Customer Reviews

Raising Musical Kids: A Guide for Parents

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a professional musician I was prepared to totally hate this book. I was pleasantly surprised at the good solid advice this book offers. I am not a fan of the Suzuki method. I've walked out of many children's music programs embarassed at how poor the quality of the performance was. Then I had my own child, and even though I am a professional musician I had no idea how to raise my own musical child. My parents didn't have any answers, they happened to make me a musician all by accident. Whatever your goals and motivations for exposing your child to music this is a good book to get you started in the right direction.

I'm not a parent, but I am a viola and violin teacher. Cutietta's advice in this book is based on a solid foundation of research and experience. If the parents of all of my students would ponder and take to heart the things clearly and accurately written here, they (and their children) would get much more bang for their buck out of the lessons I teach. I could teach more efficiently. Students would progress faster. Some large roadblocks I spend a great deal of time removing from my student's and parent's minds during their lessons would be removed (or at least whittled down to manageable size) before I encountered them, thus making music lessons more productive, joyful, and fulfilling, for everyone involved.

No previous knowledge of music, child psychology, or educational technique is required -- this book is well-written, straight-shooting counsel for parents, with insights that an older student interested in getting music lessons would also find helpful. This book is definitely going to get a permanent place on my short list of books recommended for my students (or their parents).

I have three children, ages 2-8, and I was given this book by my mom. As you can imagine, I have little time to read, but this book was so easy to read that I finished it in a few weeks of my spare time. Even the way the author explains the research behind the book is fascinating.

I have started doing many of the things suggested in the book and not only are they fun, but I can see my children starting to respond to music in a more sensitive and deep way.

This is an amazing book. Worlds better than most of the books for parents I have read.

Being a parent of 4 I have read many books on raising kids and this one is by far the best. Mr. Cutietta's stright foward approach is so refreshing compard to the sea of books that go on forever and never really tell you anything. This book has ways of raising kids without the hour a day of forcing your kid to pratice the piano. This book taught me most of what I knew about music education was wrong. This book is a MUST read for anyone with or without kids.

Finally! A book for parents that explains the sometimes confusing world of music education. This book takes a parent through early childhood activities, choosing a private teacher, how to get you kid to practice, to understanding the expectations of high school music programs and careers in music. Well-written, research-based but easy to read, and illustrated with cartoons, this is a must for every parent interested in sharing their love of music with their children. I highly recommend it!

This is a book that could have been the best of its sort if not for a few parts that are extremely problematic.

There is a very classical bias in this book and all readers should be wary of that.

This is a readable and straight-forward book that promotes multi-cultural exposure, has great advice on overall approaches, decent advice on selecting a teacher, great chapters on effective practicing & on issues of giving rewards, and a few more interesting parts.

On the negative side, it has useless illustrations of cartoon characters with no meaningful context simply saying things that are already on the same page in the normal text.
Though he promotes music for its own sake (not for extramusical benefits) he fails to clarify anything about what that intrinsic value is and instead has meaningless comments that provide no insight.

The section on music testing is very problematic, nearly useless. There is an obnoxious over-emphasis on learning to label music. There is a totally unsupported claim (that I think is wrong) that beginner instrument resale value is "extremely poor."

But the WORST and MOST DANGEROUS and BIASED part:
He presents piano or violin as the ONLY options for younger kids, period. There is a section in which the question is basically put: how do you decide which of these two to sign up for?
He says (and is absolutely wrong) that a 3rd grader is definitely not ready for guitar. He says never to use a pick on a nylon string guitar (I say: please don't listen to such stupid dogmatic rules), and yet he says that steel strings even on electric guitar are hard on fingers (he's wrong because the light-gauge on electric guitars is not so bad, for many kids it is no worse than nylon), then he says that playing without a pick will be frustrating (what?! why? tons of guitarists play and learn fingerstyle!). As far as I can tell, this author is just making up nonsense based on some biases he has that he didn't bother questioning.

So add that up: he says that any steel string guitar will be too hard on fingers, but you aren't allowed to use a pick (he says so!) on nylon string, and if you can't use a pick you will be frustrated (he says so!). The conclusion? This is ACTUALLY in the book: Electric guitar is doomed to failure for beginners... WHAT!?
What a bunch of GARBAGE! And this guy is actually a guitarist... And anyway, why not learn classical guitar? I don't think he really considered these questions, he just wrote this junk without even thinking it through or checking it over with anyone who knew anything about children's guitar instruction. That is NOT the sort of approach that would make you want to read someone's book.

Seems what happened is that his kid asked to play guitar so instead of inquiring about the best guitar teachers or methods he just went to the store and picked up some random book and tried to teach the kid himself. The book he bought went too fast and the kid was frustrated even though he persisted to learn some things. Eventually he gave up. This guy's conclusion? Teaching children to play guitar is a bad idea. What an IMBECILE. Essentially, while he defers to experts in some fields, because he is a guitarist himself, whatever judgments he made he just thinks are authoritative. And yet he was obviously completely ignorant in guitar pedagogy: he didn't even know what book to get so he ended up with some garbage and then he assumed that was enough to judge every guitar instruction book and experience.

I've taught kids as young as 3 years old to successfully play guitar, we just need to teach things that are appropriate at each stage and have appropriate sized instruments.

Do not listen to that part of this book. Do not force your kids to play only violin or piano. Drums and percussion are great. Guitar is great. Mountain dulcimer is excellent. Recorder is fine. Singing and general exploration can be great. It's about using the right materials and going at the right pace and finding a good teacher who is used to teaching children.

Otherwise, this is a decent book... though I am hesitant to recommend it because I don't really want to encourage this author getting paid more royalties for his sloppy thinking and bad advice on instruments... yet, the book does contain otherwise a lot of good content...

This book is a useful resource for parents who want to encourage their children to understand, enjoy, and perhaps even excel in music. Cutietta gives parents guidance on how to create a musical home and instill a lifelong love of music in children. Topics include when to begin music lessons, finding a teacher, choosing an instrument, getting kids to practice, music at all levels of education, competitions, and musical careers. This is particularly useful for parents who may not be familiar with how music education typically transpires in the public schools -- the importance of getting started early to be a full participant in school band or orchestra programs. Cutietta also provides lists of resources, and -- to my delight -- a list of songs that Americans of all ages should know how to sing, compiled by a national music educator's group.

Cutietta recognizes that not every child can or should pursue a music-related career, so the focus is not on turning your child into a professional musician, but rather raising your child to enjoy music, as a participant and audience member.

"Musical children are not born -- they are raised."

So begins one of the greatest resources I've come across for parents (and teachers!) who want to give children the best chance to maximize their musical potential, and I couldn't agree more with the sentiment. As a music teacher, my experience has been that -- while some students have more natural aptitude for music, and not all students given the same opportunities will reach the same level of proficiency -- the biggest factor contributing to success in music is the commitment of parents to the musical education of their children, and their involvement in that process.

Dr. Robert Cutietta, who is currently the dean of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, is uniquely qualified to write this book. He describes himself as wearing "four hats", each of which give him a different perspective on music education. These hats are: (1) professional musician -- he knows the music industry through decades of experience as a performer in many styles and settings; (2) music teacher -- he has taught music in private settings, in public schools, and at the university level; (3) researcher -- he spent more than two decades doing academic research in the field of music education before writing this book; and (4) parent --he has raised three musical children of his own!

The book's scope ranges from the practical ("Do different instruments require different investments of time and money?") to the philosophical ("What can music education do for my child?") to the informative ("What should my child be learning in his music classes at school?"). Each chapter is written clearly and instructively, with the understanding that the book's audience is primarily made up of parents with little or no musical training themselves. You don't have to be a musician to be a great musical parent!

Of great benefit to me were chapters addressing the three questions I hear most often in my position as the administrator of a private music school:

* "At what age should my child begin music lessons?" (Chapter 3)
* "What instrument should my child play?" (Chapter 7)
* "How can I get my kid to practice?" (Chapter 8)

Each of these chapters is immensely helpful! The answers to these questions are much more complex than most people imagine, but the author takes great care in explaining all the different factors that go into making those important decisions.

There are a few chapters in this edition (published in 2001) of the book that are slightly outdated, most notably the chapters dealing with music technology. As you might imagine, technology has changed quite a bit in the last ten years! Having recently corresponded with the author, I learned that a new edition is in the works, and I'm sure this will be addressed. In the meantime, this should not deter anyone from buying this book. Most of what is contained in it is timeless information, which will be relevant for many, many years.

Raising Musical Kids has jumped to the top of my list of books to recommend to parents who are considering or currently pursuing a musical education for their children... and not just because I think the chapter titled "Finding a Good Private Teacher" will lead them to my school! This book will be an invaluable resource which parents and teachers will pull down to reference many times over the course of a child's journey toward musicianship.

RAISING MUSICAL KIDS received a starred Library Journal review in the December 2001 issue. The review concluded: "Cutietta's [book] will be one that parents refer to again and again. An authoritative addition for parenting collections in all public libraries."

A "starred" review means it is a recommended purchase by libraries.