5 Ways to Encourage your Child to Play an Instrument

Lots of children are naturally interested in playing acould even get some pots and pans out and
musical instrument or singing. They may havecreate your own drum kit. :-)
seen a character in their favorite television2: Play an instrument to your child. It doesn't
program playing an instrument, or perhaps theymatter how badly you play, the fact that you find
saw their school friends or parents playingit interesting will be reflected by your child. If you
instruments. It could just be that they watched asimply strum a guitar, your child will want to "try
movie on YouTube of a guy playing a guitar soloit". You can develop their enthusiasm by giving
at warp-speed and said, "wow, I'd like to try that".them a guitar suitable for a child.
Below you'll find 5 ways to help and encourage3: Explore video-sharing sites and show your child
your child to explore musical instruments.how various instruments make different sounds.
Of course, not all children will be interested inYour child may prefer the sound of a flute to
playing an instrument. It may not be the casethat of an oboe... but just being aware of the
that they don't want to, it may just be that theydifferent instruments and the sounds they make
haven't been exposed to musical instruments andwill be a great learning experience for your child.
don't have a concept of how much fun creating4: See what your school or pre-school has to
music yourself can be. In that situation you canoffer. Your child may be doing musical lessons.
check out the 5 ways to help and encourageFind out from the teacher if your child has any
your kid to play an instrument below anddesire to learn a specific instrument, and if so,
hopefully they'll pick up an instrument and startwhich one.
having fun. :-)5: Employ a little bit of sibling rivalry. If one child
1: Explain to your child how the basic toys theyenjoys playing an instrument, it's very likely the
played with when they were really small areother will want to. All you have to do is start one
different to the musical instruments older childrenchild learning their favorite instrument and the
and adults play. Children will usually start with smallother will naturally want to copy their sibling...
electronic keyboards that play all musical "sounds".perhaps not with the same instrument, but one
You can make the distinction between themore suited to them.
"keyboard drum sound" and a real drum kit. You