I love music. Like, LOVE music.

My mom was in high school band and sang in our church choir. My sister was in band and choir and became an elementary music teacher. My dad’s favorite pastime is driving down the road, his outstretched arm cutting through the warm summer air, belting out the classics and drumming on the steering wheel. Most family gatherings with my aunts, uncles, and cousins involve hymn singing in perfect four part harmony. I was in marching and concert band, sang in my church choir, play guitar, played bass and sang backup vocals in an early 2000s punk cover band with my best friends. Some of my most vivid memories have something to do with music.

I recently spent two weeks with my 14 month old niece and just like the rest of our family, she is a music fanatic. The second music comes on or someone starts singing, she immediately drops everything she’s doing to dance and clap. She’s a huge fan of funk, 70’s classics, really anything with an exceptionally good groove.

Music has an overwhelming power over the human brain. A moving melody can send a chill down your spine (a phenomenon called frisson — with all my heart, I really really really hope you’ve experienced it). It can trigger memories, soothe infants, get you excited to exercise, make a dinner more romantic, calm you when you’re stressed, and help you focus.

But did you know that our earliest experiences with music help us develop more than just our musical ability? I could write a thousand posts about the benefits of music and still only scratch the surface, but for today, here are just a few ways music molds minds.

Physical Development

The most visible developmental area honed by music experiences is physical development which can be broken down into two categories: gross motor (large, whole body movements) and fine motor (small movements, most often with the hands).

When my niece starts dancing and she’s bouncing up and down like a monkey, she’s strengthening nearly every muscle in her body. She’s learning how to balance while moving; she’s controlling her bounce to match the beat of the music; she’s looking around to ensure she has enough room to shake her groove thang. All of these things work together to improve her gross motor skills. In her case, music and dancing is what motivated her to learn to stand without using her parents, toys, or furniture to pull herself up.

Hand motions to songs like The Itsy Bitsy Spider or Where is Thumbkin? and instruments like maracas, rhythm sticks, and tambourines help strengthen fine motor skills which eventually leads to better control in mark making (early writing and drawing skills) and self help skills like opening bags and fastening shoes. So go ahead; sing that song and do those motions for the thousandth time today.

Literacy and Language Development

In one of my earlier teaching experiences, the class I worked with sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Great Big Spider, and The Teeny Tiny Spider. We adjusted our voices and hand motions to match our adjective of choice, and while the kids rolled on the floor giggling they were also learning new vocabulary. Sometimes, we teachers would purposefully mix up the voices and motions, singing and motioning for The Great Big Spider, but using the lyrics of The Teeny Tiny Spider. “That’s not what the Teeny Tiny Spider sounds like!” they would call out. Feigning ignorance, we asked them how to do the Teeny Tiny Spider voice and they, of course, quickly corrected us. Repetition taught them new concepts and words.

Think about The Wheels on the Bus. That song is nothing but repetition. Wipers, babies, mommies, horns, daddies, wheels, anything you want can be on that bus. What a perfect way to sneak in new words!

Nursery rhymes and songs also lead to recognition of rhyming words. It’s often the first experience children have with rhyming and is often easier to think of a rhyming word to song than just coming up with a word that rhymes with “bat” out of thin air. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly is a perfect song to try this with.

You can often find songs in the form of picture books. Sing them while you read and you have the added bonus of encouraging book handling skills and directionality, all while adding fuel to your child’s mind picture database.

Mathematical Reasoning

It may come as a surprise to you, but music even builds the foundation for strong math skills. There are patterns hidden in every song and whether you consciously notice it or not, it inevitably gets in your brain. It’s why one song might remind you of another; the patterns are similar enough that they sound the same when casually listening. In children’s music, the patterns are often even more simple.

Think of Hickory Dickory Dock. If you were to sing a higher note at the end of a phrase, you would immediately notice a difference. Why? Because the pattern in the song is always a lower note at the end of the phrases. Exposure to patterns in this way will help children recognize some of the simplest patterns in early mathematical learning.

Don’t forget about all those songs that involve counting! Chances are your kiddos will be counting to five before they master one to one correspondence (the ability to match the correct number of objects with the correct numeral). Colors, spatial awareness, and directional vocabulary (up, down, behind, in front, etc) are all math concepts supported by musical experiences.

By now you’re probably thinking “This is great! What can I do to give my kids the best musical experiences I can so they can be little genius kids like me?” Have no fear. You don’t have to do much. Follow your child’s lead and in the meantime, here are some simple and cheap things you can do to encourage your child to explore music:

– Try out free music classes at public library

– Have toys or objects for your child to make music with (even as simple as pots and spoons)

– Sing to your child (even if you think you can’t sing)

– Expose your child to a variety of musical genres (no need to make your ears bleed from too much kid music)

– Use a higher pitched singing voice to make it easier for children to match your pitch and sing along. (Smaller vocal cords = higher singing voice.)

– Have dance parties when your little ones are super energetic and wacko

“But I’m not a musical person! I can’t sing! What do I do?”

Acknowledge that *everyone* can sing. Like any neglected muscle, sometimes our singing voice gets a little rusty and that’s ok! With practice you can improve but stating that you can’t sing or you’re a bad singer sets a precedent for your child to believe they aren’t good singers which could discourage them from trying. Even my dad, who swore to high heaven that he wasn’t a good singer did it anyway. Your kids really truly don’t care how you sound, but they will care that you sang with them.

What are some musical experiences you’ve had with your children or in your classroom?

For an interesting read about the origins of music, check out this article from the BBC:  Did early humans, or even animals, invent music?