What is Music Together^®?

What is Music Together?

• A fun family music program for parents and children ages birth – 5 years.
• A high quality, developmentally appropriate research-based curriculum with playful activities.

You are your child's best teacher.

• Parent participation – regardless of the parents’ own ability – is essential to creating the stimulating musical environment that all children need to develop their musical intelligence.

Children learn best through play.

• Children participate at their own level and when they are ready. 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 semesters
• Three semesters per year
• Shorter summer term
• Mixed-age classes of up to 12 children

Basic Class Activities

• Singing
• Rhythmic chants, like nursery rhymes said in rhythm
• Creative movement – developmentally appropriate movements for the whole body
• Instrument play (including a Play Along jam session)

Are the Same Songs Used Every Semester?

No. Each 10 week semester uses a different song collection. There are nine song collections, or 3 years worth.

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. Mixed-age classrooms also promote social skills and self-esteem.
• The classes have more of a family feel. Siblings can participate together, as well as mom, dads, grandparents, and caregivers. (No need to get a baby sitter).
• 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.

I’m Not Musical. Can I Really Help My Child Develop Musical Intelligence?

Yes!!
• A parent is a child’s most important teacher.
• Research has shown that children learn their disposition toward music from their primary caregiver.
• A parent who has difficulty singing in tune can still teach his or her
• child that music is fun and important by modeling enthusiastic participation.
• Experiencing music in the class, at live concerts, and on recordings will teach the child to discern accurate pitch and rhythm, so the “non-musical” parent can relax about that aspect.

Do Infants Really Benefit?

Yes!!
• Infants’ participation will seem passive at first, but they are actively absorbing what they are seeing hearing, and feeling.
• 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.

My brother who lives in another state takes his children to Music Together, is it the same program?

Yes. Music Together is a national research-based program founded in 1987 for the Center for Music and Young Children (CMYC) in Princeton, NJ. Music Together classes are happening all over the country and even internationally. We are all singing the same songs. What a wonderful music community!