizations, instruments and musical styles from Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and South and Central America. Many children this age tend to find these sounds unusual and sometimes uncomfortable, but children raised with Kindermusik welcome a variety of musical sounds and styles as naturally as a lullaby being sung by their mother.


The skills gained from these activities are kept with the children as they leave class. It helps with listening in school and other communication throughout the day. There are also benefits provided to their language, speech, and reading. Best of all, they'll be able to better listen to you at home!