Babies and musical education

While I had my dinner the other day I saw on the BBC television channel how a baby was brought close to a cassette recorder as part of musical education or rather a musical experiment. One theory says that the younger a child is exposed to classical music the sooner he will learn to appreciate it and play a musical instrument, such as the piano, violin, guitar or harp.

I think, however, the process is not that simple. I believe that musical education should not be imposed on children. There is no guarantee that when the sound of a piano or a violin is introduced to the ears of a baby of say, one week or one month even one year, he will later like to hear Chopin's Warsaw Concerto or fall in love with one of Beethoven's violin compositions. The theory has not been scientifically established, the television reporter added.

I understand that mothers want their babies to be intelligent and artistic when they grow up. But drilling babies to listen to classical music is not the right method. It may get bored sooner than later of serious music and drift to jazz or rock (not bad in itself, though). In almost all countries formal musical education starts at the age of six when the child starts to learn reading and logic (arithmetics).

I know a lot of children who were drilled by their parents to follow piano lessons, attending courses with reasonable success but they stopped playing the piano at a later age when they became adults. They may still like listening to Fur Elise or To Die Lustige Witwe (the Merry widow by Lehar) but they stop practicing themselves.

Technically a child may play well according to the scores but he or she must learn to develop an artistic inclination, too. Also, musical education should comprise the study of the composer's biography such as in the case of Indonesia's composer of Rayuan Pulau Kelapa (The melody of the coconut trees) by Ismail Marzuki.

Preferably, the child must be taught that music should be seen as a universal expression of the soul through art or sounds in different ways and by different instruments.

That way musical education started early in life will last longer and become more meaningful than just a display of expensive instruments as furniture of the haves.

Of course you may, or I should say, "you must" join the experiment. If a man is sensitive to artistic expression he is likely to be sensitive to other people's suffering and get inspired to do something about it. If the sound does not sooth the ear, try to capture the soul. Good luck!

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta