Music is Learned Like a Language

Music is learned like a language.  The best time to start learning a language is birth to age 5.  Babies begin decoding the sounds around them.  The ears of an infant is even tuned to the sound of the mother's voice.  This voice is soothing and comforting as well as a nutrient to the baby providing feeling of joy, love and hope.

A babies ear starts to listen for the sounds around and be able to think them in their brain.  This process is called audiation.  A music rich environment will provide a baby with the developing stimulus to think musically.  When the brain and development of vocals are ready, a baby begins to imitate the sounds she has heard.  In speech, we refer to this as babbling.  In music, we can start to hear the sounds of singing.  These beginning vocalizations develop overtime to sound more like words/songs and the brain begins to associate meaning with the sounds.  Children begin to interact and communicate with these sounds.

This is the beginning of music education.  It starts with providing stimulus for the brain, developing the ear, and vocalizing.

For more details on this process, visit the Gordon Institute of Music Learning.