THE POWER OF MUSIC. Music educator Michelle Junia believes that music and movement are natural parts of childhood and children can greatly benefit greatly in many areas of life.

Music is like magic. It affects people of all ages in so many ways that not even science nor logic could explain.

For one, learning music is the key to raising well-rounded children that excel in almost all aspects of life. Children that start early in music education are usually the ones that have good memory, above average Math skills, and high levels of abstract and creative thinking. Music’s melodic and rhythmic patterns are also proven to awaken and stimulate neural pathways in the brain at an early age.

Studies show that when children are exposed to learning and enjoying music, parents are helping them develop language, confidence, patience, self-expression, concentration, social interaction, team work, creativity, goal setting, coordination fine motor skills and emotional development among others.

Believing in the immense power of music to help develop a child’s potentials, music educator Michelle Junia recently opened Musikgarten Manila, a school that has designed a creative program to awaken and develop the child’s inborn joy and inherent talent for making music.

“There is so much more to learning music than preparing a child for a musical career and this is what we want parents to realize,” Junia explains.

MYTHS ON MUSIC EDUCATION

In the Philippines, Junia says that there are so many misconceptions about music schools and music education.

“Parents are not educated about the importance of music education in child development so they enroll their kids to music schools and training centers for all the wrong reasons,” she observes.

Among these misconceptions are the ideal age for kids to enroll in voice lessons, the duration of music classes, and the benefits of music in children development.

“Filipino parents enroll their kids to music schools because they want them to be performers, to appear on TV, or perform in family gatherings. Dito sa atin since music is very innate, parents tend to disregard the other benefits of music aside from developing the skills of their children,” she explains.

But what the parents do not realize, Junia points out, is that intensive voice training is not advisable for very young children because their vocal chords are very tender and fragile. “So instead of improving the quality of their voice, very early training will create more damage especially when they grow older,” she says.

Junia also adds that when kids are forced to undergo music training at such an early age, parents are putting too much pressure on their kids. “Sobrang sayang kasi madami sa kanila may potential to be good musicians but because parents are pressuring them too much, they lose interest in music all throughout.”

Another misconception is that the longer the classes are, the better training a child gets. “ Filipino parents feel that they are being robbed of their money when we only offer 30-minute classes. But 30 minutes are already sufficient for the child to acquire so much information and so much technique for them to practice.”

But the biggest misconception on learning music is that it is only for summer.

“Yes, it is an after-school activity but what they don’t realize is most of the musicians are excel in school academically because of the discipline music lessons give to the child,” she says.

PASSION FOR MUSIC

As a Music Education graduate from the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music, Junia has always wondered about the prevailing weak foundation in music education in a country where ironically, everybody loves music.

After graduating cum laude, Junia put up the music school Stardev offering one-on-one voice training, instrument teaching with stage performance. But inspite her success in training young talents, Junia felt that there was so much more that she could offer. She kept on researching for her dream music school, one that would focus on the holistic development of the child through music from birth onwards.

Through the Internet, she came across the approach that she has been dreaming of — the Musikgarten approach but she had to put it on hold because of financial reasons. Eventually, Junia flew to Chicago last year to train on early childhood music education, earning the distinction of becoming the first and only licensed USUS Musikgarten educator in the country.

Considered a leader in early childhood music education in the U.S., Musikgarten was founded by Lorna Lutz Heyge and Audrey Sillick and designed  to enable teachers to understand how a child learns music, and provide them with tools to help a child grow musically, as well as emotionally, socially and cognitively.

Junia compares Musikgarten’s concept with that of Sesame Street wherein counting and learning the alphabet are taught using music.

“But Musikgarten is much deeper and the curriculum is really well studied,” she says.

Musikgarten uses unique, non-traditional and progressive approach to learning music that serves as building blocks in the introduction of other skills. Aside from offering a comprehensive and sequential plan for the musical development of children ages five years old and below, Musikgarten also involves the family in the learning process.

Musikgarten provides both the freedom and the guidance necessary through a flexible curriculum to show parents how to engage children in a dynamic learning process and help them form the basis for a life-long love of music.

Musikgarten Manila has divided the curriculum into three tracks: the Family Music for Babies for newborn to 18-month old babies; the Family Music for Toddlers for babies 15 months old to 3½ years old; and the Cycle of Seasons for preschoolers ages 3 to 5 years old.

Junia also encourages parents to enroll their children with special needs, especially those with ADHD.

“Children with ADHD can’t seem to pay attention because of very quick visual changes so here, even if we may visual materials for the class, we don’t use them that much. The school also puts emphasis on the aural development of the child because this is very often neglected,’’ Junia says.

Through Musikgarten, Junia hopes that parents would spend more time with their children despite living in a fast-paced world and realize the deeper importance of music in their children’s development.

For inquiries, e-mail musikgartenmanila@gmail.com or call 381-5776.