Hop, Skip and Sing
Music Education for Little Ones
About Us
About Us
Hop, Skip and Sing was set up by Eliza Wylie who has been teaching music to people of all ages since 2002.
She has a background in Western classical music and grew up playing the Piano, the French Horn and recorders. Since 1992 she has specialised in West African percussion. She has played and studied traditional djembe music since then and incorporates the drumming into her general music teaching as well as continuing to run drumming sessions in schools and with teachers.
She grew up learning music in the traditional western classical way and never questioned this until working on a maths through music project in Lambeth nurseries with Dalcroze specialist Sian Davies. Experiencing the deeply musical Kodály and Dalcroze approach to music education for the first time was a revelation. She realised that the way she had been learning African music, by ear, in the “oral tradition” was exactly what their methodologies were about. The realisation that all music could be taught in this musical way and that all children could develop the rhythm that children in traditional African cultures develop naturally was the inspiration for her future work in Early Years Music.
In 2009, after having her first child Simeon, she decided to further specialise in Early years music and pursue her interest in Kodály and Dalcroze.
She completed a Certificate in Kodály Music Education from Roehampton University in 2010 and has participated and taught djembe on both Kodály and Dalcroze summer schools.
She has also undertaken training with the Music House for Children in Shepherd’s Bush and with Nikhil Dally whose "Stepping Notes" Music School for 2s to 8s in Engleford Green has been a great inspiration for Hop, Skip and Sing.
She has just completed (2020) the CME:Early Childhood with Trinity College and CREC (Centre for Research in Early Childhood) to qualify her further in Early Years Music and is working as part of Take Art's Soundwaves Network funded by Youth Music. This project involves training future Early Years practitioners and current nursery staff on best practice in Early Years music.
