Why I Love Music

I love music.  I have always loved music, even before I became a mommy and started using it every day in our day-to-day learning.  I’ve used it to make me feel better, to make myself cry when I needed a good one, and to tell someone exactly how I feel.

I’ve dedicated songs to people, written lyrics, made up silly songs, and tried my hand at being Weird Al (you know, changing the lyrics to a song to be something entirely different).  I’ve been in a marching band, 3 jazz bands, a symphonic band, a concert band, and a chorus.  I LOVE MUSIC.

I love country, rap, rock, pop, reggae, classical, folk, alternative, and just about everything in between.  I’ve often said, if it has a beat, I’m loving it. I love to dance to it, sing along with it, hum it at the grocery store and in elevators (Musak rocks!), make love to it, cook with it playing in the background, and worship God with it.  I think music is a personal preference and that every life has a soundtrack.

Now that I’m a Mom, I love it for different reasons.  It’s great to play music in the morning while we’re eating breakfast.  It gets us up and energized for the day.  Something lively and upbeat, especially if it’s raining!  We need that pulsing energy from the music to transfer to our bodies.  It makes for a fun day!  At lunch time, I like to play quieter music to get the kids ready for nap time.  We start calming down a bit around noon to encourage their minds and bodies to rest a bit.  And you guessed it, after nap time, we play that same bass pumping music to get us up and moving again.  The kids love it!  It’s like an internal clock telling them what time of day it is.

The other great thing about music is that you can’t sit still when you hear it.  You have to dance, or sing, tap your toes, clap your hands.  All of these things help my little guy who has cerebral palsy; it is all about motor planning skills for him.  He anticipates the beat and it’s a fun kind of therapy.  We dance, rock our bodies, clap in time, snap our fingers, and sing along.  We count out the beats, listen for different instruments; all of this is a great reminder to him that there is more to therapy than stretching and bending, picking things up, etc.  He gets a little fun, and I get a little exercise.  My daughter loves it, too!  It’s great for kids of all ages.  My 4 year-old daughter is taking piano lessons, learning to read music, and both kids are in a “music therapy” class each week.

Music enhances your life. Studies show that singing to your child develops spatial abilities in the brain.  A study in Canada indicated that dabbling in the arts can increase a student’s math scores.  Rhythm, melody and harmony stimulate several areas of the brain and research shows that music could be used to repair everything from damaged emotions to damaged speech.  I believe music is a personal preference and that every life has a soundtrack. With all the studies out there showing how good music is for our lives, why not get started on your child’s soundtrack today?