What is a musical routine? Many of you know that a routine is something that you do, practice, or experience in a specific way, and in a specific time frame that you decide, and may or may not alter depending on unlimited variables unique to you. 

When I performed professionally as a singer/actress my musical routines revolved around voice lessons, scales, warming up vocally daily, before auditions, rehearsals, and performances.  Routines involved listening to new music, finding new music, learning new music for auditions and performance.  Always breathing, growing, learning, and singing.

Growing up, there was always music playing, my Dad was always singing, and my sister was a professional singer/actress as well.  Our Mom, loved music and loved to sing.  Mom, had great pitch and rhythm. My favorite early childhood pastime was banging pots and pans. Those were our routines.

The benefit of any routine first depends on keeping it a routine.

We know that babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners through age 5 benefit through Musical routine as the variety of stimuli literally help build their neuropathways and support neuroplasticity. Routine supports musical development and social and emotional learning.  Are you more confident entering a room, (even via zoom for now), when you know who will be there? Do you prefer attending a meeting and getting an aganda? Do you enjoy whatever work you do with a solid understanding of beginning, middle, and end of processees? Guess what, this is exactly how confidence is built in young children.  Being able to understand begining, middle, and end, and to anticipate activity and sound, and have free play exploration. Audiation is the ability to hear music in your head when it isn't here.  When you child sings a resting tone of a song if you stop singing on the note before, they are knowing what is next.  It is extraordinary when you think about it.

So, what are your musical routines? Here are some ideas to try: Lullabye, bath time, free play music, dancing in the kitchen, galloping to the car, music free play of call and response, getting out the kitchen instruments, freeze dance, sound discovery around the house, ie: running water, sound of the wind, make up asong to a story book, sing about counting,  the possibilities are endless. Tell me about yours and enjoy! Thank you. ~Wendy