Montessori Music: Best Toys and Benefits
Music is an integral part of the Montessori method. Today, I wanted to go over the best Montessori music toys and the benefits of music when it comes to the Montessori method. Montessori music activities provide children with audio experiences that aid their overall development. This comprehensive guide explores the world of Montessori music toys, including the types of instruments commonly used and the developmental benefits they offer young children. You should start to incorporate some age-appropriate Montessori musical instruments. And, I hope you find the list of Montessori music toys helpful for your child’s development or for Montessori gift ideas.
What is Montessori Music?
Montessori music education emphasizes exposing children to musical experiences during their early developmental years. The Montessori approach recognizes that children are especially receptive to absorbing music skills and appreciation from birth until age 6.
Montessori music activities focus on allowing children to freely interact with instruments, move to musical rhythms, sing songs, and begin understanding musical notation. Rather than formal instruction, the priority is on fostering a love of music through exploration and a joyful experience with music. Music is incorporated into Montessori classrooms in both spontaneous and structured ways.
Montessori music supports natural stages of development and helps cultivate independence and concentration. With music, children can be prepared for different learning environments. Music activities are designed to match each child’s emerging abilities and interests.
Best Montessori Music Toys
Below, we tested some of the best Montessori music toys with our kids. We used our kids experiences and other reviews to find the top-rated products. Each of these educational music toys will be instrumental (pun intended!) in your child’s development.
1. Stoies International Wooden Montessori Music Set
This Montessori-inspired toddler musical instrument set is perfect for kids ages 3 to 9, including babies. With 10 different percussion instruments like tambourine, maracas, flute, and more, your child will be inspired to become a play with instruments. As a parent, I’ve personally witnessed how these musical instruments sparked my child’s creativity and love for music.
2. Brooklyn Neutral Xylophone Montessori Toy
With its neutral colors and modern boho design, it doubles as a stunning piece of playroom or nursery decor that appeals to minimalist parents. Crafted from aspen wood and steel keys, this durable xylophone for kids ages 5-9 creates beautiful sounds and helps develop rhythm and musical skills.
3. Boxiki Kids 16Pcs Musical Instrument Set
These educational and engaging percussion toys will nurture your child’s creativity, allowing them to explore the joy of music through singing, playing, and learning. With exposure to music, their hand-eye coordination, musicality, and eager mind will flourish, making this set an excellent tool for early development.
4. Hapinest Montessori Wooden Musical Toy Instruments
This delightful set includes tambourine, castanet, hand drum, hand bells, maraca, flute, wooden block, wood sounder, and a convenient drawstring bag, making it a perfect gift for boys and girls aged 3 years and older. As they play different instruments, children will hear various sounds, enhancing their concentration, hand-eye coordination, and teamwork skills.
5. oathx Kids Drum Set All in One Montessori Musical Instruments Set
This wooden musical table features six percussion instruments, including drums, cymbal, and wooden drumsticks, providing endless musical learning and creative play. With its patent animal shape design, the adorable kitten-inspired drum set will surely attract kids and keep them engaged in musical exploration.
6. SOUJOY 13 Pack Kids Musical Instrument Toys
This wooden toddler percussion toy set includes various instruments like tambourine, hand drum, flute, and more, allowing your child to appreciate different tones, volumes, and rhythms. Made from eco-friendly wood, these non-toxic instruments are safe for your child to play with and free from harmful paints or chemical smells.
7. Rundad All-in-one Wooden Montessori Musical Set
This integrated musical learning toy includes an 8-key xylophone, a drum, a cymbal, a guiro, 2 drumsticks, and 3 gears, inspiring future rock and roll drummers while fostering both gross and fine motor skills development. Let your child explore the magic of music with this multifunctional musical set, as they become familiar with octaves, intervals, and rhythms through creative play.
8. Wingyz Kids Drum Set 7 in 1 Montessori Preschool Musical Toys
This 7-in-1 Montessori Preschool Musical Toy is the perfect gift for boys and girls aged 3 to 7 years old. Made of eco-friendly natural wood with smooth surfaces and non-toxic water-based paint, it’s a safe and engaging learning music toy that inspires your child’s talent in music. As your child hits the drum and plays the xylophone, they create their own music, enhancing hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, and auditory sensory development.
9. WarmSun Xylophone 5-in-1 Wooden Montessori Music Toy
This 5-in-1 Wooden Montessori Set is the perfect music toy for babies and toddlers aged 3 years and older. The all-in-one musical exploration allows your child to freely create melodies, tap on drums, play the xylophone, and more, promoting creativity and motor skill development in a fun and engaging way.
10. Hape Pound, Tap, & Shake! Music Set
Introduce your little one to the joy of music with the Hape Pound, Tap, & Shake! Music Set – an interactive and colorful toy that offers hours of fun and learning for toddlers aged 1 to 4 years old. This award-winning set includes a pounding bench with bright hammering balls and a slide-out xylophone with 8 keys, perfect for learning colors and creating songs together with the tap-along tambourine.
11. TOOKYLAND Toddler Toy Musical Instrument
This Montessori-inspired set includes a xylophone, drum, and cymbal, providing endless opportunities for your 3-year-old to explore music and develop a sense of rhythm and melody. Made from non-toxic and durable wood, these instruments prioritize your child’s safety with rounded edges and smooth surfaces, allowing them to freely express themselves and create their own tunes.
12. Yuxun Pattern Blocks – Wood Musical Notes Board
This educational puzzle toy is designed to enhance coordination, imagination, creativity, and cognitive skills in kids aged 3 to 7. By mixing math with music, these fraction strips of pattern blocks help children understand both subjects better, making learning fun and engaging.
13. Hape Beaded Raindrops Mini Wooden Musical Shake & Rattle Rainmaker Toy
This rainmaker features vibrant trickling beads and soothing raindrop sounds that stimulate your child’s senses, providing hours of musical entertainment. With its easy-to-grip design, this toy helps develop your baby’s grabbing abilities while captivating them with bright blue and green colors as the beads trickle up and down.
14. Rainbow Musical Tree Building Blocks Toy Ball Drop Toy
Assembling the music tree is a fun activity that improves hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, and once built, the rainbow music tree delights children with its “jingle” music sound as the balls roll along the petals, emitting different tones. As a parent, I’ve witnessed my child’s joy and excitement while playing with this Montessori educational toy, and it has become our favorite parent-child interactive game.
15. HABA Musical Eggs – 5 Wooden Eggs with Acoustic Sounds
This set includes 5 rainbow-colored wooden eggs, each producing a different acoustic sound, from rattling to chirping and jingling. Perfectly sized for little hands, these eggs are great for shaking, twisting, and banging together, promoting fine motor skills and sensory exploration.
16. Ehome Natural Wood Montessori Musical Instruments for Toddlers
Made of 100% natural wood, these baby musical instruments are safe, durable, and have a smooth surface to ensure your child’s safety and comfort. The varied sounds of these Montessori musical instruments help improve children’s sensitivity to vocals. In addition, these wooden Montessori music toys enhance children’s cognitive and perception abilities, and cultivate their artistic sensitivity, making it an ideal musical educational toys.
17. Yerloa Interactive Pop Up Animals Music Toy
Designed to entertain and educate, this toy features friendly animals that pop up with pleasant music and vivid sounds. This toy can help with enhancing fine motor skills and teaching cause and effect to kids aged 12-18 months and up. With three different interactive modes, including animal sounds, music, and a game mode, your child will stay engaged and entertained for hours.
18. LOOIKOOS Natural Wooden Percussion Instruments Toys
Made of natural wood with no paints or coatings, these safe and non-toxic instruments are perfect for kids to explore and create music. The set includes a variety of instruments like shakers, drums, and more, providing endless opportunities for creative play and musical exploration.
Montessori Music Toys Gallery
Montessori Music Areas and Materials
In Montessori classrooms, music materials are made accessible on open shelves, allowing children to independently choose what they would like to work with. Musical instruments and activities may be grouped into the following areas:
Music Corner
This area features a collection of musical instruments in baskets or trays for children to explore. A comfortable mat provides space for children to use the instruments. In addition, you can give children additional space for movement and dance while they listen to music.
Music Table
A low table holds materials for practicing musical notation and rhythm, like bells, cards with notes, and boards for arranging musical symbols. Chairs at the table for each child will allow for concentrated work.
Music Books and Songs
You should also incorporate musical and rhyming books, song cards with lyrics, and CDs of children’s songs. These allow kids to follow along and sing independently. It can also help children learn some of the easy sing-a-long songs so they can develop memorization.
Musical Instruments
A wide variety of simple, high-quality musical instruments are available for children to experiment with sound production and musical expression.
What are Montessori Musical Instruments?
Montessori classrooms contain a carefully curated selection of musical instruments. Here are some of the most common:
Percussion
- Drums
- Rainstick
- Wood blocks
- Bells
- Triangles
- Cymbals
- Xylophone
- Maracas
- Rhythm sticks
- Tambourines
Wind
- Recorders
- Harmonicas
- Pan flutes
- Kazoos
- Slide whistles
String
- Harps
- Ukuleles
- Guitars
Shakers
- Maracas
- Jingle bells
- Egg shakers
- Agogo bells
Montessori instruments are generally made of natural materials like wood, avoid complex mechanics, and can be manipulated by children independently. They produce clear, melodic tones.
How Do Montessori Music Toys Help Children Develop?
Introducing children to music through multi-sensory experiences with instruments offers many developmental benefits:
Auditory Development
Playing instruments allows children to explore how sound is produced and develops acute listening skills by discerning differences in tone, volume, rhythm, and more.
Coordination and Motor Skills
Handling musical instruments requires fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. Playing with different musical instruments develops gross motor skills.
Language Skills
Singing songs exposes children to new vocabulary, rhyme schemes, syllabic sounds, and pronunciation.
Cognitive Development
Making mental connections between musical tones/notation and counting beats develops focus and concentration.
Independence
Children gain confidence by independently interacting with instruments to create music.
Self-Expression and Emotional Skills
Playing music provides a positive outlet for expressing feelings like joy, sadness, excitement, and creativity.
Social Skills
Making music together teaches children about collaboration, taking turns, waiting for cues, and experiencing companionship.
Music thus engages children’s minds, bodies, emotions and spirits in a profoundly enriching way during the early years when they are rapidly developing across all domains.
Why You Need Montessori Music Toys
I would absolutely recommend Montessori music toys to parents. We incorporated music and music toys with our children and they loved playing with them. Keep in mind, the more music toys you offer your child the better chance they will have to find one they like. Montessori music toys offer distinct advantages over generic toy instruments:
Age Appropriate
Montessori instruments are designed for small hands and the developing skills of young children. Toys like xylophones have removable bars to match progress.
High Quality
They produce pleasing, melodious notes rather than noisy discordant sounds that can overstimulate developing ears.
Multipurpose
Open-ended Montessori music toys can be used in many ways as a child’s abilities grow. A simple drum fosters creativity and imagination.
Accessible
Instruments are displayed attractively on low shelves so children can independently explore them through self-directed activity.
Engineering
Simple design based on specific developmental needs and sensitivities of each plane of development. No distracting lights or electronics.
Selection
A carefully curated variety introduces diverse instruments while avoiding overload. Allows depth of experience.
In short, Montessori music toys are specifically designed to enrich children’s musical engagement in developmentally optimal ways.
Examples of Beneficial Montessori Music Toys
While each instrument brings unique benefits, here are some examples of toys that aid specific areas of development:
Language Development
- Rhythm sticks for hearing syllabic sounds
- Bells or xylophone for tone recognition
- Whistles to associate sounds with symbols
Gross Motor Skills
- Drums for marching and stepping to rhythms
- Maracas and wrist bells to shake and dance with music
Hand-Eye Coordination
- Cymbals or triangles to grasp and strike precisely
- Large rainshaker tubes to coordinate two hands
Order and Sequencing
- Tone bars arranged linearly to play simple melodies
- Colored bells to sequence pitches
Concentration and Memory
- Xylophone or metallophone to recall and reproduce short melodic patterns
This showcases the diverse ways thoughtfully designed Montessori music toys stimulate learning across developmental domains.
Sample Montessori Music Lessons and Activities
Trained Montessori teachers integrate music organically into classroom activity sessions through engaging lessons and experiences. Here are some examples:
Music and Movement
Children shake maracas or wrist bells as they skip, hop, or march around the room singing songs. The teacher alternates fast and slow tempos.
Music Matching Game
The teacher plays a simple rhythm pattern with two different pitched instruments, like a drum and triangle. Children try to recreate the pattern with their own instruments.
Musical Storytime
During storytime, the teacher pauses to play instruments like a rain stick, cymbals or xylophone to accentuate moods, animals or actions described in the story.
Music Note Recognition
Using bells, a teacher demonstrates the sequence of music notes in a basic scale. Children find the correlating bells on their rack and reproduce the pattern.
Instrument Exploration
Children are invited to select an instrument like the recorder and explore independently how to produce different notes and tones.
These activities capitalize on music’s ability to vividly engage multiple senses in a joyful way tailored beautifully to young children’s abilities and needs.
How to Introduce Montessori Music Education
Here are some tips for seamlessly incorporating Montessori music toys and experiences:
- Introduce a few durable instruments at a time, demonstrating how to handle them. Rotate new ones in periodically to maintain novelty.
- Sing songs with actions during routine transitions, like clean-up time. Children will begin to associate the songs with familiar cues.
- Accept all forms of experimentation with sound production, rather than imposing expectations for specific melodies.
- Allow children the freedom to select instruments and musical activities based on their interests.
- Integrate background music into the environment during focused work time rather than silence. Find a balance between passive listening and interactive music-making.
- Join children in musical experiences by singing, dancing, and playing instruments.
The key is allowing children to joyfully explore music at their own pace in a prepared environment designed to nurture the innate musicality within each child.
Developmental Benefits of Music and Movement
Music, rhythm and movement are integral to Montessori education. Combining physical activity with musical experiences cultivates children’s development in unique ways:
Spatial Awareness
Moving their bodies to music helps children become aware of their physical presence in space. Matching steps to beats develops coordination.
Self-Regulation
The repetition of rhythmic patterns aids focus and self-control. Fast and slow tempos teach children to modulate their energy.
Grace and Balance
Dancing or marching to melodies and songs helps improve children’s balance, control, posture and grace of movement.
Vocabulary
Songs expose children to rich vocabulary describing different movements like march, hop, spin, clap or sway.
Social Skills
Moving together in time to music promotes bonding, camaraderie, spatial awareness of others and positive touch.
Confidence
Music, rhythm and movement inspire freedom of expression, as children lose self-consciousness when engaged in the pure joy of dance.
Music brings children delight as well as increased body awareness and control. Moving with instruments adds further benefits by developing fine motor skills and coordination.
Best Ages for Introducing Montessori Music Toys
The Montessori learning environment enables children to naturally explore musical instruments as abilities emerge:
Infants & Toddlers
- Simple shakers & soft rattles
- Track sound-producing toys with eyes
Ages 1-2
- Push/pull toys with music and motion
- Press buttons to activate musical sounds
- Dance to songs and recorded music
Ages 3-4
- Handle and shake maracas, bells, drums
- Experiment with cause-and-effect sound toys
- Move to rhythms with scarves and fingerplays
Ages 4-6
- Play simple melodies on the xylophone
- Follow simple music notation
- Practice using recorders, harmonicas, rain sticks
Ages 6-9
- Play more complex musical instruments
- Read and understand music notation
- Compare musical qualities like pitch and tempo
Observing children’s evolving abilities guides the introduction of developmentally appropriate Montessori music toys to match their needs and interest at each plane of development.
Conclusion
Music plays a vital role in the Montessori classroom and it can help a child’s development. Montessori music toys allow children to show self-expression, discovery, and learning. Carefully designed instruments tailored for small hands will give kids a lifelong appreciation of music.
Whether at home or in a formal Montessori environment, integrating Montessori music education provides absorbing cognitive, physical, and emotional experiences. Music brings communities together and gives children the tools to unleash their creativity and talents.
