ECMM (birth to 5 years)
CYM's Early Childhood Music and Movement Program (birth to 5 years) builds on children’s natural love of music through joyful activities that have them singing, playing instruments, moving, and listening. ECMM classes act as the first step in holistic music education; they are closely connected with the first steps of instrument study and Gordon's Music Learning Sequence by design, focus, and implementation. In CYM's classrooms, each activity has a purpose: whether it develops impulse control, critical listening skills, or musical knowledge, or just allows expression for a passion for music, lessons are balanced and engaging.
CYM offers classes taught by teachers who are certified in Musikgarten, a leader in Early Childhood Music and Movement education. Musikgarten provides early music education that supports the healthy development of the whole child and establishes a life-long love of music. The pathway to music literacy, as researched by Dr. Gordon, is a scaffolding that runs through the entire program. This coordinated, sequential curricula will grow with your child all the way through group piano lessons, fully preparing them for individual study on any instrument.
CYM also offers a distinctive ECMM two year preparatory class for families who want to orient their first experiences in music toward instrumental instruction on the violin, viola, cello, piano, guitar, and in voice. Suzuki Readiness is led by faculty who will prepare young students to move, sing, hear, read and write, following Gordon's Music Learning Sequence, and who also bring to the classroom their specialized training in setting up the techniques of beginning instrumental students. Group activities that feature movement, listening, story-telling, and instrument exploration, prepare students to be musically literate, and also to become fine instrumentalists. Suzuki Readiness for Toddlers and Twinklers prepare young children for an early start with an instrument using the Suzuki method.
Please call to have a conversation about which class will suit your family best.
Family Music for Babies – Musikgarten (birth to 1.5)
Children are naturally drawn to music which will make your time in Musikgarten classes both fun and beneficial. Activities include bouncing songs and rocking songs, fingerplays and body awareness games, dances and instrumental play, in order to stimulate the brain, foster physical development, and cultivate listening skills. Patterns heard in class feed the ear-brain connection and start to form the language of music. Before long they will be imitating those patterns, developing for life their sense of pitch and rhythm.
Family Music for Toddlers – Musikgarten (1.5 to 3)
This is a great time to start music lessons with your toddler! Let Musikgarten take you on a journey of singing, dancing, rocking, bouncing, and playing instruments! Lay the foundation for future music study with developmentally-appropriate activities designed to take your child on a pathway to music literacy! Learn songs and rhymes for the two of you to use together anywhere you go! Come ready to play instruments, dance, and have fun!
Cycle of Seasons – Musikgarten (3 to 5)
All children love nature- so we make that the starting point for our Cycle of Seasons classes! How do grasshoppers jump? What does a kitten sound like? Movement, singing, and lots of stories help make this the perfect activity for your child aged 3-5 years. Their imaginations and verbal skills are in full bloom- and we capitalize on that! We sing, act out, and even improvise stories and poetry! We use the whole body to explore movements and pathways that will later translate into reading and musical expression!
Suzuki Readiness for Toddlers (2 to 3.5)
Suzuki Readiness for Twinklers (3.5 to 5)
Parent and child participate in a weekly group lesson where they sing, move, play, and experience the specific instruments that they will choose later as Suzuki Studies students. An extensive classroom instrument and recorded listening inventory make lessons lively. Children’s book literature and poems, folk songs and finger plays, and of course the Suzuki recordings, are all part of the movement activities and ear training that prepare your child’s body and mind become a musician who plays with a beautiful tone. Families enjoy “close range” live performances in class given by their teachers or older students in the Suzuki Studies Program, and aural immersion of the Suzuki literature begins. The SR for Toddlers class requires full participation of a parent or guardian, and during the SR for Twinklers, adult participation is required for only a portion of the class.