By: Jenny Jelen

Music education starts long before learning how to read notes or discovering how to make certain sounds. Clapping out rhythms, dancing and simply taking time to listen to music can help young minds develop an appreciation for music, as well as an aptitude for it.

Ginny Good Wold, owner of the Good Music Studio, knows this first-hand. She’s been teaching Music For Young Children for about seven years, helping kids develop fundamental music skills.

“Kids are like sponges at an early age,” Good Wold said. “The sooner they listen, sing and enjoy rhythm, the better they will develop with an instrument, with dance, and with academic activities.”

Along with teaching kids, Good Wold also leads babies and pre-schoolers through age-appropriate activities.

She said she believes any age is a good age to begin exploring music.

“It helps kids with discipline and it helps them with social skills,” she said. “(Music education) programs enrich children’s social development and learning skills, improves memory and problem-solving and bolsters confidence and self-esteem.” 

It’s a logical fit, as far as she’s concerned.

“Children naturally have the ability to enjoy music,” she said. “If it’s fostered at a young age, it can develop all of their life.”

Because her classes are taught with parents present, it also helps foster relationships. Good Wold said parents benefit as much as kids do by engaging in her classes.

“It gets them comfortable communicating with their children,” she said. “The kids mirror the adults.”

Of course, Good Wold is sensitive to her audience’s needs. Teaching youngsters is nothing like teaching musicians climbing the ranks, or adults, for that matter.

In her kids’ classes, she said she uses lots of activities comparable to what children are learning about in school, with a more artistic twist. Things like letters, patterning and counting are all transferable skills.

Part of the reason Good Wold was interested in teaching youngsters was because of her lifelong connection with music.

“I’ve loved music from the time I was very little,” she said.

The other part of the equation is her feelings towards kids.

“Part of who I am is just loving children,” she said.

Outside of her children’s programs, Good Wold also teaches piano and violin lessons.