Your weekly listen for 10/14/15 is adorable 4-month old baby Asha dancing an irish jig in a Jolly Jumper. As you may have guessed, this week’s music theme is … Irish!
Some parents in my music classes might wonder why I think it’s important to expose young children to music from around the world (last week, African, the week before, Romani, before that, Klezmer).
According to a recent article published on PBS.org, “The best musical library for your child includes a wide variety—a mixture of genres.” (Read the whole article here.)
Lily Levinowitz, professor of music education at Rowan University of New Jersey, compares the music you play to the foods you serve. “Create an ear food buffet,” she says. “Your musical menu should consist of songs from your culture and those around the world.”
In my ten plus years teaching guitar to children, I discovered that many of my students didn’t actually listen to music outside of lessons at all! Many students came to me unable to identify a single genre of music they liked, or any musical artists other than Taylor Swift and Jason Mraz. That is not to criticize Taylor Swift or Jason Mraz – they are both very good at what they do – but there is a whole world of music out there besides the Top 40 pop charts.
And as this video clearly shows, it’s never too early to start raising a global musical citizen!
