Joan Koenig - The Musical Child: Using the Power of Music to Raise Children Who Are Happy, Healthy, and Whole

Copyright 2021 by Joan Koenig

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Koenig, Joan, author.

Title: The musical child : using the power of music to raise children who are happy, healthy, and whole / Joan Koenig.

Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020050865 (print) | LCCN 2020050866 (ebook) | ISBN 9781328612960 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780358449874 | ISBN 9780358450269 | ISBN 9781328613035 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Music and children. | Child development.

Classification: LCC ML 83 .K64 2021 (print) | LCC ML 83 (ebook) | DDC 780.71dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050865

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050866

Illustrations by Julie Menuet Le Her

Musical scores by Joan Koenig & Aurlien Parent Koenig

Infographic on is from Communicative Musicality: Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship, edited by Stephen Malloch and Colwyn Trevarthen. Copyright 2009 by Oxford University Press.

Reproduced with permission of OUP through PLSclear.

Cover design by Brian Moore

Cover image Pavel Smolyakov / Shutterstock

Author photograph T.F.

v1.0621

To all the children with whom I have had the joy of sharing music;

to my children, Aurlien and Elsa,

and their partners, Tomas and Sercan;

and to the coming generation.

Oh, the places youll go!

DR. SEUSS

The names of the children, parents, and teachers have been changed, with the exception of those who requested their first names appear in the book.

There are few universals in this world, but among them are our love for our children and our love of music. When we cradle baby in our arms, soothing her with song, we are channelling the emotional power of music. We do so instinctively, just as our ancestors did. Music can be a powerful parental ally during the challenging child-rearing years. All parents and educators can access this natural source of pleasure, comfort, and stimulation, because we are a musical species.

To successfully prepare our children for life in the twenty-first century, we will need to nurture qualities such as curiosity, imagination, intuition, empathy, creative entrepreneurship, and most of all resilience. Musical practice in early childhood develops all of the above and more. Research has shown that musical practice in early childhood is beneficial not only for mental acuity but for social and emotional development as well. Music is not just a hobby, a pleasant pastime; it is an integral part of what makes us happy, healthy, and whole. Indeed, if we want to do one thing to help our children develop into emotionally, socially, intellectually, and creatively competent human beings, we should start the musical conversationthe earlier the better.

Children need music in their lives, but not for putative cognitive gains. Children need to make music together because this is how they learn to become a we, with the challenges and the deep satisfaction this involves. Today, more than ever, children need to experience the exhilaration of a collective effort. Music acts as a magnet for thisit always has.

Humans were making music together long before the first note was written on the first staff, but the practice has largely disappeared from our daily lives. Music has never been so readily available on so many platforms, and yet we are several generations into the false belief that musickingmy preferred term for musical practicerequires arduous training. In highly developed socie-ties where music is instantly available on multiple devices, I see less and less spontaneous musicking in homes. Rather than singing and dancing with them, we send our children to music class. This is as developmentally absurd as not speaking with your child and sending her to weekly language lessons in her native tongue.

There is an easy and natural way to include the wonders of music in childrens lives. I know, because I have spent most of my life doing it.

My own musical journey began in the basement of my family home. My parents were not musical; we did not have season tickets to the Philharmonic, nor did my parents play records on the stereo. Although my mother had no formal musical training, she believed strongly in the virtues of music. One of her certitudes was that every home should have a piano, so when I was four years old, a piano took up residence in our family room. I remember sitting down to play, touching the keys and experimenting with the sounds they made. I found monsters in the bass notes and fairies fluttering in the highest notes. These musical experiments were a continual source of pleasure and learning. My piano was my favorite toyand my creative accomplice.

As with many American homes of that era, the radio was very much a part of our lives. One of my fathers favorite radio hits was Que Sera, Sera, sung by Doris Day. I remember thinking that perhaps my piano could produce this song, though I wasnt sure how. Like most children who have access to a keyboard, I began experimenting. Finding the first notes was easy, but then I got stuck where the notes became nonconsecutive. I spent hours negotiating these jumps until I finally figured it out. There it was, Que Sera, Sera. It felt as though I had broken the code. If I could find the beginning of this song through trial and error, I could find the entire song, and then I could find any song. Finding melodies like this invariably leads to more playing aroundor what I like to call musical scribblingand this leads to improvisation. Today, science confirms the positive impact that creative experimentation has on young minds. It is a door that can easily open in early childhood and remain open for life. Although I am a classical musician, many of my most thrilling performing experiences have involved improvisation. I know that my ability to improvise stems from these first experiments in early childhood.

My childhood and adolescence were filled with music. I began formal piano lessons at the age of five, and when I was nine years old, I asked if I could take up the flute as well, because I wanted to play in a band or an orchestra. Music programs with instrumental training were still part of the public school curriculum in those prehistoric times. A few years and many hours of practicing later, I auditioned for a local youth orchestra made up of young musicians from the greater Seattle area. Members of the orchestra were encouraged to attend a high-level summer camp offering chamber music and orchestral training. It may have been this first musical summer camp that sealed the deal. I loved playing in an orchestra, and I loved living and breathing music. I began seriously practicing the flute after that summer. I subsequently obtained scholarships to the Interlochen Arts Camp and the Aspen Music Festival. I entered competitions and won awards, performance opportunities, and, finally, entrance to the Juilliard School in 1977.

In 1981, upon graduation from Juilliard, I moved to Paris. Just as aspiring chefs come to France for the culinary traditions, flutists come for the incomparable French school of flute playing. I loved Paris, and I loved learning a second language. Little did I know that I would never leave. Instead, I embarked on a performing career, got married, had children, created a music school, and then a musical preschool.