Each fun-filled class is split by age and develops core music skills through singing, instrument play, dancing, creative movement and listening. Our curriculum is founded upon extensive research and the philosophies of three of Europe's most significant music educators; Kodaly, Dalcroze and Orff.

Multi-age family class 0-4 years

This class is offered to families who are unable to schedule a class for each child's specific age. Our cutting-edge curriculum provides a unique interactive musical experience for families with newborn babies, toddlers and preschool children. The foundations of musical learning are informally laid with the introduction of beat, rhythm, loud and soft, high and low, fast and slow through multi-sensory, age appropriate activities that emphasize melodic and rhythmic development and enhance the whole child's development.

What do we do in the 3-11 month class?
 
Smiles, gurgles & coos result from the bouncing rhymes, lullabies and dances with a strong beat, experienced by both adult & infant. The foundations of musical learning are informally laid with the introduction of loud and soft, high and low, fast and slow through multi-sensory activities using bubbles, scarves and puppets.The focus is on stimulating babies' natural response to music and enhancing all areas of infant development such as gross motor skills and concentration.

What do we do in the 1-2 year class? 
  
Children and parents are immersed in a musical world of discovery as skills & activities from the 3-12 months class are built upon and designed to bridge the natural connection between music, movement, and early learning.
The focus is on developing a strong sense of beat whilst musical concepts such as high/low, loud/soft, fast/slow are experienced through engaging multi-sensory activities. Creative dance develop a sense of balance, timing and spatial awareness while affirming the young child's urge to move.

What do we do in the 2-3 year class?

Each week children are taken on an imaginary adventure where they continue to explore musical concepts further using balls, hoops and instruments. Children meet the rhythm bears for the first time who introduce the basis of rhythmic development. Interactive role play games develop social skills, creativity, confidence and self-esteem whilst encourageing children to become independent of their parents
The focus is on developing anticipation and timing whilst puppets gently encourage each child to find their own special voice - their first musical instrument.

What do we do in the 3-4 year class? 

Classes evolve seamlessly from the toddler sessions into more structured music appreciation classes and for the first time children are encouraged to sing, move and play instruments independently of parental support. Puppets, ribbons, instruments, parachutes and hoops are an integral part of each class whilst musical stories captivate each child's imagination and encourage them to share ideas. We focus on specific musical details in the Colourstrings songbooks such as dynamics, tempo, form, pitch and beat which ultimately leads children towards a deep musical understanding.  
The focus is on developing pitch through creative movement (body solfa) and preparing the concept of rhythm by connecting speech patterns through clapping and instrument play. Activities with the rhythm bears prepare for reading music.

What do we do in the 4-5 year class?  
Singing games, dancing and musical fairy tales are immersed in weekly classes that challenge children's aural perception and develop musicality using the basic music concepts. Children are encouraged to explore and create rhythmic patterns with xylophones, body percussion and their voice. The introduction of basic solfège  (do, re, mi) underpins the sub-conscious understanding of pitch and handsigns are learnt for each pitch which help children to sing more accurately in-tune and visualise when the pitches of songs go up and down. Beat and rhythm are now combined together in partner games and the children start to do two different things at the same time which leads onto 2 part singing. The ensemble aspect of music making is emphasized through the creating, reading and performing of music together. The focus is on developing accuracy in pitch and rhythm and putting creative ideas into musical language and teaching what music means when they see it written down. The rhythm bears lead the children onto reading and writing rhythmic notation and through songs and pictures the first elements of melodic notation are introduced.  

What do we do in the 5-6 year class?

Musical playground style games challenge children’s aural perception through more complex songs and encourages independent. Classes continue to be presented in a child like way using colourful resources, parachutes, glockenspiels and other instruments to help bring alive the musical points. Through creative movement, conducting and composing children develop awareness of time signatures and develop musical expression as they become more involved in making choices about the use of dynamics and tempo within a song.  The group is frequently divided to develop 2 part singing (rounds), ostinato (a repeated rhythmic or melodic pattern) and performing pulse and rhythm simultaneously.

•The focus is on developing music literacy and reinforcing music concepts. Musical vocabulary is learned using pictures, flash cards and movement games. Now that their ears have been ‘finely tuned’ we sing in Solfege (do,re.mi) with hand signs which enables children to listen to music and transcribe it onto paper, and to look at sheet music and hear it internally without the use of an instrument

By the age of 5 all children can;

- Sing in tune.
- Understand of the basic music concepts.
- Are sensitive listeners.
- Keep a strong sense of beat. 
- Can read and write basic stick notation.
- Have knowledge of orchestral instruments and world famous composers.
- Can improvise and explore music independently.
- Are learning to sight sing with hand signs as this will continue to develop inner hearing.