As a teacher of early childhood music, Music Together classes, of course I sing with children, it’s my job. But I also sing with parents and caregivers, and I want them to know, it’s their job too. Too many children in today’s society only experience music through recordings. They are played Disney film soundtracks over and over again, KidzBop CD arrangements of pop tunes are given out at McDonald’s as toys, and parents entertain children for hours on end with their favorite Muppets videos on YouTube from when they were kids. So, children are getting exposed to lots of music, but they are not becoming music makers.

I also teach group piano to college music majors, and I have done so for over ten years. As a part of that course, students are required to figure out tunes by ear. I often choose very familiar tunes such as “Happy Birthday” for them to plunk out the melody without ever looking at the sheet music. This should not be a difficult task for music majors whose ears have supposedly been trained from an early age, but it has been exceedingly difficult for so many of them. I have had many music majors, who have come into the class completely unfamiliar with how the tunes go. Tunes that we traditionally think of as American canon such as “She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain”, or “This Land is Your Land”, or “Battle Hymn of the Republic” are honestly foreign to them. Students come in to the class claiming that they have never heard these songs and have no idea where to begin. Of course, I sing them and tell them to go listen repeatedly to recordings, but this reveals one important thing to me and that is that their parents never exposed them to this music, or if they did, they did not sing it with them. I have also talked with many piano teachers who have said that recently their beginning students could not pick out simple tunes a note at a time, like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” because they simply do not know them.

My mother sang almost constantly to me and with me when I was a child. I was lucky to grow up in a generation when there were no portable DVD players in the back of the station wagon on long road trips, or even trips to the store, to keep me entertained, that was my parents’ job. When we weren’t singing songs together we were playing the alphabet game or the license plate game, always interacting with each other. She was a wonderful model for me as a young developing musician. She didn’t always get the tune or the notes exactly right (and as I got older, I am sure there was way too much eye-rolling and correcting on my part) she wasn’t a professional musician, but there was always joy when she made the music and shared it with me and my sister. We sang so many songs so often that I have a wide repertoire of children’s songs still at my command, at the forefront of my memory.

Now, after my years of training as a music educator, I realize just how critical that parent model is in the development of a child’s musical abilities. I sing to and with my own children, even when they do roll their eyes. My oldest son sings in a top children’s chorus in the area with a beautiful soprano voice. My youngest child’s favorite song to sing right now is from Frozen, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know all of the Music Together songs we sing all of the time in the car, at home, and any place else. I don’t get to sing with them sometimes on busy days but we always sing prayers at night, even spoken prayers are turned into sung ones using familiar folk tunes like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star replaced with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.

Don’t blame public school or preschool music teachers for not teaching what the parents should be. I’ve been there too. The music teachers in the schools see the children for maybe 30-40 minutes a week and in that time they are expected to teach music for the winter program and the spring musical about D.A.R.E. or character education and the school theme song, plus they are supposed to be teaching them something about reading and writing music at the same time. Many music teachers do try to teach familiar folk songs to students, but because they see them for such a short period of time, the songs barely make an impact on even the most conscientious students. Parents and caregivers are the ones who supposedly spend the most time with their children and so if young children are going to become music makers, they need a parental model of a music maker.

I have a private piano student whose mother took him to Music Together and sang with him when he was younger and he is one of my students with the most developed ear. He can pick up patterns so quickly and learn complicated pieces at a very young age. He had a strong foundation and it has helped him succeed in his next musical steps.

Even if you, as a caregiver, feel insecure with your own vocal abilities, sing for and with your child. Sing along with your favorite mp3’s. Sing a lullaby. Sing off-key. Sing the wrong words or make up your own. They won’t care, as long as you are giving them attention, being silly with them, calming them down. Music is a language, and children learn language from their primary caregivers first. If they don’t see you being active music makers, they in turn will most likely not become active music makers. We as a society need more active music makers, not just passive consumers. Without the music makers, who will write the next Disney film score?

I have heard many universities, even distinguished schools of music, lament over how difficult it is to recruit piano students these days.  In my nine years of teaching at a university, the third-largest in the state, I taught very few music majors whose primary instrument was the piano.  With the "tiger-mom" boom and the "helicopter parents" abounding, why on earth is there a shortage of young pianists who want to pursue a career in performing or teaching piano?

Since I recently moved to a new area and have tried myself to recruit private students, I have discovered the answer to the universities' question.  Parents are not investing in lessons for their children in the numbers they were even a generation ago, and the drop-off is steep. Piano retailers are shutting down in large numbers, many only surviving because they also sell inexpensive digital instruments. There are many nationally certified, highly educated and highly qualified private piano teachers all over the country whose studios are not full and who are also constantly trying all sorts of strategies to recruit students.  Without students coming "through the pipeline", the universities have little hope of recruiting pianists to fill their teaching studios as well.  Many are blaming the economy, but the issue is more complex than that as family life has shifted from the family around the hearth (and the piano) to the family on-the-go and online. 

There are some piano teachers who are well-established in their geographical areas and have great word-of-mouth referrals and always have a waiting list.  Even these teachers may only have a handful of students who are considering music as a career, or even a college major.  Many serious young piano students are planning (as their parents may or may not have prescribed for them) careers in medicine or science and are playing music "on the side" because Mozart makes them smarter or it looks good on a college application to have more accolades from competitions, or maybe, even, because they enjoy it!  

So, how can we, as private piano teachers and music educators, stress the importance of making the investment in piano lessons to parents?  When parents are spending thousands of dollars on sports equipment, sports camp, (in part to counteract the thousands of dollars they spend on fast food), LEGO sets and robotics, iPods, iPads, and countless other gadgets for their children, why not music lessons?  Could it be that the media culture has so saturated and overtaken parents' mindsets that they are feeling forced to make a choice on how they spend their resources for enhancing their children's education? There are many questions still left unanswered, but there are a few strategies that may be successful in helping the paradigm shift.

Private teachers and school music educators should improve their working relationships at the local and national levels.  It is imperative, as always, that those working toward music advocacy stick together.  Private music teachers should be willing to work in cooperation with public school music teachers to provide quality education for the children in their communities.  Also, school music educators should seek out and know the private teachers in their community, and regularly refer their students to private lessons, especially at the elementary level.  Won't the middle and high school (and even elementary) choral and orchestra directors be thrilled when they have students proficient enough in piano to accompany their groups?  School music teachers know well that students in their classes who have had private lessons are more music literate and are usually leaders in their ensembles.  It benefits their programs to have more students in private lessons.  This does not seem to be stressed in music teacher education programs across the country.  School music teachers, although they may have limited contact with parents as opposed to classroom teachers, do have some opportunities to stress to parents the importance of investing in private lessons for their children, not only in winds, strings or voice, but also in piano.  

Private music teachers need to enter the 21st century when it comes to reaching parents, finding them where they are (online) and convincing them that lessons are a good choice to make when investing in their children's education.  This is easier said than done, as many private teachers do not have the financial means to constantly advertise on the Internet on sites that parents would frequent.  Private music teachers need to expand their social and business network beyond musicianship sites and group to PARENTING sites and groups.  I recently saw a classified ad posted by a parent who was looking for a piano teacher for their child on Craigslist.  Hey, if you can buy a piano or find a free one on there, why not a piano teacher as well?  Parents need to be reminded in as many ways as possible that lessons are an option for their child.  Music teachers have long known that parental involvement in their child's music lessons is a key to the child's success, but first the parents have to choose to make the investment in an instrument and in lessons in the first place.   

Private music teachers have also long known that word-of-mouth is the most effective tool for gaining new students.  We also need to use that word-of-mouth power among parents to transform the mindset of the parents in our community that lessons are a must-have commodity for their children.  If you are a parent and a music educator, or a parent who is not a music educator but believes in the power of music education for your children, talk about it with other parents.  Write about it in your blogs.  Brag about it on Facebook just like you would if your kid's team won the little league world series.  Be the voice of music advocacy for other parents.  This generation of parents needs to realize the importance of raising the next generation of new musicians.  We need new performers and composers and music educators. Otherwise, we will all be doomed to hearing the next generation of remixed pop music that becomes the same as it ever was and our grandchildren will make us listen to their watered-down or cut-up versions.  Music permeates our society.  It reflects our culture (sometimes sadly) and moves us all in so many ways.  We need not only to keep it in the forefront, but also to teach our children not only how to listen but to create and perform.