Where Are We Going?

by elizabeth  

Where are We Going?

• Music for Babies (0-18 months — two unique semesters available)
• Music for Toddlers (15 months -3 1/2 years — four unique semesters)
• Cycle of Seasons (3-5 years — 2 unique semesters)
• Music Makers at Home (4-7 years — 2 unique semesters)
• Music Makers Around the World (5-8 years — 2 unique semesters)
• Music Makers at the Keyboard (6-9 years — 6 unique semesters)

These classes aren’t even including the special summer programs we run! Currently, at Little Songbird Music Studio, we offer all classes up through Cycle of Seasons. Starting in the fall, we will be adding both Music Makers classes for young elementary aged students. The following year, we plan on adding the keyboard class. So stick with it! The cumulative effect of the program is priceless! For more information on the philosophy of certain classes, please see Musikgarten’s website!

An Aural Approach

by elizabeth  

Musikgarten is unique in that we purposefully use very little visual stimuli in our classes. Because children live in such a visual world, we make sure that when they step in our door, they experience a large variety of sounds. Our listening time is a very important part of each class in which we train children’s ears to focus on one particular sound — a bird, a bee, a clock or a sonata. It’s so wonderful to see them take that skill with them. For weeks after we listened to the sound of a robin in class, sang about the robin and talked about robins eating worms, my three year old was constantly pointing out robins in our yard. Not only the ones she saw, but also the ones she heard. Our echo time is important because it teaches them to hear specific nuances in music that determine whether a song is major or minor mode or if it is in duple or triple time. These building blocks of music are similar to the phonics of language. Once they have these sounds in their ears, they will keep them for life, and everything else in music will come much easier to them.