What is Music Together?
- Research based music program for young children
- Specifically trained and registered teachers
- Parents involved (no musical skills required)
- Mixed age groups, birth to kindergarten
- Children participate at their own level
- New music for each semester, including: songbook, CD, parent education materials
Music Together has an innovative approach to early childhood music development for children from infant to kindergarten age and their parents/caregivers.
Developed in 1987 as an educational project of the Center for Music and Young Children in Princeton, NJ, Music Together® is now being taught internationally. Through ongoing research and development, CMYC is committed to helping rediscover the pleasure and educational value of informal music experiences.
The Music Together approach develops every child's basic music competence by experiencing music rather than learning concepts or information about music. We believe that music is as basic a life skill as walking or talking. All children can learn to sing in tune, keep the beat and enjoy participating in our musical culture with confidence. We help facilitate the natural, in-born development of your child's "musical intelligence".
Infants coo, gurgle, and flex their torsos in response to music. Toddlers shake rattles, bounce to the beat, and sing occasional notes. Three-year-olds often have favorite songs and instruments to play and can lose themselves in music. Four-year-olds like to have an effect on the activity - creating ways to move or inventing new words to songs. They may play teacher and lead the family in their favorite activities at home.
What are Music Together classes like?
The children have the freedom to respond according to where they stand developmentally. So do the parents/caregivers. The environment is informal, completely free from performance pressure, and you and your children will enjoy making music instead of passively receiving it from recordings. You and your children will sing along, play various instruments, dance, and listen. Children learn that music is valuable when they observe their parents actively making music themselves.
Mixed age classes
Child development researchers recommend mixed-age groupings because it fosters natural, family-style learning. Younger children enjoy watching and imitating the older ones, older children learn by leading the younger ones, and adults are happy because the children in the family can go to classes together. Each child participates at his or her own level in singing, moving, chanting, listening, watching, or exploring musical instruments. The class provides for a variety of adult-child activities that are fun and offer new ways to play musically at home.