At what age is a child ready for piano or some kind of instrumental lessons?

What do you offer for 2-year-olds?

We have three different classes for 2-year-olds.

• Early Music Awareness^™: 30 minutes. This class is for the younger 2-year-old children who need their parents with them and may not quite have the social readiness for a 45- minute class. Like the 45-minute class, it includes exposure to a special instrument of the day (with a wonderful instrument picture to take home and "color"), solfeggio (do-re-mi-learning), singing, movement, rhythmic memory games, and a tiny bit of exposure to notes.

  Since this last element is more visual, (and young twos are not,) music theory is minimized in this class. The subject changes every 2-6 minutes and is very "hands on"; using lots of props and instruments. The maximum number of kids for this class is 6.

• Early Music Awareness^™: (EMA) for 2-5 to 3.5 year olds: This is similar to the EMA above, but in a 45-minute format. It includes a little more exposure to notes, although represented in a child- sized format: For example, a teacher might say: "Let's hold up one finger. Now dip it into some pretend paint... make a face.... then a stem.... now a dirty face. What is it? A QUARTER NOTE! Let's clap it. Let's play it with our rhythm instruments..." etc.

  The kids take home an additional page to color that represents the giant ": dirty face note" (or whatever) they learned about. They will take turns to draw the note on the board, pick songs from the "music machine", and review the instrument families and the rules to be a good audience. Social development is a large part of all younger classes.

  This class changes subject every 3-7 minutes and is available, (by age group) for kids up through 8 years of age. Of course the class gets more sophisticated as the kids get older. 

• Family Class: For the youngest kids, we also offer a 30-minute parent participation class for kids 6 months through 5 years. This class is built around themes, similar to EMA, but includes no theory, and many more props. It is intended as a music and movement exposure to sounds and rhythmic concepts for the youngest kids and their older siblings. Of course, some of the kids are not yet ambulatory or articulate, but we believe in early exposure of music to stimulate brain development AND in having just plain fun with mommy (or care-giver.)

Why does The Music Place offer voice lessons for children as young as 4 years old?

My 4-year-old child is more interested in singing than learning about instruments, what do you have for him?

1. In addition to Early Music Awareness^™ for ages 4-6 or 5-7, we offer performance classes for children starting at age 4.  
   

2. If a child is more of a "performer personality", you may choose between vocal performance classes or a combination of movement, drama and song in a class called ALL ARTS.
   
   
3. Private vocal instruction is also available for 4-year-olds; however group learning is usually more fun at this age. When your child is developmentally functioning like a 6-year-old (visually, auditorially and socially), he may be ready for private instrumental instruction. See Personalized Assessments

Questions about Early Music Awareness^™

Do EMA students take anything home to help them learn?

Each child receives two handouts at the end of every class. One handout is a cartoon-like picture of a child playing the instrument that they learned about that day, the other is a picture of the note or music theory issue that they explored

What if EMA parents know nothing about music?

What if I have more questions?

Questions about Christian Emphasis

I have noticed that your advertizing indicates a Christian emphasis. Are you affiliated with any particular religious church, denomination or organization?

We are Christian-owned and operate our business on Biblical principals.  Although all of our administrative staff and most of our faculty are Christians representing a wide variety of churches and backgrounds, we employ teachers of all faiths and cultures who are committed to treat every student and family with love and respect. 

Upon request only. Judeo-Christian families may request faith emphasis classes or materials. In the summer, for example, we offer a  Judeo-Christian emphasis Musical Theatre Camp as well as a Christian Worship Arts camp.  Christian Emphasis EMA is also available.