
Adding Music to Your Playground
Music is everywhere, and it’s more than a calming tool we use to relax and unwind. Music is fun, inspiring, and motivating. On top of helping you focus, giving you a break, and creating a welcoming environment, music also impacts children’s development and growth. Your park can incorporate music to encourage children to explore new concepts, learn new terms, and foster a sense of curiosity in a social and stimulating environment.
How Does Music Affect Child Development?
Music can be a fun pastime or a routine practice that children enjoy. Whether your child is interested in learning to play an instrument, enjoys dancing to the rhythm, or wants to sing their heart out, they can gain essential skills that propel them through life.
Music affects many areas of the brain and can boost multiple functions. Although your child can learn simple skills like coordination and balance, they can also draw valuable connections that further them academically and professionally later in life. Music is a powerful tool that can teach skills and promote healthy brain function, empowering your child to build healthy relationships with themselves, their friends, and the world around them. Here’s how music can affect your child:
- Language processing: Language and music share many common aspects, and listening to music can help your child craft skills like building their vocabulary and processing phonemes. Learning to play an instrument and mastering this skill can improve the way your child processes language and hones their reading skills.
- Coordination: Music affects the cerebellum, the region of the brain responsible for controlling muscle memories and movement. Music, whether through dancing, singing, or making music, can help your child develop balance and coordination between their minds and bodies.
- Memory: Music can challenge young minds, encouraging them to interact and think in new ways. Playing or making music requires children to solve problems. Children often need to allocate attention and memory to music as they navigate new, complex tasks, empowering them to foster these skills. Furthermore, children who continue learning music have improved non-musical memory later in life.
- Self-awareness: In school, many children find motivation through grades and prizes, which can create a sense of extrinsic motivation. Learning music encourages children to self-assess themselves rather than rely on rewards, influencing their ability to experience intrinsic motivation. Playing music empowers children to understand their movements and minds, making them critical and knowledgeable about their mistakes and strengths.
- Academic success: Because music requires children to activate areas of their brains and practice problem-solving, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is a correlation between making music and academic success. Music reinforces ideas and concepts children use in other areas, like reading, English, and math, allowing them to make stronger connections and practice their skills outside the classroom.
- Social skills: Although children can make music independently, many enjoy playing instruments and interacting with others. In a social setting like a playground, children can increase their social skills by teaching others how to make certain sounds and discover new ways to create unique noises together.
The Benefits of a Music Playground
Creating a music park has additional benefits for children, providing a space for unstructured play where each child can investigate whatever interests them most. As they decide what they like and dislike, they can become attuned to the world around them and learn new ways to discover, create, and experience ideas and concepts. For music, this involves learning how to make new sounds, memorizing a tune, fostering new skills, and more.
Anything can be a musical instrument, but creating a musical park can significantly benefit the children in your community. Check out the benefits of a music playground for your community:
- Encourage expression: Unstructured play and musical practice allow children to let their emotions and thoughts run wild. In this setting, there is no wrong or right way to make music and enjoy sounds, empowering children to do what they want and explore their feelings in new ways.
- Promote social gatherings: Having this unique feature at your park is an excellent focal point for community members and visitors. You can help build strong bonds between children of different age groups and encourage people to make new friends, get to know their neighbors, and draw closer to your loving community. Young children, teenagers, and adults can enjoy musical spaces, encouraging family bonding and local interaction.
- Hone young minds: Music can reinforce valuable skills that aid children in math, English, and reading classes. It also helps foster problem-solving abilities and encourages children to ask questions and investigate new concepts. Offering a music park gives you a hand in shaping young minds and helping prepare them for the future.
4 Ways to Add Music to Your Playground
Anything can be a musical instrument. Children can find unique ways to make music, from whacking sticks together to hitting metal tables to creaky swings. However, safely incorporating music equipment and creating an organized playground where children can interact with other people and sounds will benefit your community the most.
1. Offer Instruments
One way to bring music to your park is by adding community instruments. Although some instruments, like flutes and trombones, are best for individual use, others, like pianos and drums, are perfect for public settings. You can incorporate instruments of varying sizes and tunes for children of all ages to explore.
2. Find Space for Unique Sounds
If your playground doesn’t have the space for a complete music park, you can still bring sounds in other ways. You can mount large drums or mirror chimes on walls and structures. These instruments can provide a visual vocal point and brighten your park in sight and sound.
3. Fix the Fencing
Existing structures like fences and play equipment have many possibilities. You can add drum caps on different surfaces to make unique sounds and offer chimes for people to run their hands over. You can also incorporate these elements on walking paths and other natural surfaces so people can enjoy music throughout the park, regardless of their activity.
4. Playground Equipment
One of the best ways to introduce sound is to invest in high-quality musical z equipment. With these pieces, you can build small or large play areas where children can roam freely and explore new concepts. In the next section, we’ll explore some of the best equipment to add to your park.
Musical Playground Equipment
When you have the space to introduce new equipment to your playground, offering musical pieces is an excellent way to draw community members and appeal to children. Here are some of the best pieces you can add to your park from Little Tikes Commercial:
- Chimes: Musical chimes allow children to explore different sounds with the same instrument easily. With one set of chimes, children can create songs and dance to high and low pitches.
- Xylophone: Children and adults can enjoy these structures that elicit different sounds from every key or component. These pieces are similar to pianos and can be a great introduction to learning notes and keys.
- Cabasa: These percussion instruments range in size, giving different tones for each. Children can spin the instrument as slowly or quickly as they want to explore new sounds while expressing their feelings.
- Congas: You can bring drums to your park by adding a conga set. Different sizes elicit different sounds, and your visitors can make a solo band or encourage all their friends to join in on the fun.
Create a Musical Playground With Little Tikes Commercial
Little Tikes Commercial empowers children to flourish by inspiring wonder and providing unique ways to develop skills through imaginative play. We understand the power of music, and we want to help you bring this tool into your playground. Contact us for a quote to discover what we can do for you and your community.