Children as young as 2 1/2 years old can begin to identify Major and Minor keys with their ears. Here’s a fun activity to try:
Basically any music we hear in the western world is written in a Major or Minor key. It’s a way of grouping music based off of its scale (a scale is a certain selection of notes used for a song).
When young children begin to hear and notice the difference between the two keys, it’s a huge step in advancing their musical ear training.
How to do it:
• Play these examples of Major and Minor for your child below.
• Ask him/her to repeat the word “Major” after its example and “Minor” after its example.
• Now explain that Minor can sometimes make us feel sad or mysterious and Major can make us feel happy and courageous.
• Give big happy faces to each other as you play Major and make sad/scary faces as you play Minor.
• Once they seem to have that down, play a game by playing an example without them looking. Then ask them to show you the face that matches the example. Major-😊 Minor-😢👿
Get creative!
…you could assign roles and ask your child to pretend to be a princess or superhero etc. as they enter the room to the Major sounds.
Then you can pretend to be a witch or bad guy during the Minor example.
Lastly play Major again as the princess or superhero enters the room to save the day.
Music Roots 