63: What to Do When Your Kids Hate Homeschool Music Lessons: 4 Game-Changing Tips

Are your kids turning up their noses at their music lessons? Join Gena Mayo from Music in Our Homeschool as she explores strategies to transform resistance into appreciation! 

In this enlightening episode of the Music in Our Homeschool podcast, homeschooling mom of 8 and experienced music teacher, Gena Mayo, shares her valuable insights into fostering a love for music in children, even when they initially resist.

Discover practical advice on checking your own attitude as a parent or teacher to ensure you're positively influencing your child's musical journey. Learn how to tailor music lessons to be age-appropriate and engaging, avoiding overwhelming your little learners with lengthy classical pieces. 

Gena also discusses the importance of giving children time to grow into appreciating different musical styles, sharing personal anecdotes to illustrate that taste and appreciation often develop over years.

Additionally, find out why it's perfectly fine to play only shorter segments of complicated compositions, gradually building up exposure over time without frustration. Whether you're dealing with a reluctant listener or just looking to enrich your homeschool with a robust music curriculum, this episode offers actionable advice that can be easily implemented.

Subscribe to the podcast to unlock more tips and resources from Gena and discover how her courses at Learn Music in Our Homeschool can enhance your child's educational journey. Tune in and learn how to nurture a love of music, transform music lessons into a delightful experience, and cultivate an enduring appreciation for the arts in your homeschool environment.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/kids-hate-homeschool-music/ 

Please follow/subscribe to the podcast and leave a 5-star review and comment if you liked this episode! Find all courses at https://Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com ,free music lessons here: https://MusicinOurHomeschool.com/FreeMusicLessons , and lots more links here: https://linktr.ee/genamayo !

Transcript

63: Four Tips for What to Do if Your Kids Hate the Music Lessons

[00:00:00] This is Gena Mayo from Music in Our Homeschool , and I am here to talk to you today about what do you do if your kids hate the music lessons.  

I have an online course site at Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com, and I have so many different types of music lessons there. Most of them are music appreciation or music history.

There are some for learning how to sing as well, beginning singing lessons. But let's talk about the music appreciation. Music history ones. So say you are showing your kids, one of the lessons about the music of J.S. Bach. And you're playing the music for them and your kids just hate it. They're covering their ears and they're saying, "I don't like this." And so the first thing I would say for you to do is to check your own attitude. How are you acting as the mom in response to the music? Are you acting like it's important to try to [00:01:00] listen to it and to listen to it with a good attitude or do you hate it yourself?

So that's the first thing I would say. If your goal with a music appreciation course to help your kids learn to appreciate the music, then you also as the homeschool mom or teacher, need to have that attitude of, "Yes, I'm going to try to learn to appreciate this." 

The music today was organ music, and even as a music major, I played piano. I have played some organ. I don't like listening to organ music. It is not my favorite style of music. I remember when I was in music history courses in college. That. That was about one of the worst. I was like, oh, I've gotta listen to 10 minute long organ solo music, and it was just not my favorite, but I've learned to appreciate it.

So the first thing I would say is for the homeschool mom to have a good [00:02:00] attitude about it and to encourage your kids with it and say, "This is good. We're going to learn to appreciate art, a different type of art than we usually listen to." who listens to Bach organ music on the radio? Probably nobody. And so that's your goal. 

Number two would be to see if it's appropriate for your kids' level, like their age level. If you get to a lesson and it tells you to listen to a symphony, and some symphonies are very long, like 30, 45 minutes, would it be appropriate to expect your 6-year-old to sit there for 45 minutes watching and listening to the symphony on video? No, that's not really appropriate. But can you encourage your 6-year-old to sit there and listen to it for two minutes? Yeah, that would be more appropriate. So think about your kids' level. 

Maybe even level of how much they've been been exposed to [00:03:00] classical music. Maybe a 10-year-old who's been working through my courses or some other music appreciation courses would be ready to listen to a 30 minute symphony, but only because they're more advanced. Or maybe they're really, really into it. Like they play the violin and they want to be in an orchestra someday. 

So you just need to look at your child, watch the child, and try to do what's best for them. You want to encourage them, you want to push them a little bit, but you don't want to push 'em to a level that actually makes them hate it even more.

So that's number two. So number one is mom, check your attitude about the music and make sure you're focused on appreciating it. And two, make sure the music is appropriate and the level and the length of the lesson is appropriate for the kids' age and musical level and ability. Number three would be to give them time to grow [00:04:00] to appreciate it.

Here's an example. I really have hated poetry for a long, long time. And when I first became a homeschool mom years ago, and I started learning about Charlotte Mason Method, and that poetry was part of that. I thought, okay, maybe I need to give poetry another try. And I started reading some.

I have this great nature book of poems. And now well, I wouldn't say I love it, but I have learned to appreciate it. I understand it better because I've worked through it and studied it. I've taught it to my kids. I've taught it on the high school level to my high school kids, and so I've learned a lot more about poetry and I've learned to appreciate it, and that's what I would love for these kinds of courses that I provide to do for you all. I want you to learn to appreciate classical music, to learn more about it, and to understand it, and understand the composers and the [00:05:00] styles. 

So that is the goal, but it takes time to get there. It might take years to get there. But, that is the goal, to learn to appreciate it. 

Number four, and this is one that I actually did today with my kids that I do with most days that I teach these music lessons to my own children.

Today I was doing a lesson with my older kids, middle school and high school, and we were learning about, Handel. The Baroque period and we were talking about his Messiah. So I have several videos in the course about Handel. This is my Middle Ages through Classical Era course that I'm talking about, and I know that I can't expect them to listen to the entire piece.

We did listen to the entire Hallelujah chorus. I think that one's only like four minutes long. But the other two pieces that I chose, one was a tenor [00:06:00] solo and one was a soprano solo. I only played for about two minutes each. It's okay to do that. You do not have to play the whole video. I really want you guys to understand this.

If you can tell that your kids are really getting antsy and they're really getting frustrated, just play it for a shorter period of time. They're still hearing some of that music and they're still getting it. And like I said, it will take time to grow to appreciate it. So play it for a shorter time, play it for 30 seconds, play it for only a minute.

And maybe next year when you come about around to that lesson again, if it's one of those holiday lessons, then maybe next year you could play it for a longer period of time. That's okay to do. 

And those are my four tips for helping you, helping your kids not hate the music so much, helping them learn to appreciate it.

Let me just review them really [00:07:00] quickly. Number one is, mom, look at your attitude. How do you feel about the music and encouraging your kids to get excited about it. Number two, make sure it's appropriate for their age level. Number three, give them time to learn to appreciate the music, and it may take years for that to happen.

And number four. It's okay to play shorter sections. You can cut those videos short. All right. I hope that helps you, if you are experiencing this with your kids, hating the music from the music lessons. All right, see you all later. 

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/kids-hate-homeschool-music/