Class Descriptions
WHY... should you join a babies Music class?
- All babies are born with music aptitude.
- Babies absorb the sounds of music in the same way they absorb the sounds of their spoken language.
- Recent studies have shown that music affects the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of babies and strengthens cognitive and sensory development.
- Patterns heard in class feed the ear-brain connection and start to form the language of music. Before long they will be imitating those patterns, developing for life their sense of pitch and rhythm.
Who joins music classes for Babies?.Who is this for? How old does the baby have to be? This class is for any baby, at any age, up to about 16 or 18 months. Some moms have signed up for the class before the baby is born, then come back later with baby in tow!
What happens in a babies class? Lots of singing, dancing, rocking, steady beat, instruments, scarves, rhymes, finger plays, lullabies, and games. All designed to introduce little ones to the language of music, while at the same time equipping parents with songs and rhymes for every occasion! This class developmentally addresses your babies needs, and provides bonding moments for caregivers.
What is the Home Material? You will receive recorded music from the program in CD and Downloadable format, a parent handbook with all the lyrics to all the songs we sing in class (and lovely explanations of the movement we include at every class) and a cloth instrument bag that holds a set of sticks, a wooden rattle and a soft scarf for your babies exclusive use. No need to share germs!
Note: The home material for the Fall Session is Family Music for Babies I and the home material for the Spring Session is Family Music for Babies II, all new activities and recordings.
The Home Material is filled with a wealth of new music to share with your baby and your growing family.
So plan to join us for music class devoted to your baby all year long!
Total: | includes classes and home material |
Play is a wonderful way for baby and the family to play together. Musical play activities provide caregivers with opportunities to help baby develop physically, emotionally,, socially and intellectually. These intimate, interactive activities anticipate and support signs of development as they occur daily, in an environment of trust and security. In Class we will rock, bounce, dance, sway, and play with simple musical instruments and create an environment perfect for a baby. At the same time, the caregiver has the chance to learn wonderful new musical activities that can be shared throughout the rest of the week.
We meet in a climate controlled indoor music space with carpeted floors.
Home material includes music in a CD or digital Download format, a parent booklet and a special set of classroom instruments used only by your child (Their own set of sticks, their own rattle and a lovely scarf in a cloth bag). You can take this home weekly or leave in the studio and take home at the last class.
Tuition: | $50/class; 2 -4 classes at $45/class; 5 - 8 classes at $40/class |
Materials: | $40 |
Total: | includes total classes signed up for and home material |
What Animal Friends have you seen?
Maybe cows, pigs, or chickens on a farm? Or dogs barking and cats roaming in your neighborhood?
Explore all of your animal friends!
Sing familiar songs like The Farmer in the Dell and The Three Little Kittens, or soon to be new favorites The Wild Horses and See the Pony
Instrumental pieces like The Carnival of the Animals will spark the imagination of your child.
Tap, dance, bounce and jump
Discover fun, new instruments and play old favorites
Parents/caregivers and children will experience the joy of making music together. Toddler movers & shakers will stay active while the adult provides the security needed for the child to explore.
Families will receive:
An outstanding Musikgarten recording of over 60 minutes for moving, singing and listening in Both CD and Downloadable Song File formats.
A 48-page children’s book with colorful artwork for children and parents to follow along with as they listen or read
Tuition: | includes 15 scheduled classes |
Materials: | Animal Friends Home Material included |
The ability to really listen, to discriminate sounds and focus attention, is fundamental to learning, and music class is the perfect environment.
Activities Include:
- Sing about trains and listen to the sound of a steam engine
- Go for a fun ride on the Merry-Go-Round
- Play simple instruments to Sing-a-Ling-a-Ling
- Rock to the lullaby Ho, Ho, Watanay
- Make music with your friends and family
Family Activities and Materials:
- Musikgarten recording that will keep your attention. You’ll hear fast-tempo music as well as calming, slower relaxing music
- 24 page children’s picture/activity book
Tuition: | $50/drop in class; 2-4 classes: $45/class, 5 - 8 classes: $40/Class |
Materials: | $30 What do you Hear Home Material - Purchase mandatory |
Total: | based on amount of classes planning to attend and Home Material |
The Cycle of Seasons: SunCatcher program is the Winter/Spring Session of the Year Round Cycle of Seasons program especially geared for young Children who are 3 or 4 years old. Research overwhelmingly shows that children learn best at this age in an environment filled with both music and movement. We include movement because children grow and develop as whole human begins in a "doing" environment. Music is a key element in this holistic program. When music, movement, and language are integrated, the benefits are incalculable both intellectually and psychologically. In this class, we will sing, play instruments, explore movement in stories, develop listening skills, dance and share music with a treasured adult. We will draw central themes from nature and celebrate the changing seasons, and in this particular class the material will be based on Winter and Spring time.
The program has 15 classes in the session Accompanying the classes is home material aimed to bring the class activities into the families home life. Purchase of the home material is mandatory for all families participating.
Total: | $500 (includes 15 classes and Home Material) |
This music and movement program gives your child a solid music-making foundation in a fun music-filled environment. We focus on your child's fascination with cultures from around the world.
We will be exploring the culture, stories and music from:
- The British Isles (session 1A)
- AmerIndians (session 1B)
- Germany, the Land of the Great Composers (session 2A)
- African American Heritage (session 2B)
We will also create music ensembles using a variety of instruments. Also we will begin to introduce the piano, playing choreography games, learning a basic hand position and perhaps finding the pieces we love to sing in class at the piano. There is no requirement to own a piano at home and there will be no "practice the piano" home work during this year.
The program provides a developmentally sound approach to music literacy that builds symbolic thinking, concentration, memory, and self-expression, introduces orchestral instruments and ensemble play and focuses on building a child's aural (listening) foundation which leads to long-term success with voice, enhancement of self-discipline and social skills, first steps in reading music.
The next session of Music Makers starts September and continues for two sessions of 15 classes ending through May.
All Students will receive the following home material for the September through January session.
Unit 1: The British Isles (first half of session)
This unit includes:
- The British Isles poster.
- The British Isles CD and downloadable song code
- Game Pieces to develop Tonal and Rhythm skills
- Song Pages related to the songs we are learning
This unit includes:
- Amerindian Poster (10" x 15") and game pieces
- Amerindians CD and downloadable song Code
- Game Pieces to develop Tonal and Rhythm skills
- Song Pages related to the songs we are learning
The session material also includes a Parent Booklet covering both units.
​
New students will need to purchase the Music Makers notebook, the Musikgarten Red Bag and the instruments for home play set. The cost for this is $60 above the home material and tuition fee.
​
Musikgarten Red Bag
​
The children have completed books 1, 2, and 3 and are now ready for the greater challenges presented in Book 4. There are new songs to play by ear, including more complex parts for the left hand. Technique exercises will eventually lead to more fluid playing, and the improvisation exercises give the children more freedom in composoting as well as helping them to read music better. There are new songs to learn to read and play, and some old favorites reappear. There is even a chance for them to solve some musical riddles!
Students will work with compositions by many famous composers. Pieces witten by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schumann, Dvarak, and Mac-Dowell are included, some for drummong or dancing, some to explore dynamics and tempi, and some for harmonic analysis. All of them are wonderful pieces of piano or orchestral literature that the whole family will surely enjoy.
Notation Games continue to be an important activity both in class and at home. This book introduces a "note Names Matching Game" that will be fun for the student and their family. The more they play it, the faster they will get. They may want to record the time it takes to complete the game to see their progress!
The Home material includes: Book 3, All Notation Cards, and recordings in a downloadable format and in CD Form.
Tuition: | includes 15 classes |
Materials: | Book 4 home material |
Students danced to the Kabalevsky Rondo back in the first serveral weeks of Book 1; now they will learn to play Frist Dance by Kabalevsky. For the past serveral years, the student has listened to many excerpts from The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Sint-Saens; this session, as their mastery of scales develop, they will learn to play an excerpt from The Pianists. They will also get an opportunity to play miniature versions of two Hanon studies, which are classic exercises for pianists.
Their arual skills combined with a knowledge of melody, harmony, and rhythm, are all called on as they work to build competence in improvising on a 12-Bar Blues Progression. One of the final challenges of Book 6 combines those skills with an understanding of music notation when they have the chance to compose and write their very own blues composition.
Home material includes: Book 5, Notation Games and Recordings in Downloadable and CD format.
Book 5 is full of new reading pieces and other surprises! We will explore the following pieces:
The Musical Clock by Haydn, I See the Moon, Bagpipe, The Bear Went Over the Mountain, Bow To Your Partner, Lavender's Blue, Country Garden, Twinkle, Twinkle, Friendly Coversation and Hey! Let's Dance Together. We will add favorites and supplementary pieces. We are creating our own improvised piece. Scales are getting stronger and we are adding chord progressions. We explore Root position chords. "By ear" pieces are still be learned in multiple keys. Dictation, music history, Note Naming Games, Solfeggio, composition, and improvisation are all components of this wonderful and comprehensive session.
But we aren't done. There is Book 6 which we will explore in the next session. I hope you can stay with the program and reap the fruits at the end of the Book 6. What musicians we are creating in this musical classroom!
Tuition: | includes 15 classes |
Materials: | Book 6 Home Material |