"deja.blues" wrote in message
news:Myjfj.16362$ZI4.671@trnddc08...

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
...
On Jan 2, 4:59 pm, "Stephanie" wrote:
"Beliavsky" wrote in message

Math facts have been set to a rap music beat. "2 times 1 is 2, 2 times
2 is 4" (but it's much more fun to listen to the actual song). My 4yo
son has actually requested that we play such a CD, after he heard it
the first time. You can Google "multiplication table rap music".

Rap is not music and children should not be exposed to it in any capacity.


The formal definition of music that I learned in university classes is "An
organized compression and rarefaction of the liquid medium of the air". An
unpitched composition for percussion, body percussion, or even found
instruments (such as STOMP) is still music. And, by that definition, so is
rap.

Furthermore, the first skill any child develops musically is the development
of beat. Rap, when divorced of the content of the lyrics, does do a
wonderful job of demonstrating beat, rhythm as a subdivision of the beat,
and that words have rhythms.

Out of the children I've taught, some have an easier time picking up on
rhythmic texts and lyrics first, and a harder time with the melodies, others
pick up on the melodies. And you can tell by age 2 or 3-the child who will
babble in the rhythm of a nursery rhyme or say the words correctly, but be
totally off melodically, vs the child who will "sing" the melody with at
least the rises and falls in the right place (although often not all the
intervals), but may not have most of the words initially. This is often, but
not always, gender linked.

Eventually, with repeated exposure, both children will master the song, but
the rhythmic child will learn something more intrinsically rhythmic first,
while the melodic child will learn something more melodic first.

So, if you have a child who is constantly clicking, popping, making body
noises, and is generally a rhythmic/unpitched sounds child, by all means get
the Addition Rap CD. It won't hurt them musically, and is likely to reach
their primary music learning style and therefore to be an easy way to master
the rote facts so long as there's a lot of application as well (learning the
facts in one precise order doesn't necessarily mean that you can easily
apply them and use them).

If you have a more melodic child, one who loves to sing and who loves things
which are more melodic, there are alternatives there as well. There are
quite a few options at any teacher's store. Dr. Jean and HeidiSongs both
tend to use familiar melodies, and can be annoying for parents but are
picked up easily by young children. Twin Sisters tends to use more new
material, but the songs are more complicated to sing, and therefore are more
appropriate for slightly older children.

And there are ones for almost every genre. I believe the same company which
does the Rap ones does Rock and Country as well. So, if you have a child who
just loves one genre, I'd suggest going ahead and looking for that genre for
rote skills practice and trying to expand musical horizons in other ways.
After all, the goal of this, and any rote learning CD isn't to teach music.
It's to expose rote material in a way which the child is likely to want to
repeat-and for that reason, using whatever form the child likes best is
likely to have the most positive effects.