Enchanted Music Together Anna Simons, Director 215.925.4012

Sadly, children can no longer reliably learn music skills from their surrounding environment, the way they could several generations ago, because of the decrease in live music-making activities available to them. Lili Levinowitz, professor of music education at Rowan University and director of research at CMYC did a study several years back that showed 50% of first-graders could not sing in tune! Even though singing in tune and moving with accurate rhythm are basic life skills like talking and walking, they are complex, learned skills which require a good learning environment, modeling, and experimentation and practice. Children do not learn to speak if brought up isolated from language. We are born with the capacity to learn, learn language and to learn music---but the skills don't just miraculously "pop up" one day just because of that potential.

Children come for one, two, or three years of Music Together for many reasons: their families love it, their parents can see the child's emerging music behaviors, it's a great social/community experience, etc. Children need the "spiral of exposure and experimentation" to develop lasting music skills. From a musical standpoint, the whole idea that children learn in a spiral and each Semester they are coming to Music Together from a different developmental place and will learn different things or similar things at a deeper level. We don't learn to speak in ten weeks! You wouldn't just take your child or yourself to one year of Spanish class if you wanted yourself or them to be fluent Spanish speakers!

Without a rich, active music learning environment, the child will probably still grow up liking music; children hear it all the time on CDs, the radio and television. The likelihood for the child to develop the potential he was born with to express himself musically through singing, poetry and movement won’t just happen without guidance.

Here's a nice site called "Why Music Matters" --- www.bbc.co.uk/print/music/parents/yourchild/why_musicmatters.shtml<http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/music/parents/yourchild/why_musicmatters.shtml>

It explains that music aids in speech development, correlates with ability in math, enhances social skills, enhances intellectual development, and encourages self-expression and self-confidence. "Music helps us to make sense of the world. Through sound we can give an expressive shape to our experience. It is a pleasure and a joy for its own sake."

If you value music in your child's life and you want them to be "fluent" in the language of music you can't just "drop in." The families who return on and on know this and value the second language of music in addition to the joyful, loving and safe environment in which they can come together with friends for some musical fun!