Enjoy part 2 of my chat with Liz!

I ain’t gonna lie – the only musical talent I have is starting up my Pandora.com app every morning on my iPhone!  Because of this, one of the things our family (hubby included) liked the most about Music Together is the very casual, open atmosphere that felt more like play than performance.  We learned to happily sing along whether in tune, or not. How important is it that parents participate in class with their child?

Well you have really pinpointed the true success of this program…  It doesn’t matter if you think you can’t sing in tune, your child loves to hear your voice.  And the true success of this program IS the adults singing, and participating wholeheartedly in our classes.  It is non-performance based, and a very fun and relaxed atmosphere where the children learn at their own pace and the curriculum is age appropriate.  We encourage the adults in the room to strongly model everything that we do, from singing to modeling the movements with each song.  The children copy everything the adults do.  We’ve discovered that if the adults don’t do it, the children won’t either.  It’s fascinating to see the results of that.  They also learn from the other children in the room, but the adults are their role models and their greatest music teachers.   We often see amazing reactions from the children when the adults in the room are having a blast singing.  What greater joy could you give your child than their catching mom or dad singing to their hearts content and can see the fun that they are having.  This semester we had the “Sad Little Puppy” song, and some of the moms & dads were really into “howling” like a dog during the chorus and the children thought this was hysterical.

As a trained public school teacher, I’ve seen the arts diminish from the core curriculum first hand L As a parent, it’s made me that much more motivated to provide music and other art experiences for M as a toddler and now preschooler.  How important is it, really, to provide music experiences like Music Together for young children?

It is so sad to hear that the arts are the first thing to go in schools when they consider budget cuts.  For me who has found music to be one of the most important parts of my life, I shiver at the thoughts of music being cut from schools.  We know that music learning supports ALL learning and most recently we have some more concrete evidence to prove this.  In fact for the past few years there has been a project in Bridgeport, CT called the Action for Bridgeport Community Development (ABCD) whereby they introduced the arts to “some” children in the preschool grades and evaluated their findings.  Music Together was the chosen music component for this project.  An independent evaluation study was conducted by the Michael Cohen group over the course of the year and reported that the children who received the Music Together program made significantly greater progress in the cognitive, language and physical developmental domains than did the four year olds in the classrooms that did not participate in the program.

Considering this data, the conclusions counter the current trend in schools to reduce or eliminate music and the arts from schools.  When the facts clearly show tremendous benefits from the arts – shouldn’t we be moving towards adding more arts to our schools instead of taking them away?  Imagine what the results from this study when music is introduced even earlier and on a consistent basis.

When the facts clearly show tremendous benefits from the arts – shouldn’t we be moving towards adding more arts to our schools instead of taking them away?

Imagine a child not having the arts introduced to them, how could they ever know that music was their calling, and they could even be the next Beethoven, or Van Gough or just simply miss out on developing a love for the arts.  Imagine our lives without music and the people who bring that to us.  So I say if they are cutting music from your schools, or not introduce it in the early years, go out and find it and bring it into your child’s life.

We want our children to appreciate music, and if we don’t introduce it to them in a way where they can “make” music they may never experience that great joy that it can bring.  We have become more music “consumers” in this day and age, rather than “Music Makers”.  In fact,  this is one of Music Together’s greatest goals: to be “makers’ of music and to enjoy singing with a community of people the way it was done in the olden days where people gathered around pianos, and campfires to sing songs.  We need to foster this in our children and have them hand down those traditions to their children, too.

I know that Music Together is not “performance based.”  Out of curiosity, at what age is a child ready to start playing an instrument?

This is one of our top questions.  While there is no hard and fast rule, most music teachers recommend that a child be 6 or 7 years old, generally speaking.   However, when a child has started an early childhood music program such as Music Together at a young age, they may have developed basic music competence (singing in tune, and keeping accurate rhythm) and may be ready sooner than 6.  These are important skills to have developed before being ready to play an instrument.  There are many questions of readiness that only a parent and the music teacher can answer, which also may include the choice of instrument (eg. piano vs. violin).  Do you think your child can sit for a half hour lesson, and can they practice everyday for that length of time? If you are thinking about this for your child, speak to a music teacher first and you can work together to make the right decision for your child.

How would you say that Music Together is different than some other music programs for children and their families?

Music Together is considered a “gold standard” in an early childhood education program.  It was founded in 1987 by Kenneth Guilmartin and his co-founder Lili Levinowitz, Ph.D.  The curriculum is research based, and through research and feedback this program just keeps striving to be of the highest standard in early childhood education.  Our teachers are highly trained and each semester attend workshops to prepare them for our new material and to learn how to develop and sharpen their teaching and music skills.  Also, because we have mixed age classes, mom can bring more than one child to our classes.  Other programs often break up classes by age, and if there’s a 10 month old and a 3 year old in the same family,  they have to go to separate classes, which is just difficult to manage. Plus, I mentioned earlier the great success in having mixed aged classes!

Another difference to other music programs out there is that we have a CD and a book that a family takes home each semester.  That means about 27 new songs to add to their repertoire each semester.  And there are 9 collections of new cds, so in a 3 year period a family will not repeat the same collection of songs.   Other programs out there do not have as vast a curriculum that stems over a 3 year span, and may not have a CD and book to accompany their program spanning that length of time.   Our families have told us that they adore the music that we introduce.  It’s fun and sophisticated enough to keep the adults coming back to this program semester after semester.  We introduce music from all over the world with unusual tonalities and rhythms that is not typically on children’s albums or programs.

Music Together is national and international, right?!  Where do interested families go from here to join Music Together?

Yes, Music Together is an international program with centers popping up all around the world now.  Music Together is in just about every town in the US.  For Music Together classes in the Greater New Haven area, families can find me at www.MusicalFolk.com.   I hold classes in New Haven, Hamden, Woodbridge, Branford and Madison and we have many free demonstration classes coming up in early September for our 10 week fall semester that our listed on my website.  We would love to have families join us for these free demos and to see first hand what happens in our classes.

For classes in other locations families can go to www.MusicTogether.com and click on class locator to find a location near their home.

Click here to watch a YouTube video about Music Together

Thanks to Kim at kidHaven for the opportunity to share information about this wonderful program! ~Liz

You already know that kidHaven is a fan of Music Together.  It’s no surprise then, that I tracked down New Haven’s Music Together guru, Liz McNicholl, to talk shop.  We got a little carried away, so this is part one of two of our chit chat Enjoy!

Before we talk shop, I wanna know more about you!  Tell us a little about yourself and how you started Musical Folk in New Haven, and the Music Together® program?

I’m originally from a small village in Ireland where I realized at a very young age that music was a huge part of my life.  Many of Ireland’s youth back in the 80’s were immigrating to the States due to lack of employment.  So in 1987 at the age of 18, I headed to New York.  Believe it or not, for many years I was in the corporate world and was assistant manager in the billing department at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in NYC.  When my husband and our two young boys moved to CT, I found that I wanted to spend more time with my children so I left my position in NY and returned to my “Musical Life”.  I’ve played in many groups over the years and have my own folk/American band here in CT called the Crickstones.

Six years ago, I started working for Music Together® of Fairfield County part-time in their office and fell in love with this program.  I decided that I wanted to teach Music Together® and went to their training workshop.  I remember my first day at the workshop calling my husband and saying “this is what I want to do forever”.  I never really understood the power of music until I attended the workshop.  It’s there that I learned the value of introducing music early in a child’s life, the earlier the better.  Little did I realize that I would own a Music Together center in a few years time.  In 2008 we moved from Norwalk to Hamden, and I discovered that the New Haven Music Together was for sale and my dream of running the Music Together program in this area became a reality.  I do business under the name “Musical Folk”, but offer the Music Together program as well as instrument lesson offerings.  I am so excited to say that I now have Music Together classes in five locations; New Haven, Hamden, Woodbridge, Branford and Madison.

I feel so lucky to have found this program and being able to make music everyday and share this love with families and young children is a dream come true for me.  I never imagined that music would be my career.

We learned about Music Together when we moved to Connecticut and signed right up!  For us new kids on the block it was a great way for us to meet other families, but tell us, what is the premise behind Music Together classes?

Most families do come to Music Together to get to know other families but quickly find the benefits for their child are vast, and keep on returning each semester.  Music Together’s philosophy is that all children are musical and it is their birthright to sing and dance.  Most people think that music is an innate talent.  While some are given special talents, music really is a learned skill and we can all achieve what’s called “basic music competence,” which is to sing in tune and keep accurate rhythm, provided we are in a rich musical background on a consistent basis.  Introducing music at a really young age is an important part of achieving this when the early critical periods of brain development are happening, between the ages of newborns through 5. While attending one semester of our classes is great, the real benefits are truly seen when a child has consistently attended for many semesters.  Each semester a child will pick up new concepts that perhaps they weren’t ready for 2 semesters ago, storing all their experiences  in their brain, and  it may take a few semesters to connect all the pieces.

Music Together’s philosophy is that all children are musical and it is their birthright to sing and dance

We really want to foster singing together as a community and to be music makers, rather than music consumers.  While it is fun to listen to music, to experience the joy of “making music” is something very different and has incredible value (besides all the fun).  In our classes, there is a strong sense of community, singing & dancing together.  We often make up verses to songs, we ask for different ideas on ways to move for our large movement songs, and draw on the children’s and adults creativity in the room.  Everyone brings something different to the table each week.   And a lifetime of musical memories and a special bond is created, that you and your child will often reflect on over the years.

Describe what a typical Music Together class is like?

Well first and foremost, it is an incredible amount of fun for the whole family, teaching families music and movement activities to do at home as well as in class.  We have mixed ages classes, which consists of children ages newborns through 5 with their mom/dad/grandparent or caregiver.  Because we have mixed age classes, the caregiver can bring siblings to our classes.  There is great success in having mixed aged classes, as the younger ones learn from the older children, and the older ones can thrive on being leaders in the class, and learn important social skills while interacting with different ages.

Our semesters are 10 weeks long, in the fall, winter, spring and a 6 week semester in the summer.  There’s a maximum of 12 children per class.  We also have a babies specific class coming up this fall for newborns through 8 months with their caregiver .   Each family receives a CD (double) and music book.  Every week we sing about 12 songs from that CD.  Did you know that most adults only know a handful of songs?  Most parents want to sing to their children but don’t know where to begin, or have a repertoire of songs to pull from their pockets.  Imagine after just one semester the great number of songs you can sing with your child!

We sing, dance and play instruments such as, egg shakers, sticks, resonator and jingle bells, etc.  Each class has a structure & certain ritual songs (e.g. Hello & Goodbye song), which the children thrive on.  They know that after the instrument play along jam, the lullaby comes next where they snuggle up to their loved one and then it’s the Goodbye song.  The children love the ritual of these songs and we hear parents share with us that their child won’t go to sleep at night without singing the Goodbye song, or a lullaby.

Parents have also shared so many wonderful stories about the benefits of our classes, saying that it’s music from the minute they get up in the morning until they go to bed.  During the day their child will line up all their teddy bears and play “teacher” and sing some of the songs we did in class during the week.  They sing in the kitchen as they make dinner together, and at bathtime.  One nanny shared that the child she takes to class, won’t go to bed until everyone sings the “hello” song.  Or those that can’t even speak yet, can show motions with their hands to their favorite song letting their parent know that they want to hear them sing that song.  So while we meet once a week, the benefits of our classes  last all week long, and music has been woven into their family’s daily lives.

What is the prime age for starting Music Together with a child?

The younger the better.  I can’t emphasize this enough really.  Research has shown that the ideal time to introduce music is between the ages of newborn through 5, particularly babies through 3 years old being the most prime time. They are wired to receive so much at this age and everything is so much easier for them and these are the critical years in brain development before their brain becomes fixed around the age of 6.  Don’t worry, you can still learn music later than this, but introducing music at this young age will help lay down a great foundation of musical concepts.  Children that have taken an early childhood music program for a few years will have many of the basics in place for when they begin thinking about taking on formal instrument instruction (more on that later). But besides the musical learning, we know that music learning supports ALL learning and also benefits them in language development, cognitive, emotional, social and physical motor skills.

Children that have taken an early childhood music program for a few years will have many of the basics in place for when they begin thinking about taking on formal instrument instruction

I am happy to say that many will take music class just because it is so much fun, and they don’t need to hear anything further on the subject, but I know that some folks are interested in hearing the research that has been poured into this area over the centuries.  Scientists have been studying this for years, and while they don’t yet know why young children are particularly drawn to music, they do know that they are ready for music the minute they are born (even while in the womb).

In the Music Together’s headquarters they are constantly doing research and have discovered that a baby can “coo” on the resting tone as early as 3 weeks old.  That’s pretty incredible to those who did not know this, considering they are miles away from even speaking.  In our classes, we hear young babies singing on the resting tone and when we sing our next song in a different key, the baby will be right there singing the resting tone again in that new key, cooing along at different times during the song and when the song ends, singing that resting tone for everyone to hear.  Once you’ve heard them do this, you will be able to recognize that they are doing this all the time, and you can enjoy musical conversations with your baby.

I recently ended a demo class, asking the class for their favorite lullaby.  A 3 year old girl said “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, we were only two lines into the song, when a baby – only 9 months old – started to move her hands, over and over again, towards the sky, as “she” clearly recognized this melody as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.  I told everyone in the class to look at the little baby, and everyone was floored by what they were seeing.  That tells me a number of things, that A) someone has been singing to the baby, and B) the baby at 9 months can recognize the melody even though she can’t yet speak, and even though we were singing different words to the song.  That’s such a powerful recognition and conviction that the earlier you start with your child the better.   I have sung “Baa, baa black sheep” in several classes since then, and asked if anyone knows other songs that have the same melody.  Not too many could tell me, but yet the 9 month old baby who couldn’t speak could!

…to be continued tomorrow!