Best musical instruments for Kids: There are many music teachers who feel that music education is a must for children; they believe music is a human right and quality music education should be a universal entitlement.
Introduction to Kids Musical Instruments
The number of studies that suggest that learning music leads to improved educational performance is impressive. No wonder parents and teachers want children to learn music, and at least pick up the basics, be it singing or learning to play a musical instrument.
Musical instruments for kids are available as acoustic instruments and electronic instruments. Acoustic instruments do no make use of any electronics to produce the sound. Most percussion instruments fall in this category (and even instruments such as ukulele, flute).
These musical toys are great for kids to have fun, and at the same time increase their musical awareness. Kids love lights and music and these toys make full use of those features. Besides developing music sense, these toys will also help your little one build motor skills. Kids can often have short attention spans so any toy that has more than one use (or plenty of features) is going to keep the kids engaged for longer.
Most electronic musical instruments (keyboards, guitars) come with a variety of sounds and some music-making features. These come with several built-in rhythms (known as styles) and various knobs, buttons to add effects. Note that some of these instruments can get loud so you have to remind your little one to turn down the volume.
Some musical instruments also come with the ability to connect a CD or MP3 player (via the audio input) so that you can play along to your favorite song on the musical instrument. Instruments such as keyboards come with a built-in learning system that helps you learn the basics of music.
Some of these are available as complete kits, meaning you will also get a stand, bench, and even headphones (though it’s not recommended for kids).
Best Musical Instruments for Kids (At a Glance)
Here are some excellent musical toys/instruments for toddlers & kids:
- Hape Mini Band Instrument Set (Five Piece Wooden Instrument Music Set for Kids aged 3 years and above)
- HABA Symphony Music Band Set with 4 Instruments (for Ages 2 and Up)
- Melissa & Doug Band-in-a-Box (Ages 3 to 6 years)
- Science Kit Music Maker (for Ages 5-7)
- Baby Einstein Magic Touch Wooden Drum Musical Toy (for Ages 6 months +)
VTech Musical Rhymes Book
The VTech Musical Rhymes Book is a great resource to teach your little one about colors, musical instruments, explore the numerous classic nursery rhymes, and also build some (age-specific) vocabulary,
The VTech Musical Rhymes Book encourages playing, thinking and learning. This sounds book provides visual stimulation with brightly colored pages and a light-up star that flashes along with the music. It’s an inexpensive but useful learning tool for your little one.
- Age Range: 6 months to 3 years
- The book has five colorful keys that play piano sounds and also introduce you to colors.
- The learning mode introduces your little one t age-appropriate vocabulary.
- The music mode plays music and instrument tones.
- Interactive storybook provides visual stimulation with brightly colored pages and a light-up Star that flashes along with the sounds.
Buy VTech Musical Rhymes Book on Amazon
Make your own musical instruments with objects found at home
Kids can easily create musical instruments with objects found at home. Musical instruments can be made at home using items of daily use (mostly percussion); you can make almost anything, from shakers and jingle bracelets to drums and tambourines. It’s easier to make percussion instruments at home.
These work great for kids; they are cheaper and you won’t feel bad if the kids break the toy instrument. Homemade musical instruments help your child to be creative and can keep them busy. Kids will also have a great time, playing in their own band at home.
Here, we have listed several instruments (that are more of craft projects) made using things you commonly found at home.
Homemade Kazoo
Here’s How to Make a Harmonica
Here’s how to make a Harmonica using a popsicle stick and rubber bands.
How to make your own rubber-band guitar (art and craft ideas)
Here’s how to make your own rubber-band guitar as part of your art and craft class:
What you need:
- A cardboard shoe-box top
- Three or four large rubber bands
- A piece of cardboard (5″x 2″)
- A piece of construction paper
- Tape
- Scissors
Ask an older sibling or adult to help you with the following:
- Tape the construction paper to the flat side of the box top to cover it.
- Cut a large hole in the middle of the box top
- Cut out a small piece of the box top rim on one end, the same size of the piece of cardboard.
- Tape the piece of cardboard to the inside of the box top so that it sticks out through the hole in the rim and makes a neck.
- Stretch the rubber bands around the box top. Decorate your guitar and strum away.
It may not produce a sound like a real guitar but its fun.
More DIY Musical Instruments for Kids
Learn to Play a Musical Instrument
Even the ancient Greek philosopher Plato said, “I would teach children music, physics and philosophy; but more importantly music; for in the patterns of music and all the arts, are the keys to learning”.
However, before enrolling your child for some formal music instrument lessons, help your child develop a love for music. Make your child listen to music, take him/her to see live music performances and observe if your child likes any particular instrument in particular.
Once your child is 6-7 years, he/she can start taking formal music lessons.
The style of music has changed dramatically throughout the ages. For instance, there are six main eras in music history – The Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century. The music in these eras reflect the time period.
Learning to play the piano/keyboard or the guitar is a useful skill. You could be the life of a party by playing some catchy tune you hear on the radio. You can also spend your free time playing your favorite music instrument by yourself and rediscover yourself in music.
However, you cannot do any of this if you do not know how to play a musical instrument.
Some would first try borrowing a piano or a guitar from a nearby friend or relative and try to learn using small cheat books that teach chords and not the fundamentals of music. What ends up happening is that you will either hire a music teacher or quit trying to learn in the first place.
If you have the cash to spend you might even be considering buying a piano for yourself but it would not be a wise investment because you do not know if you are going to stick it out in the music industry. For all you know, you may just be an amateur keyboardist that is here to try out playing.
One viable option is to learn to play a music instrument using your computer and other software that makes use of the computer. With the wonders of technology, you can definitely make this happen for you.
Surprisingly, YouTube has been in the forefront with free tutorials teaching how beginners can learn how to play the piano. It also works for other instruments but the most popular videos rounding the internet are videos of popular tutorials.
The computer can also be used to learn through special interactive software that works well with beginners and intermediate players alike. These include lessons and games that make learning fun while reinforcing musical concepts.
Though getting the tutorial software is only the beginning, you also need to learn how to play on the actual thing. In doing so, you need to get a great beginner’s instrument and there is no shortage in the market for this.
When you do decide to learn how to play an instrument, learning through the computer maybe the most cost efficient and time efficient way. There is no need to pay huge gobs of money to an instructor and you can learn it at your own pace.
However, if you really want to learn, you have to be dedicated to the process. Learn to play different styles of music, learn music theory, and more.
Benefits of music for children
Throughout history, in all cultures, music has been an integral part of human life. Archaeological evidence of musical instruments such as bone flutes and drums predates even agricultural tools.
Music researchers have found correlations between music making and some of the deepest workings of the human brain. Research has linked active music making with increased language discrimination and development, math ability, improved school grades, better-adjusted social behaviour, and improvements in spatial-temporal reasoning, a cornerstone for problem solving.
Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner has theorized that humans have several different types of intelligences—logical-mathematical, linguistic, and interpersonal. He believes that music intelligence is equal in importance to all of them.
Music can boost brain development in kids– Study shows that learning music at a young age helps brain development in children. If you started piano lessons in grade one, or played the recorder in kindergarten, thank your parents and teachers, as researchers have claimed that music lessons before age seven has a significant effect on the development of the brain. They said that the younger you started music lessons, the stronger the connections in your brain. A study suggests that those who began early had stronger connections between motor regions – the parts of the brain that help you plan and carry out movements. This research was carried out by students in the laboratory of Concordia University psychology professor Virginia Penhune, and in collaboration with Robert J. Zatorre, a researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University. The study provides strong evidence that the years between ages six and eight are a “sensitive period” when musical training interacts with normal brain development to produce long-lasting changes in motor abilities and brain structure.
With the help of study co-authors, PhD candidates Christopher J. Steele and Jennifer A. Bailey, Penhune and Zatorre tested 36 adult musicians on a movement task, and scanned their brains. Half of these musicians began musical training before age seven, while the other half began at a later age, but the two groups had the same number of years of musical training and experience.
These two groups were also compared with individuals who had received little or no formal musical training. When comparing a motor skill between the two groups, musicians who began before age seven showed more accurate timing, even after two days of practice. When comparing brain structure, musicians who started early showed enhanced white matter in the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerve fibres that connects the left and right motor regions of the brain. Importantly, the researchers found that the younger a musician started, the greater the connectivity.The study is published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Researchers have found the first evidence that young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year compared to children who do not receive musical training. The findings, published today (20 September 2006) in the online edition of the journal Brain, show that not only do the brains of musically-trained children respond to music in a different way to those of the untrained children, but also that the training improves their memory as well. After one year the musically trained children performed better in a memory test that is correlated with general intelligence skills such as literacy, verbal memory, Visio spatial processing, mathematics and IQ.
Prof Trainor said: “That the children studying music for a year improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying music is perhaps not very surprising. On the other hand, it is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with non-musical abilities such as literacy, verbal memory, Visio spatial processing, mathematics and IQ than did the children not taking lessons.
Music develops listening skills.
“It is the doing, in addition to the listening, that offers the greatest positive benefit in all aspects of learning, especially in music” (Wilcox, 1999, p. 31). John Feierabend, nationally recognized early childhood music educator, states: “We see a very large difference in the singing capability and musical awareness between children five years old and younger who have been exposed to music and those who have not” (Feierabend, 1999, p. 19). Listening is necessary to hear same and different letters of our alphabet, words, sounds in our environment, and musical pitches. There will be a lifetime of sounds our children will need to identify. The sooner we encourage listening skills, the more opportunities children will have to develop them.
Music invites intuitive responses: Children’s intuitive response to high-quality musical recordings is universally positive from birth. “Researchers have found that, during the preschool and primary years, children demonstrate very positive attitudes toward many kinds of music” (Wilcox, 1999, p. 31).
Music strengthens aural discrimination: Research shows that infants who are sung to and talked to a lot develop greater phonemic awareness and later develop larger vocabularies. It has been reported that in uterus, the fetus hears all sounds as “musical” through the amniotic fluid. Toddlers often join in singing with others, and create “infant songs” on their own while they play. Young children who miss these all-important interactions are often less expressive and sometimes delayed in their speech, and may be shy in communicating with others. They may not sing naturally on their own or with a group. This is music’s gentle reminder to us that when music tenderly plants the seeds of aural discrimination, it is essential that adult caregivers nurture that seed through daily musical experiences that incorporate listening, singing, and moving to music in our child care centres. Music makes transitions in the classroom go smoothly.
Singing transitions together provides the time needed for children to finish one activity and be ready for the next. Since young children learn and play totally in the present, their sense of time is not the same as ours. Their plan is always the most important plan! Some children need those musical cues and a few extra minutes to finish their project. Musical instruments provide beginning experiences in pitch, timbre, and texture. Exploring the various sounds of instruments fascinates young children and, again, can strengthen aural discrimination. They will discover that most instruments make several sounds; they should be encouraged to talk about what they discover.
Daily music experiences in child care can make many valuable connections to our children’s language capabilities, memory, physical activity, creative thinking, emotional stability, discipline, and emerging academic success.
Buying a Better Music Instrument
A music instrument needs to be affordable so that it can attract more students. Usually, one doesn’t get attracted to a music instrument looking at the price, it is the instrument that chooses you and then you go hunting for the cheapest one.
The good thing is that you can pick up a decent kids musical instrument for under 50 dollars.
Guitar is one of those very few music instruments that is very easy to get started. Just take a few guitar lessons, learn a few basic chords and you can get started strumming to some popular songs. This is a great motivating factor, considering that students of other musical instruments can have a hard time initially. You can pick up from a variety of guitars, such as electric guitars, acoustic guitars, nylon string or steel string, six or 12 string guitars. You can also choose from a huge variety of guitar effects.
Guitars are versatile instruments! It’s a music instrument which is quite popular not only among kids but also grown-ups. It is a stringed instrument and lets you play chords as well as melody. You can play melody or chords, and play in several different styles such as classical, flamenco, rock, metal, folk, country or any ethnic style. Whatever is your preference when it comes to the style of playing, chances are you’ll be able to play it on the guitar.
Funtoyworld is a family-managed website with me (Ben), and my wife doing most of the work. We are proud parents of two wonderful kids and love reviewing toys. We have a firm but friendly “democratic parenting” style and offer several practical suggestions backed by extensive research. Our own experience with raising two children prompted us to share our knowledge. Read more.
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