3) The Practical Application: The Notes and Lyrics, and Decision-Making Process

Having this in mind, it can become pretty clear how you can make your decisions, as a parent, what kind of music do you want your child to listen to. Based on what we’ve been looking at above, we can look at two fundamental questions that you can ask of your own dear child:

Looking at musical notes: what state of mind do you want your child to be in? To help you with your answers here are some suggestions: happy, active: fast-paced, cheerful music (e.g. lots of drums, cymbals) calm, focused: slower, more basso-based music (e.g. pianos and cellos) sleepy: very slow, long, lyrical music. (e.g. soft wind instruments such as flutes)

Looking at lyrics: what messages do you want your children to receive? It would do well for you to do a bit of research and find out what is being said by singers or narrators throughout songs you are interested in buying for your children. Here are some questions you can ask yourself: are there any lyrical indications of: aggression or violence? (there are many who say even one moment in an hour-long song is too much) peace, love and sharing? correct level of emotional maturity for child? (e.g. a song about pains of divorce might be too hard and confusing for a child of a happily married couple)

Little 6-year-old Eddy loved that song. Over and over again he listened to that song about Eagles of Red Tree. It was a fascinating song about Good Eagles and Bad Eagles, and how the Good Eagles fought against Bad Eagles and tried to save world. Eddy loved story, songs, and narratives. But part he remembered most is when Dark Eagle came down and swooped and took beautiful Anisella away, and killed her. It troubled him somehow, but there was something mystical and appealing about this. What Dark Eagle did, perhaps it’s just part of life, perhaps not. Little Eddy wanted to be like Dark Eagle, wouldn’t that be so cool...?

And scary thing about little Eddy is that unless he told someone, NO ONE would have any clue as to what was going on in his head.

So you must ask yourself: what kind of role model do you want for your child? Setting up your child with good role models are best investment a parent can make. And on other side, badly made decisions based on short-term impulsive thinking can have disastrous effects on children over long term.

Bear in mind that because of today’s technology, songs can be played over and over again. The effect, naturally, is that anything that enters child’s mind will have a profound effect on his or her thinking and attitudes. In other words, children can easily be “brainwashed” by what they hear over and over again. Parents and educators need to consider profound effects that even one phrase or piece within in a song can have on a child. Even more so entire songs with all their messages need to be taken into consideration.

In making decisions on what kind of music to buy for your child, wouldn’t two elements, notes and lyrics, when properly thought out, help you make right decisions for your child for a very long time?

So as a conclusion, let’s summarize steps needed to help buy right music for your child’s play time:

1) visualize ideal scenario that you want for your child’s play time. Factor in mainly their energy levels and time of day. Some examples are:

a) It’s just before bedtime, and you want your kids to calm down and relax (soft melodious tunes) b) It’s before supper, and your children are tired. You want to give them a bit of an energy booster to last them until later in evening when it is their bedtime. (lively upbeat tunes) c) It’s middle of day, and you want to grab their attention. (snappy fast-paced tunes)

2) What kid of messages do you want to expose to your child? Examples:

a) Interpersonal relationships (e.g. love, sharing, etc.) b) Coping strategies (e.g. how people have suffered, and then come out of their suffering in honorable ways ) c) Religious or belief-in-higher-power themes (e.g. faith and belief in God, New Age)

3) Do you want your children to choose music from a selection that you have preslected for them? (The answer to this is according to degree of independence that parent wants to give to child).

So.....before you buy any music for your child, listen to it. Read lyrics. Don’t be afraid to explore. Go on internet. Often you can download free samples of music, to get an idea. And then buy music, and watch your children turn into angels....

Warmly,

Joseph Browns, President Home Educational Toys

Devoted to Bringing Parents and Children Closer Together...In The Home!

Footnotes: *1) A. P. Merriam, The Anthropology of Music (Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 1964), p. 218.

*2) Koppelman, D., & Imig, S. (1995). The Effect of Music on Children's Writing Content. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 383 002).

*3) Davidson, C.W., & Powell, L.A. (1986). Effects of easy-listening background music on on-task-performance of fifth-grade children. Journal of Educational Research, 80(1), 29-33.