Music Together

Changing the World, One Song at a Time

by Erika Alexia Tsoukanelis and photographs by Hillary Harvey, July 26, 2007

In the West African country of Ghana there is no word for performance. The act of sharing music is instead called play. Children spend their days crafting elaborate clapping and singing games, and their nights watching adults offer traditional songs to each other. Drumming is common. Singing accompanies most daily activities. Thus, play is everywhere, traditions are carried forward, and children learn how to cooperate and solve dilemmas. Music generates togetherness.

Not so in our modern society. Unlike many indigenous cultures and our own previous generations, most of us do not build music-making and dance into our existence. And because musical skill is something that must be coaxed from a child, many people have grown up feeling they can’t carry a tune or keep time to a beat. They feel that music is something for the exceptionally gifted to make, while they pay to take in its mystery. Music has become something we consume rather than something we create. The truth is that making music and exploring movement is for everyone. It’s not about performance; it’s about expression, celebration, growth, fun, emotional honesty, and community.

This is the spirit behind the groundbreaking, internationally recognized program called Music Together. In a time when music education budgets are among the first to be slashed in public schools despite empirical evidence supporting their value, Music Together nurtures children from infancy through kindergarten, cultivating their musical development with care, dedication, and joy. There are classes geared to specific age groups and mixed classes as well. Parents participate with their sons and daughters; adults and kids sing, dance, chant, and play instruments together, and leave with recordings and songbooks so that they may re-create these magical moments at home. Specially trained teachers, exposed to the latest research in early childhood music development, facilitate with enthusiasm and sensitivity, encouraging the native ability in all human beings to make music and dance. They believe this ability to be as natural as walking and talking.