The act of making music together is a valuable shared social activity that is in danger of being lost in our families in Canada. Families used to make music together. Now people are more likely to put on a cd than to sing a song to their child. Singing together with your family provides a great bonding effect. Children light up when you start singing a familiar song.

Many people believe that they are not musical. We believe that there is music in every individual and that all you need to do is to try to bring it out. This is done by trying to make music. In our classes we provide a friendly non-competitive environment that tries to bring out the musicality of all the participants. Our goal is to have people make more and more music together as a part of their daily lives.

Learning Music and Language through Movement

Music is highly structured. It is organized into beats and bars, into rhythm and melody. These bars are organized into melodic phrases and parts of songs like verses and choruses. As children learn songs they learn about music by internalizing its structure. Lyrics in songs also have their own structure and often a rhyming scheme. As children learn how songs are structured they are also learning at the same time about how language and poetry are structured. With repetition, songs help to re-enforce the rudiments of language, the sounds and shapes of words and how they fit together in families of words, in easy-to-remember phrases. When this learning is combined with movement, the learning and the fun can be intensified.

An example of this concept in action would be a song most people know, "The Wheels on the Bus":

The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round, round and round
(children make circular motions with their hands)
The wheels on the bus go round and round
All through the town.

The driver on the bus says "Move on back." [words repeat as above]
(children use their thumb to gesture back)
The wipers on the bus go "Swish, swish, swish."
(children make wiping actions with their hands)
The people on the bus go up and down. Etc.
(children move up and down)

In this example, children learn to associate different verses with different actions. The different actions help teach the different words of each verse. The repetitive nature of the verse structure also amplifies the learning process, and when the song is repeated from week to week, the children greet it with delight.

About the Participation of Caregivers

The participation of parents and caregivers in Rainbow Songs programs is an extremely important part of the success of the classes. The more you take part in the music making, the more your child will get out of it. Children learn by imitation and when they see you singing and playing musical instruments they will try to do the same. The collective practice of making music together should not end in the classroom. Musical learning and enjoyment will increase as you sing and make music with your child in your own home. This is an opportunity for you and your child to grow together musically.

You will receive simple instruction in the correct techniques for playing instruments. Easy demonstrations are shown to children and adults together. You will learn to play bongos, tambourines, clave sticks, maracas, drums, and other instruments. Then you can pass this accomplishment on to your children by teaching them. You and your children can practice making music together for years to come.

Songs are taught with hand gestures and movements to reinforce the learning process. The actions to songs help children to learn the words more quickly and to involve the whole body in the music. The effect of the participation of the caregivers doing "the motions" of the songs as well as the singing and playing them makes the experience more engaging for your children

Rainbow Songs Program Descriptions:

Music for you and your Baby

In this class, since babies are not yet capable of singing, the onus is on the parents and caregivers to make the music. Our classes encourage group participation in the collective making of music. Your child will respond to being surrounded by people making music together. Attending these classes puts in place an organized structure for you and your child to learn more about music and to share it.

The baby class is an opportunity for parents to improve their own musical skills. This is done by learning new songs, making music as a group, and learning about and playing instruments. These abilities and songs are then passed on to your children over time.

The learning does not end in the classroom. This program is also an opportunity for parents to learn new songs that they can sing to their children throughout the week. We encourage our participants to make singing a part of their everyday lives. Songs to dress to, eat to, work to and play to.

Music for you and your Toddler (1-2 year olds)

As your child enters his/her second year, his or her ability to participate in music-making grows rapidly. In these classes there is greater emphasis on the children's participation in the actions of the songs. The actions, in songs that identify body parts or have simple movements, can now be done by the children in these classes. Learning to clap their hands and stomp their feet becomes the first way your child will count beats in music, thereby gaining an appreciation of the relation between words, melody, and rhythm.

Also in these classes children are encouraged to play percussion instruments. During jam sessions children are allowed to explore and experiment in making music with their caregivers and the other participants in the classes.

Music for you and your Child (2-4 year olds)

In your child's third year many new achievements in music are possible. Learning to count beats and bars through clapping is one way that your child learns about the structure of songs. Even the very young can count to music, and since most songs have only three or four beats to a line, not very many different numbers are needed.

Call and response songs are featured in these programs. The leader of the group sings a phase in a song and the children and caregivers respond in song. The children simply repeat back what the leader sings. This method of learning by imitation is the oldest, easiest, most natural, and perhaps the best way of learning music. One simple example of this method in action is our welcoming song used at the opening of each class:
Leader: Hello
Group: Hello
Leader: Hello everybody Hello
Group: Hello everybody Hello

This simple structure is repeated for each child in the class with each child's name substituted for the word "everybody" in each verse. A version of the song is used at the end of each class to say good-bye. Such songs can be used at home in many different family settings.