Early Childhood Music Options
Four Options
Music Together classes, ranging from birth to age 8, are the foundation for everything that comes next. Start here and you can’t go wrong.
Music Together Mixed Age
The hallmark of the Music Together program, this class gives children from birth to age 5 the environment they need to grow and develop while interacting both socially and musically with other children of varying ages.
With decades of teaching experience here at Pakachoag and decades of research behind the MT curriculum, we encourage parents to not push too early into private lessons or other options. See more information below about Music Together: The Critical Developmental Years of Early Childhood.
Music Safari Beginning Keyboard
Music Safari is a beginning keyboard and music literacy class for students in Kindergarten and Grade 1. Basic musicianship skills are learned through singing, movement and rhythm activities with keyboard as the primary instrument.
More Information Here.
Music Together for Babies
A one time program during Year One to get you started.
Read more on our MT Class Types information page.
Rhythm Kids by Music Together
Rhythm Kids is an exciting music, movement, and drumming class for children in Kindergarten through second grade (ages 5–8). More information on Rhythm Kids classes here.
Suzuki Program
The Suzuki Violin Method, for ages 4 1/2 and up, is a specialized approach to teaching which is tailored to a young child’s development and attention level. The Suzuki Method combines one-on-one instruction with the benefit of a group lesson.
For young children, we’ll ask for a brief readiness assessment. We recommend a semester or more of Music Together prior to enrolling in the Suzuki Program. More Information on Suzuki here.
The Critical Early Childhood Years
We've "Done" Music Together
While Suzuki Violin (starting at around age 5), Piano, Cello and Recorder lessons are the primary instrument choices for children starting around age 6, before you move on to private lessons, please keep in mind:
If you have already completed all 9 song collections before the age of five…..
Music Together recommends that you continue to enroll your child through repeating song collections. Because of the rapid shifts taking place in a young child’s development (physical and cognitive), a child at the age of two, three and four will experience (and learn) a song collection the second time around (two or three years later) in a fresh and different way.
Repetition (of music, of speaking and listening, of literature, of counting, of coloring and drawing) throughout the critical early learning years of birth to age 6 plays a huge roll in a child’s on-going musical and academic success. There is no need to rush into playing an instrument if a child is actively engage in singing quality music and exploring rhythm through creative movement. Future musical success, as an instrumentalist or vocalist, is more assured when a child has a strong, sustained under-pinning through singing and movement.
This skill is referred to as “music competency” and includes the ability to audiate – to hear a tune or song in one’s head and then reproduce and improvise on that song. Children who achieve this ability to audiate (usually by age 6 or 7), through repeated engagement during early childhood, are much quicker to learn and progress when taking private lessons.