Why join Music Club before one to one lessons?
Music Club is a musicianship course rather than a one-to-one instrumental lesson. We’ve designed it as a focused and purposeful starting point before specialising in an instrument.
For many young children, learning the fundamentals of music in a group setting is more effective than beginning straight away with individual tuition. In a group, children see and hear others modelling skills, respond in real time, and build confidence making music together. Skills such as pulse, rhythm, listening and pitch are often learned more securely this way than in a one-to-one setting.
Music Club is deliberately play-based. For young children, play is how learning happens. It is how they develop language, coordination and pattern recognition. In music, that means active singing, moving, playing and responding - not sitting and receiving instruction.
The musical games in Music Club are structured learning tasks. They are carefully sequenced to build specific musical skills. Children repeat and practise key ideas naturally through engaging activities, which leads to secure understanding without pressure.
Children also play instruments throughout the course, including untuned and pitched percussion, boomwhackers, ukulele and recorder. These are treated as real instruments. Children learn to handle them properly, hold them correctly and play simple patterns and tunes while listening to others.
Across the two foundation levels, children are assessed termly against around 40–50 specific musical skills. These include:
- Keeping and maintaining a steady pulse
- Reading, writing and performing rhythms
- Singing accurately, including short solo lines
- Playing simple musical phrases on instruments
- Listening and responding within an ensemble
- Creating short pieces of music
- Conducting and leading peers
- Performing to an audience
Each skill is tracked using clear criteria: in progress, achieved, or achieved consistently without support. Children are also invited to perform each term.
This structured foundation means that when children later move into one-to-one instrumental lessons, those lessons can progress more quickly and feel more rewarding. Teachers can focus on developing the instrument itself, because the core musical understanding is already in place.
Music Club is a carefully designed first stage of music education, where children build a foundation of musical skill and confidence.