***If you don't want to read all the details of my post, you can just go here, and watch a video about the new program I am going to be teaching in the fall.***
In October I read on one of my good friends' blog about a new music program she had enrolled her son in. Knowing Emily like the musician I do I knew it would have to be pretty stellar to even look at it, let alone enroll her child in it.
Then a few days later I read about another college music major friend Leslie that had just enrolled her daughter and son in the very same program, just in a different city. She also raved about how incredible it was and what musical concepts her kids were grasping at such young ages, and that it was all done through PLAY, so her kids were loving the class but had no idea they were learning such crucial musical concepts at such a young age.
Both of them also expressed desires to become Let's Play Music teachers, which also floored me, because they are both very good musicians, and excellent private teachers, but they wanted to do this now too.
From that point on I studied and researched and looked into the program very in depth.
I was a music teacher at Timpanogos Elementary in the Provo School District for two years. I never thought I would love teaching elementary school kids music as much as I did, but part of it was because the program was so great. It was Kodaly based, which means it focuses on ear training, developing the voice as a child's first musical instrument, moveable do solfege, and hand signs for that solfege. I was amazed at what these kids could do in as little as first grade in reading, notating, and singing music- and it was done through lots of playing games so the kids were loving it but learning so much at the same time. I LOVED teaching my beginning theory class at college, and loved that I was teaching these basic theory concepts to my elementary kids before they even knew they were learning the language of music.
I looked into other music programs, since I didn't know if we would be near an elementary school that focused on Kodaly training for kids, and found the programs out there severely lacked in teaching children musical concepts like my Kodaly program. So I made up my own curriculum this year for preschool aged kids, adapted from my Kindergarten and First Grade class curriculum, and taught a few music classes. But it was a lot of work! I learned a lot, but also realized my lessons weren't building upon each other, because that took even more work, and I wanted more.
Looking into Lets Play Music, I found Shelly Soleberg, the creator also had these same concerns. She saw while writing her masters thesis that just like a child has a language window from birth to 7 years old, a child's musical window was from the ages of 3-9 years old. But until about 6 or 7, a child's fingers aren't strong enough to play the piano or other instrument effectively enough to learn complex musical concepts, and so many children miss years of opportunity to assimilate the language of music most easily and naturally into their brains.
Shelly decided to create her own program and Let's Play Music was born. She studied indepth the music programs of Kodaly, Orff and Dalcroze, took the strengths from each of the methods and in my opinion blended them better than they stand on their own. (Which is saying a lot for me having trained and taught Kodaly for so long!) And all the lesson plans are laid out for me! No more writing lesson plans, just teaching what has been tried and tested for 10 years now!
Last week I attended the music conference to become a certified Let's Play Music teacher, and to my delight Emily was there to attend the conference!
I am SOOO thrilled about this, and can't wait to get started. The only kink in my plans is I don't know exactly where we'll be living in the fall, so I don't where to start gathering students for my studio but, even if I'm not in your area, and you're interested in your kids being involved with music eventually, you should look for teachers near you. Let me know if you have any questions, and I will let you know about the sample class I will be teaching soon so you can see a class in action.
In October I read on one of my good friends' blog about a new music program she had enrolled her son in. Knowing Emily like the musician I do I knew it would have to be pretty stellar to even look at it, let alone enroll her child in it.
Then a few days later I read about another college music major friend Leslie that had just enrolled her daughter and son in the very same program, just in a different city. She also raved about how incredible it was and what musical concepts her kids were grasping at such young ages, and that it was all done through PLAY, so her kids were loving the class but had no idea they were learning such crucial musical concepts at such a young age.
Both of them also expressed desires to become Let's Play Music teachers, which also floored me, because they are both very good musicians, and excellent private teachers, but they wanted to do this now too.
From that point on I studied and researched and looked into the program very in depth.
I was a music teacher at Timpanogos Elementary in the Provo School District for two years. I never thought I would love teaching elementary school kids music as much as I did, but part of it was because the program was so great. It was Kodaly based, which means it focuses on ear training, developing the voice as a child's first musical instrument, moveable do solfege, and hand signs for that solfege. I was amazed at what these kids could do in as little as first grade in reading, notating, and singing music- and it was done through lots of playing games so the kids were loving it but learning so much at the same time. I LOVED teaching my beginning theory class at college, and loved that I was teaching these basic theory concepts to my elementary kids before they even knew they were learning the language of music.
I looked into other music programs, since I didn't know if we would be near an elementary school that focused on Kodaly training for kids, and found the programs out there severely lacked in teaching children musical concepts like my Kodaly program. So I made up my own curriculum this year for preschool aged kids, adapted from my Kindergarten and First Grade class curriculum, and taught a few music classes. But it was a lot of work! I learned a lot, but also realized my lessons weren't building upon each other, because that took even more work, and I wanted more.
Looking into Lets Play Music, I found Shelly Soleberg, the creator also had these same concerns. She saw while writing her masters thesis that just like a child has a language window from birth to 7 years old, a child's musical window was from the ages of 3-9 years old. But until about 6 or 7, a child's fingers aren't strong enough to play the piano or other instrument effectively enough to learn complex musical concepts, and so many children miss years of opportunity to assimilate the language of music most easily and naturally into their brains.
Shelly decided to create her own program and Let's Play Music was born. She studied indepth the music programs of Kodaly, Orff and Dalcroze, took the strengths from each of the methods and in my opinion blended them better than they stand on their own. (Which is saying a lot for me having trained and taught Kodaly for so long!) And all the lesson plans are laid out for me! No more writing lesson plans, just teaching what has been tried and tested for 10 years now!
Last week I attended the music conference to become a certified Let's Play Music teacher, and to my delight Emily was there to attend the conference!
I am SOOO thrilled about this, and can't wait to get started. The only kink in my plans is I don't know exactly where we'll be living in the fall, so I don't where to start gathering students for my studio but, even if I'm not in your area, and you're interested in your kids being involved with music eventually, you should look for teachers near you. Let me know if you have any questions, and I will let you know about the sample class I will be teaching soon so you can see a class in action.
Comments
I want to do this so much! I was going to go to that conference to, but decided not to yet, since I just have one more class to finish this summer. I want to get that out of the way first. I also don't know if I will teach until at least one of my children has gone all the way through the program and we live somewhere a little more permenant, possibly even in two years.But, I definitely want to! Currently, I live around the corner from my kids' teacher, and they really respond to her. I am thrilled by this program, especially after having my kids in it. Good for you for going for it! Yay!
-Jessica R.