How does music play a vital role in the development of early childhood experiences? Before We Teach Music: The Resonant Legacies of Childhood and Children, authored by TC’s Lori A. Custodero, Professor of Music Education, explores how our musical skills, experiences, and love for music itself are shaped during early childhood through interdisciplinary research and autobiographical accounts from music education students and their unique perspectives on how music has shaped their adult lives.
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Lori Custodero, Professor of Music Education. (Photo courtesy of Custodero.)
“Music influences our lives both explicitly and implicitly,” shares Custodero. “It is a communication system in which children engage early in development.”
Custodero’s latest book follows her previous publications on contemporary music education theory and practice. She sees her newest work as critical to helping individuals reach new depths of understanding — for themselves and others. “Parents, teachers, performers, and composers can learn from their musical encounters with children,” Custodero says, “which raises important questions about the nature of musicality and the complexity of human musical trajectories.”
We sat down with Custodero to learn more.
On Self-Expression, Identity and Communication…
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Music largely impacts self-expression and human experience, often beginning at the earliest stages of childhood. Throughout her book, Custodero draws from various disciplines, including psychology, musicology, and anthropology, to examine the impact that music has on childhood and, in turn, as adults, our experiences with children.
“As adults, we often become closed to such direct and embodied self-expression,” she writes. “Music provides a means by which we can express ourselves and communicate with others, and create sonic environments of safety and comfort.”
Research by Custodero found that parents’ choice of songs for their children depended on their musical experience and identity. Choir singers were more likely to sing lullabies to their children, while instrumentalists preferred playing recorded music for their babies.
“Music tells our stories. We are the experts of our own experiences. We are the culture bearers and storytellers,” shares Ruth Aguirre, a student who shares her autobiographical account in Custodero’s book. “We decide what we like, don’t like, what surprises us, what brings us sorrow and joy.”
On Childhood Development and Learning…
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“In my work as a professor, I have adopted the practice of asking music education graduate students to write their own music autobiographies, to tell their stories, as one way to connect their teaching with their own development and learning,” notes Custodero. “Awareness is crucial to our ability to enact a responsive pedagogy. By looking at memories of our musical childhoods, we may be better able to critically examine why we do what we do.”
She adds that understanding our musical selves through childhood experiences can guide educators to create meaningful and authentic musical experiences in the classroom. “We can see classrooms and studios as empathetic contexts, rigged for the construction of meaning through musical experiences that are relevant, authentic, and shared,” she writes.
Several studies demonstrate that infants produce singing-like sounds before speaking, indicating an overlap of neural pathways for music and language. By age one, they can narrow their focus on specific language and sound features through exposure and practice, shaping their skills.
“Exposure to varied forms of music and language is crucial for childhood development,” adds Aguirre. “It [music] also guides children in regulating emotions and fostering empathy. Children benefit when empathy is nurtured from the earliest age, with repeated practice.”
On Connecting with Others and Exploring Heritage…
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“When adults engage musically with their young ones it taps into something that they instinctively know and can respond to—it generates connections,” writes Custodero. She goes on to explain that the social aspect of the musical experience enhances relationships by fostering expressiveness.
Musical experiences also have an impact on how we connect with our heritage and culture. “As we grow into adulthood, we often have a yearning to share a heritage – it is a way to bring our own past to the present and take it into the future through passing it on,” writes Custodero. “Music opens the door to that connection.”
“Cultural music in early childhood includes the participation of the child in a multi-generational setting where familial and community bonds are forged and strengthened, ” adds Aguirre. “The child learns that their voice matters, and that they are supported by people who love them.”
Notes and Reflections…
Professor Custodero’s book invites us to remember our connection to music as children and reconnect with uninhibited expression and creativity. Expression through music and movement in children is natural, it is not yet un-learned. For adults, music promotes self-expression by opening connections to ways of being and creativity that were always innate.
Shane Bordeau
Since sharing my autobiographical account in Professor Custodero’s book, my musical experiences have followed a trajectory to playing more music from Latin American cultures. I founded a music group at TC named Latin American Music Project that performed popular, folk, and classical music of Latin American composers. The core members were from various Latin American countries and our rehearsals were conducted in Spanish. I have also rehearsed and performed with Mariachi Leones de Columbia University.
Ruth Aguirre
Reading this beautifully written and deeply meaningful book, I am reminded once more of the power of the musical experience as rooted in our most early music experiences. Lori Custodero, one of the world’s leading experts on music and early childhood, has authored a magnificent account of the developing musical self and in so doing, has touched on the very essence of musical identity and creativity. Required reading for all seeking to teach music.
Peter Webster – Professor Emeritus, Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University
Scholar in Residence, Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California
This magnificent book draws on rich autobiographical data collected over several years to illustrate how musical experiences in childhood have a profound impact in our lives, including in the shaping of our adult selves. Through poignant narratives of music making—from earliest memories of musicking in families to adult recollections of individual listening and lessons—Lori Custodero invites us to learn from and listen to children and to the “child within” the many students who cross our paths.
Beatriz Ilari – Professor, Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California
In this deep exploration of the presence of music in childhood and its ‘resonant legacies’ across a lifetime, Lori Custodero brings decades of observation and research to illuminate the intimacy and mutuality of musical knowing and becoming. She weaves a rich tapestry of perspectives from multiple disciplines and insights from over 200 vivid and poignant musical autobiographies from across cultures to expand understanding of the embodied nature of music in human memory and identity. An eloquent, compassionate, and inspirational source for music education—an ode to music in childhood.
Marie McCarthy – Professor, University of Michigan
— Jacqueline Teschon
Published Monday, Jul 15, 2024