“If the brain is a muscle, then learning to play an instrument is the ultimate exercise.” Similarly, the use of the body to explore rhythm and melody provides a rich, interactive experience for children that encourages further learning. Musical exploration allows children to experience joy through a form of artistic expression that encourages growth and development. In fact, research reveals that as little as two years of music instruction holds the power to yield social, emotional, and cognitive benefits.

Much like the Montessori curriculum, music education can be introduced to children at a very young age and content can be layered on as students age and develop a greater capacity for understanding. According to Montessori Early Childhood educator, musician, and composer, Frank Leto, the best age for children to be introduced to music is from birth. Exposure to certain types of music can provide comfort and peace for infants and even harnesses the potential for therapeutic benefits. In the classroom, music education should reach a prime during the child’s first plane of development when they are experiencing their sensitive period for language, for, as Leto reminds us, “Music is the universal language.”

Music should appeal to all children, however, despite their age. It is the guide’s role to recognize and address the individual musical needs of each child and to meet those needs by utilizing age appropriate activities that are fun, inviting, and engaging. For Early Childhood students, Leto recommends introducing songs and presentations with echoes or call and response where children repeat short melodies with lyrics, while demonstrating an associated motion or movement to help facilitate student learning through repetition and association. For infants and toddlers, Leto encourages the use of songs that require simple physical response including the identification of features including body parts, facial expressions, and colors as a way to make music education fun and engaging. With young children this age, the guide needs to be the role model, singing clearly and demonstrating responses for students to mimic. Similar techniques can be adapted for Elementary-aged children. The call and response approach popular with younger children can be extended to echo oral instructions, patschen echoes, rhythm bad echoes, and solfeggio. These experiences build a musical foundation that prepares Elementary students for future musical endeavors including ensemble playing.

Childhood musical experiences not only provide a strong foundation that prepares children for future musical endeavors, they are also a “catalyst for learning” (Frank Leto, email message to author, November 3, 2022). Leto emphasizes that it has been scientifically proven that music education promotes brain development and aids in the development of cognitive skills. He further accentuates the profound benefits of music education, revealing the help it provides children in developing self-esteem, body awareness, balance, socialization skills, problem solving, work ethic, and creative thinking.

Leto urges that these vast benefits make it vital to introduce music education to children from a very early age. He remarks, “Passing on the gift of music to young children is something they will carry with them throughout their life.” In this way, music education is not only a catalyst for learning, but a foundation for life. It harnesses such powerful potential, offering a multitude of benefits to children of all ages. Montessori (n.d., 1) reminds us:

We tend to think that the realm of music is the privileged area of some happy few. Experience has taught us, however, that if offered the right kind of education from a very early age onwards, anyone is capable of entering the realm of music. Not everyone has the talent to practice music at an artistic level or create new work, but everyone can reach a stage where they can enjoy it.

Montessori guides should make an effort as the prepared adult to provide their students with an introduction to the realm of music, harnessing its unique potential and allowing children of all ages to experience its benefits and seek joy in its beauty for a lifetime.

If you are interested in learning more about the amazing benefits of music education and to gain ideas for implementing music education in your Montessori classroom, we encourage you to visit Frank Leto’s website and his YouTube Channel to view fun, educational, interactive videos that you can use to begin introducing music to young children.

References

Montessori, Maria. n.d. The Montessori Approach to Music. Netherlands: Montessori-Pierson.

About the Author

Heather White, EdS, is a Montessori coach and consultant, content creator, and educator for adult learners, as well as a moderator and manager for the Montessori at Home (0 – 3 years) Facebook group. Formerly, she was a Montessori teacher, in-home caregiver, Lower Elementary coordinator, and associate head of school. She also has experience as a school psychologist intern. She is AMS-credentialed (Early Childhood, Elementary I) and is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP). Contact her at hpratt@stetson.edu.

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The opinions expressed in Montessori Life are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of AMS.