By Guest Blogger Audrey Meixner

Welcome to Half-Pint Harmonies, a fun, friendly, musically rich environment driven by solid educational goals where the music if fun to listen to – even for adults! Classes include a combination of singing, dancing, and instrument exploration…as well as wiggles, giggles, and tickles!

Half-Pint Harmonies is a teaching center for The Music Class, Inc. based in Atlanta, GA.   Currently there are 800 centers with 65,000 students worldwide! Half-Pint Harmonies has exclusive rights to award-winning curriculum from The Music Class®, which includes traditional children’s music and nursery rhymes with a multi-cultural approach. There are also original melodies highlighting diverse scales and meters, exposing the children to a wide variety of sounds and rhythms.

Half-Pint Harmonies offer mixed-age classes and classes for children ages 4-6.  The mixed-age Music Pups® classes are appropriate for children ages newborn to five, with parents, grandparents and caregivers.  Music Pups® classes allow for siblings to attend class together, providing opportunities for older children to become leaders and set musical examples during the10-week session.  During the calendar year, there are three 10-week sessions and a shorter summer session.

The Music Cats® classes are designed for children ages 4-6 who have prior music class experience.  This 45-minute class includes many of the same songs used in Music Pups®, but the activities are age appropriate and parents are only required to be in class during the last 10 minutes each week.  Music Cats® students receive an additional CD with more advanced tonal and rhythm patterns for practice at home.

The Half-Pint Harmonies teaching philosophy is based on Edwin Gordon’s theory of early childhood music education.  Gordon’s research shows that every child is born with the ability to be musical and the first years of life are critical for musical development. If nurtured properly, it greatly enhances the child’s ability to sing, dance, and play a musical instrument later in life.  Much like learning language, the environment must be rich with music making and music listening in order for the mind to fully develop.  The goal is to create lovers of music and enhance each child’s ability to sing in tune and keep a steady beat! Classes incorporate tonal and rhythm patterns into each lesson, and our patterns are based on songs/rhymes performed in class.  It is important to note that alongside group patterns, every child receives an opportunity to try their very own pattern in class! “We understand that young children learn in a variety of ways and bring different world experiences with them to class.  It’s imperative to connect with each child in a way they feel most comfortable, meeting them where they are.”

Half-Pint Harmonies classes provide wonderful opportunities for parents and caregivers to really connect with the children. They use three key terms to describe this important social interaction.

These are the values for all teaching centers for The Music Class, Inc:

• Mirror: Observe closely and acknowledge your child’s emerging musical expressiveness. When you see your child doing something new, imitate and enlarge upon those ideas to reinforce your child’s creativity.
• Model:Provide a shining example by modeling an enthusiastic engagement with music.  Adapt the songs to suit your everyday routines and create musical conversations with your child.
• Touch: Physical touch provides powerful stimulation to neural pathways. Bounce, lift, tickle and dance during music time.

Half-Pint Harmonies has four locations within the Triad. Please see the website www.halfpintharmonies.com to find a class near you!  New families are welcome to try a class for free.

*Guest blogger Audrey Meixner, director of  Half-Pint Harmonies, brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her classes.  She has sixteen years of experience in elementary music, early childhood music, and elementary band in four different states.  Audrey was a teacher for The Music Class, Inc. and a city director for The Music Playhouse, LLC.  Audrey was a finalist for “Favorite Local Mompreneur” in the High Point area for TMoM’s Choice Awards contest this year.  Half-Pint Harmonies was also a Choice Awards finalist for  “Favorite Child Enrichment Program” this past year. You can email Audrey directly at audrey@halfpintharmonies.com, or call her at 336-858-6115, to schedule a visit or register for a class.

**Sponsored by Half-Pint Harmonies