Welcome to The Music Train – Music Classes for Children
The Music Train offers early years music education of the very highest standard to babies and children from birth to 6 years.
Our classes are designed to maintain the attention of even the youngest child, combining a predictable structure with a whole range of new and exciting bite-sized activities. This means that as soon as concentration wanes, the child is re-engaged. Our classes cater for toddlers who struggle to sit and concentrate as well as those who naturally find this easier.
Written with current research in mind, our programme harnesses the power of music, building your child's confidence while developing social skills, rhythm and co-ordination, pitch, language and school readiness while providing an opportunity to bond with family and new friends.
We can also lay the foundations for taking up a musical instrument if this is your aspiration. Indeed we attract many discerning musician parents because of the quality of our musical education. You can read what some of them have to say on our Reviews page.
How are we different?
Our Music is Live
Live music, rather than a pre-recorded CD is essential for teaching music. We insist on live music in class. All teachers will play the guitar for some of the songs and some will also play another instrument at listening time. We do use a wide variety of recorded material, but live music is proven to be the most valuable for children in their early years and this is given great emphasis.
We are Unique
We operate as a 'not just for profit' company, working for the benefit of the families who attend. We are neither a franchise nor a small organisation. We are therefore able to ensure that our lessons are individually prepared for each class, reflecting the personality and professionality of our individual teachers while having an extensive range of resources at our disposal. Spending much less on advertising than some of the large franchises, we rely on our excellent local reputation and are able to keep our prices competitive despite the high standard of both our teachers and equipment.
Extensive Equipment
We teach pre-school music to hundreds of children a week and are therefore able to afford extensive equipment such as real cellos, trumpets, bass drums etc which the children will gain hands on experience of as they progress through our variety of topics. With our wealth of resources, if the theme is, for example, keyboards, each child will have their own individual keyboard in class. We also have a large array of puppets, scarves, fabrics, bubbles, light shows etc that are found in most music classes.
Thorough Teacher Training Programme
Although many music franchises offer only a day or two of training for their new teachers or simply take on accomplished musicians with little knowledge of the musical capabilities of an early years child, The Music Train puts each of its music teachers through a full 12 month training programme specifically in Early Years Music Education and Teaching. Our Teachers know what makes a baby or young child tick and understand the progression of musical development in those early years. We draw on aspects of Kodaly, Dalcroze, Suzuki and Tobin approaches to give the children the very best in early years and baby music education. Our teachers meet each term for continued professional development in order to ensure we remain up to date in our field.
