A father at a play group came to me after a music session and said he had waited for months for his son to show some engagement in something, anything. Without telling me specifics, he explained that the music stirred something in his special son, and although his son was only one of 15 kids singing and dancing with us in the school auditorium, his participation didn’t really stand out to me. But for that young father, it did stand out significantly.
I always marvel at young parents looking at their child in amazement as their baby suddenly begins to sway their bodies to the group music rhythms, or coo loudly at the end of a song (amazingly, infants will emulate the resting note, or last dominant note of a song, in close tonality). Parents are the real music “students” for these sessions. I get a good response when I sternly say ‘there is one rule we have when making music! Then I smile and say ‘there are no rules!’ Learning music is playing and letting go. It happens at every single group music session.
Submitted by Jose Quezada of Music Together