Music Acquisition and Effects of Musical Experience

Rather little is known about how children acquire musical knowledge. However, everyday exposure to the music of one’s culture does lead to implicit knowledge about its pitch and rhythmic structure, just as exposure to a particular language leads to implicit knowledge about its structure. While all children attend school with the goal of becoming literate, some children engage in formal music training whereas others do not. Thus music offers the opportunity to compare the effects of a wide range of experiences (Trehub and Trainor 1998).