VISION AND PHILOSOPHY

Remember back in the old days when families used to gather round the living room for an evening of singing, playing simple instruments, dancing, and laughing together; that delightful feeling of acceptance, inclusion, and no judgment about each other's musical offerings? Well, take that family, add to the recipe a teacher offering the musical and pedagogical principles that give rise to Dr. Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory, stir in Dr. Cynthia TAGGART, add two cups of LABAN, a generous portion of WEIKERT, a slice of DALCROZE, (and many others), and multiply it by several families and you've got a taste of FAMILIES MAKIN' MUSIC. My program nurtures a musical bond between parents, grandparents, and their young children. When families come to sing, dance and learn together, musical community is created. Ultimately, isn't that what we all want; flowing, harmonious relationships with every person we meet? It can be a fabulous world, and one that is possible to create if we all do our part.

Through the use of a wide variety of musical activities and teaching techniques, including tonal and rhythmic patterns, word and wordless melodies, flow, beat, dance, rhythmic rhymes, structured and improvisational movement and percussion instrument free play; to name just a few, music is learned in an informal and fun way. Dr. Gordon, Dr. Taggart et al in the book Music Play (1998) explain this is how young children learn music best, much as when they are exposed to their native language. Sensitive parents, caregivers, and early childhood music and movement specialists realize that MUSIC DEVELOPMENT, LIKE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, IS A PROCESS, OVER TIME. The process of music development must be fostered as early as possible (in utero) and allowed to unfold naturally among children for several years. The intent is not to prepare children to be professional musicians or for parents and teachers to identify or foster musical geniuses. Rather, it is to teach adults how they might informally guide young children to an understanding of music the way they have already guided them to an understanding of their spoken language. Through music children gain insight into themselves, into others, and into life itself. Most importantly, through music children are better able to develop and sustain their imaginations and unabashed creativity. Because a day does not pass without children hearing or participating in music one way or another, it is to their advantage to understand music, initially, in an informal way through play, repetition, and imitation leading to AUDIATION. Only then will they learn to appreciate, to listen to, and to partake of music that they believe to be good. It is through such awareness that life becomes more meaningful.