Programs

Classes, in-school residencies, after-school programs...

Preschool classes

Together we sing familiar songs and learn new songs with a focus on fun! We incorporate movement and learning of basic musical concepts such as rhythm and melody. Song selections include music of other cultures from around the world. We learn about different instruments and also how to participate and perform!

Click the "Play" button to hear kindergarten kids from Cramp Elementary School in Philadelphia PA singing "If I Were President," which they wrote and performed together with lead instructor Pauline Houston McCall. The finished recording was produced by Robb McCall.

The schools that produced the highest academic achievement in the United States today are spending 20% to 30% of the day on the arts, with special emphasis on music.

International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA) Test, 1988

Music integrated into seventh- and eighth-grade social studies results in better subject performance and better social

behaviors and attitudes.

National Educational Longitudinal Study, 1988

When a child learns by experience that music forges direct links between self and world, self-expression becomes more

fluent; the music helps interpret "who I am."

Growing up Complete, the report of the

National Commission on Music Education, 1990

78% of Americans feel learning a musical instrument helps students perform better in other subjects.

Gallup Poll, "American Attitudes Toward Music," 2003

A Columbia University study revealed that students in the arts are found to be more cooperative with teachers and peers, more self-confident and better able to express their ideas. These benefits exist across socioeconomic levels.

The Arts Education Partnership, 1999

Students who were exposed to music-based lessons scored a full 100% higher on fractions tests than those who learned in the conventional manner.

Neurological Research, March 15, 1999

88% of Americans believe participation in music helps teach children discipline.

Gallup Poll, "American Attitudes Toward Music," 2003

The nation's top business executives agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American

education and better prepare workers for the 21st century.

The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of Education, BusinessWeek, October 1996

U.S. Department of Education data show that students who report consistently high levels of involvement in instrumental

music during the middle- and high-school years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12."

James Catterall, Richard Chapleau and John lwanaga, "Involvement in the Arts and Human Development, " 1999

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.
Plato

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.
Martin Luther

“It's [music education] terribly important, extremely important -- because when you are a child, you are in a receptive age ... In high schools, public schools -- that's where they must have the best influence, the first influence, which will go through their whole life.”
Eugene Ormandy – conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra

About the importance of music and music education

Fantastical Musical Theater

This fun and highly interactive theater program will engage students from beginning to end in every possible way, from script writing to directing to stage and costume design. Students will also be empowered to write songs for the production they choose to do.

Fantasical Musical Theater will focus initially on rewriting classic plays, movies or even books, as each applies to the students' lives and communities.

Students will learn many techniques of theater including stage presence and stage direction, vocal range and dynamics, diction and physical movement, including miming. Students will be encouraged to use full artistic expression in the manner of street theater in order to include our community.

The main focus is to empower students to bring to life stories and scenes from classic plays, from contemporary to Shakespeare, in their own way and with their own style. Our final performance will culminate in a live performance, demonstrating all that they have learned and accomplished.

Students will enjoy a multicentric view of theater that fully encompasses their communities and themselves. Students will be given a choice of plays to choose from which they will then reconstruct to fit their lives.

The overall goal is for students to always have a positive and fun, expressive experience as they bring to life characters and scenes that connect with them and their lives.

Writing and literacy through theater has never been so much fun!

Rise Up Singing! (for Seniors)

This is a swinging singing and movement class that has our Senior friends up clapping their hands and moving their arms and legs.
From Jazz to Classic Soul and Pop and swinging Blues... Raising Music and our Senior Friends have a blast embracing the rhythms and sounds of near and far.

This exciting, highly interactive all sensory music and movement class will involve all participants at all levels in singing, dancing, spinning in their wheel chairs or simply waving their arms or stomping their feet.

We will travel down memory lane with rhythms and sounds. We will sing and drum songs from our past, all while increasing cognitive memory and enhancing our overall well-being with joy and love.

COME JOIN RAISING MUSIC WITH RISE UP SINGING!!

It's SO good for the SOUL!!

11 Facts About Music Education (from DoSomething.org)

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-music-education

Children who study music tend to have larger vocabularies and more advanced reading skills than their peers who do not participate in music lessons.
Studying music primes the brain to comprehend speech in a noisy background.
- Children with learning disabilities or dyslexia who tend to lose focus with more noise could benefit greatly from music lessons.
Research shows that music is to the brain as physical exercise is to the human body. Music tones the brain for auditory fitness and allows it to decipher between tone and pitch.
Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education.
In the past, secondary students who participated in a music group at school reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs).
Schools with music programs have an estimated 90.2 percent graduation rate and 93.9 percent attendance rate compared to schools without music education who average 72.9 percent graduation and 84.9 percent attendance.
Regardless of socioeconomic status or school district, students who participate in high-quality music programs score 22 percent better on English and 20 percent better on Math standardized exams.
Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to high earnings.
A study from Columbia University revealed that students who study arts are more cooperative with their teachers and peers, have higher levels self-confidence, and are more equipped to express themselves and their ideas.
Elementary age children who are involved in music lessons show greater brain development and memory improvement within a year than children who receive no musical training.
Learning and mastering a musical instrument improves the way the brain breaks down and understands human language, making music students more apt to pick up a second language.

Private or Group Music Instruction

Lessons on guitar, bass, drums and keyboards are offered in both individual and group/classroom settings.

More programs!

"YOUR" Orchestra!

Any kid who plays any instrument will have fun being a part of a larger group of instrumentalists, comprising an orchestra. We will compose arrangements together of popular or traditional songs, or even excerpts of well-known classical works, arranged for whatever group of instruments we have.

Benefits of this program include reading and writing music, music theory, arrangement/orchestration including melodic substitutions (taking a flute line, for example, and playing it on violin or another instrument), group dynamics, ear training and ensemble performance.

"YOUR" Choir!

We will learn both traditional (classic Motown or all the way back to spirituals and folk songs) and popular songs (kids choice but nothing inappropriate), learning about and utilizing melody, harmony, music theory and ear training. Instrumentalists who are uncomfortable singing but still want to be a part of this can join in to provide accompaniment – we will work on arrangements for their instruments to back up the vocalists. We will develop our own arrangement of each song, making it not just a “cover” but a new and unique interpretation of the song.

The benefits of this program are learning about music theory, arrangement, musical dynamics, ear training and ensemble singing/playing.

PUDDLE JUMPERS! (for the little ones...!)

For your preschoolers, we have a very special music and movement program called Puddle Jumpers! Please click this link to go to our Puddle Jumpers website!

http://puddlejumpersshow.wix.com/puddlejumpers

Elementary/Lower school classes

Students are introduced to the basic elements of music theory, while keeping it fun and participatory. We listen to music and watch videos of iconic musical artists from throughout music history, including classical, jazz, reggae, blues and a wide variety of world music. We are introduced to the instruments of the orchestra as well as other instruments and how instruments are used in different styles of music.

Middle and Upper School classes

We intensify our exploration of music from every aspect. Either with clubs or classroom instruction, students will explore in-depth musical concepts and every aspect of international music styles. Depending on resources of the school or center, students will learn hands-on instrumental instruction, eventually leading to ensemble playing. Rock band, jazz band, soul, funk, blues... any kind of style can be instructed and performed. For every class, a culminating performance is encouraged.

Dynamic Drum Circle

Using any type of hand drum, bucket drum or percussion instrument, we will focus on all elements of rhythm: meter, tempo, syncopation, time signatures and what exactly a “groove” is. We will learn ensemble playing, taking solos, doing breaks and learn what really makes a "beat."

We will discover and discuss how rhythms traveled and blended with other cultures to create new musical styles.

In this highly interactive setting, participants are invited to share their own rhythms or a favorite beat and have the group jam on it.