Music and reading?

I saw something last night that inspired me so that I wanted to blog about it, even though it didn't have anything to do with reading. Then as I thought about it, I realized it has everything to do with reading! My son took me to see a young man, Haochen Zhang - age 19, who put on a piano concert. I was completely blown away by what I both saw and heard. He played five numbers, some with three and four movements by Mozart, Brahms, Chopin, Shuman and Stravinsky. Then he played an encore piece. He had it all memorized; nearly two hours worth! The numbers had the right mix of loud and soft, fast and slow. I especially liked the loud, fast parts. When he played fast, his fingers were just a blur! And it sounded so neat. I really could not believe what I was seeing and hearing.

In order to learn all of that, he had to know how to read music. Music is the universal language. It is decoding note symbols into corresponding tones. As a mother of five who all grew up learning how to play the piano, I know some of what it takes. Before I ever had children, I determined that they would all learn how to read books and they would learn how to read music. Reading and playing music greatly helps increase learning in other areas, especially math. The piano and other instruments that require two hands are really good because they use more of both the right and left side of the brain's power.

Haochen began studying at age three. When he was five, he had his first recital at the Shanghai Music Hall. He played 15 Bach 2-part inventions and sonatas by Mozart and Hayden. Wish I could have seen that! At age six, he played with an orchestra.

His experience supports my belief that the best time to start learning is when you are really young. Children are like sponges; soaking up everything. I haven't really pushed reading with two-year olds other than just reading the beginning books to them. But, I am now working with some two-year olds, and I have realized... "Don't under estimate the two-year olds!" They are really capable of learning a lot and they have so much fun doing it.

Experts say that just listening to classical music stimulates learning. So, way before your child can learn a musical instrument, or if playing an instrument isn't going to work out, just let your child listen to the music. If the experts are right, it will make a difference.

Doreese