Student’s question:
I have two children who are learning to play instruments and I would love to introduce them to some creative activities. Do you think Improvise for Real would be appropriate for children?
How we think about this in IFR:
I love that you’re thinking about how to help children discover their own musical creativity! Most of our learning materials aren’t suitable for children directly. Improvise for Real was written for adult musicians, so it’s presented in a way that is totally different from what you would design for a child. Children don’t need a complete method for developing their skills, playing in any key, etc. What they need is a gentle way into the world of music making that gives them the beautiful experience of creating music themselves.
But we can also design these experiences in a way that gradually introduces them to the world of harmony so that they have a great foundation for the future. But in the beginning, the most important thing for children is just to discover that they can create their own music spontaneously, and that this music can sound beautiful!
For this they just need three things:
- (1) the notes of a single major scale
- (2) a nice backing track to solo over, ideally one which alternates between two chords because this is generally the easiest setting for most people to feel melodically inspired
- (3) the loving guidance of an adult to help them get into the activity
Improvise for Real can offer ideas and help about all three of these things. But the winning formula is for the adult to use IFR to gain an understanding of harmony and how music works, and then to use this understanding of harmony to propose little musical games and activities for the child.
Remember also that harmony is only one aspect of music. There are many other ways to experience music together which are also incredibly important formative experiences for children:
- playing little drums, spoons, etc. together in a circle
- singing songs together
- singing while you play an instrument
- listening to an album together and maybe singing along
- sitting together with you at a piano keyboard and making up little compositions or improv games
The list can go on endlessly. The point is that you have a very special opportunity that no other music teacher will ever have. Music teachers can guide our technical practice, but only YOU can create a musical life for your children. You have a very special opportunity to make music a natural part of growing up in a happy home. And even if your children never go on to study music as adults, they will always remember these beautiful moments of connection and play with you. And if something in those experiences makes them want to go deeper into the world of music, they will be going into that world with a sense of confidence and familiarity, because musical creativity has already been presented to them as something that is normal and perfectly accessible to them.
So I would encourage you to not overthink the “right way” to introduce your children to improvising and musical creativity. The important thing is just to create an environment of fun, safety and musical play. You can even invite your children to propose their OWN musical games, and you might be surprised at how great they are!
