Introduce Kids to Music With Chrome Music Lab
My husband and I played instruments when we were growing up, so we assumed that musical ability and interest were deeply rooted in our genes. The point is not whether our son was playing in a band; The point was what kind of tool – or tools! – he will choose.
Imagine my surprise when, by the age of 2, he shouted: “MAMAAAAA!” to make me stop singing children’s classic songs like Wheels on the Bus. The dude didn’t seem to like music (or my singing).
We were so excited about his first holiday concert for preschoolers, where he and all of his three-year-old buddies sang and danced in unison. Except that all his buddies were singing and dancing and my son stood there looking half bored and half miserable. Once he fidgeted so much during a school concert that he almost fell off the steps.
By first grade, he was happy to go to school four out of five days a week. On the fifth day – a day of music lessons – he walked slowly into school, shoulders down, knowing that “humming music” was looming in his future.
I almost gave up on the idea that he would ever really enjoy making music until I stumbled upon the Chrome Music Lab . Children can experiment with music in many different ways by playing with chords, arpeggios, sound waves, harmonies and melodies. The son immediately got down to the business of “composing” his own song , which looks like this and sounds surprisingly catchy:
He then moved on to the rhythm section , where he spent some time making cute animals beat drums, bongos and cow bells.
And finally, it ended up with a voice spinner , in which you can record your own voice and then speed it up, slow it down, or reverse it, which is infinitely fun for an 8 year old.
My personal favorite – which I’ve been experimenting with for the last half hour – is Kandinsky’s experiment, where you can create original drawings that turn into sound. (I drew a circle and it even gave me an eye!) You press play and the lines turn into notes that sound like a mini-song.
When I finally told my son that this was enough and I needed to return the laptop to do real work, he groaned and said, “But I’m having so much fun!”
Maybe he still likes music.