"At Hands On!, we believe that learning about music not only increases young people’s appreciation and understanding of this art form, but also enriches every aspect of their lives."

In turn, by understanding how children are taught, we have found that there are three stages that are central to their learning: concrete, perceptual, and verbal. Since pre-school children learn especially well from working with concrete objects, instruction begins with a “hands on” stage giving children a chance to see, touch, feel, and manipulate instruments that help them acquire an understanding of concepts and relationships more effectively. The second stage focuses on developing perceptual clarity, or the development of children’s ability to perceive sound, to become aware of differences and similarities, and to become involved in producing the sounds themselves. These two stages lead to the verbal stage. Later on, children begin to identify and describe the objects around them and the sounds they hear. They often display a highly creative use of language and love of nonsense verse.