Music research shows that children who are involved in preschool piano lessons have significantly greater brain function than children who do not, and those changes persist if the instruction persists into the school years.*  We have developed a program directly from Child Psychology, Neuroscience and other scientific research, that will enhance your child emotionally and academically. Stated differently, we base our curriculum on the most recent findings in science and import them into our delivery.

• All children have musical potential. Every child has the potential for successful, meaningful interactions with music. The development of this potential, through numerous encounters with a wide variety of music and abundant opportunities to participate regularly in developmentally appropriate* music activities, is the right of every young child.
• Children bring their own unique interest and abilities to the music learning environment. Each child will take away that bit of knowledge and skill that he or she is uniquely capable of understanding and developing. Children must be left, as much as possible, in control of their own learning. They should be provided with a rich environment that offers many possible routes for them to explore as they grow in awareness and curiosity about music.
• Very young children are capable of developing critical thinking skills through musical ideas. Children use thinking skills when making musical judgments and choices. Children are never called upon to use these skills when they are not ready.
• Children come to early childhood music experiences from diverse backgrounds. Their home languages and cultures are to be valued and seen as attributes that enrich everyone in the learning environment.
• Children should experience exemplary musical sounds, activities, and materials. Children's learning time is valuable and should not be wasted on experiences with music or activities of trite or questionable quality.
• Children should not be encumbered with the need to meet performance goals. Opportunities should be available for children to develop accurate singing, rhythmic responses to music, and performance skills on instruments. Each child's attainment of a predetermined performance level, however, is neither essential nor appropriate.
• Children's play is their work. Children should have opportunities for individual musical play, such as in a "music corner," as well as for group musical play, such as singing games. Children learn within a playful environment. Play provides a safe place to try on the roles of others, to fantasize, and to explore new ideas. Children's play involves imitation and improvisation.
• Children learn best in pleasant physical and social environments. Music learning contexts will be most effective when they include (1) play, (2) games, (3) conversations, (4) pictorial imagination, (5) stories, (6) shared reflections on life events and family activities, and (7) personal and group involvement in social tasks. Dominant use of drill-type activities and exercises and worksheet tasks will not provide the kind of active, manipulative, and creative musical environment essential to the development of young minds.
• Diverse learning environments are needed to serve the developmental needs of many individual children. Children interact with musical materials in their own way based on their unique experiences and developmental stages. One child may display sophistication and confidence in creating songs in response to dolls. Another child, in the same setting, may move the dolls around without uttering a sound--but this "silent participator" leaves the area content in having shared the music play. The silent participator often is later heard playing in another area softly singing to a different set of dolls--demonstrating a delayed response.
• Children need effective adult models. Parents and teachers who provide music in their child's life are creating the most powerful route to the child's successful involvement in the art.

      It is desirable that individuals with training in early childhood music education for young children be involved in providing musical experiences for the children, either directly or as consultants. Often it is the parent, certified teacher, higher education professional, Child Development Associate (CDA), or other care provider who is primarily responsible for guiding the musical experiences of the young child in piano lessons. These persons should:

• love and respect young children,
• value piano instruction and recognize that an early introduction to music is important in the lives of children,
• model an interest in and use of music in daily life,
• be confident in their own musicianship/piano skills, realizing that within the many facets of musical interaction there are many effective ways to personally affect children's musical growth in piano instruction,
• be willing to enrich and seek improvement of personal musical and communicative skills,
• interact with children and music in a playful manner
• use developmentally appropriate** musical materials and teaching techniques,
• find, create, and/or seek assistance in acquiring and using appropriate music resources.
• cause appropriate music learning environments to be created,

* Child development research--that is, the research that is conducted by research scientists and published in scientific journals--indicates that the changes founded in early childhood do not persist unless the music instruction lasts beyond the early childhood stage. Children need to continue in lesson through their childhood in order for the effects to last (do not stop the lessons in first grade, etc.).

** "Developmentally Appropriate" is rapidly becoming a buzzword and we attempt to avoid it here, but also have to use it to convey meaning. Strictly, it should mean that the person who constructed the "developmentally appropriate" plan did so from the standpoint of being a Doctor of Psychology or Psychiatry in Child Development AND fully understands the research done for children, then takes the time and effort to integrate it into childhood education. The Child Development research is complex, and changes (updates) weekly. One cannot devise a developmentally appropriate curriculum by taking a few courses or reading some books. It must happen through formal study.