What is Music Together®?
- A fun family music program for parents and children ages birth through 4
- A high quality, developmentally appropriate, research-based curriculum with playful activities
- Parent participation - regardless of the parent's own music ability - is essential to creating the stimulating musical environment that all children need to develop their musical intelligence.
- Children participate at their own level. There is no performance pressure. Children are not required to sit still; rather, they are encouraged to respond spontaneously to the musical environment.
Basic Program Information
- Weekly 45-minute classes
- Ten-week semester
- Three semesters per year, each using a different song collection. There are nine song collections, spaced over a period of three years.
- Mixed ages, 6-12 children per class
- Shorter summer term available
Basic Class Activities
- Singing
- Rhythmic chants
- Creative movement - from finger-plays to large motor movement activities
- Instrument play (The play-along jam session is a lot of fun!)
Tuition Includes:
- 10 classes, 45 minutes each
- Professionally recorded CD and cassette tape recording of class activities to use at home: songs, play-along music, tonal and rhythm patterns, rhythmic chants, all pitched in the right range for a child's voice
- Songbook with illustrations and activities
- Music Together at Home: Helping Your Child Grow Musically, parents’ DVD guide for families new to Music Together®
- Parent Education
How Does the Mixed Age Format Work in Class?
- Early childhood educators are now recommending mixed-age groupings as a better learning environment. Older children learn from being in a leadership role, and younger children benefit from the example of an older child.
- The classes have more of a family feel rather than a school orientation. Siblings can participate together, as well as moms, dads, grandparents, and caregivers. (No need to get a babysitter!)
- The curriculum is designed to teach on many levels of complexity at once.
- Children of the same age are not necessarily in the same stage of musical development.
- The activities are parent-child oriented, not child-child, so children don't need to be with children of the same age.
Do Infants Really Benefit?
- Yes! Infants' participation will seem passive at first, as they actively absorb what they are seeing, hearing, and feeling. Caregivers will learn to recognize their infants' musical responses and observe them reaching musical milestones. As their bodies and nervous systems mature, the infants often show progressively more complex musical responses and evidence of song recognition. Parents will learn in class how to enhance their child's music development and how to create or enhance the musical bond with their child.
- Infants are welcomed and treasured in Mixed-age classes. If parents prefer, they may enroll first in a Babies class, which is designed specifically for newborns through age 8 months.
About Music Together®
Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood music program. Originally offered to the public in 1987, it pioneered the concept of a research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum that strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement. Music Together teachers receive training by the Center for Music and Young Children, of Princeton, NJ.
Music Together classes are based on the belief that all children are musical and need a stimulating and supportive music environment to achieve basic music competence. In class, children share in the pleasure of making music. Young children respond best to music with the active participation of parents/caregivers. The activities build on children's natural enthusiasm for music, and provide playful, engaging ways for children and adults to relate to each other musically.
The Music Together program emphasizes actual music experiences rather than concepts about music. Designed to bring families together through music, the program encourages family participation in spontaneous musical activity occurring within the context of daily life.