I joined the site recently and I am thoroughly enjoying the passion all the BrillKids parents have for teaching their children. Cheers to you!!
I am the creator of KinderBach, a product partner of BrillKids (you can find us in the Forum Shop). I believe that one of the foundations of music development is composition. Children need to make up songs as part of their musical growth and understanding. Just as we encourage kids to color and draw for artistic expression, they should be encouraged to invent music. The action turns music into a true creative art for them.
I want to invite you to participate in the Spring Composing Draw we are hosting at KinderBach. No purchase is necessary and we give you tools to help the kids record their creations. Entries are divided into 4 age categories (between 2 and 8 years old). We call this a ‘Draw’ because the winners are drawn; there is no adjudication. We just want to inspire kids to make music!
Here is the link to the webpage where the entries will be displayed: http://www.kinderbach.com/info/CharacterPages/FelicityPage.html
It is empty because we just started the contest this week. You will find a link on that page for details on entering and for downloading the help pages.
Once again, no purchase is necessary and your child does not have to be using KinderBach to enter. Simply have fun!
Hi Karri, and welcome to the Forum, it’s great to have you here.
I must say, as professional musos, my husband and I find your competition and the ideas behind it fantastic!!!
People are often surprised that we have taught our son to read etc but have not given him formal music lessons (despite this he can count in time to 5/8 music without being told what signature it is!).
Our reason is that we believe too much emphasis in music education is placed on learning the notes and playing pieces and nowhere near enough time is spent helping children to be creatively expressive through their music. Many musos I know personally are a product of this kind of education and will tell you they struggle with composition and improvisation and often also with “feel”.
Best of luck - we’ll certainly be putting our boy’s composition into the draw.
I think I ran into you on another thread! Thanks for the comments here.
I am dismayed at the way traditional music is taught so it robs children of their creativity. We teach children to read language and expect them to make up sentences. We teach children how to mix colors and expect them to make a picture. Somehow traditional lessons teach children to read music and then only expect them to play what someone else has composed. Silly, isn’t it?
KinderBach has a different approach. Composition is foundational and woven throughout the program. It is just as important as ear training and sight reading.
I hope many BrillKids enter the draw. We will be looking for your boy’s creation .
Yes Kudos! I hope you get some fabulous submissions. We have been scouting for a pre-loved piano for a month or two, if we get a hold of one soon I will definitely submit one of my kids making music.
This is great! I have actually spent a lot of time on your website and I have been very impressed. My son will be joining this competition, and maybe my two siblings that are still young enough. http://musescore.org/ has a fantastic free music notation program that may be of interest for families with budding composers.
What a wonderful idea! I have video of my 4 year old sitting with a guitar making up her own music just this morning. She sees her older sisters playing and writing music, so she doesn’t want to be left behind. It is great to encourage children to do this.
