Summer Ready, Set, Play!

Our Summer Ready, Set, Play! classes meet in person at our Upper West Side location (218 W 72nd St) and our Morningside Heights location (45 Tiemann Place). We offer five-week sessions on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Classes are grouped by age and limited to four students per class.

Click HERE to Register! 

 

Please note due to the short nature of our summer classes, there is no registration fee and there are no makeup classes.

Our Ready, Set, Play! classes for children from 2 to 6 years are designed to introduce the violin, viola, cello, guitar, flute, and piano in addition to other elements of music study. Students play percussion instruments, listen and move to live music, read and write rhythms, and sing. Repetition of songs and activities from week to week allow children to gain confidence as they achieve comfort and mastery of musical skills. These classes encourage and prepare young children for instrumental study in a fun, relaxed, and supportive environment. 

In Ready, Set, Play! children learn to accept instruction from the teacher in small doses while also given freedom to express themselves with the instruments. Each child has one-on-one time with the teacher and the instruments, as well as experiences making music with the group. Note values and the reading and writing of rhythms are introduced. Children proudly compose their own short rhythmic pieces and learn to play them on their own instruments at the school (in-person) or at home (online).

As students grow and mature,  Ready, Set, Play! classes grow and develop with your child. Parts of the class model the quiet learning environment of a private lesson where children learn to take turns, follow directions, and be attentive with the comfort of their parent or caregiver close-by.  Most of our students participate in RSP classes for multiple semesters or years, allowing them to grow in self-confidence and enthusiasm for music while working on developing the focus necessary for private study.  Our teachers are adept at supporting and challenging students at every level in our very small classes, allowing mixed-age and mixed-level classes to be successful and motivating for all of the children.  

In a typical class, children may sing the Rest Position Song with violins under their arms and take a bow, play along the Twinkle Variations or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with rhythm sticks, play an improvisatory piece on a group of drums, pluck the String Song on small cellos, move to the rhythmic elements of “beat”, “running”, and “half”, practice flute “sign language”, and find patterns and sing note names on the piano.