MY MUSIC 0-5
Penny Davies has been an Early Childhood teacher since 1993.
In the late 90's to early 2000's she studied Music Theory, Pedagogy and Methods from the Kodaly Summer Schools run, at that time, at the University of Queensland's Music Department during Summer break.
Penny lives in Stanthorpe, Qld, where she runs her own children's music sessions. "I don't call them 'classes', says Penny, "that sounds way too formal for what we share in My Music 0-5 sessions."
Watching Penny work with a group of Babies and fairly new Mothers, or a wild & crazy bunch of toddlers, or an enthusiastic set of 4 year olds you can see what she means. Penny's music sessions are Fun most of all. Yet the children, from as young as a few months old, are already learning the building blocks of music - and so are their parents. "I can only do so much in a short session," says Penny, "the parents go home with the repertoire and can use it all through their days, whenever it seems right. That's how the children learn, through repetition of something they enjoy."
"The building blocks of music are firstly, the beat. We walk the beat all the time - we are beatful beings! When we bounce our new babies as we sing, they are already learning the beat - the heart of a song," says Penny. "The rhythm is innate too - the way we speak rhymes to babies is very rhythmic (the rhythm is the way the words of a song go - if you clap the words, you'll get the rhythm of a song or rhyme."
"Melody is often used in speech when we talk to very young babies - all the ooohing and aaaahing we do going up & down melodically - that's just the beginning of the child learning melody. Then their first simple 2 note songs are just an extension of that - and then on we go!"
"We should always play all kinds of music to our children, even if it seems complex. It's all grist to the mill," she says. "But coming along to a music session, with other children and with parents who are involved in their children's musical adventures is a fantastic learning event for the children. Even those children who appear to be uninvolved will be taking in so much."
"Send me an email if you'd like more information and you live in the Granite Belt - or even if you don't live nearby." Email
Penny is beginning to make some of her musical ideas for children available online for people who can't get to her sessions. This is the link