CCS Art Songs are musically quite sophisticated.  Your child’s experience with various meters and tonalities provides the basic readiness for the Art Songs.  The Tonal Activity that precedes each Art Song saturates your child with the particular meter and tonality of that Art Song, setting up that little musical mind to comprehend the more complex Art Song.  In addition, the Art Song begins with an introduction that prepares your child for not only the tonality and meter, but also the key and tempo, so that your child’s musical mind is fully ready to absorb the Art Song. 

The aural preparation sets the aural stage with what your child already knows in sound, and directs that little musical mind to what it is about to hear.  Your child can then process the song naturally, within the appropriate Tonality and Meter, and receive the intertwining text as an element of artistry rather than as words or story.  The aural preparation makes the complex Art Song easier for your child to comprehend.  Aurally, the Art Song will make musical sense to your child.

Making musical sense when shifting abruptly from one tonality to another or one meter to another takes greater skill, especially with the sophisticated Art Songs.  Aurally, it is far easier for your child to abruptly change key, if he stays in the same tonality, or to change tempo, if he stays in the same meter.