Parents' Encouragement Key to Kid Musician
Posted on: Friday, 14 November 2008, 00:00 CST
Many say musicians are born not made but most research shows the opposite -- indicating that parents are key to making a musician -- a U.S. researcher says.
Gary McPherson of the University of Illinois says parents play a key role in determining the outcome of whether their child will become a musician.
"The parents' role is absolutely crucial, and the emotional climate in the home is very important," McPherson said in a statement. "We've found that parents of successful kids tend to provide support and encouragement for them during the early stages of musical learning and that this tapers off as the children become hooked on music and more independent with their music learning."
In contrast, children who give up playing tend to come from homes where there is little parental involvement during the early stages, but greater amounts of parental pressure to practice during the teenage years, when it is obvious that motivation is waning and when the parent tries to make a last pitched effort to keep the child learning, McPherson explained.
The study, published in the journal Psychology of Music, tracked 160 Australian schoolchildren since 1997 and found it is almost impossible to predict which children -- in the first couple of years of learning -- will eventually turn out to be the most successful musicians.
Source: United Press International
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