Sacred Heart second graders Matthew and Nicolette Badal were excited that it was Thursday. On Thursdays the brother and sister get to go to the little purple house on Main Street and do one of their favorite activities — play the guitar.

The Badal twins are two of Ingram’s Music of Turlock’s newest students. They just started learning how to play the guitar in August.

“Music arts at this stage is as integral as math and language,” said the twins’ father, Ashour Badal, about his and his wife’s decision to start their children’s music education early. “They speak two other languages, now three — music.”

The first instrument the Badal twins learned to play was the tambourine, then the recorder and now the guitar.

“We started them with an instrument they like, so it won’t be a chore, it will be something they enjoy,” Ashour Badal said. “It works. They look forward to their Thursday lessons.”

The twins’ guitar teacher, Matthew Padlo, was pleased with how his young students have progressed already with their lessons.

“Music is like any language — repetitions and practice, that’s what is needed for a good foundation. Like building a house, you can’t put up walls until you build a foundation,” Padlo said. “In music, foundations are transitions from note to note, chords to chords, that’s why having a music teacher is important.”

Ingram’s Music owner Charlene Perry has been helping local children begin their music education for 25 years.

“(Music) is the only thing you do where you read it, interpret it and respond physically to it, just like that — the whole concept in a moment of time,” Perry said.

While music education is important to many families, the tough economic times are having an impact.

“Some parents are sacrificing for lessons,” Perry said. “They will put in the budget to give kids as many lessons as they can; fewer, but still there.”

Doug Hendrickson of Hendrickson’s Turlock Music has seen fewer and fewer people taking music lessons over the past five years.

“Across a lot of the country, discretionary spending has dropped,” Hendrickson said. “What I’m seeing is a lot of people are going online for free music lessons or asking members of their church or friends and family to give lessons.”

Hendrickson said the majority of music teachers at his shop have responded by lowering their prices.

“We still address the student,” he said. “There is always a need.

“Music education is an activity that can stay with a person all their life, to their last days.”

To contact Kristina Hacker, e-mail khacker@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2004.