Kari's Childhood Musical Experiences

In recent days, I have been much reminded of the lovely woman who taught the Children's Church class I attended from age 4 to age 9 or so. Claudia was a wonder! It only recently occurred to me what a feat it was that she and one helper (and sometimes a parent or two) successfully held the attention of *most* of a group of about 50 elementary school children for 30 minutes each Sunday morning while our parents were in "Big Church." I think a lot of Claudia's success can be attributed to the dynamic music-making we enjoyed. We sang a lot! Each week, we used 6 or 7 songs from a "collection" of about 20 or 25 total songs in Claudia's repertoire. I still remember many of them. Nearly every song had some kind of physical movement to accompany it, and the multi-age dynamic was certainly there, as we ranged in age from 4 to 10 years old. In fact, some of us enjoyed Claudia's "church" so much that we hung around after we "aged out" to continue to enjoy the music and stories under the guise of helping with the younger kids. Looking back, I've realized that Claudia's church, particularly the music, had a strong influence on my career trajectory and my whole outlook on life. My mom recalls that my sisters and I used to regale the shopping public at any store we visited with our childish voices piping out "Jesus Loves Me," "Deep and Wide," "B-I-B-L-E." From a more music-teacher-y perspective, I know that the basic music competence that I attained through the weekly ritual of singing the same songs made learning to read notated music and play the piano at age 7 seem natural and easy for me. The songs we learned still have spiritual significance for me and give me emotional support, even as an adult.

Regarding that comment about music competence...
The Music Together research folks in N.J. define basic music competence in two parts, 1. being able to sing a whole song in key, 2. being able to keep an accurate steady beat with the body (by clapping, tapping, stomping, etc.) for the duration of a song. Basic Music Competence thusly defined is a requirement to being able to successfully achieve more specialized musical learning, and that's all there is to it. You can't keep a steady beat in your head while accurately playing a piano piece if you can't keep a steady beat just patting your leg. Because a child's work is her play, and most children LOVE to play with music, most children who are exposed to a consistently rich musical environment, will achieve Basic Music Competence on their own by about age 4 or 5.

Though most of my peers in Claudia's class didn't go on to become music teachers, I know that most of them enjoyed singing and clapping and jumping in Children's Church, and I'm sure the music-making experience enriched the lives of all Claudia's students, some of whom are now accountants and doctors and convenience store clerks and teachers. I don't necessarily hope that all my wee students become Music Together teachers someday, but I do hope that making music in Music Together class and at home will result in the same life-enrichment for them, the same ease in later musical learning, and the same wonderful memories!