Posted by Holly Kennedy on Sat, May 19, 2012 @ 10:32 AM
Watch this exciting video shot in Champaign, IL previewing our upcoming Summer Camp - Garage Band. Anyone between the ages of 8-16 years that wants a week of fun creating, performing and recording your own Hit CD should participate.
How to Participate:
- Register by May 30 for an Early Bird Discount.
- Attend Sampler Sunday on June 3 to participate in a free Garage Band Camp introduction. Students will get a taste of what Garage Band will be like and have an opportunity to register on the spot.
Space is limited. If you play guitar, bass, piano, sing or some other fun instrument, Sign up now!
Call 217-359-0541.
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Wed, Apr 25, 2012 @ 05:00 PM
- The best age for children to start learning music
- What the Champaign School of Music is doing to promote family music.
- A new program for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers called Music Together®.
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Fri, Apr 13, 2012 @ 03:38 PM
Summer Music Camps at the Champaign School of Music will give kids an opportunity to get in touch with their Inner Stars and grown-ups a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle!
BRAND NEW, this year, you will find:
Garage Band, Academy Idol, Music Together, Songbirds and Singer Songwriter. Click on these to go straight to our Summer Camp Web Page!
Also the return of some Old Favorites:
Piano Prep, Beginning Piano, Guitar Hero & Pop Star! Click on these to find out more!
Finally, a Special Offer - Save $50!
On our Brand New Academy Idol and Garage Band when you register by May 15!
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Mon, Mar 12, 2012 @ 10:57 AM
I hope that you have found the last 7 weeks of blogs on Early Childhood Music Education and Development enlightening and practical as you seek to provide the best parenting and opportunities for your child. As an Early Childhood Music Specialist and Enthusiast, I'm taking this blog to jump up on my soap box and share with you why I am so passionate about Early Childhood Music Education and why the Champaign School of Music will be offering FREE Early Childhood Family Music Classes Mar26-Apr 4 as an introduction to our BRAND NEW Family Music Classes for Babies, Toddlers & Preschoolers called MUSIC TOGETHER®.
1. Happy, Musical Children CAN grow into Happy, Musical Adults
As I mentioned earlier, it has always seemed strange to me that we perceive children to be musically gifted but somehow think that we, the adults, often are not. Especially as research shows us that Music Aptitude is evenly distributed throughout the population, giving 84% of us average to high musical aptitude at birth. Why this discrepancy?
As children we enjoy music immensely, we participate in it by bobbing and dancing and cooing and singing. We are fascinated by instruments and a variety of sounds. When I watch a baby toddler or preschooler making music in the Music Together classes I teach in Chicago, their faces become alive with pure delight. Their eyes are bright, their smiles large, and they are bouncing around energetically. Wouldn't it be incredible if our happy, musical children could grow into happy, musical adults who enjoy participating in music and can do so confidently?Children who participate in Music Together classes throughout their early childhood will have the opportunity to achieve this!
2. Birth to Age 5 is the Best time to Develop Your Child's Talent
Though musical skill is something you can develop into old age, the "sweet spot" of time to begin developing it is between birth and 5 years old. This is when a child's musical potential is the most malleable and open to influence. Developing musical aptitude during this "sweet spot" will empower them to achieve their highest potential later on. By age 9 a child's neurological pathways are well on their way to maturing and though they may continue to gain skill, their aptitude stabilizes. Like muscle strength, musical aptitude atrophies if not properly enhanced and exercised. Wouldn't it be incredible to see our children achieve the music potential they were born with! Music Together classes empower a child to achieve his potential.
3. U.S. Children can enjoy the same Musical Development as Children from other more Active Music Making Cultures.
In ideal conditions, most children can achieve basic music competence - sing in pitch and keep a steady beat - around the same time they are achieving competence in language and gaining control over their bodies - around age 3-4. However, because our culture's lifestyle does not, generally, include active music on a daily basis, many US children are developmentally delayed in music by 2-5 years. A recent research study showed that 50% of elementary children ages 5-10, in the United states, could not find their singing voices! Wouldn't it be great to give our children the opportunity to achieve basic musical skills as soon as they are capable - at 3-4 yrs? We have such a wealth of opportunity, through Music Together, to change that.
4. It helps your child achieve their potential in many other areas of Life!
In addition to musical skills, early childhood music education helps to develop a host of other essential skills such as motor skills, reasoning skills and logic skills. A 2 year preschool study done in Bridgeport, CT showed that children who participated in 2 years of Music Together classes showed statistically significant gains in the areas of cognitive, language and physical development as well as social and emotional vs the control group who were not given the opportunity to participate in music classes for 2 years. Our children have the potential to excel in every part of their lives. Music Together classes can help them!
Last week, I enjoyed a conversation with a mom of one of our 5 year old piano students. After I complimented her on his flawless recital performance, she listed off every early childhood musical activity he had been involved in since birth and concluded by saying, now, not only does he love making music but he is incredible in math and easily memorizes.
SO - I am passionate about excellence in early childhood music education, and specifically Music Together classes, because it empowers chidren and gives them opportunities to:
- Grow into happy musical adults that enjoy making music confidently
- Achieve the musical potential they were born with
- Enjoy achieving basic musical skills when they are, naturally, developmentally capable and not be 2-3 years behind
- Achieve their potential in many other life enriching areas
- Have LOADS of FUN with their Parents!
Between March 26 and April 5, the Champaign School of Music will be offering FREE Music Together Classes - Family Music Making for Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers and their Parents. Click Here, to try out a free class. Spots are limited so Click Here Now.
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Fri, Mar 02, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
A quality early childhood music program will stimulate your child's inate music intelligence and enable him to make the connections necessary to fully enjoy and realize his talent in later years. However, there is so much you can do at home. Here is Part 2 of: 4 Easy Ways to Nurture Your Child's Musical Talent at Home!
3. Dance and Make Up Movements or use the simple moves you learn in class. Children love to move and bounce to music. If they are too little to walk, you can bounce them on your knee, rock them in your lap, pick them up and sway or dance around the room. This will be lots of fun as well as teach them about space, weight and different qualities of movement such as bouncy and smooth. Do not move their legs or their arms for them. This will interfer with their ability to feel and interpret the music. If they are older, you can sit facing and holding hands while rocking to the side, play patty cake, stomp feet, dance, twirl, gallop, hop, etc. There is no end to the options and again they will be delighted to suggest the next move. Your class teacher will model a variety of movements that you can incorporate in your play at home.
4. Use a Song Book like a Story Book. If your CD is accompanied by a song book, use it as a story book and follow along as you listen to the music. Look at the notation, talk about the pictures that accompany each song, utilize some of the suggestions for at-home adaptations of the song. Over time it is likely that your child will page through the book on their own and sing the songs that go with each page. They may even put the book on the piano and start "playing" the songs. Whether their rendition is accurate is not important. What is important is that they are making connections between the notation on the page and the song it represents. Its very much like "reading" a favorite book to a teddy bear: the internal connection between page and content is a signifiant pre-literacy milestone.
Remember, that you can use the songbook like a story book as part of your bedtime ritual too. Page through it, singing one or two favorite songs and then end with a lullaby. This will help end your child's day with a sense of loving closeness.
Share some of your favorite At-Home Music Activities by commenting on this blog!
Find additional information on the philosophy & method of our brand new Early Childhood classes at: www.MusicTogether.com
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 @ 10:04 AM
Lucky is the child who's parent enrolls him in a quality Early Childhood Music Program in Champaign Urbana. A quality early childhood music program will stimulate your child's inate music intelligence and enable him to make the connections necessary to fully enjoy and realize his talent in later years. However, attending music class once or twice a week can only achieve so much. Imagine the result if the only exposure your child had to language during his formative years was in a language class once or twice a week.....What an awful thought!
As a parent you are very keen to model and communicate with your child verbally. Through you and your families' modeling, communication and non stop encouragement your child's language aptitude grows and gradually she assimilates her native tongue. You can do the same with music. Through modeling, communicating and playing musically with your child, not only will her aptitude grow and she will gradully assimilate the musical language, you and her will form a strong bond that can encompass the whole family. Here are 4 Simple ways that you can playfully empower your child's musical abilities and create a strong bond within the family.
1. Listen to high quality children's music as a family (as well as high quality adult music) while in the car, during play time, as background music for dinner and so forth. High quality children's music will simulate high quality adult music but in a format that is more easily accessible to children. It will include music that, in music lingo, combines a variety of tonalities such as major, minor and dorian as well as various meters such as duple and triple. It will include a variety of styles, dynamics and tempos and, very importantly, be in a pitch range that children can vocalize to. One good example of this is: Music Together's Family Favorites. Its won 31 awards for excellence in music education.
2. Sing Together whether you can sing in tune or not! Your child will clue into your enthusiasm and modeling not your accuracy in pitch! Sing with the CD or turn it off. Choose songs that are adaptable to every day situations and make up your own verses. Your young child will be delighted to help you create new lyrics and his older siblings will provide a steady stream of suggestions should your ideas slow. This is part of the play. Words can be silly and nonsensical. Your child will laugh and so will you. Again, you don't need to be a lyricist to create new verses. Your Early Childhood Music class teacher will model how to do this by incorporating your child's ideas in class. Finally, sing to your child as they go to sleep. They will enjoy going to bed much more when you start with a song!
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog coming this Friday, Mar 2! In the mean time, share some of your favorite At Home Music Activities with us!
Find additional information on the philosophy & method of our brand new Early Childhood classes at: www.MusicTogether.com
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 @ 09:30 AM
There are many parallels between how your child learns to talk and how she or he learns to sing. These processes happen organically. Although it takes several years for a child to move from babbling to saying words to speaking two-word sentences, she passes through all these stages in a seemingly effortless way; she seems to know how to teach herself these skills through imitation and practice.
At first many of her efforts are difficult to understand: "dog" may sound like "daw", for example, and grammatical errors are common. But gradually, by about the age of three or four, your child's speech becomes both intelligible and correct.
It's important for parents to recognize that musical growth also occurs in stages. Children pass through a "music babble" stage in which their movements and sounds don't necessarily seem truly musical - they are off the beat and not quite in tune. Over time, through observation and imitation, your child gradually aligns her music expression with the on-beat and in-tune models she experiences.
You, as the parent, instinctively translate your child's language attempts and offer a lot of support. Your child says "Ba," and you may ask, "Do you want a bottle?" You help shape your child's language experience through your interest and invovlement. But you may worry that you won't know how to recognize or suport emerging music behaviors.
It's simple!: the best way to support musical growth is to engage in music activity. Keep encouraging and celebrating your child's efforts, even though it may take a while for his music potential to develop. Remember that a certain amount of physical maturation - and a lot of playful "practice" - is necessary before your child can learn to sing in tune and move with accurate rhythm.
With our brand new Early Childhood Music Program - Music Together®, your child can attend class for three full years before cycling back to repeat his first song collection. Children typically experience two or three song collections per school year, learning from fifty to seventy-five songs in that time. This continued exposure to music-making provides plenty of opportunity for the playful exploration and experimentation that lead to learning. Hopefully you will have the opportunity to participate in our program however, next week, we'll explore the most important things you can do at home to nurture your child's music talent and development.
Find additional information on the philosophy & method of our brand new Early Childhood classes at: www.MusicTogether.com
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Fri, Feb 10, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
Thus far, we've explored 3 of the Essentiall Principles every parent of a baby, toddler or preschooler in Champaign Urbana should know in order to create a musically rich enviroment and nurture their child's innate musical intelligence. In the previous blog we explored the Third Essential Principle: Participation and Modeling of Parents and Primary Caregivers is Essential! In today's article, we will explore #4 - A playful, musically rich and non-performance-oriented learning environment is best! Here's a recap of the Top 4 Prinicples.
- All Children are Musical
- All Children can acquire basic Music Skills and enjoy making music!
- Participation and modeling of Parents and Primary Caregivers is essential!
- A playful, musically rich and non-performance-oriented learning environment is best!
A Playful, Musically Rich and Non-Performance-Oriented Learning Environment is Best!
Young children learn best in a non-formal envinronment: one that's free from expectations of performance pressure and undue interference with their natural sense of fun. Simply, children learn through playing! As adults, who live in performance oriented environments, it is often difficult to let go of performance oriented expectations even for our young children. However at this stage its all about The Process. If we combine the 4 Essential Principles: 1. belief in our child's innate musical intelligence, 2. belief that they can achieve Basic Music Competency, 3. active, enthusiastic music making modeling 4. a musically rich, non-performance-oriented environment with Patience and Consistentcy, in time, our children will achieve in music like they do in language.
In addition to creating an ideal music learning environment, we must also be respectful and aware of the different learning styles of young child. This will help us form effective expectations for our child's responses and interaction with musically rich activities. Again, as adults who have attended multiple educational institutions where we sit in a classroom, take notes, ask questions and produce results oriented demonstrations of our understanding, we are often perplexed when our child does not do the same in response to an educational activity or class. In general, you have probably noticed that some children jump right in while others prefer to observe. More specifically, different children learn best by:
- listening while actively moving around the room
- observing and listening while staying glued to their spot
- trying to actively imitate their parent and teacher vocally, physically, or both
It is not uncommon for parents to mistakenly attribute the first two learning styles to a lack of interest or attention however it is not. Often a very young child's musically related responses, unless drawn attention to by the teacher, are missed by parents. Toddlers and preschoolers, who's learning styles fall into the first two examples, and seemingly were not paying attention, will often repeat, sing, hum and dance to songs, they've heard, several hours later and throughout the following week.
By providing musically rich activities that enable our children to play and by respecting their various ways of learning and absorbing, we enable them to discover, explore and develop their own, innate musical intelligence. Next week, we'll talk about how your child's music development parallels their language development.
Find additional information on the philosophy & method of our brand new Early Childhood classes at: www.MusicTogether.com
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Fri, Feb 03, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
In the next several blogs, we will continue to explore the four essential principles every parent of a baby, toddler or preschooler in Champaign Urbana should know in order to create a musically rich enviroment and nurture their child's innate musical intelligence. In the previous blog we explored the Second Essential Principle: All Children can acquire basic Music Skills and enjoy making music! In today's article, we will explore #3 - Participation and Modeling of Parents and Primary Caregivers is Essential! Here's a recap of the Top 4 Prinicples.
- All Children are Musical
- All Children can acquire basic Music Skills and enjoy making music!
- Participation and modeling of Parents and Primary Caregivers is essential!
- A playful, musically rich and non-performance-oriented learning environment is best!
Participation and Modeling by Parents and Primary Caregivers is Essential!
Often parents are worried that their "lack" of musical ability may damage their child's musical future and therefore, are reticent to actively sing or dance in front of their child. This, sadly, is a huge misconception. Enthusiastic musical interation with a parent or caregiver is what develops child's music making skills and interest in making music.
Its generally understood that the best way to help your child become a good reader is to model reading yourself and to read to them. The same is true for singing and dancing. Being an enthusiastic music maker is the best thing you can do to develop your child's musical intelligence and love for music at home and/or in an age appropriate music class. "But wait!", you may say in a panic. "If I enroll in a music class, do I have to make music in front of other parents?"
Do not worry! A good music class will create a completely safe, no "mistake" environment for parents to enthusiastically model music making for their children as well as enable them, the parents, to explore their inner rock star or ballarina. In such a class, many parents discover a new sense of musicality and rediscover their love of music. They often find themselves joining a choir or picking up that old instrument they haven't touched since high school.
Through your enthusiastic example, children learn that music making is fun, their natural curiousity is heightened and they become absorbed in making music themselves. This is further aided by a music class curriculum that creates a recipe for musical growth by combining: natural music intelligence, a rich mix of tonalities, meters, and musical styles and lots of enthusiastic grown up participation. The final ingredient is the 4th essential point: a child's musical growth is best achieved in a playful, musically, rich and non-performance-oriented learning environment.
Find additional information on the philosophy & method of our brand new Early Childhood classes at: www.MusicTogether.com
Posted by Holly Kennedy on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
In the next several blogs, we will continue to explore the four essential principles every parent of a baby, toddler or preschooler in Champaign Urbana should know in order to create a musically rich enviroment and nurture their child's innate musical intelligence. In the previous blog we explored the First Essential Principle: All Children are Musical. In today's article, we will explore #2 - All Children can acquire Basic Music Skills (Competence) and enjoy making music! Here's a recap of the Top 4 Principles:
- All Children are Musical
- All Children can acquire basic Music Skills and enjoy making music!
- Participation and modeling of Parents and Primary Caregivers is essential!
- A playful, musically rich and non-performance-oriented learning environment is best!
All Children can achieve Basic Music Competence (BMC)
Back to our wedding guest adult who can't dance on beat and our enthusiastic choir member who can't sing in tune....If all children can achieve basic musical competence, ie move with accurate rhythm and sing in tune, why don't they grow into adults that can do the same?
Unfortunately many of us have not had the opportunity to grow in a rich music making environment. This is necessary for music learning to occur!
Gone are the days when the family gathered around the piano and made music together. Nowadays, most children experience music passively through the TV or CD. While this is important to a well rounded music education, only active music-making experiences develop basic musical competence.
In cultures where active music making such as singing and dancing is still part of daily life, children generally achieve basic music competence about the same time they become competent in their language - about ages 3-4. They are fortunate to have a musical environment that is as interactive and rich as their language environment.
In our culture, lacking the musically rich environment, children, often, don't learn to sing in tune until age 5 or 6. Many never learn though it would have come naturally if they had been given the opportunity to experience and experiment with developmentally appropriate musical activities. This is an unnecessary loss of our childens's natural talent and intelligence. The lack of a rich, interactive environment is why musically gifted children turn into musically incompetent adults.
In order to counter this and nurture your child's musical intelligence, parents with the help of effective early childhood music classes and teachers must give children the opportunity to actively explore "making" music through a collection of sung and recorded songs that include not only a broad range of styles: folk, jazz, lyrical, world music but also various tonalities and meters.
Just as importantly, these musical experiences must be presented in a relaxed, playful setting that is ideal for learning. Fundamental to this environment is the parents' active participation and modeling because the child learns best from his parents and caregivers. This brings us to the third point and topic of next week's blog: The participation of Parents & Primary Caregivers is essential to a child's musical growth!
Find additional information on the philosophy & method of our brand new Early Childhood classes at: www.MusicTogether.com