BirdSong is about singing in groups and enjoying it.

BirdSong Music is the new name for very successful classes developed in Oxford over the last 6 years under the name DaCapo Oxford.

The classes are organised at 4 levels of progression, which together provide an education in the fundamentals of music. Right from the beginning, children learn and practise basic music skills. They learn on their "first instrument" - the voice.

BirdSong is about singing in groups and enjoying it. It is also about linking music with movement. Each enlivens the other; and together they engage emotions and imagination.

If, in due course, children go on to learn an orchestral instrument, be it keyboard, wind or string, this solid musical foundation will help them to understand what they are doing and what their teacher wants them to do. It will underpin their practice and encourage them to perservere.

It is a sad fact that a basic music education is not generally available in state schools: instrumental lessons are about mastering the particular instrument rather than the whys and wherefores of musicianship. Many of us will have had experience of mechanical rhythms and wayward tunes!

BirdSong Music seeks to change all that and to do so in a way that children (and their parents) wholeheartedly enjoy.