Children’s Musicianship Classes

The Music School offers fun music classes to children from babies up to age 11 years. The classes provide the starting point in a child’s musical education. Using singing games, puppets and percussion instruments, they offer young children the opportunity to gain a thorough grounding in basic musical concepts and skills in a fun and exciting way, helping to build confidence, improving concentration and developing social skills.

The classes offer a comprehensive musical training programme open to all children regardless of background and skills. The structured programme is based upon the guidelines set down by Kodaly and is concerned with the development of the whole child as an individual. Zoltan Kodaly was a Hungarian composer and educationalist, who believed that musical education should start as early as possible, even “nine months before birth”. He believed strongly that music is for everyone and that singing should be the foundation of music education. The use of the voice is paramount in the Kodaly approach to teaching music. Every child can be taught to sing and singing without the aid of an instrument leads to highly developed aural skills. Through a programme of singing games and rhymes, the child’s inner hearing and memory is developed. In other words, just as one learns to speak first and then read and write later, so the sound is taught first before the symbols. The developed inner ear will then be able to recall the sounds when they are presented later as symbols.

In our musicianship classes, all work is inclusive – we believe that every child is able to make music to a high level of achievement. Moreover the main emphasis is on fun! At the early stage we start with unconscious learning. While playing games and having fun, the children are unaware that they are learning vital musicianship skills and absorbing things that will never leave them. They then move on to conscious learning where musical concepts are introduced and then continue to be reinforced.

What are the benefits?

• • • The positive benefits of music on the child’s development are immense. Active participation in singing games and music activities enhances social skills and the forming of positive relationships, discipline, self-esteem and confidence, creativity, reasoning skills, listening skills, spatial awareness, memory, co-ordination, concentration, fluency of speech and a better understanding and use of language.
    • Children and parents are having fun together and meeting new friends.
    • Activities are inclusive. Every child can participate at his or her own level, which in turn promotes self-confidence and self-esteem.