Pre-school education/Music

Years before a child is assumed to be old enough to learn to read letters laboriously laid across a page, they can probably conceptually grasp the synchronic identity of heard music and seen notes on a score page. This is surely an overlooked early preparation for learning to read in the usual sense (watch out, children may learn to self-educate and there will be fewer teaching jobs available for money-hungry adult college graduates).

Music, audio-visual
You can sit or stand next to the child with a printed score in front and move a finger across the page in synch with where the music "is at". You can group your hand around the child's hand so that a finger of the child's hand does the pointing. At some point the youngster (maybe even infant, under age 1) "gets it" and knows how to keep up with the music independently-- an important moment in the educational career of an individual.

If both recorded sound and video projection are available, consider showing the sheet music on a screen large enough that several children can see it at once, letting each in turn practice holding a long pointer and following the "track(s)" right across the page while everyone sings or listens.

Score reading
At first, one or two staves (like with conventional piano music) or three (such as with a song with piano, or a violin sonata) are easiest to follow. But don't ignore scores of large symphonies with the music moving along across a page in twenty or more staves. There is no age discrimination in music. (In Europe years ago I was at a concert where 80-year-old Dr. Karl Böhm conducted a symphony written by 12-year-old Wolfgang Mozart. No one seemed to think there was anything silly about this. The music itself was expressive organic adult art in its way, worthy of an expert like C. P. E. Bach. And orchestra conductors are also said to be the longest-living occupational group in western civilisation.)

Provocative Prokofiev
One place to begin might be the full orchestral score of Peter and the Wolf. While nominally aimed at children, this remains state-of-the-art modern orchestral technique from an individualistic titan of music. It is also prescient political allegory (for 1936)-- Peter is Russia, forming a victorious confederation; the duck is Czechoslovakia, swallowed alive; the bird is France or England; the well-armed hunters are the USA; and they captured Bad Wolf alias Adolf (in humane versions Peter suggests taking him to the zoo, which ain't what happened).

Interest in the story will draw the children on to study the music calligraphy and also try to read the word text (which should of course be matched, in this case, with the recorded version being heard-- might require some editing work). Also look up some other stuff for children by big name composers, such as Babar the Elephant by Francis Poulenc.

Some Trainscape symphonies
The merit of music is that it can "teach" i.e. illustrates the "theme" of motion and process to toddlers who are learning to walk, run, dance, climb (trees, etc.). Meanwhile, (A) to teach the ABC of "Action Begets Consequence" there is nothing better than a TRAIN showing how one thing moving (the "locomotive" or "engine") can cause and determine the movement of other things tied behind it ("cars", "wagons", "caboose" etc.). (B) Analysts have pointed out how in music each note, phrase, tune, theme, section, movement or opus can pre-influence or determine the nature or behavior of following ones. (Brahms was the master of Prompts-- how each phrase prompts a continuation, example, the two three-note phrases beginning the famous Lullaby summoning forth a seven-note continuation.) There is a website which lists hundreds of music selections which are inspired by or suggest railways, locomotives, etc.

The symphony is the biggest, most complex form of story-telling purely in music. To paraphrase some bard (or Bird?) a symphony is a Tale (tail) told by an orchestra, full of sound and fury, signifying everything. A train is a kind of symphony, a Tail (tale) towed by an engine, comprised of many quasi-Dogs (four-footed animal, now imagine a wagon (wagging's its tail) with four wheels instead of legs (modern ones have two "trucks" of four wheels each, big deal) a symphony is a kind of train, both are relatively modern inventions since about 1750 which co-evolved together over more than two centuries.

Imagine kids reading/listening to a 10-minute piece like Honegger's "Pacific 231" or a 6-minute piece like Villa-Lobos' "Little Train of the Caipiras", learning to keep their attention "on track". I think they can understand and respond to big symphonies too, maybe bit by bit at first. Here are some hints what even toddlers can "look for" in some main works:

Dvořák's No. 9 (formerly "5") op. 95 (1892)

THE great modern railroad symphony (probably named after some long-forgotten locomotive in a Bronx, NYC freightyard that had "New World" graffiti-painted on the side). The main theme of the First Movement is shaped like a 19th century train-- a locomotive (notice up-down shape of the first nine notes, as if you were looking at the front of the locomotive with a smokestack sticking up on top higher than the sides) with about 3-1/2 cars trailing after it. Trying singing "Here's a choo-choo, first comes the engine, and then a car, and then a car, and then a car, toot toot!" This theme reappears late in the Second Movement, first heralded by shrieking birds, then as if seen from the side rushing furiously past, one car per "here's a choo-choo". The Third Movement scherzo offers a thrilling fast train ride with switches and flashbacks, things seen flying past, a conversation between two five-note birds, pauses at a station somewhere to do a dance, etc. The Finale starts with another up-down theme-phrase as if tracing the shape of a locomotive seen from the front. Later the famous Largo theme from the Second Movement reappears as a trainwhistle answered by one of the five-note birds, as the train clatters onward on a rhythmic motiv based on the second theme of the Finale.. Even the final chord of the symphony dies away like a train disappearing in the distance. I think with a few hints kids will figure out such references for themselves. If you are fingerpointing the score for the child you can say some keyword like "bird" or "whistle" where the event actually occurs among the notes on the page.

Carl Nielsen's No. 5 op. 50 (1921-22)

In two Movements-- the Finale is my personal favorite trainmusik.

My interpretation of the First Movement is that it depicts the History of the Universe up to November 11, 1918. A mournful clarinet is heard alone at the end crooning over a pile of Bodies and Rubblepollution.

The Finale rises out of the ashes of the first movement like a train-ride "Forward into the (post-WW1) Future with High Speed Rail". There are evocations of train motion, a mysterious quieting down as if entering a tunnel, a "bat out of hell in the darkness" fugue, a "train stopped for repairs" fugue, and a triumphant recap and close with triumphant Arrival at Station (note last 36 notes).

Also try Saint-Saëns No. 3 op. 78 (1886), main theme entire piece; Tchaikovsky No. 5 op. 64 (final movement) (1888); Sibelius: "En Saga", Sym. 2 (final movement), 3 (final movement) and 5 (first movement); Honegger 2 (final movement with Bach trumpet trainwhistle), 3 (first movement), 5 (final movement).

Classic train prophecies
The first real train music might be in the first movement of Mozart's E-flat Symphony, No. 39 k.543 (1788), a 3/4 allegro moving smoothly forward at first, then some huffing and puffing, with an exquisite second theme arranged in bar-groups of 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 -- can you imagine a locomotive with those numbers? The second movement is a walking andante; the third is a merry-go-round with the newly invented clarinet combining with horns to suggest the calliope; and to reassure everybody with something they're used to, it ends up with one of the riproaringest horse-and-carriage finales of all time. Guess whether the last seven notes are a horse whinny or a portrait of a wheel rushing around, seven spokes' worth. Most symphonies offer a round-up of different motion types, this one even more so. Your children will love this piece.

The last 100 seconds of Beethoven's 7th Symphony op. 92 (1812) are an inspired prediction of the southbound Chicago Red Line El leaving the Grand Street subway station, burrowing down down down UNDER the River and up up up to triumphant arrival in the Lake Street station. Maybe there's a ride sequence somewhere in your town that matches up with a known, repeatedly heard piece this way.

The Schubert Great C Major (#9, 1828) has a thrilling train ride second theme in the finale  which integrates a famous quote from the Beethoven 9th into the train motion format.

$$Tech
With an overhead projector someone must be adept at turning the pages and repositioning the book frequently. Another approach, more expensive, is to make projector slides of each page which are easily changed at the right moment. I know nothing about computer programming in this area as yet, but surely the means to do it are readily available by now. Any piece of music once already recorded on tape or disc etc. can surely now be equipped with a readable (synchro-) "score" or guide-diagram of some kind, which can be projected on a viewing screen while playing the piece it is derived from. This is a form of "reading" training that starts virtually at birth. (If you know someone working on such a project, have them get in touch via this page.)

Grandiose Utopian Idea
Imagine something like the "light shows" of the 60's, a good-sized space with an entire wall, or all the walls, given over to the score (guide, diagram etc.), and a carpeted floor where children (or anybody) can DANCE while they READ. That would be the most complete music education ever, even more talent-enhancing than singing much as teachers love the latter. (Let's give Disney something positive to build for a change.)Treedesigner

Possible carpentry solutions
How about shifting some computer use time from the present-day 99% entrenched sit-up use position to lyin' down? That way toddlers can get the benefits of additional study, reading, adventure on their down-time, so to speak, reserving uptime for running around instead of sitting at a desk (this has implications for the obesity problem).

The simplest way is to have supports on either side at a desired height-- 18-30"?-- above bed (or pillow) level. Two boards stretch across above eye-location, with a plexiglas panel-- could be 12 x 18"-- between them. On this panel can lie a book, a magazine, or a computer monitor looking down at you. The mousepad etc. is on your tummy.

"Slabtop"
Imagine a laptop computer lying flat looking down at you, but the keyboard hangs down toward your belly where your hands get to it easily. Extra boards and/or wiring can be built in to hold the keyboard in place, and the structure made as strong as necessary. For when you are reading books instead of viewing the monitor, there would be two little reflector lamps fastened down on either side of your head, beaming up 45° toward the paper area (none of the light reflects down into your eyes).

Viewing duo with toddler
Now imagine at the start, you are lying face up, your toddler right under your chin lying on top of you, the location of the screen adjusted so both have no trouble seeing it, and your hand is over the toddler's hand on the mouse, teaching the clickfunctions. (Wanna bet how soon, counting days fromn birth, the toddler is on to how to do it alone, clickmouse included, even a few keyboardkey sequences?)

Because no exercise uptime is usurped by non-exercise occupations, I don't see any particular problem with how many hours a day a toddler spends doing this, instead of just lying in the crib counting pretty dots on the ceiling which is what they let me do in the 40's, been there, seen that. (Not to disparage counting-- Sir Simon Rattle said "Bruckner was the man who tried to count every leaf on the tree.")

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Pre-school_education/Essential_toys
As for what toddlers can do on their uptime, please check the above-cited descriptions of music and outdoor action toys made in any neighborhood from trimmed, sanded scrap lumber etc. (and an 8" kickball made out of you don't want to know what). Now imagine a child experienced with action toys lying at the computer viewing diagrams or videos (and descriptions which dadmom can read aloud with a pointfinger moving) of the selfsame action toys and their use (including that awful zooky music).Treedesigner 17:20, 7 March 2008 (UTC)