Music is a big part of daily life in our home, so I was thrilled when Team Mom offered me a free review copy of The Tuneables, a fun new music education approach sponsored by the Music Intelligence Project. My kids love the fun, musical instrument-inspired characters in the DVD. They love to “pat, pat, pat” their heads in time to the music!
I frequently hear them singing the songs from the DVD as they play. I was a little concerned that the music was a little too repetitive, but my kids don’t seem to mind. The repetitiveness of the music may actually be improving their pitch-matching ability when they sing, which is nice! Several of the songs teach solfege, and I’ve found myself reviewing my solfege in my sleep, in a not-especially restful return to music theory class!
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Lily is absolutely addicted to this show (I can’t mention it without her wanting to see it), and I hoped that bringing it along would ease the pain of her being left with friends while I went to Emma’s kindergarten orientation. It didn’t work – she stood by the door screaming for the entire hour – but my friend’s kids and their friends liked it!
I do have one issue with The Tuneables DVD. It teaches solfege (Do, Re, Mi, etc), which is typically either fixed with “Do” equivalent to C (a musical note) or movable (focusing on the relationship between the notes rather than the development of perfect pitch). This program has do equivalent to D, which I could excuse if there were not a point in the DVD where the piano is shown playing C but the actual note is D (in other parts of the DVD it does play D). I wish they had either stuck with the traditional C if they were not going to explicitly move “Do” around – or at least had the animated piano play a note that reflected the one being played!
C/D quibble aside, this is a fun, engaging show that gets kids moving and singing within a magically musical world. It’s a show that my kids love, and one I’m happy to have them watch – although not quite as frequently as Lily would like to!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Cute pictures! I only learned solfege while taking my kids to music class.
I am so glad to be back on your blog…my computer has not been letting me get on the last couple of day!
This sounds like a great product…love the pictures!
I know nothing about music. That’s great that the kids liked it!
Repitition is great, as long as it isn’t “See Dick, see Jane, see Jane run, run, Jane, run, run, run, run. I started Kinder in ’51, when I wasn’t quite 5, already knowing how to read. We weren’t “taught” to read until 1st grade back then, and at 5, at the beginning of 1st, I can still remember how stupid “Dick and Jane” was. Cute pictures, crazy-making phrases!
xo Linda
That might be a bit too much repetition =)
I’m actually currently reading a book about music education in the family, and their comment was kids love repetition.
I never heard about this show, sounds interesting. I have no musical education whatsoever and dream that Anna will fare better than me :)
This post brought back memories of my music class days from school!! Sounds like a cute and fun program!!
That’s so wonderful that your kids love it so much! The photos of them playing along are too cute.