It IS a great idea to have kids learn music as they learn their mother tongue. One of the best things parents can do for their children is to sing to them (doesn’t matter how well you carry a tune!) and put on the radio and let them dance!! Schools should have kids singing – ALL THE TIME :)

Instrumental instruction however, must involve a little ‘this is right, that’s wrong’, or else the student will be saddled with difficulties that are much harder to un-learn than they would be to learn correctly in the first place.

But the ‘right-wrong’ has to do with technique, not actual music making. Once the kid learns how to hold the instrument correctly and get the note out well – if the teacher isn’t letting them explore that note – find another teacher :). I think you’ll find today that there are a lot of music teachers out there who subscribe to this kind of thinking.

How fantastic would it be if all our kids were exposed to great music/music making everyday!!! (I’ve got 4 kids at home, and I’m sure they’ve benefitted from it, even if they don’t go on to become professional musicians themselves). There are loads of studies that show that making music (even singing in a school choir) is one of the BEST things we can do to encourage our children’s learning.