Ramblin' Dan's Freewheelin' Band (0-12 months)

• Self Confidence – our number one goal without compromise is to help your child KNOW that we all benefit simply from them being there.  Whether they are a dancer, singer, classroom explorer/wanderer, quiet observer, or an all out animal on the drums, we want a feeling of "Self Worth" and "Self Love" to become deeply instilled in your child, as we know that will make EVERYTHING they do in life easier.
• A basic understanding and feeling for music, melody, harmony and rhythm that will serve them their entire life.
• Ear training – listening to music helps you learn to hear the intricacies of all sound. It trains your ears to differentiate between sounds and listen better, which leads to understanding language better. In general, it improves listening comprehension, as your brain learns to navigate cacophonous environments with ease without being overwhelmed.
• Verbal Skills - For our new and soon-to-be talkers, they will learn and develop an array of vocal skills including singing, sound effects and animal sounds, and constantly learning new words. Music is innately built to teach language because there is so much repetition within a song.  For our babies especially, music offers an infinite possibility for them to simply explore and practice different vowels and consonants as they babble while they sing. A baby can’t talk till a certain age, but they can and do sing from the moment they are born. The more they sing, explore and experiment with their vocal chords and mouth, the easier talking will be for them.
• An introduction to many basic concepts such as colors, numbers, feelings, animals and much more.
• Physical development – Dancing, clapping, drumming, jumping, spinning…everything about music promotes physical development and coordination.

In General:

We consider music one of the first places that children do the most basic problem solving, which is figuring out how to use their body. It is one of their first opportunities to express themselves verbally and artistically. Within music, they can find their own groove and learn how they can co-exist with all the other rhythms surrounding them.

For instance: For a 4 or 5 month old child, simply clapping your hands is a massive problem to solve.

-First, observing and piecing together that the word “clap” means “clap.”

-Then, making the decision to try to do that.

-Then literally trying to get their brain to simply move their hands and touch them together.

-And then it’s a year-long process for them to figure out how to clap on the beat and to adjust their inner rhythm to that of the song being played. Learning to clap on micro beats, macro beats, the back beat, etc.

But the best part of that is once they do it on their own, they feel good about themselves, and in these very small ways they develop confidence and independence.

Music is full of these opportunities.