Nurturing Musical Beginnings for Babies, Toddlers, & Young Children
Empowering families with the necessary tools to build the musical foundation of children during their most critical and sensitive periods of development, ages 0-3
Music Play for Babies
A calm, joyful space for parents and infants to connect. Carefully crafted songs, movement, and rhythm activities support your baby’s brain development and spark their first love of music. Perfect for mom-and-baby classes or caregiver bonding.
Music Play for Mixed Ages 0-3
Babies and toddlers explore music through movement, song, and play. Caregivers help create a musically rich environment that supports each child’s development at their own pace while learning rich melodies, rhythms, music patterns, and ideas for musical interaction.
A new hybrid program
Music Play blends the joy of in-person classes with flexible supports of online learning, a parent community, and a library of resources — all designed to help families bring music into everyday life and nurture growth at home.
Music Play – Family Explorations
The perfect first step into music! Families enjoy monthly in-person classes, monthly online classes, plus online support and resources that make it easy to spark musical play at home.
Music Play – Family Foundations
With more consistent in-person classes, online parent learning, and expanded resources, this plan helps families build strong routines for weaving music into daily life and nurturing lasting growth together.
+Music Play Add-On (option only available with Family Foundations)
Families can add on extra in-person classes to the Family Foundations plan.
Music Play Classes @Brussels
This fall, in-person and live online classes will be held on Saturdays and Mondays.
In-person classes will be held 2x/month. As participation grows, classes may be added throughout the year. The class times may be adjusted based on participating families’ scheduling preferences. The class schedule will continually be updated on the Studio Calendar.
In-person classes begin September 22 at 3 Brussels St. Worcester, MA.
Saturdays
10am Music Play for Mixed Ages 0-3
11am Music Play for Babies Pre-walkers
Mondays
10am Music Play for Mixed Ages 0-3
Enroll early and save! Register by September 20 to lock in 10% off Explorations or 15% off Foundations each month.
All families enrolled in Music Play or Piano Pathway receive access to our creative space events, open play, and community hub.
*Please complete the Registration Form before selecting your music plan(s).
• 2 in-person group classes per month
Guided play with Jenie, choice of Babies or Mixed Ages 0-4
• Recorded online classes available for make-ups and viewing
• Monthly parent coaching video i.e. How to recognize and encourage musical responses, musical inputs that support or impede a child’s development
• Rotating Home Challenge + Optional Share To support and encourage music in the home, try a fun musical challenge at home and share with the community
• Monthly online class
Guided play with Jenie, activities and ideas for fostering musical interactivity at home (i.e. with favorite toys, routines, household items), practical strategies + Q&A
• Family community hub
Share, ask questions, receive support
• Resource library with songs, activity videos, and play ideas
• Creative space perks
Access to open play after classes + selected events
• 1 in-person group class per month
Guided play with Jenie, choice of Babies or Mixed Ages 0-4
• Monthly online class
Guided play with Jenie, activities and ideas for fostering musical interactivity at home (i.e. with favorite toys, routines, household items), practical strategies + Q&A
• Family community hub
Share, ask questions, receive support
• Resource library with songs, activity videos, and play ideas
• Creative space perks
Access to open play after classes + selected events
“I was so pleasantly surprised by what Music Play offers local children. It is much more than singing and dancing and really focuses on the development of musicality with a natural and organic approach.
Ms. Jenie is dedicated, knowledgeable and passionate about music.”
-Chrystina
“We have incorporated not only the songs, but many of the lessons that we learned in class into our lives. Utilizing songs to give my daughter a direction or to help her follow a routine has been so helpful as she has entered the toddler phase. This use of music was a parenting skill that I learned from Jenie in class. In this way, the class was about more than just singing and moving together.
It was truly about fostering a love of music and weaving music into all that we do.”
-Stephanie
Through classes this year, I have come to value how much dedication Jenie puts into preparing for her classes. She always has a strategy for which songs will be in the rotation along with appropriate instrument exposure for the ages of the children. I have loved hearing my sons echo our voices in response to the music.
During all sessions with Jenie, she takes great care to engage each child individually.
-Corinna
Not all music is equal. How is Music Play different?
Backed by research, grounded in Music Learning Theory (MLT): Classes are based on neuroscience and Gordon’s MLT approach, ensuring your child is developing true musical thinking.
Expertly designed by a specialist in early childhood music education: This isn’t a cookie-cutter franchise program — it’s carefully developed by an educator who deeply understands how babies and toddlers learn music.
Authentic music exposure, not simplified jingles: Your child will experience a rich variety of tonalities and meters — far beyond what most programs and online playlists offer, developing a full and flexible musical vocabulary.
Engaged caregivers, empowered learning: You’ll learn how to become your child’s musical play partner, with tools and techniques that integrate into your daily routines at home.
Development-first, not performance-first: We focus on building the inner musician first — nurturing deep musical understanding and whole-child development.
Why the earliest years matter
Do babies and toddlers really need music class?
Neuroscience and early childhood research affirm that the first three years of life represent a critical window for musical development. During this time, the brain is exceptionally receptive to sound, rhythm, and pitch. Without rich musical exposure, innate musical aptitude rapidly declines. But when nurtured intentionally, this potential can grow into extraordinary lifelong musical fluency.
In the first months and years of life, a child’s brain is exquisitely tuned to absorb sound — not just as a sensory experience, but as nourishment. Neuroscientists describe sound as a cognitive nutrient — vital fuel for brain development. For infants, sound is music, and music is information. When we sing to babies, we’re not just soothing them — we’re feeding their brains with the building blocks of understanding: pitch, rhythm, timbre, and emotion. Without this rich musical input during the brain’s most receptive stage, babies don’t just lose potential music aptitude — they miss out on foundational learning skills. Song helps lengthen attention span, deepen cognitive processing, and spark neural pathways that shape how a child learns for life. A lack of this nourishment can mean diminished attention, reduced engagement, and a lower capacity to process the world around them.
This is why we don’t wait for “instrument-readiness.” We meet children where they are during this crucial early period — tuned into sound, wired for music, and ready to grow. Through play-based experiences, live singing, movement, and curated songs, children don’t just learn music — they live it. They naturally begin to audiate (hear and think music internally), develop rhythmic coordination, express themselves creatively, and establish the foundation for musical fluency, including reading notation, improvising, and performing with ease.
What is in a Music Play class?
• A Rich Musical Environment
Immerse children with songs in various tonalities and chants in different meters;
Allow children to learn through listening, absorption and exploration
• Ideas for Caregivers
Recognize musical responses and interact musically with your child
• Purposeful Space and Responsiveness to Child-led Play
Provide opportunities for children to process learning and respond to children’s spontaneous musicking
• Informal Pattern Guidance
Expose children to music vocabularies
• Body Awareness and Movement
Explore and model levels of movement including flow and to steady beat
Just like learning a language, music is best learned by immersion and repetition of live singing and spontaneous interaction. Music Play classes are not designed to entertain young children, but rather to create a playful environment that focuses on using the singing voice, chants and movement that best serve their musical development. To maximize music learning at this stage, use of recordings and language is kept to a minimum in our classes. The music educational process also takes consistency, purposeful guidance and the willingness of caregivers to participate in active music-making. Together, we will give children what they need - the foundation for a lifetime of music.
Music Play Adventures
For the active and imaginative child
Embark on story-based musical learning adventures through play that encourages imagination during this special period of a child’s life. Build musical understanding and coordination through singing, learning music vocabularies, movement, props, and playing instruments. Children will experience guided exploration and creativity where they can express their ideas and emotions through music and movement.
Sample Activities
• Use props for imaginative play while singing, moving and making music
• Explore and play percussive instruments while learning and creating rhythm patterns in the context of a song
• With guidance, collectively create music that depicts scenes and characters in a story
• Play musical circle and partner games