Ever wake up with a song running around in your head? Or how about the song that you sing or hear one time…then stays in your head the rest of the day? (Disclaimer: Yes, this can happen after attending a Kindermusik class with your child, but it’s probably because he’s singing the same song out loud!) Why is it that songs stick in our heads? Well, as annoying as it can be when it happens, there are actually some very positive reasons why those songs stick and you might be happy – in some ways! – that they stay stuck.

A Foundational Skill

For those who claim not to have a musical bone in your body, you should feel musically accomplished when such a thing occurs. On a very basic level, the ability to hear a song in your head is called audiation (the aural equivalent of imagination), a foundational musical skill. One author refers to the songs that get stuck as “earworms.” An apt description, but somehow thinking of it as auditing sounds more musically sophisticated. We as humans come hard-wired to enjoy and respond to music.

We see it in Kindermusik class all the time – a little baby’s eyes widen with delight when she hears her mama singing her a lullaby, or that toddler immediately stops wandering around the room and starts bouncing when the music comes on. Or your preschooler asks for his favorite song every time you get in the car to go somewhere.

Repetition is a Sign of Enjoyment

We repeat songs multiple times in a single Kindermusik class and again for several weeks in a row because repetition is such an important tool for learning and strengthening the brain. But outside of class, repeating a song over and over – even when it pops into one’s head uninvited or when your child sings the same song for the one-hundredth time – signals that a particular song brings much joy.

Your brain is using those songs.

Researchers continue to uncover the power of music and how it impacts cognitive development in the early years and cognitive retention in our later years. So tucking all of those songs into your memory now could have benefits later on if indeed some of the theories about music and memory prove correct. So the next time that song in your head won’t go away, maybe you won’t feel quite as annoyed when you remember some of the good reasons why it happens.

And by the way, if you regularly attend Kindermusik classes, we promise to make sure that we’re always teaching you and your child lots of lots of new songs that yes, might get stuck in your head, but will also wind their way into your heart. Shared by Theresa Case, who as director of Piano Central Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, since 1995, has had a lot of songs get stuck in her head over the years!