teach a child to read music

I don’t think I can take any credit for this, but there has been major progress. My young nieces are sight-singing simple melodies.

For years, I had been inventing complex music games for them. The kids had fun, and they excelled at rhythm, but they couldn’t remember intervals. My sister suggested (kindly) that I was probably moving too fast.

This year, we just stuck to singing combinations of do-mi-sol for several weeks. Then (at their request!), I wrote down the same combinations on music paper. They were able to read them instantly with almost no effort. How cool!

Children are just miraculous.

My niece is doing so well with her music theory! I can’t believe how much she’s learned about scales, rhythm and notation. She’s just soaking it up. Isn’t it amazing what a child can learn if it’s presented as a fun game? :)

I am teaching my 6-year-old niece to read music. We started with sol-fa syllables and rhythm toys in September. She has already learned to repeat back complex melodic phrases. Now she’s doing some computer games with music theory. When she can sight-sing a whole song, I will be very excited.