The Colourstrings Program
The Colourstrings Program
Colourstrings music education begins in the music and movement classes for children 3 months to 6 years old, then takes them seamlessly into instrumental or choir lessons.
Children 3 months to 6 years are taken on imaginary adventures where they experience,explore and develop their sense of pitch, beat and rhythm through playful singing based activities.
Our curriculum is founded upon extensive research as well as the philosophies of three of Europe's most significant music educators; KODALY, DALCROZE & ORFF.
Age specific class groupings (1-2yrs, 2-3 yrs etc.) allow our early years music specialists to tailor activities to respond to the musical, physical, intellectual, social and emotional developmental needs of each child.
Training lays the foundations for the development of music literacy
Different musical concepts are learned at an age-appropriate level. The more advanced classes introduce music reading and writing through pictures, games and a simplified colour- coded system of notation.
In a typical Colourstrings class your child will...Sing! Move! Play! Imagine! Develop core music skills Play beautiful instruments from around the world Learn simple dance patterns and move creatively to music Enjoy innovative music games that develop musical literacyExperience live music and listen to high quality recorded music
Child Centred Teaching
We believe that ALL children can achieve basic music competence with the right approach.
Colourstrings replaces conventional teaching in the early stages. Our multi-sensory activities support the unique learning styles of each individual child. New concepts are experienced in as many different ways as possible: enabling children to feel it, see it, hear it and know it.
Games, pictures and stories lead the children in small logical steps from sounds to symbols, imitation to improvisation – from the simplest to the most advanced musicianship. Learning occurs through problem-solving, comparison, and guided question-and-answer.
Songbooks and CD's
There are three books and CD's ; Pentatonic (fall session), La (winter session) and Do (spring session). They can be purchased at our gift shop.
The Singing Rascals song books and CD’s are designed to raise children’s and their parents’ interest in music and ensure a seamless continuity between home, class and future instrumental lessons. The Singing Rascals songs are used in both music and movement, early instrumental, musicianship and orchestral ensembles.
Experience has shown that singing these songs at home enhances your child's participation in class. In every class we sing a selection of the songs and gradually children experience more complicated musical concepts in class activities.
The Colourstrings Experience
We strive to make our lessons exciting as we know that when a child enjoys doing something fun they are much more receptive and this builds an association with music that is positive, which remains so, right throughout their training. The 'hidden' technical elements in our classes are not particularly obvious, but in amongst all the fun and laughter there is a solid foundation of first-class music teaching.
Our highly skilled music educators encourage children to explore, create and respond spontaneously to activities in a non-performance based environment. Each lesson is carefully designed to follow on from the last and to gently stretch the children's musicianship skills
The most common observations about Colourstrings sessions is how calm it is, how there is a sense of shared exploration and an emphasis on creative contribution from every participant and ultimately how confident the children become.
Why Pre-Instrumental Training? If the musician has already been 'created' (i.e. the child can sing in tune and already understands musical concepts) there will only be the technical difficulties of the playing an instrument to think about.If the child can hear what is on the page before playing, he will have a greater understanding of the music.An understanding of pitch relationship through singing is likely to lead to better intonation.
‘Singing provides the best start to music education; moreover, children should learn to read music before they are provided with any instrument…even the most talented artist can never overcome the disadvantages of an education without singing'
Zoltan Kodály, Hungarian compose, music educator (1974).