Preschoolers and the Colors of Music!

Parenting Tip:  Play a 'sound identification game,' with your preschooler

 

Why?

Listening to different timbres, while playing various musical instruments, allows children to learn to attend to relevant sounds, and match those sounds to a specific instrument.  Preschoolers can then begin to code, sort, and categorize sounds, according to timbre.  Activities in which children identify, compare, and analyze sound qualities of instruments help children to develop auditory discrimination skills. As your child experiences the variety of sounds he/she can make with musical instruments and everyday objects, he or she is developing the listening vocabulary necessary for sound discrimination preceding language. 

 

How?

Make Barley Bear's Shoofly Pie!  If you tap on the empty pie tin, first, how will your child describe the timbre of that 'non-traditional instrument?'  What other sound-makers can you find at your house? 

Play the Clown Face game!  As your child identifies which part of the clown's face disappears, can they make the sound for that part?  Use the 'Funny Fellow' poem (on the Carnival of Music CD) to help your child remember the sounds we did, together, in class. 

Cue up the Midway at the Carnival track on the Carnival of Music CD.  What words will your child use to describe the multitude of sounds, at the carnival? 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog, read: The Color of Music

 

Kindermusik 7-year Continuum:

In our baby music classes, our focus is on exposing babies to a variety of timbres to build a base for his/her listening vocabulary to develop. In our toddler music classes, children are introduced to a variety of timbres related to animals, transportation, home, and everyday object sounds. In our preschoolers music classes, we explore the timbres of specific rhythm and orchestra instruments (i.e. such as resonator bars, slide whistles, clarinets, and trombones), teaching children to identify these timbres as well as discriminate the timbres of voices (male, female, child, etc). As children progress to our music classes for big kids, we introduce all the families in the orchestra.   Along the way, children will learn the distinctive sound of over twenty orchestra and keyboard instruments.  Plus they'll learn about and listen to instruments from all around the world.