Music is one of the first ways kids experience math. Without thinking, our bodies react to music: we rock our babies, clap along, and even look toward the source of the sound. These are reactions to musical elements such as steady beat, rhythm, and melody, all of which reflect mathematical concepts!
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Music Element: Steady Beat
Steady beat is what you respond to when you hear music and start tapping your toe. The steady beat is repetitive and evenly spaced.
How it Relates to Math
Emphasizing the steady beat by clapping or moving to the music supports development of one-to-one correspondence – matching up one thing with something else, such as one clap for each syllable.
Try This
- While singing a song like “Old MacDonald,” “Bingo,” or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” emphasize the words that fall on the beat by stomping or clapping on each beat.
- To work on one-to-one correspondence, try having your kids repeat a basic clapping sequence. Ask, “Can you clap as many times as I do?” As they get better at this, add rhythm to your clapping. You could also play a drum or even sing instead of clapping!
Music Element: Rhythm
Rhythm is similar to the beat but it varies, while the steady beat is constant.
How it Relates to Math
Along with one-to-one correspondence, rhythm helps kids learn to recognize and predict patterns. This can help them remember or predict the words to a song or a rhythmic story.
Try This
- Rock with your baby while you sing, patting their back so they can simultaneously hear and feel the patterns in the music.
- Sing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” with your kids. Stop after “With a moo moo here,” and wait for them to repeat the phrase or extend the pattern of the song by adding “and a moo moo there.”
Music Element: Melody
The movement from one note to another is the melody – or tune – of the song.
How it Relates to Math
Kids can use melodies to recognize patterns, such as how notes are repeated within a song.
Try This
- Offer instruments like a xylophone, shaker, drum, or even a pot and a wooden spoon to play a song. Ask your kids to play their instruments at a specific note of a simple song (such as on “star” of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”) as you play the rest.
Adapted from ZERO TO THREE