Alley Bell Music in Edmonds: Music for the Very Young

Most professional musicians will tell you they started young.

A new music class coming to Edmonds is for the very young: tots up to 5 years old.

The program is the idea of Sarah Richàrd, who is bringing international Music Together classes to Edmonds through Alley Bell Music. Classes begin in April at the .

As you might expect, Richàrd has been immersed in musical activities since she herself was a child. So it comes as no surprise that she pursued a career in music, earning degrees in both music education and voice pedagogy (the study of how to teach voice lessons).

“Music Together is a program that was developed at Princeton,” said Richàrd, an Edmonds native with a son smack dab in the middle of the Music Together demographic: 3-year-old Josiah. “We believe that every child is born musical and that every child can learn music and the strongest window for learning is the younger years.”

In Music Together classes, children don't have to just sit and listen to the teacher. Instead, they're encouraged to get up, move around and sing and dance.

Music Together's belief is that all children are musical and can learn to sing in tune and keep a beat. Music Together creators believe that children should have actual musical experiences—playing instruments, singing songs, clapping out beats—rather than passively soaking it in from a CD or TV.

“We don’t have a traditional classroom setting,” Richàrd said. “We give the children a complete musical immersion for 45 minutes. Every class will include singing rhythmic chants, freestyle dance, free time with musical instruments and recognizing tonal patterns.”

Each class will have 12 children at the maximum, each one with a parent, caretaker or, as the brochure for the program says, “a grownup who loves them.”

The idea is to let the children see these important adult figures in their lives involved in making music, Richàrd said. Every students gets a two-CD set with music from the class so they can continue to involve class songs into their everyday lives. The songs represent a broad sampling from all around the world.

Numerous studies have been conducted about the connection between children’s brain development, exposure to music and grades as they enter school.

“To me as a parent and a musician I think this is the most well thought out musical curriculum out there,” Richàrd said. “It just gives you a great feeling that you can do something so wonderful for your child’s brain development. It’s also really hard to find activities where both the child and the parent are doing the activity at the same time, but with Music Together, they can do that. It’s a really special thing.”

Alley Bell Music classes (with the Music Together curriculum) begins in April at the Barclay Shelton Dance Centre, 413 Bell St., Edmonds. Cost for a 10-week class is $180, with a sibling discount rate of $125. Richàrd is offering two free demo classes that require pre-registration—March 24 and March 27. For more information, go to Richàrd’s Web site.