GROWING INTO AND UP WITH MUSIC, EFFORTLESSLY

Babies arrive with music in their bodies. Cooing, grunts, wailing. Side to side rocking in a rhythm, clapping hands on the floor, kicking feet before they carry the toddler walking....Don't forget how your children could so EASILY imitate your sounds - and how they never tired of doing so!

Here is the magic: if you love making music with your young child, he or she will want to as well. Merely desiring music in the child's life is not the whole story. You have to think it is natural to do (nearly) all the time! Whenever! It is a circle of pleasurable energy. Play good quality recordings in your household. Pickup your instruments and play them! Sing familiar tunes while you do chores. Make time, just a bit, at the keys all day long.

So, be emotionally prepared to favor musical moments over others. Keep those efforts apart from other negotiations on daily life activities. Always make the time doing music together a positive place of joy in your own heart, then it will feel that way--you've transmitted the value -- to your child.

We have several new siblings in our piano studio this year who are swaying, clapping, humming and rocking to the melodies played by their big brothers. Having heard the songs from Suzuki Book One while inside their mothers, these babies are at ease and even activated to smiles or soothed to sleep with the familiar sounds, rhythms and dynamics.

There it is! The immersive environment where young musicians flourish unconsciously absorbing the music without any 'effort'. Welcome home to music little ones!