Cheri Fuller - How to Grow a Young Music Lover

Why leave such a powerful and pleasurable legacy as your childs experience of music to whatever happens to be on the radio? Cheri Fuller knows better. She helps you reach for the possibilities of rearing a lifelong music lover.

D AVID K OPP , founding editor of Christian Parenting Today magazine and author of numerous books, including
Praying the Bible for Your Children

In How to Grow a Young Music Lover, Cheri Fuller beautifully communicates that music is a wonderful treasure, a gift from God, and a legacy that must be passed on to future generations.

C HRISTOPHER P ARKENING , classical guitarist and recording artist

How to Grow a Young Music Lover provides encouraging practical suggestions for parents or teachers hoping to see their child succeed in music. Even those families who feel they are nonmusical can benefit from her insights. I highly recommend this book.

M ARY R ICE H OPKINS (www.maryricehopkins.com), recording artist, composer, author, and mother

This book is full of ideas for integrating music into the life of children from infancy through the teen years. The discussion of music-education methods gives parents an overview to use as a guide in making decisions about music experiences for their children.

M ARY H OPPER , professor of choral music, Wheaton Conservatory of Music

Cheri Fullers book is a must-read for all parents who want to make music part of family life. As an educator and parent, I know firsthand the part that music plays in the intellectual development of children. It isnt just an extra. Its a necessity.

E LAINE M C E WAN , author of numerous books, including Attention Deficit Disorder and Ten Traits of Highly Successful Schools

Having nine very musical children of our own, my wife and I have found How to Grow a Young Music Lover to be one of the most valuable resources weve ever come across. If you would like to hear your home filled with music and if you want your child to understand that the greatest purpose of music is to express love for God, this book is for you. An excellent tool for home-schoolers or classroom teachers, this resource is a godsend for anyone who desires to nurture a well-rounded love of music in a child.

D ENNIS J ERNIGAN , worship leader, author, and recording artist with Here to Him Music

How to Grow a Young Music Lover
P UBLISHED BY W ATER B ROOK P RESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, CO 80921

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version.

Copyright 1994, 2002 by Cheri Fuller

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

W ATER B ROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fuller, Cheri.
How to grow a young music lover: helping your child discover and enjoy the world of music / Cheri Fuller.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-76893-3
1. MusicInstruction and studyJuvenile. 2. Music appreciationJuvenile. 3. EducationParent participation.
I. Title.
MT6.F79H7 1994
780dc20

93-10877

v3.1

To my grandchildren

Caitlin Elizabeth Fuller
Caleb Cole Fuller
Noah Christopher Plum
Josephine Bryce Fuller

Part of my work is to dream good dreams for music. As a Christian and a musician, Im one among many appointed to steward the music of the past, present, and futureyes, even music that has yet to be conceptualized or heard. Each day I ask, and hopefully answer, a foundational question: What does it mean to love God, his church, and the watching world through music? Im up early doing this work whether theres a high degree of public interest or not! Its what I do. Oh, but to be able to do this work in a heart, a church, or a culture that is prepared to listen, where music is valued, understood, and even championedthat is the dream, the hope of every musician. Its a worthy one, even godly.

After reading this wonderful book on growing young music lovers, I am certain Cheri Fuller is about the business of making my dream come true! Thank you, Cheri. She wants to help the human family fill the world with people who love music, who know why they love it, and who grow up to replicate this truth and passion in generations to follow. This is a beautiful goal. If her dream comes true, therell be plenty of discerning listeners for those of us who make the music of the past, present, and future. Moreover, some portion of these young music lovers will grow up to become the music makers of the futuremen and women who will steward the ideas of the past, but also dream new dreams for musics future.

No less important will be the presence of people in the church and the world who love music because God loves music. They will be the schoolteachers, lawyers, homemakers, copy editors, and heavy-equipment operators who remember the words of Zephaniah 3:17, The L ORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

Those who follow and serve the God Who Sings take the stewardship of music and young hearts very seriously. Its what the family of God does. But its a calling that plays itself out within the multitude of individual families that make up the huge human family throughout history. Cheri wisely understands this, and so begins her book with the subject of music and the family. The family is where every childs musical journey ought to begin. Parents, thats not your cue to start feeling inadequate to the task. As Cheri makes clear, parental musical expertise is not a necessary ingredient in growing young music lovers. A love of music grows out of the enjoyment and simple use of music in a variety of cultural settings, not in the learning of musical scales or memorizing the birth dates of classical composers. While an in-depth musical education would likely include such things, a true, transforming musical education always begins with the embodiment of good, that is, listening to and enjoying music and making it in the simplest of ways. This is something all parents can give their children.

Need more direction? Start here: Live the life of the new way to be human as modeled by Jesus; enjoy and use music in a diversity of ways; discover and rediscover all kinds of music and share it with your little ones. This is the approach my wife and I took with our own children, now young adults contributing their own musical story to the church and the world.