# Tips for introducing a child to classical music



## SilenceIsGolden (May 5, 2013)

As a soon to be first time father, I obviously have a lot to learn and look forward to in raising a child. One thing I am sure of is that I want to engage her in music and culture; however I don't have a lot of personal experience to draw on because I was raised in a rather unmusical home and my own musical education was almost totally self-exploratory. I didn't really discover and develop an interest in classical music until my late teens and early twenties.

I would love to hear from all you TC parents who have acquainted your children with music over the years and learn about some of the methods you used to instill a love of music in them; observations about what worked and what didn't; advice about what styles/genres/composers to introduce a child to at what ages, anything that you think relevant would be more than welcome! Also, if you're not a parent but have stories or thoughts about your own musical upbringing, that would be helpful as well.

Also, any opinions on classical music for infants compilations like "Baby Bach" or "Baby Mozart" would be appreciated. I have never given these sort of things much thought, but my wife assures me that all the studies show that these are wonderful at relaxing a baby and help them sleep, and are the best thing to play for infants due to the lack of dynamics and whatnot. A good idea? Worthless and pointless? Let me know what you think.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Well, when they are a baby you can force them to listen to anything. And that's when their brains are the most malleable.

:devil:


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'm not sure about babies - I guess they'll just soak up whatever you play. But from about 2-10 years old, stuff with a lot of percussion tends to grab kids - Reich's drumming, stuff like that. Kids love to drum. Or, at least, they love to beat things semi-rhythmically.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

With kids it already depends on personality traits. I pretty much hated percussion when I was a kid, it felt "stupid", "irrelevant" and "immature", but I guess I was the odd case. I couldn't fully relate to most of my agemates until the second half of adolescence.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

violadude said:


> Well, when they are a baby you can force them to listen to anything. And that's when their brains are the most malleable.
> 
> :devil:


I was diabolically victimized with the gift of a record player and a handful of classical LP's about age four and a half or five, then left to my own:
Prokofiev ~ Lieutenant Kije Suite / Janacek ~ Harry Janos Suite / Landowska playing various pieces of Bach on harpsichord (Italian Concerto, etc.) / Rimsky-Korsakov ~ Sheherezade... etc.

_[Spoiler alert and warning: This led to piano lessons at the age of six which never stopped until I finished conservatory and became a professional musician.]_

I gave a box set of the very short and ebullient Mozart early symphonies (on period instruments) to my niece, who played them in the car while driving her three children, preschool, kindergarten, first grade, to school. She reported that _they loved them,_ sang along, air conducted (or made facsimile arm gestures) and that it kept them wholly entertained on a routine and dull ride.





You don't need any such "music for baby" stuff. _The infant or child doesn't listen as much as hear_, and they will check in or out quite on their own.

I advocate too, not feeding them biography or historic context about the composers or music until they inquire out of their own curiosity. So much classical has pertinent ancillary info which can lend a greater appreciation, but the music, whenever it was written, is not at all dependent upon that... so I hope to have them enjoy it and make 'whatever sense of it' they will from the music itself. It is the most immediate and palpable kind of enjoyment you want to inculcate first.

Look at some of the TC lists. Choose from those which you also like, maybe keeping in mind duration more than anything. All kinds of baroque is good, but so is the very friendly 20th century rep, which is already 'the old music' for an infant today.
Stravinsky's Concerto in Eb - Dumbarton oaks, is lively and ebullient, and for a smaller chamber ensemble.




or Honegger's _Pastorale d'été_




and Darius Milhaud's Chamber Symphony No.1





Chamber music too, and perhaps some of the Schubert lieder for just voice and piano.

For a tot, sometimes really loud music along with really bright lights _puts them directly to sleep_. It is a sort of surround of sensory overload.

Whatever you do, just recall this truth: _*The tiny and developing brain is a sponge, taking in any and all sensory information.*_
Lol. The implications of that could rightfully scare you to death 

As long as any sort of classical music is somewhat regularly 'in the air' in the child's environment, that is the best to do. _Make the period /era / style spectrum broad,_ i.e. not just baroque and classical era, etc. because that programs in strong expectations where later exposure to all sorts of other wonderful music becomes 'difficult to access.'

To that end, Indonesian Gamelon music, classical or tradition Japanese or Chinese, African, etc. musics are also a very 'healthy' exposure.

Congratulations, remember you might want to explore more than you already have, right along with your infant.

ADD: P.s. *holding the infant while music is on, singing along (as you can, no other worry) and moving about in some parallel to the rhythm or phrasing, is a full sensory 'hit' which will get deeply embedded, and for the good.* 
Of all the practicing major concert soloists, those who started with lessons around age two to four are the overwhelming majority. *The learning or perception of music, parallel in the same time period when speech begins to be recognized, formed and learned is key*. Not that your child may ever take music lessons, etc. but for a truly 'direct' and immediate connect with any sort of music, and for a lifetime _ if music later appeals or interests the grown child_, you are right to think about a good and generally very early exposure to all sorts of 'good' music.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> I was diabolically victimized with the gift of a record player and a handful of classical CD's about age four and a half or five, then left to my own:


You must be a young feller. When I was that age, I had access to a wind-up suitcase-type Victrola that was totally acoustical (no electrons required). I broke my mother's sewing needles with pliers for styluses and played my father's three or four LPs (all we could afford) while he was at work. It was fun watching the little curly-cues of vinyl spiral up from the records!

Many years later I told him about this. He just looked at me and said, "I always wondered why those records wore out so fast." Sadly, he didn't survive to see CDs. But he was quite taken with the no-moving-parts music players of the Krell in Forbidden Planet, later to be realized in solid-state MP3 machines.

There is an elegance there that we should certainly appreciate.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

We tried one of those "baby Mozart" CDs with our first child, but he was a notoriously bad sleeper and the only effect of the disc was that, 11 years later, _I_ start to feel sleepy whenever I hear the first movement of the A major piano sonata.

The best advice I can give, and you might not want to hear this, is that you shouldn't be surprised if your child has no interest in the music you play him or her. Our three might occasionally pause to listen to a minute or two of whatever classical I'm listening to, and there are certain rock/pop albums that are favourites of the whole family, but by and large they've each got their own tastes, independent of their parents, which are typical of kids their ages. They're their own people, which discovery is one of the joys of parenting.

Anyway, congratulations, and have fun with your daughter!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> We tried one of those "baby Mozart" CDs with our first child, but he was a notoriously bad sleeper and the only effect of the disc was that, 11 years later, _I_ start to feel sleepy whenever I hear the first movement of the A major piano sonata.
> 
> The best advice I can give, and you might not want to hear this, is that you shouldn't be surprised if your child has no interest in the music you play him or her. Our three might occasionally pause to listen to a minute or two of whatever classical I'm listening to, and there are certain rock/pop albums that are favourites of the whole family, but by and large they've each got their own tastes, independent of their parents, which are typical of kids their ages. They're their own people, which discovery is one of the joys of parenting.
> 
> Anyway, congratulations, and have fun with your daughter!


Exactly, have it around, and if it generates interest, fine, if not, let it be.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Exactly, have it around, and if it generates interest, fine, if not, let it be.


Yes, I should add that this was happened with me. I pretty much ignored my father's small collection of classical LPs until I was well into my teens.


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2014)

Rachel Barton Pine has put out a wonderful collection of violin lullabies, music she compiled for her own baby girl (pictured on the cover):









Strongly recommended. You'll be sleeping like a baby in no time!

PS - The greatest gift anyone can give a new parent is the secret of how to get your baby to stop crying during the first three months. Check out "The Happiest Baby on the Block" - preferably the DVD version. You'll be very glad you did. The advice is simple enough but priceless.

Here's a youtube video which explains a lot of it:


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## SilenceIsGolden (May 5, 2013)

PetrB said:


> For a tot, sometimes really loud music along with really bright lights _puts them directly to sleep_. It is a sort of surround of sensory overload.


Fascinating. Here I was thinking something like...I dunno...the fourth movement of Mahler's 1st would scare the pants off a youngster.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

KenOC said:


> You must be a young feller. When I was that age, I had access to a wind-up suitcase-type Victrola that was totally acoustical (no electrons required). I broke my mother's sewing needles with pliers for styluses and played my father's three or four LPs (all we could afford) while he was at work. It was fun watching the little curly-cues of vinyl spiral up from the records!
> 
> Many years later I told him about this. He just looked at me and said, "I always wondered why those records wore out so fast." Sadly, he didn't survive to see CDs. But he was quite taken with the no-moving-parts music players of the Krell in Forbidden Planet, later to be realized in solid-state MP3 machines.
> 
> There is an elegance there that we should certainly appreciate.


I had one of those too! With little 6" 78 rpm records (and it would take my dad's old collection of 10" 78s -- Benny Goodman, Strauss waltzes . . .). We also had 10 and 12" 768s for our family record player -- with things like Michael Haydn's Toy Symphony and Danny Kaye doing Tubby then Tuba.

Real Answer: Just have music on in the house that you like -- any era. Some of it will stick, and you won't necessarily know ahead of time what, so don't over think it. (And don't try to force issues. If as a teen he gets into heavy metal, there's nothing you can do but encourage him not to blow out his hearing.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

This might seem obvious, but a parent should consider sitting down with a child, Peter and the Wolf, The Nutcracker, or whatever, and actually listening together like they would if reading a book. Point out special passages and paint the scene in vivid terms, if this applies. The interaction and insight can be as important as the exposure. The willingness to spend the time with the child in itself can communicate the significance of the activity and plant the seeds of interest. The child will see the intensity of the parent's attention and focus and in so doing learn how to actively listen.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

PetrB said:


> Whatever you do, just recall this truth: _*The tiny and developing brain is a sponge, taking in any and all sensory information.*_
> Lol. The implications of that could rightfully scare you to death


I'm thinking of Julian Scriabin who was exposed to the music of his father and when he was 10 years old was composing stuff like this


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I suspect the problem is what they child likes at 4 or 5 doesn't determine what he'll like when he hits Junior High and all those concerns about "cool" take over. Maybe that's a personality thing as well: the child has to be strong enough not to care what others think (which I suspect also would mean not caring what you think).

Learning an instrument seems like it would help.



> but my wife assures me that all the studies show that these are wonderful at relaxing a baby and help them sleep


So the kid will get practice falling asleep at concerts. Please do not go in for the cult of relaxation.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Simple. Instead of sitting in the corner, corporal punishment or time outs, simply strap the urchin in a chair and play Beethoven's Pastoral, first movement. Rotate the movement each time.

The naughtier the child, the more likely s/he will grow up to be a Beethoven specialist.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I don't think one needs to make any special effort to introduce one's kids to classical music, any more than you need to make a special effort to introduce them to any other aspect of your household's culture. I do not have kids, but I grew up with classical music, so that is what I ended up mostly listening to. Kids do what their parents do, eat what their parents eat, and listen to whatever their parents are listening to. 

Just for heavens sake do not force any of it on them. If you listen to it with obvious enjoyment, so will they.


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## motoboy (May 19, 2008)

My 1.5 year old has been exposed to tons of different music, including the Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby and Little Einstein videos, but mostly what her mother and I listen to in the car or living room. This ranges from pop garbage to Mahler. She generally responds to anything with a discernable beat. Her favorites are Mambo #5 (to which she dances most heartily), Warren Vache and most dance pop. Although I did catch her dancing in her carseat to Bruckner #4 yesterday. 

I play in a community orchestra and she has been to all but one of our concerts. Her first was Holst's Planets at maybe 4 months old. She slept right through it. 

Our pro orchestra does Lollipops concerts for kids. A small group plays along to a woman who reads a kiddie book. It is lots of fun for her. 

She will get to hear lots of music growing up with us so we are just going to let her pick what she likes. Except saxophone quartets...I draw the line there.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

motoboy said:


> My 1.5 year old has been exposed to tons of different music, including the Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby and Little Einstein videos, but mostly what her mother and I listen to in the car or living room. This ranges from pop garbage to Mahler. She generally responds to anything with a discernable beat. Her favorites are Mambo #5 (to which she dances most heartily), Warren Vache and most dance pop. Although I did catch her dancing in her carseat to Bruckner #4 yesterday.
> 
> I play in a community orchestra and she has been to all but one of our concerts. Her first was Holst's Planets at maybe 4 months old. She slept right through it.
> 
> ...


What? No Baby Ligeti? I am convinced I'd be a better human being had my parents played me something with a little existential angst.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I think some of us are assuming the goal is to manipulate the kid into liking classical music. That'll never work. Just enjoy it yourself, and let the kid enjoy it - or not - too. If you make it like a duty or like work... well, maybe that'll turn out ok, but I'd bet the chances aren't as good. 

On the other hand, music lessons are a must, not so that the kid will like classical music but just for the kid's own personal development. This is IMEHO, of course - I won't have any kids, so I am free to speculate and theorize unencumbered by experience. Just so you understand what kind of a parent I might be, if my wife had twins I think I'd nickname them "Coke" and "Pepsi" and then try to figure out which one I liked better. More brilliant parenting advice is available upon request, and at competitive prices.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Don't air conduct _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ while making maniac faces. They will get scared!


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Your child, when young, will clue in to what YOU love and what YOU think is important -- vs. what you think is important for your child to learn. The best thing you can do is listen to the music you love, and play it too (if you play). Then when the child turns 12 all bets are off!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

SilenceIsGolden said:


> Fascinating. Here I was thinking something like...I dunno...the fourth movement of Mahler's 1st would scare the pants off a youngster.


Just think of how we have been conditioned to what we think is scary. When it comes to music, infants are pretty much a complete blank. It might be the only time for any of us, without thought, that it is 'just music.'

I'm convinced if the parent picks up the child, moves around with them, and hums a bit along with anything, and smiles and has the usual loving fun with baby, then the 'creepy' music -- at least what many associate with 'creepy' -- will be the same as if it were Brahms' lullaby or Mary had a little lamb.

Anyone offering up their infants as guinea pigs for a lab experiment?


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

for what it's worth there were long long nights when my daughter would ONLY stop crying for Holst "Mars" or the 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Well, with everyone's advice here, I'll make sure to make my young children Russian fans like me.  There may be some backlash, but I'll play for them what I love, and hopefully that will rub off on them.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Reward with something sweet (fruit if you are against candy) during the prelude to Tristan und Isolde or Lulu's death scream, I want somebody to destroy the matrix again!!


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

PetrB said:


> Just think of how we have been conditioned to what we think is scary. When it comes to music, infants are pretty much a complete blank. It might be the only time for any of us, without thought, that it is 'just music.'


I don't know. My mother when I was four or five years old used to listen to the classics (four seasons, beethoven's ninth, that kind of stuff) and I rembember perfectly that I thought that Bach's toccata and fugue in D minor was scary, even if I didn't know anything about music and nobody had said to me that it was considered like that by many persons.


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