[This article was written by Maryann Harman, founder of Music with Mar., Inc.]
In “So you think you can record children’s music?“, I wrote about how just because you are a musician doesn’t mean you can write children’s music. It seemed fitting to have that blog followed by “What Do I Need to Know About Child Development as a Children’s Artist?”
As with anything, you should know who you are working with. In the performance field, this is called knowing your audience. If you were a comedian, you wouldn’t tell male sexist jokes to a predominantly female audience. (Well, you may; it just wouldn’t go over well.) A teacher wouldn’t teach quantum physics to Kindergartners. And you wouldn’t sing a song that lasted more than 2 minutes to a young child. Now, I’m not saying that can’t be done. It would, however, involve a lot of props and movement. When it was over, their attention may have all been spent on that one song.
‘Children’s music’ is not just one big block.
There are many subdivisions of the genre based on various traits. Let’s break it down by age:
Infant — music for newborns
Toddlers — babies ranging in age from 12 months to 3 yrs
Pre-School — 4 and 5 year olds
Kindergarten — 5 and 6 year olds
Young school-agers — First & Second Graders
Older Elementary — Third through Fifth Grade
Here are the basics about how children respond to music:
1. A child’s attention span is equal to about one minute for each year of his life. In other words, a 2 year old can pay attention for 2 minutes, a 3 year old for 3 and so on. It is believed that once you are a concrete thinker (around age 12 or 13), you can focus for 22 minutes …read more
Source: The DIY Musician
