Leslie Schmunk Music Studio - Seattle Baby and Children's Music Classes

Leslie Schmunk Music Studio – (425) 244.3902 - 12121 Seattle Hill Road, Snohomish, WA 98296 

This baby friendly music studio offers classes for children newborn through age seven, piano lessons for kids age 4 and up, violin lessons for kids age 6 and up and voice lessons from age 12 and up.  Below are the latest listings of classes for babies, toddlers and older kids.

Family Music for Babies (Newborns - 18 Months) 14 week session 

All babies are born with an aptitude for music, but research shows that their aptitude diminishes if it is not nurtured. The best way to nurture a child's music aptitude is through active music making. By singing and dancing for and with our children in a variety of tonalities, meters and styles we are helping our children reach their full music potential. This class offers adults the opportunity to play with your baby in a musical setting, experiencing music and movement activities designed to delight the child and awaken his or her curiosity about music. By singing, dancing, bouncing, and rocking, the child's music aptitude is being carefully nurtured, laying the foundation for beat awareness, vocal production, and aural discrimination.  Activities include singing, bouncing songs, rocking songs, dances, finger plays, body awareness games and echoes. 

Materials/registration: $30, includes a CD, a song book and an instrument packet
Tuition: $140 (summer tuition $80)
Total: $170 


Family Music for Toddlers (15 months - 3 Years) 14 week session 

This thirty minute class is designed to bring the joy of music and movement to toddlers and their caregivers. Activities include singing, dancing, focused listening and simple instrument playing, creating an environment in which the child's music aptitude is nurtured and skills are developed. Toddlers begin to learn a vocabulary of rhythm and melody patterns, the building blocks of music, through echo games. 

Materials/registration: $30, packet includes CD, a rhythm instrument and a songbook
Tuition: $140 (summer tuition $80)
Total: $170 


Cycle of Seasons (Ages 3 1/2 - 5) 14 week session 

This forty-five minute preschool music class is designed to nurture the emergent independence of the 3+ and young 4-year-old. Activities include lots of singing, stories and rhymes, listening games, playing instruments, patterns to echo, and movement games. All of these activities support the child's musical development while satisfying the child's need to learn in a creative, holistic environment. 
Parents stay for the class, although some of the activities are designed to encourage the children to participate independently of their parents. 

Home materials packet (one per semester) includes 2 CDs, a songbook, and manipulatives, allowing the learning and fun to continue at home! 

Materials: $40
Tuition: $165 (summer tuition $95)
Total: $205

Music Makers: At Home in the World (Ages 4-7 Years) 14 week session 

This sixty minute class cultivates the child's musical development through songs, tonal and rhythm patterns, poetry and stories, movement activities, listening games, instrumental play and manipulative games. Rudimentary music skills such as pitch matching, beat competency, ensemble development, and music notation are developed using themes taken from the child's home environment and natural surroundings. Caregivers share in last ten minutes of class.

Each materials packet includes a CD, a nature picture with animal game pieces, music notation games, instrument posters, and a parent booklet. Children receive four packets throughout the year (two 14-week semesters). FOR INFORMATION ABOUT JOINING A CLASS MIDWAY THROUGH THE YEAR, call Leslie at (425)244-3902.

Materials: $45 per 14-week semester, ( second $45 due in December), $90 total for materials annually
Tuition: $195 per semester, $390 tuition annually (summer tuition $115)
Total: $480 for the 28 weeks

Music Makers: Around the World (Ages 5-8 Years) 14 week session 

This seventy minute class is designed to accommodate the 5- and 6-year-old and is a perfect follow-up for children who have completed Music Makers: At Home in the World. In this class, children explore the music, dances and stories of different cultures. As always, the key ingredients are singing, listening, playing instruments, lots of movement, and tonal and rhythm patterns. Through echoing and playing patterns, the children will build a vocabulary of musical phrases which they can recognize aurally and visually, leading to an understanding of musical notation. Caregivers join in last ten minutes. This class is an excellent preparation for studying piano in Music Makers: At the Keyboard next year! 

Each unit's packet includes a CD, a map, song pages, and notation games. Children will receive 4 packets (British Isles, Amerindians, Germany, African-American heritage) throughout the 28 weeks, comprised of two 14-week semesters.

Materials: $45 per 14-week semester, (second $45 due in December), $90 total for materials annually
Tuition: $195 per semester, $390 tuition annually (summer tuition $115)
Total: $480 for the 28 weeks

Music Makers: At the Keyboard (Ages 6-9 Years) 28 week session 
(Comprehensive Musicianship at the Keyboard)

Graduates of Music Makers Around the World (5-7yo) will continue to develop their musical ears and expand their music-reading, as the music in their heads comes out of their fingers at the piano/keyboard.

The goal of Music Makers: At the Keyboard is to lead children to true music literacy by means of a comprehensive musicianship course which holistically addresses both the child and the music. Comprehensive musicianship denotes an appreciation of many facets of music - performance and improvisation (playing by ear, playing from memory, and playing from score); an understanding of rhythm, melody, harmony, and form; and an acquaintance with the historical and theoretical contexts of music.

This method offers children the gift of active and thinking music-making. Children are offered many ways to express themselves through music - by playing the keyboard, singing, responding to music through dance, and enjoying the community of group music making. In addition to the joy which comes from making music, they also experience the sheer enjoyment that comes from listening to great music.

Music Makers Arount the World is a pre-requisite to this class if the student is under 7 years of age.

Materials: $45 per 14-week semester, (second $45 due in December), $90 total for materials annually
Tuition: $195 per semester, $390 tuition annually (payment plans available)
Total: $480 for the 28 weeks