Musical instruments are very beneficial for children at all ages. In babies up to 18 months, music favors cognitive and social development. They will hardly learn how to play an instrument, but making music can be a very fun game through which they will learn to distinguish the sounds they can produce with different musical objects or instruments for children.

Music can also be a very powerful vehicle when it comes to establishing habits at home. Have you tried to always sing the same song at bedtime? Or when setting the table? Babies up to 18 months are amazing when recognizing patterns, and thanks to music we can create patterns to make some tasks more fun. And easier!

From 18 months, babies begin to develop their ability to express, musical and motor. Between 4 and 5 years old, the child will be able to pay attention long enough to learn to how play an instrument. If music has been part of his environment since he was a baby, at that age he will have learned what sound is. He will have already manipulated and explored enough to be able to start learning musical language and an instrument.

How to choose a suitable instrument?
In babies up to 18 months there is not a big difference between stuffed animals with bells inside, dolls that squeeze and whistle or small instrument replicas.

It is important that they approach music from the environment and that he listens to it together, rather than begin to introduce an instrument that has no cognitive ability to understand or motor to play. But for the baby it has the same value as experience pounding a toy piano than pressing a stuffed animal. It is in an action-reaction phase, so you don't have to worry much about surrounding it with plastic instruments at that age. You will awaken his interest more by singing songs to establish routines or playing music often.

Between two and five years old it makes sense that they approach music through easy-to-play instruments that will be, in general, percussion. There are musical instruments for children of all types, such as percussion instruments for children: children's xylophones, children's bongos, drums or children's piano.

At this age, the child has not yet fully developed his motor ability and his concentration time is still low. Although the drum set is a percussion instrument and there are drum sets for children, it is an instrument that requires more coordination and could be too much for a child under 5 years old.

It is important not to be demanding and let them experiment with the different sounds and rhythms they can produce, without waiting for the result to be consistent. In addition, cheap drum sets for children do not usually offer good sound quality. It is easy to find xylophones or other musical instruments for children of the percussion instrument family without spending much money.

From the age of six we can introduce the musical notation and start testing with the simplest musical instruments of each family such as the children's guitar. Buying a piano, a flute or a percussion instruments can also be very suitable. We can even consider buying a children's, acoustic or toy drums to start in the musical world.

Phases of music initiation

There are two main phases in children's musical learning, known as early musical education or musical initiation, and the phase of contact with the instrument.

Early musical education or musical initiation: This first phase of learning or contact with music begins in children from 2 to 5 years. The objective of this stage is for the child to discover and develop their expression and psychomotor capacity through music. This will allow them to choose a musical instrument later. With musical instruments for children, our kids will learn to make rhythms with the voice or with body parts, the difference between a high or low note.

Recognize musical notes through colors: In some cases they will learn to recognize or write musical notes through games, relating them to colors or positions in the pentagram. Thus, the voice develops, as well as the contact with objects and children's instruments that generate sound, and also the recognition and representation of sound (duration, height, timbre, intensity).

The development of the capacity of auditory perception and movement as a means of expression and visual, auditory and motor sensitization is also gained at this stage. That is why music is beneficial for children: it helps them to know their own body, to develop a sense of rhythm and to foster social relations.

Contact with the instrument
From the age of six, the passage from the initiation to the musical formation is usually made, and where the child makes contact with the musical instrument. This is where you should start thinking about what type of instrument fits most with his personality.

And throughout this process, in addition to looking for information on pages like this, you can also make homemade instruments. It will help you see what the natural tendency of your little one is!

Fore more information click here