Your Child's Music Development (Part 1)
- Jenny Lantzer- Goings
- May 31
- 3 min read

Can you tell if your child's music development is progressing? Let's see if you know what to look for and what not to.
First, don't base it on how your child performs on cue, and that includes what they do in class! Many children are too busy taking it all in and they express what they have experienced at home during playtime or while they are supposed to be asleep in their crib!
Music development is... developmental- there are stages that are predictable. Look for these musical behaviors, but don't assume one observation is definitive of their current stage.
Lets talk about Tonal Development now and then Rhythm Development in the next post because they actually progress separately and both would be a lot to cover at once.
Tonal Development:
Babies coo, right? but did you know they have a personal pitch center? It is their favorite pitch to coo on! Did you ever notice they start cooing downward from that personal pitch center, like a singing sigh? That is the beginning of singing!
Singing on the resting tone of the song you just sang or they just heard or one that is currently playing. That means instead of singing their favorite note, they are responding to the tonic or base note of the song! Wow, can you believe they can do that - sometimes at just a 3-4 months old? If you sing to them a lot, and repeat their singing sighs back to them, they will more likely start finding that resting tone. If you hear them do it, sing it back to them!
Have you ever noticed a baby sustaining a pitch? SO cute and exciting. It really sounds like purposeful singing, and they are learning that breath control to keep the pitch going. It always looks like they are enjoying hearing themselves too. Sing a duet with them! When they stop, sing the note back and wait. Have a musical conversation.
When toddlers get familiar with a tune, you might catch them joining in at the end of a phrase, right on pitch! Could that be why we repeat the end of songs sometimes? Try this... sing a familiar song, like the Hello song, and stop short of singing the last note... so glad to see... x ...and see if your toddler fills it in. Try it at different times, not just once. It will come!
Next you might hear your toddler or preschooler singing what sounds like it might be a song from class but it isn't really any or most of the notes. But somehow you know what song they are trying to sing. They are probably getting the contour of the tune; the ups and downs in all the right spots, but just not there yet. Eventually more of the pitches will be accurate, and before you know it, the melody is there! What helps is if you sing it without lyrics, just on doo doos and la la's like we often do in class. It helps them use all those brain cells for pitch and rhythm instead of being side tracked by words.
Although all of this has been a simplification of tonal development, let's go to the next big milestone: singing in tune- and not just that- but being able to sing the same song starting on different pitches, or in other words, modulating to a different key. Now that is a lot of brain development going on! How do we know how to do that??? It is amazing to think about. At this point, we'd call that achieving basic tonal competence. Woo hoo!
So much more to share, but we will do that another day!
Keep singing!
Comments