About Us

Melody Hounds® Music Classes

Sing, Dance, & Play While Developing Your Musical Intelligence

Now forming at YMCAs and Public Libraries nationwide, Melody Hounds music classes provide a delightful and joyous way for children to sing, dance, and play while developing their musical intelligence. Melody Hounds features the highly interactive PBS children’s television series, Lomax: The Hound of Music from the award-winning creators of Between the Lions and renowned music educator John Feierabend, Ph.D. The Melody Hounds curriculum is constantly evolving and has been designed to work in conjunction with Lomax: The Hound of Music on PBS. The main goal of our multi-media project is to help ALL CHILDREN grow up with a greater ability to perform and appreciate music. So hop aboard the Melody Hound Express and enjoy the ride!

Developing Musical Intelligence

Using a research-based, highly successful curriculum developed by Dr. Feierabend, the Melody Hounds program gives children (many of whom may have limited opportunities to explore music) a chance to develop musical intelligence at a time when they are neurologically primed for this kind of learning. Melody Hounds pulls children into a musical experience with fun and fantasy.

By musical intelligence, we mean the skills that help children become more tuneful, beatful, and artful. They become better able to hold tunes in their heads and repeat them; better able to feel and sustain a beat; and more receptive to the ideas and feelings expressed in music.

The Melody Hounds program:

  • Includes themed classes to coordinate with the Lomax: The Hound of Music TV series.

  • Engages children in songs and rhythmic games that let them explore all of the core musical elements-pitch, rhythm, and timbre-with their voices, bodies, and minds.

  • Poses interesting problems, challenging children not only to repeat song fragments and refrains, but also to "think" and improvise their own songs.

  • Makes full use of folk music's wonderful tactile component-the clapping, snapping, stamping, and moving that reinforce and deepen children's musical experience.

  • Introduces appealing puppets and props to bring alive the narrative and poetic devices, such as metaphor and alliteration, that are woven so richly into the fabric of traditional music.

  • Helps children develop greater sensitivity to the expressiveness in music as they listen to classic American folk songs.

Melody Hounds rests on a solid research base that demonstrates how these activities contribute not only to children's musical intelligence, but to their overall cognitive and emotional development as well.

What to Expect at Melody Hounds® Music Classes

  • Songs and activities are repeated because children need familiarity and repetition to learn new skills.

  • Quality musical literature comprised of traditional folk songs and rhymes passed down from generation to generation to form the basis of the curriculum because these selections are melodically expressive and provide an exposure to cultural heritage.

  • Attention to each individual child during class because children have differences in tempo preference that need to be expressed in order for them to develop beat competency.

  • Parents and guardians to learn the songs and activities because repeating them at home during receptive moments will enhance the development of musical potential while parent or guardian and child spend quality time together.