When the child was a child, It didn't know it was a child...

This topic has always interested me as I feel it personally relates to me. As someone that did not have any music tuition until the age of 16, I have never agreed with the statement “music has to be learnt as a young child” which I have heard many times from music teachers and also from people with no musical interest. This topic recently arose in a discussion I had with some teachers, that agreed with the statement. I however had a different opinion and have always believed anyone can learn an instrument at any age, although I have also always wondered if studying music earlier would have had an effect on me.

I was made aware of The Tillman/Swanwick spiral whilst doing uni research. From researching I have learnt that this is a Helix development model that describes and measures the musical development. According to the Swanwick/Tillman spiral 0-4 year olds are concerned with materials, 4-9 years olds are concerned with expressions, 10-15s with form and older children with value. I do think the Swanwick/Tillman spiral has a degree of scientific realism and the studies show the helix model is accurate. I also think the spiral is helpful when teaching children as it shows the tasks their brain will be more focused on.

However, I believe that this purely shows the ways in which certain ages may learn best. Therefore I believe this doesn't show that being a certain age holds a person back, but merely means they may need to learn in a different way to a child, in the similar way a 0-4 year old child learns differently to a 10-15 year old child.

            The Psychology of Music; Second Edition states “During their second year, children begin to recognise certain melodies as stable entities in their environment and can identify them even after a considerable delay”  It also states “Children begin to sing spontaneously somewhere around the age of 9 months or a year.”

It seems that children develop musical skills naturally. I couldn’t initially decide whether “spontaneous singing” qualifies as musicality, but I definitely decided it was relevant. However, The Psychology Of Music; Second Edition also says “When a child sings it is readily distinguishable from speech in terms of its patterns of pitch and rhythm.”

Music development during the early years of childhood has been researched since World War II. (Pillsbury studies 1937-1958) It was believed that learning music would enhance a child’s ability to learn and even their ability to speak. For example, musical ability starts off as simple phrases or chords. These then develop into intricate melodies and in song writing simple chords can turn into complicated songs. These methods are similar to language in the fact that simple words are learnt, which turn into sentences, which turn into paragraphs and so on.

            Alvaro Pascual-leane at Harvard says:

“Playing a musical instrument demands extensive procedural and motor learning that results in plastic reorganization of the human brain. These plastic changes seem to include the rapid unmasking of existing connections and the establishment of new ones. Therefore, both functional and structural changes take place in the brain of instrumentalists as they learn to cope with the demands of their activity.”

It’s obvious that learning an instrument takes more than just knowledge of ‘what to do’. Although an obvious statement, practice is essential and I believe ‘willingness’ to practice cannot be taught, but is something that comes from an individual. People such as Alvaro Pascual-leane suggest that when an instrument is practiced, the ‘musical brain’ is developed. Alvaro says “Learning to play the piano changes your brain”.

Alvaro Pascual-Leane’s experiment reveals that use of the motor skills to play the piano correctly is associated with reorganization in the cortical motor outputs to the muscles involved in the task. When learning to play the piano, new connections are made in the brain and previously existing connections are unmasked.

            If the studies are correct and learning music at a young age does develop some kind of ‘musical brain’ would this be an advantage or a hindrance?  Musicophilia, tales of music and the brain’states: “Musicality, like other gifts, can create its own problems”. Musicophilia talks about a young boy who started to play the piano and compose at the age of four and who, by the age of seven, “could reproduce long and elaborate pieces of music”. This little boy was told he was going to be a musician, and this was accepted at a young age. This little boy as an adult said he felt “his musicality controlled him, rather than the other way round”.

            From experience I have had of teaching music to children, I have generally found that unless the child wants to learn, they wont. I believe this is because music is something that can’t necessarily just be learnt, but comes from someone’s willingness to express themselves. So surely you can find a new way to express yourself at any age?

            Although there is a lot of corresponding evidence that shows the relationship between brain development and age, being older could also be an advantage as an adult may have more willingness and a more structured way of practice.

            I do believe learning music at a young age is extremely beneficial. However I do think it is completely possible for an adult to learn an instrument, but it would realistically take longer than it would have if they had learnt whilst their brain was developing. Despite my own personal opinion, I do believe there are solid arguments both for and against the beginning statement.