Tianjin Juilliard’s Music Essentials Curriculum (MEC) offers a comprehensive foundation to music delivered in an age-appropriate way – from 18 months to 6 years old– through experiential-based lessons and activities in music performance, singing, moving, playing and creating, and offers a progressive and comprehensive experience for young music learners.

The MEC is developed by an international curriculum team of leading experts in the fields of early childhood development, music education, and pedagogy, including advisors from The Juilliard School in New York.  

The Music Essentials Curriculum is licensable to schools and is bundled with a teacher training component to adequately prepare the school’s teachers to deliver the MEC. 

It is widely recognized that music is a critical part of a child’s education. The Music Essentials Curriculum introduces several essential areas of early childhood music including singing, rhythm, movement, musicianship (aural) skills, memory, and active listening.

Singing with confidence

The voice is every child’s first instrument. Students develop their head voice through unaccompanied singing which can help with building confidence in other musical skills. When hearing their own voice and the voices of others around them, students can experience musical expression and develop musicianship.

Rhythm

Rhythm forms the essential framework of musical language. Students will make mind-body connections through movements and learn about rhythm inductively. Multi-cultural singing games, dancing, rhythmic patterns, ostinato play, body percussion, and percussion instruments are introduced to learn about rhythm.

Movement

Young children understand music better when it is blended with movement and are able to feel and experience it with their bodies. When rhythmic structures and singing is integrated into movements such as stepping and leaping, stronger connections are made between sound and musical expression.

Musicianship (Aural) & Memory Skills

Musicianship skills (ear/aural training) and a solid inner-hearing ability are critical to developing recall and long-term memory, which are transferrable skills to future learning in any subject. 

Active Listening Skills

The MEC challenges students to be active and focused listeners. The ability to have students listening instead of hearing music allows them to differentiate between comparatives, such as high/low pitches, long/short rhythms, fast/slow tempos, loud/soft dynamics, various timbres and tone colors. Young children become familiar with the qualities that make music expressive, and therefore are able to begin more advanced musical interpretation.

A Cross-Cultural Perspective

• Incorporating the most effective pedagogy from both Eastern and Western approaches.
• Exploration of music from moving from what is known to what is unknown: using traditional songs as a pathway to multi-cultural repertoire.

Holistic Child Development

• Encouraging students to listen and follow instructions but also to develop their own critical thinking.
• Stimulating a child’s curiosity about their environment.
• Supporting a child’s instinct to ask questions.
• Instilling creativity in every child.

Community Building and Collaboration

• Learning to work with others through small- and large-group projects.
• Planting seeds of global citizenship and social responsibility.

Level 1 Introducing and Exploring Music (1.5-3 yrs)

• Explore voice through in-tune singing, imitation, and simple matching of rhythms, chants and songs.
• Develop music literacy to identify comparatives in basic concepts with larger and more prominent differences.
• Engage in movements including copying and repetition according to beat, rhythm and accent in music.
• Train memory and musicianship skills through practice of lyrics and melodies with visual aids and motions.
• Develop global competency through discovering who they are as individuals through music.
• Coordinate with larger muscle groups to discover instruments using their own body.

Level 2 Experiencing and Discovering Music (3-4 yrs)

• Learn more about in-tune singing including singing in different intervals and Curwen Hand Signs for Solfege. 
• Develop music literacy to identify comparatives in basic concepts with smaller differences.
• Identify and produce beat, rhythm and accent through movements. 
• Train memory and musicianship skills through practicing inner hearing and using visual presentation to memorize songs and lyrics.
• Develop global competency through interacting with friends.
• Discover body percussion and other percussion instruments.

Level 3 Developing and Demonstrating Music (4-5 yrs)

• Learn more complex songs in different forms, from various cultures, and in several languages.
• Perform and write to demonstrate music literacy of comparatives in basic concept.
• Engage in creating, performing and improvising music.
• Train memory and musicianship skills through practicing inner hearing to memorize longer sections of music, to dictate music and compose on their own.
• Develop global competency through understanding the relationship with self and with others.
• Make and play instruments using their bodies and other materials and coordinate with more precise movements. 

Music Essentials Curriculum is delivered in multiple cities by Public Education authorized partner schools and kindergartens. Please contact pece@tianjinjuilliard.edu.cn to locate the closest teaching center to you, or to request information about licensing MEC for your school.