Through song children are developing; sentence structure, rhyme, repeated words and phrases and they are recognising and reproducing words.

Group music classes improve self-esteem, reduces behavioural problems, enhances peer relationships and working cooperatively, cooperation, teamwork, communication and resilience.

By practicing coordinated movement to music, kids develop parts of the brain that will help them to speak, read, write and play instruments.

Movement to music promotes; coordination, fine and gross motor skills, balance and finger play that will benefit children as they learn instruments in the future.

Music education encourages active involvement as creators and performers of, and listeners to, music from a diverse range of styles, traditions and cultures. The environment encourages children to; improvise, create and move imaginatively to music.

Regular music lessons develop aspirations, motivations, emotional regulation skills, inhibition and working memory. Self-regulation is a key indicator of school readiness and a strong predictor of academic performance.

The voice is the most accessible of all instruments and this makes it most suitable for musical instruction and can lead to a highly developed musical ear. Children are also practising articulation, resonance and singing posture.

With body percussion and musical instruments we are learning rhythm and recognising the difference between rythym and beat. Exploring beat and rhythm introduces the young child to mathematical concepts in a simple form. Research has found three- and four-year-old children who could keep a steady musical beat were more reading-ready at the age of five, than those who couldn’t keep a beat.

Harmony activates the left side of the brain more than the right in the inferior temporal cortex. Melody activates both sides of the brain.

Children should be taught to read musical notation and symbols when learning music. This reinforces the symbol to sound connection which is also crucial in reading words. Learning to read rhythm symbols is a valuable pre-reading skill. 

Proficient manipulation of small objects is an important skill for little musicians. Finger play activities are designed to stimulate fingers, thumbs, wrists and
arms used to play instruments in the future.

The loudness and softness of a sound is called dynamics. Dynamics give feeling and expression to a musical work. Teaching dynamics to children at an early age instills a sense of dynamic range early on, and gives them the terminology needed to understand how to perform a musical work.

Music Monsters focuses on hearing and making music however we understand that some of our little musicians are capable and ready to learn a little music theory also. Music theory can sometimes have a reputation for being a bit boring and difficult, but not at Music Monsters. We incorporate basic music theory through games and stories often identifying notes as characters in our class.

Music Monster teachers nurture confidence and uniqueness in a supportive and non-competetive environment. Research shows that children who sing/dance/act/play their little hearts out are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement compared with their non-performing friends. One of the best things kids discover is how to think on their feet.

Improvisation is essential to the Orff approach. As frightening as improvisation seems to be to adults, it is freeing to children. No rules! The teacher sets up boundaries in which the child can create his or her own rhythm, melody, or dance.

An important musical skill is the ability to remember the tunes and rhythms of songs and rhymes. Children are able to learn and recall rhymes and songs, to recognise a rhyme or song from its hummed melody or tapped rhythm, and to identify similar features in different rhymes and songs such as Twinkle twinkle little star and the Alphabet song.

Singing is inclusive, free, joyful, sociable and accessible to everyone, it immediately makes all children music-makers. Most importantly, it engages the inner hearing; to sing a note, you must first hear it inwardly. 

Music Monster classes create positive singing experiences for all children so they can continue to sing unselfconsciously and joyfully through adulthood. All children can be taught to sing and develop their pitch accordingly.

Rhythm is the pattern of long and short sounds in music; in a rhyme or song it is the sound pattern made by the words. Sometimes rhythm is the hardest part to learn, basically it is any type of activity requiring that children coordinate sound and vibration with movement. Music Monsters use simple percussion instruments, body percussion songs and games following predictable sequences of developmental movements to enhance a child’s rhythmic ability. Research has shown a child’s capacity for rhythmicity and timing helps to build the foundation for his emotional and intellectual development.

Percussion instruments provide an easy and fun way to introduce pre-schoolers to rhythms and beats. Small hand drums, rhythm sticks, wood blocks, or shakers are perfect instruments for tiny musicians since they can experiment with rhythm and improve fine-motor skills at the same time.

At Music Monsters we refer to the beat as the heart beat of music. The ability to recognise and perform the beat is perhaps the most fundamental musical skill. The best way to understand beat is to perform it in many ways: clapping, actions, stamping, walking and so on. Children learn to perform the pulse of a rhyme or song with learned or improvised actions, perhaps using a puppet, or to walk or clap the pulse as part of a game.