What do rainbows, balloons and bubbles have to do with singing? Just ask Andria Cabrera, Education Director of the Long Beach Camerata Children’s Music Academy!
During thirty-minute-long music classes offered at the YMCA First Friendship’s Pre-School, Pre-K students between the ages of 3 and 5 learn the fundamentals of tempo, rhythm, melody and harmony.
By incorporating a variety of creative techniques, Andria and her teaching assistants, Anne Gholson and Anastasia Gastelum captivate the children whose voices fill the classroom as they sing “The World is Like a Rainbow.”
With Colors, hand signs and shapes, the children visualize the way musical notes “stack” on top of each other like the colors of a rainbow to make harmony. Addressing different learning styles, the children stomp their feet, imagine singing as delicately as a butterfly flaps its wings, and visualize melodic shapes. The Camerata Children’s Music Academy partners with the YMCA Early Childhood Education to bring these music education classes to the children three days a week. According to YMCA Executive Director, Andrea Marisol Sulsona, “Early childhood music education is essential to children’s brain development.” She expressed that the Camerata Children’s Music Academy classes are building the children’s confidence as well.
With a joyful spirit, Cabrera and her team instill a love of singing with a ukelele and pre-recorded music as accompaniment. Cabrera instructs the children to “Catch a bubble in your mouth, fill up your singing balloon, and make harmony that looks and sounds as beautiful as a rainbow.”
For more information about the Long Beach Camerata Children’s Music Academy, contact generalmanager@