Music School Based on the philosophy of Zoltan Kodaly

At Music Works Magic, we believe that music education is one of the cornerstones for successful life-long learning. We base our teaching on the philosophy of Zoltan Kodaly. According to Kodaly our first instrument is our voice and at Music Works Magic, we believe that if you can talk, you can sing and if you can walk, you can dance!

At Music Works Magic, we understand that the voice is our first instrument and that if you can sing in tune, you know how to listen and recall the sounds that you hear. 

And, if you want your children to learn to play instruments, it’s vital they master their first instrument - the voice - and learn to sing in tune. Good musicians always sing.

This process can begin with babies. We don’t wait until our children are old enough before we talk to them. Babies have musical memory from as young as 22 weeks in-utero. It’s wonderful if children can be surrounded by a community, or group that can sing together, vocalise and interact through music.

• Who we are
• Our teachers
• What we do
• The benefits
• Invite Music Works Magic into your Centre
• Find out about our Classes
• Meet our Class Teachers

Who we are

Anna Mlynek-Kalman M. Mus., B. Ed., Dip Teach. created Music Works Magic upon completion of her studies in the United States in 1996. Anna has taught and directed music programs with children from K-year 12 for over 30 years at many schools both here in Australia and abroad.During this time she has presented lectures, papers and workshops at universities, schools and preschools to both staff and students. She completed a Masters Degree in Music Education with a Kodaly emphasis, in the United States.

Anna runs training courses specifically for adults wishing to gain confidence when working with babies-8yr olds, and runs the Kodaly preschool teacher training course. She has produced 5 Cds and accompanying Teachers’ Manuals; There’s A Rainbow In My Garden, Swing It Possum, All By Myself, On Safari containing Jungle Jive and Conga Line. She is donating all proceeds from the CDs to the Learning for Life Autism Centre. 

Anna directs the Music Works Magic Education and Resource Centre working closely with her team of dedicated and talented teachers, consults in schools, runs teacher training courses and classes for children and tutors in aural musicianship at Melbourne University.

She and her staff are passionate about high quality music education and they create a program that offers a sound developmental, educational base for children from birth. 

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Our teachers

Over the years, Anna has built a team of like-minded music teachers who are creative in their approach, highly qualified and experienced but who never compromise the educational value that they wish to develop.

At Music Works Magic, our teachers are Kodaly trained and affiliated. We meet regularly for professional development and attend conferences locally as well as nationally and internationally, always discovering fresh, new, and interesting ways to present our material. We love what we do and you will too!   

We have a team of highly qualified and experienced class teachers and instrumental teachers who teach individual or small group lessons to both children and adults. We offer both Traditional Method and Suzuki Methodon a range of instruments. 

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Laura Uhe

Mary Muirhead 

What we do

We present music in a pure and uncluttered way to little ones and work carefully to develop listening skills and vocal skills and explore our full vocal range.

We sing live with children - we do not use pre-recorded music. We are the models. Each week we sing a story song book, and sing and dance our way through magical children’s repertoire, exploring a range of pitches, beats, rhythms, tempos, dynamics, modalities, timbres, genres and dances.

The warm, friendly atmosphere draws the children in but at no time do we force children to participate. In fact by being there, they are actively absorbing all the music and will reproduce it at home where they are comfortable in their own environment before they will sing for us.

The children have the opportunity to explore musical instruments, but this is  only one part of our program. Our school holiday program provides further opportunities here.

Children learn through play and in an environment where they are able to hear the sounds of their voices, monitor these and eventually succeed in pitch matching.

Many parents have expressed great joy at their own vocal development along side that of their child!

To meet our passionate teaching staff and find out more about them click here.      Back to top

The benefits

Music Works Magic helps every child:

• develop active listening skills and a keen ‘ear’ (hearing tunes inside their heads)
• gain self esteem through mastery of their very own musical instrument – their singing voice
• develop social skills as they positively interact with other children in a warm, nurturing and cheerful environment
• grow in confidence as they experience the joys of expressing themselves creatively in a supportive setting.