How Music Learning Supports All Learning^® in a Music Together^® class

It is amazing what is going on "behind the scenes" in a child's body and brain during a Music Together^® class.

Social Emotional

In Music Together, teachers include children's sounds, movements, interests and ideas, even before they can verbally express them supporting each child's need to be accepted, understood, and appreciated.

Emergent Language and Literacy Development

Music Together's song activities support children's listening skills, vocabulary development, and the ability to recognize, discriminate, and produce sounds. Songs are filled with rhymes, alliterations, and new words, and we often sing on syllables (bah, blah, wah) which provides opportunity for auditory discrimination of different phonemes. Through song, children are exposed to the structure and sequence of sounds involved in languages.

Besides many other benefits, the songbooks support children's understanding that print conveys meaning, that letters are grouped to form words, and that written words represent spoken language. Likewise, the notation on the page helps children to recognize that the musical note represents sung language and that notes grouped together form musical phrases and tunes. And the songbook is so fun and interactive, it reinforces a love of books!

Math Awareness

The experience of songs and chants in various meters (how beats are grouped- like 3/4 v 4/4), and the decoding of the structure of each song happens naturally in your child's brain during Music Together class and while listening at home. Music provides an experience of proportion, patterning, sequencing, and counting.

Children as young as 3 (with sufficient experience) will begin to categorize songs - such as one song in a 3/4 (waltz) meter will remind them of another song in the same meter. That is a high level musical sorting challenge, and our kids are doing it!

Physical Development

Movement is an essential part of a child's learning. From finger plays, small and large movement, movement in place and through space (locomotor), movement that crosses the midline of the body, the use of rhythm instruments and singing itself, class activities support the development of body awareness, coordination and balance, muscle strength, and fine, gross, sensory, and oral motor skills.

Why Music Together^® Works

From the songs to the way your teacher guides class, everything in Music Together has been intentionally designed for the way children learn: through play with their grownups. Behind it all is more than 40 years of research in music and early childhood development. The activities invite children in, and the music has the variety and artistry to keep grownups engaged. As you're drawn into the music, your child will be, too.