Music Together
Encyclopedia
Music Together is a music and movement program for children aged newborn through kindergarten
. First offered to the public in 1987, the program is now offered in over 1700 communities in the United States
1, as well as in 28 other countries around the world. This expansion has been accomplished through independent centers which are licensed to use the program. All teachers must attend and pass a Music Together teacher training.
Since its inception, Music Together has emphasized the importance of having parents and caregivers actively participate in class with their children. This is based in part on the work of early childhood educator Lilian Katz, who noted that while children can learn skills and knowledge from any adult, they learn dispositions only from their loved ones; by participating in class as musical role-models, parents and caregivers help impart to their children the disposition to become life-long music-makers.
, an approach to learning that takes into account how children really learn at different developmental stages in their lives. Because very young children learn primarily through play, the program provides a fun, relaxed environment with a nonformal teaching approach.
Some critics of this and other early childhood music programs have questioned whether an organized class is necessary to teach children a basic life skill such as singing. However, children can no longer reliably learn music skills from their surrounding environment, as they could several generations ago, due to a steady decrease in live music-making activities available to them. A study done by Levinowitz showed that fewer than 50% of first-graders could sing in tune.
Music learning is in many ways analogous to language learning; just as the child seems to teach himself language through interacting with a language environment, he teaches himself music through being in a music environment. When adults model active singing and movement behaviors, the child imitates and learns. The combination of classroom activities and at-home music-making inspired by a recording and songbook help children learn music skills naturally and effortlessly.
s and duple meter, it is difficult for children to gain a breadth of music experience. The Music Together repertoire includes songs in such tonalities as Phrygian mode
, aeolian mode
, Mixolydian mode, and Dorian mode
. Children are also introduced to songs using triple meter and “unusual” meters such as 5/4 or 7/8. In this way, the Music Together repertoire helps strengthen children’s audiation
, a termed coined by learning theorist Edwin Gordon to describe the process by which we mentally hear and comprehend music. The ability to audiate is essential to any meaningful music learning.
There are nine non-sequential Music Together song collections, named Bongos, Bells, Triangle, Fiddle, Drum, Tambourine, Flutes, Sticks and Maracas, forming a three-year cycle taught in fall, winter, and spring semesters. There are also three summer collections, named Summer Songs I, Summer Songs II, and Summer Songs III, which are compilations carefully designed not to include songs from the spring collections before them or the fall collections after them. Families receive two CDs per semester, along with an accompanying illustrated songbook, to facilitate at-home family music-making. The recordings are professionally produced and richly orchestrated, and feature a “family” of singers, representing a mother, father, child, grandmother, and uncle.
. In 1985 Guilmartin founded the Center for Music and Young Children (CMYC) to research and develop early childhood music programs for Birch Tree Group, Ltd., publishers of the Suzuki
Method. CMYC was originally funded by royalties from the song "Happy Birthday to You
" which had been composed by two kindergarten teachers, sisters Mildred J. Hill
and Patty Smith Hill. When Birch Tree Group, Ltd. was purchased by Warner Brothers, CMYC was spun off as a separate entity owned and operated by Guilmartin.
In 1986 Guilmartin began to collaborate with Lili M. Levinowitz, Ph.D., at that time a doctoral student directing the Children’s Music Development Program at Temple University
. Levinowitz was a student of learning theorist Edwin Gordon
, known for his Music Learning Theory. Guilmartin and Levinowitz were influenced by Gordon’s work, and included tonal patterns and rhythm patterns based on his work in their new program.
Music Together was first offered to the public in 1987 in a suburb of Philadelphia. After a brief residence at Westminster Conservatory of Music in Princeton, NJ, the company moved to a studio on Nassau Street in Princeton in 1989, the same year that it offered its first teacher training. In 1997, the year of its tenth anniversary, the company moved to 66 Witherspoon St. in Princeton, with room for its lab school as well as offices. In 2006, the company moved into a newly renovated 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) building in Hopewell, NJ, just outside Princeton. It still maintains its lab school and research arm at the Witherspoon St. location.
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
. First offered to the public in 1987, the program is now offered in over 1700 communities in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1, as well as in 28 other countries around the world. This expansion has been accomplished through independent centers which are licensed to use the program. All teachers must attend and pass a Music Together teacher training.
Since its inception, Music Together has emphasized the importance of having parents and caregivers actively participate in class with their children. This is based in part on the work of early childhood educator Lilian Katz, who noted that while children can learn skills and knowledge from any adult, they learn dispositions only from their loved ones; by participating in class as musical role-models, parents and caregivers help impart to their children the disposition to become life-long music-makers.
Philosophy
Music Together starts with the premise that all children are musical, and that they can achieve basic music competence provided their music environment is sufficiently rich. All class activities are based on Developmentally Appropriate PracticeDevelopmentally Appropriate Practice
Developmentally appropriate practice is a perspective within early childhood education whereby a teacher or child caregiver nurtures a child's social/emotional, physical, and cognitive development by basing all practices and decisions on theories of child development, individually identified...
, an approach to learning that takes into account how children really learn at different developmental stages in their lives. Because very young children learn primarily through play, the program provides a fun, relaxed environment with a nonformal teaching approach.
Some critics of this and other early childhood music programs have questioned whether an organized class is necessary to teach children a basic life skill such as singing. However, children can no longer reliably learn music skills from their surrounding environment, as they could several generations ago, due to a steady decrease in live music-making activities available to them. A study done by Levinowitz showed that fewer than 50% of first-graders could sing in tune.
Music learning is in many ways analogous to language learning; just as the child seems to teach himself language through interacting with a language environment, he teaches himself music through being in a music environment. When adults model active singing and movement behaviors, the child imitates and learns. The combination of classroom activities and at-home music-making inspired by a recording and songbook help children learn music skills naturally and effortlessly.
Repertoire and recordings
Music Together is noted for a repertoire which emphasizes the use of a wide variety of musical modes (tonalities) and meters. With much of the music of our culture—especially “children’s music”—using predominantly major scaleMajor scale
In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, ", the "Do" in the parenthesis at...
s and duple meter, it is difficult for children to gain a breadth of music experience. The Music Together repertoire includes songs in such tonalities as Phrygian mode
Phrygian mode
The Phrygian mode can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek tonos or harmonia sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as a diatonic scale, based on the latter...
, aeolian mode
Aeolian mode
The Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale called the natural minor scale.The word "Aeolian" in the music theory of ancient Greece was an alternative name for what Aristoxenus called the Low Lydian tonos , nine semitones...
, Mixolydian mode, and Dorian mode
Dorian mode
Due to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different musical modes or diatonic scales, the Greek, the medieval, and the modern.- Greek Dorian mode :...
. Children are also introduced to songs using triple meter and “unusual” meters such as 5/4 or 7/8. In this way, the Music Together repertoire helps strengthen children’s audiation
Audiation
Audiation is a high level thought process, involving mentally hearing and comprehending music, even when no physical sound is present. It is a cognitive process by which the brain gives meaning to musical sounds. In essence, audiation of music is analogous to thinking in a language. The term...
, a termed coined by learning theorist Edwin Gordon to describe the process by which we mentally hear and comprehend music. The ability to audiate is essential to any meaningful music learning.
There are nine non-sequential Music Together song collections, named Bongos, Bells, Triangle, Fiddle, Drum, Tambourine, Flutes, Sticks and Maracas, forming a three-year cycle taught in fall, winter, and spring semesters. There are also three summer collections, named Summer Songs I, Summer Songs II, and Summer Songs III, which are compilations carefully designed not to include songs from the spring collections before them or the fall collections after them. Families receive two CDs per semester, along with an accompanying illustrated songbook, to facilitate at-home family music-making. The recordings are professionally produced and richly orchestrated, and feature a “family” of singers, representing a mother, father, child, grandmother, and uncle.
History
Music Together was founded by Kenneth K. Guilmartin, a composer and musician certified in Dalcroze EurhythmicsEurhythmics
Dalcroze Eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze Method or simply Eurhythmics, is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodaly Method, Orff Schulwerk, Simply Music and Suzuki Method used to teach music education to students. Eurhythmics was developed in the early 20th century by...
. In 1985 Guilmartin founded the Center for Music and Young Children (CMYC) to research and develop early childhood music programs for Birch Tree Group, Ltd., publishers of the Suzuki
Suzuki
is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles and 4x4 vehicles, a full range of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles , outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines...
Method. CMYC was originally funded by royalties from the song "Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth...
" which had been composed by two kindergarten teachers, sisters Mildred J. Hill
Mildred J. Hill
Mildred J. Hill was an American songwriter and musicologist, who composed the melody for "Good Morning to All", later used as the melody for "Happy Birthday to You".-Biography:...
and Patty Smith Hill. When Birch Tree Group, Ltd. was purchased by Warner Brothers, CMYC was spun off as a separate entity owned and operated by Guilmartin.
In 1986 Guilmartin began to collaborate with Lili M. Levinowitz, Ph.D., at that time a doctoral student directing the Children’s Music Development Program at Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
. Levinowitz was a student of learning theorist Edwin Gordon
Edwin Gordon
Edwin E. Gordon, Research Professor at the University of South Carolina's , is an influential researcher, teacher, author, editor, and lecturer in the field of music education...
, known for his Music Learning Theory. Guilmartin and Levinowitz were influenced by Gordon’s work, and included tonal patterns and rhythm patterns based on his work in their new program.
Music Together was first offered to the public in 1987 in a suburb of Philadelphia. After a brief residence at Westminster Conservatory of Music in Princeton, NJ, the company moved to a studio on Nassau Street in Princeton in 1989, the same year that it offered its first teacher training. In 1997, the year of its tenth anniversary, the company moved to 66 Witherspoon St. in Princeton, with room for its lab school as well as offices. In 2006, the company moved into a newly renovated 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) building in Hopewell, NJ, just outside Princeton. It still maintains its lab school and research arm at the Witherspoon St. location.