Music Together Fresno-Clovis

Where infants and toddlers meet music!
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Frequently Asked Questions

 

Q. What are Music Together Fresno-Clovis classes like?

A. Twelve children and their parents or caregivers meet weekly in 45-minute sessions for ten weeks to experience new songs, chants, movement activities, and instrumental jam sessions. Both adults and children sit in the circle and participate together, led by a teacher with early childhood and music skills. The teacher helps adults understand how to participate and the importance of relaxing and enjoying the activities with their children.             

Children have may opportunities to create and to play - making up rhythm patterns, making up new words to songs, making up movements to express a sound. Some children will simply sit and "study" the experience, as they absorb the musically rich environment. Other children will sing, play, and dance freely, because they are in a comfortable, encouraging environment and because they know the songs and chants from the songbook and tapes they take home from the class. Each class has standard songs that the children will enjoy and get to know each week, such as the "Hello Song," the instrumental "Play-Along," a lullaby, and the "Goodbye Song." Eight to ten other experiences are included in each class, ranging from free movement to songs in unusual meters.

The enjoyment doesn't stop when the class is over. Each semester families receive a song collection and recording of original compositions and traditional songs performed by outstanding singers and instrumentalists. The children will often ask to hear the Music Together® tape in the car and a home, or when friends come over to play. The songbook often comes out at bedtime or naptime and can be used as a storybook. Parents are encouraged to "read" the songs, even if they don't read music. At home, parents will also enjoy their children singing parts of Music Together songs and dancing spontaneously to music.

Years after your child takes a Music Together® class, he or she will still remember the "Hello Song" and other favorites. Parents of former students tell us: "We still have those tapes!" With a childhood of Music Together® experiences, your child will be among the young people  who have a deep-seated love of music-making.              

 Photo: E. Garvey

 

Q. May I bring both my 3-year-old and my 10 month-old children to class together?

A. Yes you may! Music Together has a mixed age concept philosophy and is designed for children anywhere from birth up to 5 years old. We are about family music, and in a family we are not all the same age or the same size, but all have a musical experience together. Studies show that it is beneficial for the little ones to see what their older siblings can do, and that it is equally beneficial for the confidence of the older siblings to experience feeling a little like a role model themselves!

 

 

Q. What if I don’t sing well or in tune? Will my model of not being in tune be detrimental to my own child’s sense of pitch and musicality?

A. Even if you don’t sing particularly well, (and most people have the ability to sing better than they think they do!), your singing and participation is a key element in nurturing your child’s musical growth. It is possible to teach anybody a skill. But only the people that we love and with whom we have an emotional bond can pass along the disposition to love to do something. For those of us whose parents enjoyed and participated in making music, that disposition is passed along to us. Your child will absorb the music from class that you are playing at home and in the car and will also absorb the music while in class, where most people are singing right in tune. Your child will be able to develop a right sense of pitch from these.

 

 

Q. My child is very enthusiastic about the music at home, singing, moving, and having a ball! But when they come to class they are very shy. Why don’t they participate more in class?

A. We know that most of the children will do about a hundred times more at home than they do in class. That is very much the norm, and in fact shows how much they are learning! Most of us, even as adults, will do more in private than we will in public in front of our “peers.” Children are no different! More importantly, class is where the children are taking everything in. They do this in a multi-layered way, through listening, through watching, through movement, by playing instruments and dancing, or simply by being there and absorbing it at another level. The most important actual participation in class is your own participation because you are their most important role model. Then you will see at home how very much they are learning in class!

 

Q. Is my child too young to learn music?

A. From the time children are born, they are immersed in the language of our culture. That is how they learn to talk and walk. In Music Together, your child becomes immersed in the music of their culture. That is how they will learn to sing!

 

 

Q. What if my child doesn’t pay attention in class and roams around?

A. Our children absorb learning how to walk and talk from being immersed in the atmosphere of people who are walking and talking. It is the same natural and gradual process in Music Together, only with music. Additionally, each child has their own unique learning style. Some children are more visual learners, some learn more by listening, and some are kinesthetic learners. For those children who learn through movement, and it is just fine if they do so in class, just as long as it is safe behavior. In Music Together, we encourage and acknowledge each child’s need to learn in their own way, at their own level, and at their own pace.