Age 3
What will my child actually be able to do?
Read music. Hear it. Play it on a keyboard with both hands. Sing it in tune. Keep time. Write a piece of their own. Play with other children. And play recorder, basic guitar and a range of percussion along the way. That is what a CMA graduate can do, and it is built one week at a time from age 3.
The keyboard is home base
Every CMA class comes back to the keyboard. It is the instrument where notes, rhythm, harmony and reading all become visible at once, which is why it is where young children learn music fastest. From the first weeks your child finds notes by name, and by graduation plays with both hands from the staff.
Everything else, in the same hour
Singing
Every class sings. Singing in tune and in harmony trains the ear faster than anything else, and it is how a 4 year old first learns what a melody is.
Guitar
Guitar comes in as the course goes on, so a child who has learned to read and hear music on the keyboard meets a string instrument already knowing what the notes mean.
Drums and percussion
Rhythm sticks, hand drums, shakers and more, from the first class. Keeping a steady beat and reading rhythm are learned here before they are learned anywhere else.
Recorder
A first wind instrument, taught inside the course once reading is secure. Breath, fingering and phrasing, on an instrument a child can carry home.
The skills behind the instruments
Reading and writing music
Notes on the staff, rhythm values, key and time signatures, scales. By graduation your child reads music the way they read a book.
Ear training and theory
Hearing a phrase and playing it back. Knowing why a chord sounds the way it does. Harmony, melody and rhythm as things your child understands rather than copies.
Composing and playing together
Writing short pieces of their own, and playing in an ensemble with the class. Music as something your child makes, with other people.
Which class is your child's age?
Pre-K and kindergarten
Junior
See Junior1st and 2nd grade
Intermediate
See IntermediateHomeschool families
Homeschool music class
See the homeschool class“My daughter, Molly, recently graduated from the CMA program, and I can honestly say it was one of the most valuable investments that we have ever made. She was given excellent instruction in piano, music theory and ear training, and most importantly, a love for music!”