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!

Get Ready to sing, shimmy, and shake!  We will be singing, dancing,  listening and playing simple instruments, while creating an environment in which the child's music aptitude is nurtured and skills are develope. This is a fun music class for the whole family.

 

Cost of program includes classes and Home material:

• music in a CD or digital Download format, and a colorful children's Sing a long Book
• Instrument Kit for classroom use

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Click here to register
 

Overheard in class from a participating 3 year old, "I LOVE this class."

Your child will giggle as they sing, move imaginatively and play instruments in this weekly music program.  The songs chosen for this class are simple to sing and delight the children as they expand their vocabulary.  Their imaginations are busy as they are called on to think how the tadpole feels swimming through the water after breaking free from his egg.  They “become” the tadpole as he gracefully moves around the pond.  The children then enact the transformation and they joyfully croak and hop their way across the room.  Finally, they settle down into the listening corner to listen to the recorded sounds of green frogs and bull frogs, focusing and refining their listening skills.  Instruments are brought out and explored during each class.
 In addition to singing, playing instruments, purposeful movement activities, and focused listening, the children are learning the language of music.  In each class the children echo a series of tonal and rhythm patterns.  These patterns are found in the singing repertoire, and they will be the first patterns the children will learn to read in music notation in the coming years.
 
The Cycle of Seasons is the right choice for both your child and you!

Home materials include a CD, a downloadable source for all the recording music, a songbook, and animal cards in a cloth bag)






Click here to register

 

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:

1. The British Isles poster.
2. The British Isles  CD and downloadable song code
3. Game Pieces to develop Tonal and Rhythm skills
4. Song Pages related to the songs we are learning

Unit 2: AmerIndian Unit (second half of session)




This unit includes:

1. Amerindian Poster (10" x 15") and game pieces
2. Amerindians CD and downloadable song Code
3. Game Pieces to develop Tonal and Rhythm skills
4. Song Pages related to the songs we are learning

The session material also includes a Parent Booklet covering both units.

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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. 

Music Makers Notebook 
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Musikgarten Red Bag

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Instruments for Home Play

We continue our aural approach at the piano, presenting all new Challenges in Book 3.  The children will contineu to play songs by ear, but now they will be asked to figure out the patterns for themselves.  More work with scales will allow them to move all around the keyboard with ease.  They will be introduced to the wonderful music of Beethoven, Glinka, Saint-Saens, and Chopin, and they will be reading several familiar and new pieces.

Book 3 brings the children many new notation games and also opportunities to take dictation of familiar songs.  They will continue to improvise and compose, adding dynamics, articulation, and expression markings so that their results are more musical than ever!

 Material for Book 3 Classes:
Book 3 Student book
2  fresh CDS (a listening CD and a special Practice CD) and  codes for the downloadable recorded music 

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.  By the time they have gotten to this point in Music Makers: At the Keyboard They have already learned to play many songs by ear in multiple positions on the keyboard.  Their ability to read music has made it possible for them to play some of the smae pieces that young pianists, from all over the workd, have studied.  They have been introduced to the great music of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Dvorak, Glinka, Hadyn, MacDowell, Mozart, and Saint-Saens.
As thkey begin working in Book 5, they will encounter more music of Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart, a nd they will be introduced to Mouret and Bartok.  They will learn to play a piece by Ferdinand Beyer.  Additionally, They will be treated to several improvised solos by Howard Baer.  These will help to prepare them for making important decisions regarding the improvsed solos they will be working on throughout this session.

We will continue to work on playing scales, moving on to playing with both hands in parallel motion, and they will be learning to play arpeggios.  There are several lively pieces to drum and dance to, challenging notation games to play, and a musical time-line that wil will work on through the session. 

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!

Home Material includes Book 5, Notation cards and Recordings in downloadable and CD format.