Why choose The Music Train ?

The Music Train offers musical education of the very highest standard to babies and children aged 3 months - rising 5.

The classes are structured to maintain the attention of even the youngest child. Children who attend The Music Train stay with us for many years and gain benefits far beyond the obvious musical learning.

Thorough Teacher Training Programme

To our knowledge, we are the only UK organisation that insists that our Teachers train for a whole year specifically in Early Years Music Education and Teaching. Our Teachers know what makes a young child tick and understand every aspect of musical development in those early years.

Not a Franchise

We are neither a franchise nor a small organisation. As such, we are able to ensure that our lessons are individually prepared for each class and reflect the personality and professionality of our individual teachers.

Extensive Equipment

Because we are not a small organisation and teach hundreds of children a week, we have extensive equipment such as real cellos, trumpets, electric guitars etc which the children will gain hands on experience of as they progress through our variety of topics. With our large resources, if the theme is, for example, keyboards, each child will have their own individual keyboard in class.

We have a very wide range of instruments available, and each week of the term, the instruments in our train carriages are changed so that children (and grown ups) can explore many different sounds over the course of the term. (Instruments for younger children are slightly more limited due to safety hazards).

Our music is live

Live music, rather than a pre-recorded CD is essential for teaching music. We insist on live music in class. All teachers will play the guitar for some of the songs and some will also play another instrument at listening time. We do use a wide variety of recorded material, but live music is proven to be the most valuable for children in their early years and this is given great emphasis.

Teaching to sing in tune

Not everyone realises that each and every child can learn to sing in tune, given the right environment and training. The ability to learn to sing in tune develops over the first ten years of life and as we train your child for the first five years our role in this is very important. We provide a key song each half term specially designed to develop tunefulness, which we ask you to practise with your child every day.

Developing a sense of rhythm

It`s not just the singing. Every week we have activities specifically designed to develop your child's sense of rhythm and co-ordination. A dance teacher recently told us that she had noticed that children who had attended The Music Train when younger were different - with an innate sense of rhythm!

The whole child

As well as developing musicality we will help with the development of your whole child. The musical learning encompasses a broad range of other learning, such as colours, numbers, months of the year, and aesthetic appreciation. The lessons sometimes involve craft activities such as making wave drums or counting out the number of woolly strings your child places on their violin picture. They may even make a buzzy bee to fly around to The Flight of the Bumblebee (Rimsky Korsakov). Social development is also given priority - tidying away, taking turns, being the leader and being the follower.

Developing the brain

A child's brain is developing fast. In fact it continues to grow at the same rate as prenatally for two years after birth. Providing your child with the right musical environment will mean that you make actual physiological changes in your baby's brain. As a baby's brain develops, synapses (junctions in the brain's circuit) that are used repeatedly will become part of the baby's permanent brain circuitry. Through musical stimulation, you can help build a more effective brain for your child! We also sell and can give you more information about Mozart Effect CDs for babies and young children.

When your child leaves

It`s normally quite a while before we say goodbye to our families. We have a very high rebooking rate and siblings tend to follow on. However, when your child does eventually leave The Music Train to go into full time education our job does not stop there. Your child is welcome to come back and join in our summer holiday sessions with younger siblings and relive their early years memories. We will also give you advice about helping your child to take up an instrument, should this be a direction they wish to pursue.

How it all started

The Music Train, formerly Tots Tunes, was founded in 1995 by mum of two, Andrea Lee, who wanted to provide fun and friendly classes where mothers and their pre-school children could enjoy music and learn together in a group setting. The organisation expanded rapidly and now teaches music every week-day to hundreds of under fives in Hertfordshire.