Cultural Development through Music: Notes from the Field

It was her second full day out of the hospital, and at five days old, my daughter was ready to enter the amazing world of music education. With Solveig Olava asleep in her sling, her father, grandmother, and I carried her gingerly into the classroom and took a seat on the floor. The room filled with other mothers and their children, and soon enough, the space began to swell with music. She slept through most of the class that day, but I was awakened to the possibilities.

According to her teacher, the bulk of a child’s music development takes place before the age of three. As with language development, a child’s sense of tone and rhythm are established early and later aptitude is a reflection, not of innate ability, but of early exposure to and engagement with music. Reassuringly, a child’s musical development does not hinge on having musically gifted parents.

Now at six weeks old, class sessions receive Solveig’s full attention. Even more importantly, music has become something she readily responds to at home by smiling, cooing, and waving her arms and legs around. I’ve taken advantage of this to introduce her to something that she hasn’t been getting in class. We work at it together, you see, because it’s about more than musical development. It’s about cultural development as well. Whether she’s bounced around to a cheerful Prøysen tune or falls asleep to a Norwegian lullaby, every day Solveig is learning a little bit more about her heritage.

One of the guiding principles of Solveig’s class is that music is modeled by the people around her. The more we respond to music by singing, rocking, dancing, tapping, etc., the more she will learn to actively pay attention to the nuances of the tune. As the most important people in her life, her interest will be most piqued by the interests of those who surround her. Accordingly, I make an effort to set aside some time to play Norwegian music every day and actively engage in the process. She watches my face as I sing along, kicking her legs up into the air.

Another part of discovering music together is finding ways to draw Solveig into the fold. At six weeks, she is alert, but still unable to hold her head up for long periods of time or maintain precise control over her own movements. Sometimes I tap the beat out on her back or wiggle her legs with the rhythm, but I often find that she’s also content to just watch and improvise her own movements. She watches everything – my mouth as it shapes sound, my hands as they clap or signal, rattles as they shake to the beat, puppets as they dance around her, and scarves as they wave about. The limitations of her age shouldn’t have to work against her.

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