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404 East 48th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55419
(917) 216-6915
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Songs with Sarah is a research based music school in South Minneapolis specializing in early childhood parent-child classes and piano classes starting at age 4.

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Meet Sarah:

Songs with Sarah “Family Music Classes are for the parents as much as the kids.”

-Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie

Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie, owner of Songs with Sarah, playing guitar for small boy
Songs with Sarah Music Classes

Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie is a Twin Cities mom who is passionate about her own kids and about music education. Simply put, she is nuts about teaching music to anyone. She received her Bachelor’s of Music in flute performance at Eastman School of Music. She then moved to New York City and trained to be a Music Together teacher. She completed her Masters degree from the University of Buffalo, NY in Music Education with a K-12 certification but tailored for early childhood education.

Sarah grew passionate about the concept of a specialized form of musical training.

Songs with Sarah Music Training Concept

“Sound, before sight, before theory,” is the concept of Music Learning Theory, a relatively unknown form of music training. Maybe it’s not unknown as much as it is unused. It’s in only a couple of schools in the entire country.

“It’s a very hard concept to teach teachers how to teach. It’s not about reading music as much as it is about internalizing it.”

As Sarah and I chatted on the phone–her on the dock by the lake and me in my attic office–I was more and more fascinated by her!

Sarah offers two types of classes where she teaches in the Music Learning Theory Style.

  • A family music play classes ages birth through just starting preschool
  • Piano group classes for school-aged kiddos

This video demonstrates the Music Learning Theory with middle-school kids. The one I found with little teeny kids was from Italy.

Songs with Sarah Piano in Studio
Songs with Sarah Piano in Studio

Songs with Sarah Music Play Family Music Classes

Besides early childhood parent-child classes and piano classes that the school specializes in, they offer family-style ukulele classes, guitar and flute lessons and more! See the class schedules for specific times throughout the week and e-mail the school to learn more or to register for free demo!

“Most students who are in private lessons are missing an essential ingredient to their growth: they are not learning how to think musically. They have not learned to ‘audiate’ music- and the process of audiation is essential for developing musicianship. Audiation is to music what thought is to language and visualization is to sight.”
-quoted from the Songs with Sarah website

This post was originally sponsored by Songs with Sarah

Infant Music Classes from Songs with Sarah in Minneapolis Minnesota
Infant Music Classes from Songs with Sarah


Songs with Sarah Summer Music Camps

Songs with Sarah is an audition based music school in South Minneapolis. In addition to its regular lessons and classes, Sarah and company offers summer programming, designed to keep your child immersed in music and creative play all summer long! All camps and courses include movement, singing, instrument play and outdoor activities. For more in depth descriptions, please see The Songs with Sarah website!

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