Learning music through play

The most important facts about the topic:

• Every child is musical. The joy of playing and curiosity are more important than talent.
• It is best for children to choose their own instrument. They can try out many instruments at a music school's open day.
• It is best topractise as often as possible, but briefly. Ten minutes a day is a good start.
• Diligent music-making trains the brain. People who play an instrument are more attentive, can concentrate better and plan ahead. These children also learn foreign languages more easily.
• Ideally, parents should encourage their children musically as early as possible, but it is never too late to learn an instrument.

When I started school, our neighbour thought I should learn to play an instrument. She gave me a green plastic recorder. When I came back from lessons with this nice neighbour, I had round pressure marks on my fingertips from frantically trying to seal the finger holes. The recorder was not my instrument.

«When choosing an instrument, I recommend starting with the child's needs,» says Thomas Saxer. After twenty years as a flute player and instrumental teacher, he has been running the Worblental/Kiesental music school near Bern since 2004. Around 700 children and young people learn instruments such as electric bass, trumpet, drums or ukulele here, take jazz dance lessons or play in the clarinet ensemble.

Making music will not make your child super-intelligent. But it will develop cognitive skills.

Neuropsychologist Lutz Jäncke (to the complete interview)

Once a year, as at every one of the 400 or so music schools in Switzerland, there is an open day where you can try out all the instruments. The vast majority opt for piano or guitar, «but there are so many wonderful wind instruments that many children and parents don't even know about,» says Saxer. French horn, for example, oboe or cornet. It's all about trying things out, including the tactile experience of holding an instrument in your hands and finding out whether you like it.

«I get the most wonderful surprises,» says Saxer: «That a child wants to learn the harp and no one in the family has ever played the harp.» So harp it is! The second step is taster lessons. Most children stick with their first choice, observes Thomas Saxer.

Practise - daily, but briefly

And then it's time to practise, or as the music school director prefers to say: to play or make music. Especially at the beginning, it is important that the children pick up their instruments again quickly after the lesson: as often as possible, but for a short time. This means daily, but not for hours on end. Otherwise tension can build up - like a jogger who starts his training with ten kilometres. When playing the flute, for example, you can't see your own fingers. Which keys do I have to press to make a C sound? In which order do I move my fingers to play a scale? How do I hold the instrument loosely without tensing my wrists and neck? «Making music is muscle training for the hands and arms, and with wind instruments it also strengthens the lip muscles,» explains Thomas Saxer. The young musicians - and their parents - are rewarded with increasingly beautiful sounds.

The effect on the brain

Diligent music-making has another effect: it trains the brain. "Playing the flute or violin won't make your child super-intelligent, but it will develop cognitive skills that will help them to navigate the world.

exist," says Lutz Jäncke. Using brain scans, the professor of neuropsychology at the University of Zurich is investigating how the brains of musicians change through constant practice and how their brains differ from those of non-musicians. The result: in musicians, the auditory areas of both hemispheres of the brain are more anatomically and functionally connected than in people who do not make music.

For children and young people, this means that those who play an instrument are better able to memorise sequences of notes and melodies. They also have to constantly coordinate their hearing and motor skills when practising, whether plucking a guitar string or hitting a key on the piano. This increases the brain's plasticity, which means that it forms more neuronal connections and thus becomes more efficient. The memory improves. The younger we are, the more the brain can change, which is why making music is particularly effective for children. Scientific studies have shown that two years of music training in primary school children leads to changes in the brain.

The younger we are, the more the brain can change. This is why making music is so effective for children.

«Children who make music are also better at learning foreign languages and pronunciation, and they also process spoken words in their native language more easily because they have a better auditory working memory,» explains Jäncke. Applied to school: children who play an instrument are better able to follow what the teachers are saying. Their attention, concentration and planning skills increase - all abilities that are controlled by the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that is trained when making music (and with everything that is practised intensively).

They don't have to be musical prodigies to do this. What counts is the regularity of practising and not that it sounds like a CD. «It doesn't matter whether my child plays the piano as well as Lang Lang,» says the brain researcher casually. «You get the good effects that way too.» Yes, the brain gets fitter. But what's even better is that the child has learnt to make music! «Maintaining these foundations of our culture is much more important than the additional, sometimes very small positive effects of making music that neuroscience is discovering,» says Jäncke. Why only put together playlists when we can also make music ourselves?

«The marimba was just right»

Student Samira Diem discovered the marimba, a kind of large xylophone, when she was eight years old: «It's not that I was incredibly fascinated by it, like some children might say: «Oh, my God, I absolutely have to play the violin!» I didn't even think about it. I just played the marimba and it worked.» Diem started her career with early musical education with dancing, singing, rhythm exercises and various instruments. This was followed by a move to the percussion class at music school, school concerts, the youth symphony orchestra and finally a bachelor's degree in percussion at the Bern University of the Arts. There, Diem practised on timpani, drums, xylophone, marimba and vibraphone for up to eight hours a day on some days. «We had few theoretical subjects, but instrumental lessons and lots of time to practise.»

One child starts at the age of 8, another at 10, and by 13 they are at the same level. But basically, the earlier the better.

Perhaps it was an overdose, Diem muses aloud and sips from her large teacup. Now she needs a break from the marimba. For the Zoom interview, she wears a green knitted jumper and a purple stole. Potted plants grow between books on the shelf behind her. Samira Diem has switched to musicology and is quite happy with the fact that she can «deal with music, talk about music, write about music, but doesn't have to make any herself». As a member of the student council, she organises a jam session for fellow students. In general: the concerts. «The best thing about making music for me has always been the concerts. The result of what you've practised for. When you stand on stage and realise that this is what I've worked for and people like the music I make.» If Samira Diem is to give other practitioners a tip, she advises: «Give lots of concerts and realise that it doesn't have to be perfect when you perform.»

It's never too late to learn an instrument

Another piece of reassuring news: it's never too late to learn an instrument. Professor Jäncke, for example, started playing the keyboard ten years ago and regularly scanned his own brain - with the result that his brain structures also changed as he practised.

Although there are courses for kindergarten children at music schools, Thomas Saxer says: «It is essential that children receive holistic musical support from an early age. But it's never too late to start playing an instrument.» One child may start at the age of 8 and another at 10, and by 13 they are at the same level. But basically, the earlier the better. Saxer knows that things often get complicated at the start of puberty. «That's when an area of conflict can build up around the instrument.» If parents see that there are difficulties with practising, they can make a contract with their child: How often can you play, how much time are you willing to invest? And you can then demand that. The reward then comes with progress.

The music school director also advises children to organise their free time in a balanced way. An instrument is great, but so is sport: «Sport involves movement and competition, which some children also enjoy. Music involves concentration and also slowness as a high quality, and playing together in an ensemble is also incredibly valuable. These different experiences complement each other.»

In the past, aptitude tests were carried out at music schools. «Today, the prevailing view is that every child is suitable for learning an instrument,» says Saxer. «The learning speed may vary, but talent is not a prerequisite.» All you need to have is a love of playing, the desire to get involved with an instrument.

15 tips to combat frustration when practising

The most important thing parents can do to awaken a child's enthusiasm for music is to integrate it into everyday life right from the start. Hum a melody for the baby. Consciously listen to music. Take the child with you when there is music in the village. Sing Christmas carols together. Recommended reading: 15 tips against frustration when practising

And I can say for myself: I was happy with the piano.