MUSICAL FUNTIME

In utero, hearing is the prime sense and the neural networks that link sounds to your brain, the auditory cortex connection, are fully functional by the third trimester. This is the time babies are ready to become what they hear.

By week 5, two small spots appear on either side of the baby’s head that become the inner ear that eventually form the main organ of hearing – the cochlea.

By week 8, the middle ear begins to process sounds through vibrations.

By week 12, the hair cells, specialized sound transmitters, spring up inside the cochlea and eventually connect to a nerve that sends sound impulses to the brain.

From weeks 16 to 32, the middle ear cavity and the outer ear canal are fully formed. Although sounds from the outside world are muffled, the mother’s voice and any sounds that can reverberate, like the strumming from a ukulele on the baby bump, will be heard by the baby more clearly.

At this stage, the repetition of sounds form neural networks that last a lifetime. The best example of this is your accent. It can be temporarily modified, as in what actors do, but those early neural connections are indelible.

For instance, if you grow-up in Paris, you will speak English with a French accent. If you are born and raised in Beijing, you will no longer have the neural connections available to match a native English speaker’s pronunciation of V’s, R’s, or L’s.

Potential neural networks that are deemed as “not needed” due to lack of consistent early exposure will atrophy and dissipate like an unused muscle. This is true with all languages during the acquisition stage.

Exposing babies before and after birth to daily sounds that emphasize enhanced harmonies such as Mozart’s 12 Variations in 12 Key Signatures will magnify auditory cortex neural networks.

In addition to recorded music, live acoustic sounds are premium. Strum chords from a ukulele before and after birth. There’s a wealth of ukulele YouTube tutorials. Choose songs with lyrics and sing to your child while strumming chords into your baby's beautiful brain.

My goal is to have all OB-GYN offices distribute ukuleles as part of their practice for baby health, and to have all maternity wards give the parents a Casio Key-Lighting Keyboard as a parting gift.

After birth, as soon as you and your newborn are ready to venture out, go to weekly Mommy and Me music and movement group classes, such as Music Together, to vocalize and socialize through musical expression.

I'm famous for saying that every neighborhood grandmother has an upright. Or hire a piano mover to pick up a piano from an OfferUp donation. Sit your baby on your lap, and bang away as often as possible. Every day will be ideal. The brain will link to the piano sounds as another language.

At this stage, the purpose is to enhance the child’s intellectual development. Bigger sounds make bigger brains that impact mental flexibility. The piano is the perfect instrument for this benefit.

By the third trimester, the cerebrum begins to develop grooves and ridges that deepen in tracks that are influenced by the repetition of sound.

There’s a time and place for everything, and the time to introduce auditory complexity is as early as possible.

Every family has their own musical profile. I got lucky with a Mother who listened to classical music. She then inspired me to play the violin, and when I started enjoying popular music, 4-part harmony was all the rage with the Beatles.

Follow these steps, and your Baby will be just as lucky.

As soon as you and your newborn were ready to explore the outside world together, you could have already joined a Mommy and Me music and movement class where children vocalize and socialize through musical expression.

If not, please do so now. It’s never too late, but during years 1, 2, and 3, neural networks are still connecting at light speed and the activities that get ignored will prune like an unused muscle, so your child's advancements are based on timing and frequency. The earlier, the better and the more often, the better.

Also, by now, you should have found a way for your child to bang on a piano keyboard, preferably acoustic, as often as possible. Complex sounds are critical to your child’s auditory cortex development. Imagine how diminished your child’s language skills would be if your child only heard you speak for one hour once a week.

Continue that routine religiously throughout this time sensitive use-it or lose-it period during the toddler and preschool stages.

All preschools should focus on five subjects, Music, Dance, Drama, Art, and Languages.

As far as Mommy and Me music classes, I personally explored all the main companies in this field, and I recommend Music Together from Princeton, New Jersey. They started in 1987 and have over 3,000 neighborhood locations.

All their teachers are company trained and certified. Their music is thoughtfully composed. The classes are fun and effectively interactive.

At this stage in a child's development, it's time to consider private Lessons.

If you started this program from prenatal to now, your child has had daily exposure to quality tones and complex rhythms from listening to Mozart's 12 Variations in 12 Key Signatures, along with Mommy's lovely singing while strumming those beautiful Ukulele chords, as well as from listening to numerous other Classical selections discovered over the years, all the happy singing from the Mommy and Me classes, and all the glorious banging on piano keys.

Now is the time to get initiated to the mysteries of rhythm, pitch, and notation on an instrument.

The choice between piano and violin will be a calculated decision. Though Shinichi Suzuki spent 50 years of his life recalibrating the professional full-size violin to the size of a toddler, I still strongly recommend the piano for these reasons:

The keyboard is linear, easier to navigate than other instrument configurations, and I would hope that by now, your child was able to already have years of frequent access on an acoustic piano, so the formality of an official lesson plan will be an easy transition.

Playing the piano also encourages the player to vocalize. A continuation from all those inspirational Mommy and Me classes.

However, if the parent has a dream of having a concertmaster in the family, as my dear Mother did, then, find a Suzuki violin teacher. With fingering tapes, playing the violin can be a little less confusing.

Remember, it's the harmonies from combined tones that fuel the auditory cortex development and that's the benefit of playing the piano first. The guitar is chordal but can’t be started as early as the piano. The violin is not a chordal instrument, so until the time the child joins an orchestra, continue the piano experience during those early violin lessons, otherwise, they will always have a gap in their musical-brain training.

The Suzuki company happens to have several instrumental programs that include the violin, cello, guitar, and piano. If possible, find a certified Suzuki teacher who teaches multiple instruments, to link the continuity.

The piano captures rhythm, pitch, and notation like no other, and along with vocals, needs to be a staple throughout the process of musicianship.

As mentioned earlier, my goal is to have all OB-GYN offices distribute Ukuleles as part of their practice for baby health, and all maternity wards give the parents of newborns a Casio Key-Lighting Keyboard as a parting gift.

At age 6, if you haven't yet, start piano lessons.

If at 6, you have already started or are interested in the violin or guitar, continue with your ambition, but also start the piano.

Regardless of which future instrument you choose to excel on, the piano will be part of your musical experience for a lifetime. Pianists focus on core musical elements ... rhythm, pitch, and notation ... knowledge required for all instrumentation.

At age 7, continue piano and add a year of drum lessons to focus on the techniques of rhythms. Rhythms are the foundation of all instrumentation, especially keyboards, because the piano is technically in the percussion family of instruments.

At age 8, drop percussion, continue piano, and although you've been singing since the Mommy and Me classes, add official voice lessons to the lineup to fine tune your inner year and begin stretching your vocal cords.

At age 9, continue piano and voice, and add a year of ukulele or guitar to the lineup to advance musical expression through song.

At age 10, continue piano and voice, and consider changing to a year of brass or woodwind to explore your musical horizons.

At age 11, continue piano and voice, and consider alternating to another wind instrument, if interested.

At age 12, continue piano and voice, review your experiences thus far, and decide on which musical family you will commit to: strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, or focus on piano, voice and/or the violin.

During this organized process, if the child displays a propensity towards one instrument, start bi-weekly lessons. If that particular focus changes, return to the lineup. A consistent quality experience is the goal.

Between the ages of 13-18, the physical capability of children matches their drive to test their limitations, and that combination can easily become problematic in every way possible without a goal.

Playing a musical instrument is a way to channel emotions while keeping the brain on track.

Continue with piano and voice lessons, and if one or both of those musical expressions works well, then make that your choice to take to the next level.

Otherwise, select an instrument from the 6-12 experiences and practice every day to achieve a level of excellence whereby you'd qualify for college scholarships.

Practice one hour a day and you will be above average in most endeavors.

Practice two hours a day and you will be reasonably impressive as a possible contender.

But, if you spend three hours a day practicing during the school year, and five hours a day practicing during summer break, instead of playing video games and/or time on social media, you'll be excellent enough to make a difference in your life in serious ways ... socially, professionally, and intellectually ... even if you become a doctor or lawyer or join the military.

In California, there’s a Doctors Symphony Orchestra. When the President needs entertainment for a Diplomat, the Marine Corps musicians are called to duty.

The drive for excellence in learning music will transfer to any career.

Whenever an event occurs that marks a dynamic change in society, it’s that date that gets universally referenced, such as the 1929 stock market crash, or when COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic in March of 2020.

Social scientists will be pinpointing 2007 as the beginning of our children’s intellectual downturn from algorithm addictions. On June 29, 2007, the first smartphone was released by Apple.

(Ironically, Steve Jobs restricted his children from using electronics knowing that screen time would negatively effect creativity, communication, and sleep. He also knew that the childhood addictions from his iPhones and iPads would continue throughout adulthood.)

Ever since then, and increasingly so, our children have become the innocent victims of this insidious technology and we, the adults, all play a critical part in the complicity of their addictions.

You want instant peace when the baby gets cranky at dinner ... give them a phone. Let’s go shopping at the mall ... give them a phone. Although schools are now addressing policies on phone use, for years, teachers would allow students to use their phones in class for “educational” purposes.

Of course, as society progresses so does technology, and as convenient as on demand communication is, when a child with an undeveloped pre-frontal cortex gets introduced to a video game or social media, for instance, the brain’s capacity for intellectual development becomes stunted because comprehension is dampened by electronic stimulation.

When you don’t need to learn vocabulary because spellcheck instantly makes corrections, and when you don't need to research, analyze, and compose a report because artificial intelligence can do it for you, then the brain will deem those potential neural connections required to complete that specific intellectual task as not needed.

The brain may be malleable, but when the lack of intellectual stimulation is a frequent occurrence, there is a negative effect on development. Spending hours every day on a phone, or a computer playing video games or watching cartoons will trigger biology's default mode: use-it or lose-it.

The best activity to mitigate the intellectual void from electronics is talent education.

Here’s an insightful quote from Stephanie Perrin's experience at the famed Walnut Hill School in Natick, MA ... “If you want a motivated, organized, hard-working, flexible, smart, creative worker, able to work well alone or in groups … hire a young violinist.”