Shaping Children’s Music Philosophy-part 1

Shaping Children’s Music Philosophy-part 1

            Where should the process of shaping children’s music philosophy begin?  First, start by providing good quality music in your home.  If parents provide many good choices of both secular and sacred music in their home, children will develop enriched musical tastes at an early age.  Second, parents should get involved by taking their children to music concerts and discussing what went on at those concerts including the performers, and the styles of music performed.  Third, parents should get their children involved in music lessons at an early age.  Positive involvement in music making is a very valuable influence in a child’s development of likes and dislikes in music.  The more musical knowledge and music skill a young person acquires, the more equipped he or she will be to make educated, mature decisions about music.

            The nitty-gritty of making musical choices will many times be difficult for teenagers.  They will explore and they push the limits set by the home, church, and the Christian school.  The lines of communication between parents and teenagers must be kept open.  There must be no name-calling, no unwarranted accusations, no anger, and no rancor in parent-teenager musical discussions.  Parents should remember that if a young person’s musical choices do not involve extreme musical styles that are associated with anti-Christ living and if the music is clean morally, teenagers have a right to likes and dislikes in music.  Just because a parent does not like a particular style of music is not sufficient reason to deny a child or teenager access to that music.  I want to make it very clear that I am not referring to rock music or popular music that is of an offensive nature.

Scripture for the Day

Isaiah 28:10, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” It isn’t the great big musical experiences in music that matter most but the continuous consistent every day music training that matters most.