RCM Smart Start for Music Schools

Skills supported:

• Auditory processing
• Attachment
• Early memory
• Emotional bonding

Children are naturally curious about music from a very early age.  

This lesson offers a warm, nurturing environment where caregivers and infants connect through music. Designed to stimulate sensory awareness and lay the foundation for beat, rhythm, and listening, each session includes bouncing games, finger plays, movement, and lullabies. 

A typical lesson begins with a greeting song, followed by gentle bouncing games, finger plays, movement, and many songs. The lesson concludes with lullabies or other tunes for all to enjoy.  

Skills supported:

• Socialization
• Coordination
• Musical memory
• Group participation

The energetic, music-based activities in these lessons support your child’s cognitive, social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development. Coordination, body control, and spatial awareness are developed through games involving walking, dancing, and age-appropriate percussion instruments such as shakers, drums, and bells. 

As toddlers become more mobile and vocal, RCM Smart Start introduces interactive musical games that enhance memory, early communication, and cognitive skills through imitation, repetition, and group play. Social skills are further nurtured as children experience music together in a supportive, engaging environment. 

Skills supported:

• Listening
• Fine gross motor skills
• Pattern recognition
• Emotional expression

Children begin to develop greater musical independence, sustained attention, and more complex cognitive skills that will support them later in life. Through singing, rhythmic play, instrument exploration, and turn-taking activities, they deepen musical competence and self-expression in a supportive group setting. 

Lessons focus on skills such as sustaining attention, remembering songs, and recognizing perceptual cues. With an emphasis on listening, singing, playing simple instruments like maracas and drums, and taking turns, this course builds musical competence while fostering confidence, belonging, and security among weekly attendees.

Skills supported:

• Focus
• Teamwork
• Musical literacy
• Confidence
• Imagination

These lessons introduce foundational music concepts like tempo, pitch, and volume – through games and cross-arts activities that foster collaboration, creativity, and group learning. Children refine their singing voices, develop spatial awareness, and expand their musical vocabulary. 

By age 3, basic cognitive skills are established, and RCM Smart Start builds on these through recognizing musical patterns, focusing on key musical elements, and exploring connections across artistic forms. Group musical and artistic activities nurture individual and collective creativity while supporting socialization, confidence, and personal growth in a collaborative setting. 

Skills supported:

• Creativity
• Musical literacy
• Confidence
• Pattern recognition

This neuroscience-based lesson nurtures children’s cognitive growth through activities that develop musical pattern recognition, focus, and connections across the arts. Children will learn foundational skills—tempo, meter, pitch, and dynamics—while engaging with a variety of percussion instruments, including Orff pitched percussion. They will develop accurate singing, basic rhythm and pitch notation reading, and collaborate in structured musical activities that build knowledge, creativity, and confidence, fostering both individual and group learning outcomes.