How to Set Your Child Up for Success as a Musician
Between the age of four and seven, you might start to notice some musical aspects in your young one. If you catch them humming along to the broken tune of one popular song or showing a knack for turning anything into a drum or musical item, they might have potential musical talent.
Upon realizing this, you might be filled with joy or dread based on your perspectives on the industry. In this instance, it is crucial to play things cool and allow your child to show you how much they know. There is a certain kind of support that children need to discover, nurture and explore their gifts. This is how to set your child up for success as a musician.
Explore With Them
When relaxing at home, beach, park, or in the car, play some popular tunes on the radio and sing along with your child. Please do not limit your child to children’s songs or forbid them from exploring different genres of music. Through exposure, your child can pick up on different rhythms, emotions, tones, and pitch which will enrich his experience and craftsmanship.
If your child is musically gifted, he will have the desire to explore diverse sounds and environmental noises like rain, crickets, or birds. By listening to other genres together, you get time to bond and learn more about your child and their talents and temperaments. Of course, if they want to sing a jingle with you, oblige them and let their excitement rub off on you.
You might have to get your child checked into a clinic to a vision therapist and hearing service check-up to gain an assessment of the health of their eyes and ears.
Get Creative
Without a doubt, children learn by repetition. This is why they do a lot of it in preschool. It helps the child with memory and locks in a message, which is why it’s important to watch out for what your child is listening to. The tip to getting through the hundredth rendition of ‘Twinkle Little Star’ is to hum, clap or interject ever so slightly. Nothing lasts forever, so brave through one song, and soon you’ll have a whole playlist to choose from.
Learn your child’s favorite tune and blast it on speaker during weekends or sing a few lyrics out loud to them. You could turn it into a bedtime ritual where you serenade your child and make them feel special. You could even schedule karaoke on Saturday nights to sign loud to your favorite songs of all time.
Be bold and show them that it’s not about having the best voice but about having a great time. While your child spits out lyrics, catch them on a recording and keep it for the future. They can have something inspirational to look back on years later.
Be Instrumental
If you are a music enthusiast and own a piece of musical equipment, pick it up and play it for your child. This will boost their confidence and give them a sense of belonging, knowing they can practice with you or bounce ideas off you. This could turn into a bonding session for both of you where you come together to share beats and create music.
Find instruments for your child’s age and encourage them to practice as often as possible. Visit toy or music stores together and gather some instruments like triangles, maracas, ukuleles, guitars, and keyboards. You can also shop for second-hand instruments or from local handmade stalls selling internationally.
Alternatively, you can get crafty and make instruments at home. Using water bottles, dried lentils, or rice can create a great shaker. An empty shoe box and rubber bands make a good banjo, and coffee cans with chopsticks are all you need to start a drum set. This expands your child’s mind and helps them get innovative in making music.
Get Involved
A great way to bond with your child and set them up for success as a musician is to sign up for a music class with them. You and your child can both share a class and learn about the basics of music making. With plenty of sing-along time, parent-child interaction, and the use of instruments such as harps or pianos, this activity would boost your child’s morale.
Another great benefit to a shared class with your child is that you get to wind down and get involved in your child’s life without any distractions. This time together would mean a lot to both of you years later. As you practice your musical talents, you should both also attend kid-centric musical events.
Plenty of options are available at libraries, parks, and museums. At some shows, kids get a chance to get up close and personal with the performing artists who can give them a word of advice or create music together.
During preschool enrollment, ensure you ask more about events at school or in the neighborhood to know how and when to engage. Some events open morning rehearsal up to the public, which would be another opportunity for your child to appreciate the practice.
Let Your Child Guide You
Allow your child to explore and express himself the best way he can. Share their excitement and be enthusiastic and quick to listen to their new beats or lyrics. Motivate your child to sign out their favorite lyrics and help them practice their delivery and even their wardrobe for the best presentation.
If you cannot take a class with your child, ensure their instructor is experienced and tactical. Find an expert who recognizes your child’s potential or determination and is willing to make the experience as fun and easygoing as possible.
Experience a Day In the Life of a Musician
To attract success as a musician, there are a few daily practices you need to embody and follow. Success doesn’t happen overnight; you need to help your child prepare for tough times. Help them build their tenacity, patience, receptivity to critique, and learning from failures. These are the five best practices for successful musicians.
Stay on Trend
The music industry is constantly evolving. A great musicians will keep themselves informed and will always want to be on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. If you manage your brand or have a manager for that, be sure that you stay on trend and contribute to the current matters in your community or country.
The use of social media platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and Snapchat should help put your brand on the market. Improve community engagement by promoting your social account and regularly posting interesting content.
Network
As you build your brand and business in the music industry, the relationships you nurture and develop will go a long way. It is important to help your child manage their emotional intelligence to maintain and cultivate mutually beneficial relationships.
Yes, spending hours in the studio, in front of the camera, or with a microphone taped to your recorder is essential to hone your craft and perfect delivery. However, for success as a musician, your child should manage a good balance between production and socialization.
Stepping into a trade school, trade shows, conferences, and festivals will help your child cool their heels, spice up their music and create relations that grow all parties involved. Have them note down beneficial connections and encourage them to keep in touch.
Embrace the Underdog
Knowing that the music business is a lifetime investment, help your child assimilate the idea of working for others who have already done what they aspire to. Let your child know there is no shame in being an underdog and shining behind another’s light. Serving others pays off in the long run because we serve our future selves.
Encourage your child and help them secure opportunities at industries or jobs within the music industry where they get a chance to be on a working scene. From these experiences, they should be able to gather what to do or not to do on their path to success as a musician.
Know Your Power
Develop a sense of healthy confidence in your child from a young age. Help them take stock of their experiences and their strong points. Please shed some light on their skills and delivery and encourage them to build on that.
There are tons of artists in the world today doing their best to be the next best thing. It helps to maintain individuality and authenticity, and that is only possible through the realization and appreciation of our best qualities.
In the beginning, your child may struggle to create the details for an event or plan logistics for project delivery. However, with your help or through financial services, you can afford some training for your child or employ those skilled in the areas your child is lacking.
Support your child by encouraging collaboration with others who can do tasks such as marketing, management, performance, or wardrobe handling to ease their stress and improve their music production and delivery.
Aim for Agility
The music industry, like every other business, is tricky, and even with a roadmap, it is not guaranteed that things will go as planned. To succeed as a musician, you must be agile and adaptable to change your mind and direction when the situation demands it. In music, there are no guarantees of a certain salary or a lineup of gigs waiting for you. Taking out loans to support your child’s dream is not advisable, which is why you should not stretch yourself thin when things don’t go your way.
If you are not concerned about material possessions or have some classic jewelry, you can take it to your local pawn shops to get a few hundred or thousand bucks. Whether to pay for a ticket, studio time, or a new outfit, it is much better to go to local pawn shops instead of getting into credit card debt or taking on a heavy financial obligation.
Some musicians go through hard times when they cannot get any job or money and start laying out a set out at a shopping center. Most artists who currently speak on how to get success as a musician have shared tales of sleeping and living in difficult conditions. Get your child mentally prepared for the possibilities along the musician’s path.
Be Open to Media
While many artists might get into the industry for fame or fortune, they are quickly siphoned out of the talented groups. Music should be purposeful and more of a passionate venture than a profit-driven one. Instead of looking forward to the big breaks from big media houses, young artists should be open to interviews from local channels, blogs, and magazines.
While the big media looks for scandal or a record-breaking hit, local press are proud and happy to be the first to showcase new talent. Years from now, they could use it as street cred for having discovered your child’s talent. Even if they are not beating down your door to do a story on him, you will pay much less than you would for a local magazine story compared to a cover by a mogul entertainment channel.
Be Organic
In today’s era, there is a growing trend to buy fake streams, likes, or followers online. If your child is to gain success as a musician, their growth online should be trackable and believable. There are bots today that can sift out fraudulent accounts that buy engagement, and this will only lead to sanctions or bans. While growth might be slow, it is better to have a few hundred real followers as opposed to having a million fake followers.
The music industry is fast-paced and sometimes ruthless if you want to get success as a musician. However, you can still grow your music without needing to be famous or expecting to make a million dollars within a year.
Overall, keeping track of your child’s journey and regularly assessing strategies, failures, challenges, and expectations is important. Getting better over time is better than aiming for perfection.
