Let’s get something out of the way: yes, we sing Wheels on the Bus and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. There are maracas and tambourines. If you peeked into the first few minutes of our PreK or Kinder music class, it would look very similar to others - kids in a circle singing, clapping, banging or shaking something - but nobody sits still for long. Group time at our studio quickly transforms into movement. They’re singing, marching, skipping, dancing, and playing music and listening games while the instructor sings and plays along. It would look a little chaotic, but there’s a method to the crazy.
If you look closer, the songs aren’t random. We work from a rotation of about 20 different children’s songs, each chosen based on familiarity, and to help with number, letter, and pattern memorization. They also happen to be the same songs the kids will eventually learn to play on the piano, ukulele, drums, violin, and other instruments we have available. That’s the pattern with everything in these classes: it looks like play, and underneath it’s a curriculum.
After group time, they play real instruments
In our PreK Music class (ages 2-4), group time is followed by one-on-one instructor time, and each child picks a focus: pattern games, art, or an actual instrument. Not a toy version. The real thing.
At the piano, we use picture music books with matching stickers on the keys, so a 3-year-old can find the right notes and play the same songs we just sang together in group. There’s something special about watching a kid that small realize the song coming out of the piano is one they know, and that they’re the one playing it.
At the drums, sure, there’s plenty of banging. But we’re working toward bang, bang, bang, bang while counting one, two, three, four, and repeating it. Then the instructor plays the same songs we sang in group while the child keeps the rhythm. Some kids lock right in. Others mostly just bang away, and that’s fine too, because either way they’re sitting at a professional instrument, learning how it works, building the physical mechanics. That beats waiting around until fourth grade, which is when most kids get their first real crack at an instrument in school.
The pattern games are secretly the point
Every class also includes matching, sequencing, and pattern recognition games. That might sound like filler between songs. It’s the opposite.
Music is patterns. Rhythm is a pattern, scales are patterns, and every song your child loves is built from patterns stacked on top of each other. But it goes further than music: recognizing patterns, predicting what comes next, and finding a cadence is how musicians think, and honestly, it’s how people solve problems everywhere. We’re training little minds to notice structure. The instruments are how we make that training irresistible.
Ages 4-6: same idea, turned up
Our Kinder Music class (ages 4-6) runs on the same framework at a more advanced level. We bring in ukulele a lot with this group. Kids this age usually start gravitating toward a specific instrument, so we lean into that: they get small assignments, and we encourage parents to have an instrument at home to practice on.
By the end of the 4-month course, most of these kids can identify all 12 notes in music, read basic notation and play from the treble clef, hear the difference between major and minor, and keep rhythm playing alongside the instructor and other students. Kids who can’t tie their shoes yet, reading music. They’re capable of far more than they usually get credit for.
Why we start this early
Here’s the belief behind the whole program: waiting until a child is 8, 9, or 10 to start music wastes years when their brains are most wired for it. We’ve watched 4-year-olds play full songs. Parents who grew up around music know exactly what we mean, and usually wish someone had started them earlier too.
A child who comes through these classes walks into their first piano, guitar, violin, or drum lesson already understanding rhythm, recognizing notes, and hearing patterns. The instrument changes. The fundamentals don’t. That’s the head start.
The details
Two classes, split by age: PreK Music (ages 2-4) and Kinder Music (ages 4-6). Both are capped at four students, so every child gets real attention every class. Tuition is $129 a month, and the full breakdown is on our Kinder and PreK Music page.
If your little one hums, taps on everything, or dances when music comes on, that’s enough to start. Book a consultation or reach out and we’ll find the right class for your child. Not sure they’re ready? We wrote about how we think about readiness too.