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Music

For the grown-up beside a child who loves music.

The child's own door is Music on Spark & Anvil.

The sideline card

Three numbers to notice

  1. The beats in each bar, often counted in fours.
  2. Tempo: how many beats in a minute, which is how fast the music feels.
  3. Twelve different notes before the pattern starts again an octave higher.

On the way home, ask: “Could you clap the beat of the song you liked most?”

Ask because you are curious, and let any answer stand. Print this page for a half-page card.

Understand it

A short course for you

Where it came from

A little history, and what nobody knows

Two inventors

Zhu Zaiyu in Ming China published an exact calculation of twelve equal semitones in 1584, and Simon Stevin worked out the same idea in Europe around 1605.

Whether Stevin knew of Zhu’s work is not known.

Source: Equal temperament (Wikipedia)

Your child's ladder · on Spark & Anvil

The same idea at every age

  1. Ages 3–5Echo the Beat
  2. Ages 6–8Fill the Bar and 1 more
  3. Ages 9–14A Scale From Fifths and 4 more
  4. Ages 15–18Loudness Is Logarithmic and 1 more

Your child will meet this idea again at every age. The tools and courses here are the part for you.