All babies are born with an aptitude for music. But research shows that their aptitude diminishes if it is not nurtured. The best way to nurture a child's music aptitude is through active music making. By singing and dancing for and with our children in a variety of tonalities, meters and styles we are helping our children reach their full music potential.

This class offers adults the opportunity to play with their babies in a musical setting, experiencing music and movement activities designed to delight the child and awaken his or her curiosity about music. By singing, dancing, bouncing, and rocking, the child's music aptitude is being carefully nurtured, laying the foundation for beat awareness, vocal production, and aural discrimination.

Activities include singing, bouncing songs, rocking songs, dances, finger plays, body awareness games and echoes.

Home materials include a parent book, CD and small instrument kit with wooden rattle, pair of sticks and scarf.

This class is designed to bring the joy of music and movement to toddlers and their caregivers.

Activities include singing, dancing, focused listening and simple instrument playing, creating an environment in which the child's music aptitude is nurtured and skills are developed. 

Home materials include a parent book, CD, and small instrument, i.e. sticks, jingle....

This class is designed to nurture the emergent independence of the 3 and young 4 year old.  The themes are nature based and designed to follow the seasons.

Activities include lots of singing, chants and rhymes, listening games, patterns to echo, and movement games, all of which nurture the child's musical development while satisfying the child's need to learn in a holistic environment.

Parents stay for the 45 minute class. Home materials including 2 CDs, songbook, and animal picture cards  to allow the learning and fun to continue at home.

Pre-piano: Music Makers I class  for 4 and 5 year olds cultivates the child's musical development through songs, tonal and rhythm patterns, poetry and stories, movement activities, listening games, instrumental play and manipulative games. Rudimentary music skills such as pitch matching, beat competency, ensemble development, and music notation are dealt with using themes taken from the child's home environment and natural surroundings.

Each child has his/her own notebook for folders and games associated with the ecosystem based themes: My Home Place, Woodlands, Marsh and Meadow.  In addition the children receive and collect sets of basic graphic, duple, triple, dynamic  symbol  and melodic notation cards.

Material packets include a CD, a poster and game pieces, notation games, instrument pages and a  parent book. Children receive 4 packets throughout the 28-week year:

                             This class is designed to accommodate the 5 and 6 year old and can be a great follow-up for children who have completed Pre-piano:Music Makers I.             

In this class, children explore the music, dances and stories of different cultures: British Isles, Amerindians, Germany and African-American.

 As always, the key ingredients are singing, dancing, listening, playing instruments, lots of movement, and tonal and rhythm patterns.

Through echoing, writing and reading patterns, the children will build a vocabulary of musical phrases which they can recognize aurally and visually, leading to an understanding of musical notation as a useful language.

Home materials include a CD, poster, song pages, and notation games for each culture.

  During Piano I year, the children will be introduced to the keyboard.

As the final step on the pathway from early childhood music to music literacy, this program is designed to teach the children to begin to play the songs they've been hearing, singing, and dancing to throughout the years of early-childhood. 

Through the year, the children will become comfortable with D, C and G major 5 finger positions as well as d, c and e minor.  They will be introduced to the I and V7 (also i and v7) chords to accompany their songs. Transposing their repetoire to all know positions is encouraged as each new position is introduced.

This class follows a very sequential approach to building piano skills,understanding musical notation and setting up practice habits as set forth in the book, Music Makers: At the Keyboard, Book One .

For Piano I  children will receive Book One, 2 CDs and notation games plus a Parent Handbook. 

Current class closed. New students accepted for waiting list for Fall 2010.

In Piano II, the children learn new hand positions that move out of the 5-finger position, new keys and notation games, how to write out familiar songs and will have many more opportunities to compose their own music.

Materials include the keyboard book, 2 CDs and notation games.

Pre-requisite Piano I.

In Books 3 and 4  the children will play folksongs by ear in major keys with I, IV and V7 chords in the accompaniment and the equivalent in the minor keys. 

 They will read and play both familiar and unfamiliar folksongs with chordeal and arpeggiated bass. There will be technique exercises including major scales followed by I, IV, V7, I chordal progressions.

Improvisation activities and exercises include melodies on isolated I and V7 chord tones in both duple and triple, melody in left hand, right hand and divided.

The children will do harnomic analysis of folk and classical repertoire, listen to classical literature, compose and take dictation, and increase their working vocabulary of dynamic and articulation markings, musical terms and symbols.

Home materials include books, CDs, and notation games.

Pre-requisite Piano II.

In Books 5 and 6, the children will have increased exposure to Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart.  They will be introduced to the works of Mouret and Bartok and prepared to make important decisions for their improvised solos.

Scales will be played with both hands in parallel motion and the children will learn to play arpeggios. 

The children's aural skills combined with a knowledge of melody, harmony and rhythm will be utilized in improvixing on a 12-Bar Blues Progression and the chance to compose and write their very own blues composition. 

Pre-requisite Piano III.

Ideal for: 1. Those who took lessons as a child and quit,

                  2  Those who learned the traditional way but now want to learn to play by ear

                  3. Totally clueless beginners....

In other words, ANYONE who wants to have fun playing the piano!

Materials include a book, CD and flash cards.  There are four books, covered in a series 8 week class sessions.