It’s great to be able to highlight educational schemes here on my blog and today I’m giving centre stage to  Stringbabies®. Developed by cellist, Kay Tucker,  Stringbabies® focuses on teaching small children all about music and inparticular, bowed string instruments. Here Kay explains all about her company.

Stringbabies® students learn to sing and play simple songs based around the tuning and technical progression on their instruments. At the same time they learn a notation system based around shapes which progresses very naturally into conventional notation. An important part of the learning process involves the children in making their own compositions and taking part in fun games, often using soft toys to add to the fun.

Stringbabies® was initially devised for cello and later adapted for violin and viola. Books outlining the approach were first published in 2006 and have since received favourable reviews from the European String Teachers Association, the American String Teachers Association and the Australian String Teachers Association.  In October 2010, the cello books received the Review of the month accolade from Music Teacher Magazine, who later in 2012 ran a feature on Stringbabies.

The approach was originally devised with the 3 to 6 year age range in mind, but it has not stayed in its ‘box’ and has been used to help older children with remedial note reading issues and special needs. It has also been used with none musically literate adults! Subsequently, Stringbabies® as an approach has been adopted by teachers in schools and private practice throughout the UK and abroad and it is currently being delivered as a first access programme in two major music services; Surrey Arts and Music Cornwall.

For more information and updates visit www.stringbabies.com

Kay Tucker AGSM;ARCM;LTCL;PGCE;PGCA.

Director; Stringbabies Ltd

Image above courtesy of www.wxxinews.org

My publications:

For much more information about how to practice piano repertoire, take a look at my two-book piano course, Play it again: PIANO (Schott). Covering a huge array of styles and genres, 49 progressive pieces from approximately Grade 1 – 8 level are featured, with at least two pages of practice tips for every piece. A convenient and beneficial course for students of any age, with or without a teacher, and it can also be used alongside piano examination syllabuses too.

You can find out more about my other piano publications and compositions here.