About the Program...
Barbara Langhorne's 'Music Makers" is a carefully graduated continuous development of musical skills, in a social atmosphere. Children are in groups with their own age level, but each child's responses and potential are carefully cultivated.
The instruments provided are designed especially for child education by Dr. Carl Orff, world renowned educator in children's music. Xylophones, glockenspiels, and metallophones; tympani, kettle drums, and hand drums; and well known rhythm instruments such as cymbals, tambourines, maracas, and many others, encourage the child to respond actively to the stimuli of rhythm and pitch.
The Keyboard instruments (i.e. xylophones, glockenspiels, and metallophones) have the same key-system as a piano, with the letter names on the keys. On them, the child can see a scale or melodic pattern. There is a visual understanding that is not available on wind or stringed instruments, but which is essential to understanding the theory involved in playing any instrument, or in vocal studies.
Singing is an important part of each class, and usually the children accompany themselves on the Orff instruments. Some songs are sung to movement or action games; in other songs the children contribute to the words or tune. This helps them to realize that music does not come only from pushing a button, or from someone else's pen, but also from inside oneself.
At Kindergarten level the children are reading music and playing songs on the recorder from their music books. The recorder provides an introduction to the woodwind and brass instruments. It gives the children an opportunity to explore their aptitude and liking for these "mouth instruments", and to develop small-muscle control and finger independence, required for any instrumental training later. Everything learned at Barbara Langhorne's "Music Makers" is applicable to further music studies on any instrument.
Levels 4, 5, and 6 of Barbara Langhorne's Music Makers further develop the child's understanding of key signature, scales, chords, arpeggios, compound time signatures, accent, advanced rhythms, syncopation, phrasing, form, 2 & 3 part harmony, larger alto recorders, and improvisation. All these topics are experienced through ear training, movement and written notation, following the requirements of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto.
Choosing an instrument for later studies is a very personal choice for the child. It involves not only the child's aptitude for a certain type of instrument, but the pitch range of the instrument, and its inherent tone quality, or timbre - which form an emotional bond with the child, and provide the incentive to master the instrument.
Application Download
*Please note: There are two versions of our application forms available for download, an Adobe "pdf" and a Microsoft "Word" version. You will either need Adobe reader ( available free ) or Microsoft Word 2003-2007 to open these documents.
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You can submit your application form by mail, fax or email. See contact info.