Groundwork’s Mission and Purpose:
The mission of the Groundwork Music Project is simple: to provide music education to young children who could not otherwise afford it. The earliest years of life are critical for learning music, which also helps children to have better thinking skills, motor skills and social skills.
Music and the Preschool Years
Children respond to music from the moment they are born. This is why lullabies and other types of children’s songs are universal. We are hardwired to be musical. Developing musical skills is no less fundamental than learning to move and speak and make sense of the world around us. In fact, learning music helps children to carry themselves with greater confidence and ability in many areas of their lives for years to come.
Music Education professor Lili M. Levinowitz points out the similarities between the development of language skills and the development of musical skills. Just as speech begins with “babble”, the earliest evidence of musical expression are fragments that slowly synthesize into a coherent musical pattern. Also, just like speech and language, the period of “musical babble”, the preschool years, are the most critical for the development of musical skills. It is during this time that children develop an internal understanding of rhythm and melody. It is during this time that children learn to carry a tune and keep a beat. With the right kind of environment, every child can become musical.
Music education for preschoolers is very specific. Hence, the teachers and musicians providing classes for Groundwork have a thorough knowledge about developmentally appropriate musical activities and lesson plans. Neal Kassanoff, Groundwork’s founder, received training from Music Together and has a Master’s Degree in School Psychology. He has recorded numerous children’s CD’s. Among these recordings are songs and activities written just for preschoolers. Neal works with nationally recognized musicians in order to pool educational skills and creative abilities for both the classroom and the recording studio. The work of these musicians is at the disposal of Groundwork and the communities it serves.
What parents have to say
“From taking these music classes, not only did my daughter develop a love for music, but she was way ahead of the curve when she started music classes in kindergarten. The songs are fun and engaging, and the classes were always a highlight of the preschool week.” — Debra Haas
“My daughter absolutely loved the classes and looked forward to going every week. The class was a great combination of singing, playing with rhythm instruments and dancing. The teachers’ songwriting background added a great dimension to the class and their cd’s continue to be my daughter’s absolute favorites.” — Kerry Drake
More about the immeasurable value of music
“The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling — training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression.”
— Ratey John J., MD. A User’s Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.
A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. (Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb, “Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial-temporal reasoning,” Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February 1997)
Across a broad spectrum of research, the development of musical skills is linked to positive outcomes. Music nourishes our intellect. It enriches connection to our own culture and the cultures of others. It provides myriad opportunities for personal expression and social interaction. Through music and its inextricable relationship with dance we make contact with our deepest physical self, while other elements of music make the abstract discernable at a very early age.
“As parents we’ve seen our child begin by enjoying this music to absolutely loving it — the instruments, the dance, the fun… the full immersion has begun. It’s great to see a light in a child’s eye when something so basic to the soul such as music is introduced and integrated into daily life.”