Little Musicians
Awaken your child’s inner musician
Kaila Alonso
“My daughter Ellanor has been a student at Cadences and Keys since May 2025 - now more than half of her wonderful life. It's been the highlight of our week every week since the beginning! We tell everyone its our happy place. We happily make the drive every Friday from Pinal County.
I have spent most of my career as an early childhood educator and consider my educational expectations high. I have been continuously impressed, delighted, and inspired as a parent and as an educator by Chantel's work. Chantel has her master's in music education in addition to her bachelor's in vocal performance and it is evident every class!
Chantel clearly considers each student in her planning, folding in new engaging tools and songs themed to student interests as she genuinely cares to know each child. Curriculum goes beyond introducing and refining musical elements. Songs are often composed by Chantel herself (!!!) and she often teaches classes with her own daughter, making incredibly rich lessons feel like the best weekly playdate.
My daughter has not only grown incredibly in her musical ability, but has also grown in confidence and sense of self. Seeing her go from slow-to-warm-up to being fully herself, racing from the car to the door to start class every week is beyond worth the very fair tuition. Ellanor and I can't endorse Cadences and Keys enough! Thank you Ms. Chantel!”
Ali Garcia
“My daughter has developed so much in a short time! Chantel is a warm, kind, and patient teacher. She uses science backed curriculum, and lots of fun props in class as well! After this experience, my toddler will now sway, bounce, and dance to the beat of music more than she did before! At home she also is starting to make sounds from the songs as sing in class. Thank you cadences and keys for a fantastic experience!”
Zachariah Hsu
My daughter, even before her first birthday, has shown an abundance of musical growth thanks to these musical lessons. As a classically trained musician myself, I highly recommend providing your child with musical instruction, and highly recommend Cadences and Keys Music Lessons!
Megan Bible
My son was gifted a session of music classes for his first birthday and it really became the gift that kept on giving! We looked forward to classes with Ms. Chantel every week. Friday mornings became the highlight of our week. Chantel is an excellent teacher and talented composer. She's puts together a great class for each week that includes a few repeating songs that we came to know and expect and some new songs to keep the class engaging. Even at one-year-old, my son was engaged in the movement and music. When the session ended, we signed up for the next one!
Beyond the class curriculum, Chantel is so sweet and has created a beautiful community of parents and children who appreciate music. I would absolutely recommend Cadences and Keys to anyone looking for an opportunity for their child to explore music.
Kamber Goff:
“My kids always look forward to music class with Chantel! She brings so much joy to her teaching, and her classes are fun and well-paced. She’s good at responding to and engaging with the kids, and she’s very knowledgeable about childhood development and musical learning. I highly recommend her early childhood classes!”
An early start changes everything
When children start doing music early, they absorb music the way they absorb language— naturally. It makes all later musical learning easier.
Children are born with high musical aptitude, just as they’re born with an aptitude for learning language. Exposure to lots of language in the first five years of life allows children to learn their native language. Children exposed to music at these ages also learn music like a native language. The most sensitive age for musical acquisition is 0-18 months, and children remain especially sensitive to musical input for the first five years of life.
Children exposed to a wide variety of music early in life develop the necessary neural pathways to understand music deeply. They become natural performers and composers and enjoy music to the fullest.
Little Musicians is a musical-immersion class, similar to a language-immersion class. We use songs in seven tonalities and four meter types to give children a large musical vocabulary to draw from as they grow.
Megan Bible
“We LOVE this class! I seriously look forward to it every week. It’s like our special Friday treat!”
Derek Thurber
“My son and I had a wonderful time in our baby music class with Cadences and Keys. Chantel was so warm and welcoming and made sure to include every child in each session. It was a fun way to spend 30 minutes each week and felt like a great intro to musicology for my son.”
Jolijn Nagelkerke
Early childhood music class with Chantel is amazing! My daughter (who was between 8 and 16 months while participating in early childhood music classes) was always very engaged during the lessons. Since taking classes with Chantel she's reacting more enthusiastically to music; bouncing up and down when she hears music in the supermarket, or playing games with objects that make sounds. These classes are fond memories for me!
Children learn through play.
Imagine a music class where children not only play while hearing music, but children play with music. Picture this: the teacher sings a familiar song combined with some familiar movement. Then, she stops singing and leaves a silence where there’s usually a few notes. What will the children do? Stare in surprise? Make a random sound? Try to fill in the gap? (All of these are steps in the journey towards understanding music!)
Early Childhood music students get to use fun materials like scarves, rhythm sticks, egg shakers, and a parachute; hear songs and chants with and without words; and practice moving to the music in every class. There are no expectations about children’s responses, but lots of opportunities for growth as children experiment with sound.
Each song and chant is carefully chosen (or composed) for its musical qualities. We use songs in seven tonalities and four meter types to give children the broadest possible foundation for understanding music.
How Little Musicians Classes work
Early childhood classes are mixed age for 0-5 year-olds and their caregivers. We meet once a week for 35 minutes. At each class we will be immersed in music, playing with songs, chants and musical patterns. Musical immersion is like language immersion for the purposes of learning music. Children will have opportunities to absorb music, move to music, invent their own musical responses, and imitate. Classes are organized into 9 week sessions in which we become familiar with a specific set of songs and chants before starting a new session. You will also have access to a playlist to listen at home, which most families enjoy. This class lays an excellent foundation for kids who will go on to play instruments or sing in choirs, or for children who just love interacting with music.
FAQs
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The cross streets are near Mill and Southern in Tempe, about 2 miles south of ASU.
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It’s fun! We play music games to develop children’s musical senses, using songs and chants with and without words, and materials like rhythm sticks, drums, egg shakers, scarves, etc. Children will have opportunities to respond musically as a group, and students who have been with me for long enough will have one-on-one instruction with me to refine their skills during class!
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Adults in early childhood classes should be attentive to the children, move to the music, and, if you are comfortable, echo the music when requested! You are your child’s most important music teacher– smile, have fun, and be engaged, and the children will too!
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There are space constraints, so extra adults will have to wait in a separate room of my home (within sight and sound of our classroom). If you have an older child who needs to be present with you, please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you.
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Yes! I will prorate the cost using a manual override. Contact me at chantelmkrause@gmail.com if you’d like to join midway through a quarter.
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My curriculum is based on Music Play , part of the Jump Right In preschool music series by Edwin E. Gordon and others. I also draw heavily on Mary Pinzino’s work in Unveiling Artistry in Early Childhood Music. The songs come from a variety of sources; many of them are my own compositions.
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A second sibling can get a discount using the code SIBLING. If you’re bringing three children total, use the code TWOSIBLINGS.
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I have experience teaching children with cognitive differences and with physical disabilities. I'm happy to make accommodations as I am able! Please send me an email if you have specific questions about this at chantelmkrause@gmail.com.
“A child never has a higher potential to learn music than at the moment of birth.”
— Dr. Edwin Gordon