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Every parent wants to encourage their child to be confident and happy, and learning how to play an instrument can definitely help with this. Music has lots of benefits for children; learning to play an instrument increases brainpower and memory, and it can even make your child smarter! Music can also help to boost creativity and reduce stress, which are both skills that will benefit your child for life.
But how can you encourage a love of music in your child? No-one wants to pressure their child into a new hobby, but thankfully it is fairly easy to nurture any musical interests that your child has. Here are three ways to nurture the mini-musician in your family.
Buy an instrument
Learning to play an instrument is an empowering and inspiring experience for children, but it is important to choose an instrument that your child actually wants to play. The most popular instrument in the US is the guitar, so this could be an option you want to consider. Just make sure to buy an affordable instrument for their first instrument, and then consider investing in more expensive instruments when your child has mastered the basics and is clearly passionate about playing the instrument.
Set up a special music area
It can also be useful to set up a special music room for your child to use. This could be a spare room in the house or their own room, but either way, it means that they can practice whenever they want without bothering the rest of the family. Include musical items such as an instrument stand, a music stand and an audio source (such as a CD player). Another benefit to this is that your child can play without distraction, so they are more likely to enjoy themselves and notice their skills improve.
Take your child to musical events
Live music is a great way to encourage your child to love music. Just make sure to take them to a music event that will appeal to them; a long music event with pauses, long queues and lots of adults may be off-putting to them, and this could actually end up pushing them away from music. So make sure to choose a live music event that they really seem excited about!
Music is very beneficial to children, so if you notice a musical interest it is understandable that you want to encourage it. However, it is important not to be too pushy, as this can actually push your child away from music.