What do I teach to younger students?

Students from birth to 3 can register in Music Pups.  This program nurtures young children by motivating parents and caregivers to engage in musical activities with their child.  Teachers stimulate learning through play and children participate as they choose - at their own developmental level.  Activities focus on adult/child interaction rather than child/child interaction, so that children of different ages (such as siblings) can enjoy class together.  We encourage the participation of young children, including infants.  Early exposure greatly enhances a child's music development.  The first months and years of life are the most important in a child's musical development.  The Music Pups experience creates students who more fully develop their pitch and rhythm skills and are more responsive to music in general.  Your students will be highly motivated to continue their musical studies in the MYC Sunrise and the MYC keyboard based programs.

Students 2½ to 4 years of age typically enroll in the Sunrise Program. It is said that children need many happy musical experiences before they are introduced to the world of greater music (piano lessons, concerts, choirs, etc). Sunrise is a pre-piano program, focusing on rhythm, listening, singing and pattern reading. It is an excellent way for nursery school age children to experience music in a relaxed happy way while they learn some of the skills they will later use in the MYC programs or other music study when they are older.

Depending upon inheritance, all children are born with a certain musical aptitude. However, the ability to realize their potential for musical fulfilment throughout their lives depends upon the richness and diversity of their musical experiences when they are very young, particularly prior to age 5. Research at the Gordon Institute for Music Learning indicates that musical aptitude is developmental during the early years of life, gradually becoming stabilized by age 9. After age 9, one cannot expect to achieve in music beyond the limit of one's stabilized musical aptitude.

The Sunrise Program aims to provide rich musical experiences for children who are still too young to begin formal instruction, thereby helping them to maintain the musical aptitude with which they were born.

• The registration fee for Sunrise and Music Pups is $175 per 10 week block. This covers materials and tuition.  Materials for the first level include a book and a CD.
• Sunrise blocks are progressive, but children may begin in September, January, or April.  Music Pups classes are informal and not progressive and children may join anytime.
• Depending on the age when beginning, a child may complete one, two, or any of the six blocks in Sunrise before starting the MYC programs.
• It is possible to start MYC without first participating in Sunrise, but those who have the opportunity to start at a younger age have an advantage over those who begin later.

 How do you teach beginners of varying ages?