FOL Fridays: Pre-ensemble Development

Kindermusik Class in China

Kindermusik Class in ChinaOne day, your child may want to participate in a team sport or play in a band.  Kindermusik will provide him or her with the unique opportunity to develop and practice the skills that are required to perform in an ensemble, skills like distinguishing between sounds, listening for the appropriate entrance, timing the participation, accomplishing the steady-beat play with an outside source, and playing with others.

Ideas for parents:

Even the youngest children can experience ensemble, whether it’s in Kindermusik Village or it’s just the two of you at home tapping on the pots and pans.  You might even enjoy putting together a Family Jam, a time when the whole family grabs something to tap, shake, or jingle as you all play-along to a recording or a song you’re singing.

– Contributed by Theresa Case, whose Greenville, SC program, Kindermusik at Piano Central Studios, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.

All about the beat

In all Kindermusik classes, there is always emphasis on hearing, feeling, moving, and even “seeing” a steady beat. It may seem very elementary, but it is essentially the cornerstone of music.

More importantly, steady beat plays a huge importance in our speech, movement, thoughts and verbal organisation. From a baby’s first hesitant steps, he slowly finds his pace and soon starts to walk steadily and confidently. Our preschoolers who have a strong sense of beat would be able to use the scissors more skillfully. Ever watch a basketball game? The steady dribble of the ball before it is tossed smack into the basket require an acute sense of beat and timing. A master chef needs to have a command of steady beat in his knife skills. Even writers rely on a sense of steady beat and rhythm in their prose to produce a good read.

Because it is such a fundamental element, parents and teachers often do not give sufficient attention to the development of this very important underlying skill – a strong sense of beat. The consequence of insufficient steady beat experiences in early years can result in poor physical coordination, halting speech (in some cases, stuttering), and even weakness in thought flow. Would you have imagined that something so apparently a strictly musical characteristic can have such bearing on so many areas of our functioning?!

Here are some simple and fun activities that you can do with your child at home to reinforce the concept sense of steady beat:

Movement – Turn on the music and pretend to be a marching band. March, stomp or jump to the music.  For younger babies, put them on your lap and bounce to a steady beat or dance with them around the room to the steady beat of the music.

Instrument play – Use the instruments from your home materials or make your own. An old pot and spoon will make a very fun ( and loud!) drum. Practice keeping a steady beat along with the music.

Reading – Nursery rhymes are a great way to introduce steady beat. Clap or tap along as you recite your child’s favourite rhymes.

Originally written by Chiat Goh. 

Why Steady Beat Matters + How to Assess It

A teacher engages her preschool class in mimicking drum taps to test steady beat competency.

You know that thing that makes you want to rock, sway, clap, or tap to the music? That’s steady beat—the ongoing, repetitive pulse that occurs in songs, chants, and rhymes. 

But it’s more than just an ideal skill for dance or instrument lessons—steady beat is a critical aspect of early childhood development that affects everything from walking, to reading, to dribbling a basketball.

Continue reading “Why Steady Beat Matters + How to Assess It”