|
What's so special about Musical Steps? Not all music classes are the same, and we stand out from the crowd because we offer a quality educational experience that is so much more than a simple singsong. We don't use commercial backing tracks (which actually get in the way of children's learning), but instead we use our voices, our musical expertise and specially written songs and activities to teach important concepts and skills whilst still providing a fun-filled, magical time.
A significant amount of theory and technical know-how goes into the development of the classes and makes them tick, but the beauty of it is that you'd never know that when you’re participating - the classes run smoothly, it’s all fantastic fun and the time flies by.
The 'hidden' technical elements in our classes are not particularly obvious to an untrained musician, but in amongst all the fun and laughter there is a solid foundation of first-class music teaching, based the world-renowned Kodaly, Dalcroze, Suzuki methods, and we provide an excellent preparation for learning a musical instrument by teaching pitch, rhythm and musical notation. Other music classes often lack this depth and expertise, which is a real shame and a missed opportunity.
A typical Musical Steps class includes the following:
- · innovative musical games
- · singing: traditional songs and original Musical Steps songs
- · percussion playing
- · movement
- · listening activities
- All of these activities are age-appropriate, educational, and most of all - fun! Pre-school children are also introduced to simple composition and musical notation.
Here’s a bit more about the theory and ‘guiding principles’ behind Musical Steps:
having fun: Absolutely everyone can and should enjoy making music, and the earlier you start, the better.
keeping it simple: Everything we do in class is at the children’s level and can easily be done at home too.
unaccompanied singing: Instrumental accompaniments can be fun, but they make it very difficult for young children to distinguish the melody and learn to sing in tune, so we sing unaccompanied in the classes and encourage you to do the same at home.
making music together: Music is learned by listening and imitating, so parents and carers join in the fun. It’s amazing how much your child will learn from you, and no expertise is necessary - we’ll show you what to do.
listening: This core life-skill is encouraged and developed through all of our activities and is fundamental to music-making.
moving: We stretch & wiggle, skip & dance, tiptoe & stamp and jump & fly until we really feel the rhythm, the beat, the structure and the mood of the music.
singing simple repetitive melodies: Very simple, repetitive melodies help the children to ‘tune in’ with increasing accuracy as their vocal control and sense of pitch develop.
feeling the pulse/beat: Our activities encourage tapping, bouncing, walking, playing etc. to the beat.
using music by great musicians: We love to move, play and respond freely to a wide range of music.
|
