This class is AWESOME!…read more
Rock-a-baby is a music class designed for infants and toddlers. It's a very small company; they have a few locations in the Northeast, and we attended the one in Providence with our 9 month old son Landon. What makes Rock a Baby so cool is that they have three musicians playing live instruments.
In Rhode Island, that is Marc (the creator of the program and on the piano), Benny (guitar) and Kate (vocals). These three also manipulate puppets known as Rhythm, Harmony, and Melody. The way these puppets interact with the live music and singing is so incredibly creative. It really draws in the kids in a way that other music classes we have attended didn't. Our son is in total awe during the class and absolutely loves attending.
Interestingly, they also mix in ad-hoc humor all the time, so you are laughing for a lot of the class as well. As an example, they talk about the puppets being similar and the puppet says, "I guess you can say we are cut from the same cloth", or the pink puppet Melody says she got back from a trip to Hawaii and the other puppets comment that she looks a little tan.
The classes normally follow a similar process, they start with a Hello song, and they usually share a new instrument every week. They also have a theme of the week, like family, or vacations. They also read a book each week but it's in song. They also have a bubble machine and lots of other interactive toys (balls, etc.).
We also brought home two CD's from them which we listen to regularly and Landon loves.
We finished one class so far and are now on the second. The instructors are also ethical beyond comparison; we missed one class when our son was sick, and upon attending the next session, the owner Marc deducted the cost of one class from our bill for the next session, which wasn't expected and we didn't even ask for. That says a lot to me about the kind of operation they are running.
I can't recommend this class enough, if you are in the Rhode Island / southeastern MA area, do yourself a favor and attend this class with your child!
As a comparison, we also went to Lincoln Woods Music Together (you can read the review of our experience as well), and while both are good classes if you are deciding between these two programs I would highly recommend Rock a Baby. Some comparisons:
- Interactivity - Both classes have interactive elements but Rock a Baby is in my opinion more interactive because they have multiple instructors interacting with the children.
- The Music - Music Together class is primarily music on a CD with an occasional guitar mixed in and singing from the solo instructor. Rock a Baby is 100% live performance the entire time. Rock a baby also mixes in classic and contemporary music, which . Music Together classes have themes for each session (e.g. drum, fiddle, etc.).
- Class mixture - Music Together had mixed children from newborn to four years old. This meant some compromises, both for the newborns and for the older kids. Rock a Baby holds specific classes for each age group.
- Warranty / Ethics - When we had an issue in our Music Together class, they refused to refund any money, citing Music Together policy. I can't imagine this happening at Rock a Baby based on our experiences so far.
- Price - very similar, and both are reasonable - you could get discounts at Music Together for doing stuff like putting a yard sign up, etc.; and it included a CD; Rock-a-baby was cheaper but you had to buy the CD separately. All in all they are very close in price.
