Welcome to The Music Train

How are we different?

The Music Train offers musical education of the very highest standard to babies and children from birth - 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.

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.

We are 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. We also spend much less on advertising than some of the large franchises, relying on our excellent local reputation. This means that our prices stay competitive despite the high standard of both our teachers and equipment.

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, bass drums 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 also have a very wide range of percussion 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)

Thorough Teacher Training Programme

Although many music franchises offer only a day or two of training for their new teachers or simply take on accomplished musicians with little knowledge of the musical capabilities of an early years child, The Music Train puts each of its teachers through a full 12 month training programme 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. We draw on aspects of Kodaly, Dalcroze and Tobin methodologies and ideas to give the children the very best in early years musical education.

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.

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 pre-natally for two years after birth. Providing your child with the right musical environment may 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 can become part of the baby's permanent brain circuitry. Through musical stimulation, we believe you can help build a more effective brain for your child!

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. Starting with two small classes a week in her front room, the organisation rapidly expanded due to an excellent local reputation. In fact, The Music Train now teaches approximately approximately 1000 children a week in Hertfordshire and is fast expanding in Cornwall.

With over fourteen years of early years music teaching experience, Andrea runs the Teacher Training programme and is one of a handful of teachers in UK to hold a qualification specific to early years music teaching (University of Roehampton Certificate in Early Years Music - (Kodaly).