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JANINE UNGVARSKY For The Times Leader

Ten kids jiggled and wiggled. Some got up from their seats and danced around the room. They banged things together. They clapped and even sang out loud—all while their moms beamed and their teacher cheered them on.

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Nathan Johnston, 2, has his hands full with percussion instruments during Music Together� at Trinity Episcopal Church in West Pittston.

Aimee Dilger photos/the times leader

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Jessica Kolinovsky plays an egg-shaped rattle with her 8-month-old daughter Mayah at Music Together� class at the Trinity Episcopal Church in West Pittston.

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For more information on Music Together�

Visit www.musictogether.com

For information/registration for the next session

call Trinity Episcopal Church of West Pittston

570-654-3261

The tykes were at Trinity Episcopal Church for the very first local class of a national music program called Music Together�. Touted as “music and movement classes for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and the grown-ups who love them,” the first of a series of ongoing 10-week sessions began two weeks ago.

The first class started out looking a bit like an Easter egg hunt. Kids eagerly crowded around the basket held by teacher Mary Rose Rickenbach to take a periwinkle blue egg-shaped rattle, something even the little 8-month-old music makers knew how to play. Some shook their eggs from the safety of mom’s lap. Others joined Rickenbach’s chorus of “biddie biddie bum bum ba dum pa dum’s.” A few held onto those eggs long after Rickenbach had moms and kids marching around in a circle singing “Riggity Jig and Away We Go!”

“Oh yes, yes!” cried Nathan Sutton, 2, when Rickenbach brought out the basket of rhythm sticks. The sticks were a big hit with most of the kids, who delighted in banging them together and testing out the sounds they made when they hit the floor or tapped mom’s leg.

According to Rickenbach, who retired last June after 36 years teaching elementary school, testing out the sounds is exactly the point of a Music Together� class. “It’s not a program to teach you how to play an instrument,” she said. “It’s really a music program based on learning to enjoy music and hear the rhythm patterns. It’s about learning that music is fun.”

Kids and their grown-ups also get a songbook with activities to enjoy at home and two copies of a song CD — one for the house and one for the car. The grown-ups are active class participants, dancing with kids in their arms and singing along.

It was his own experience that led The Rev. John Major to bring the program to Trinity. He said when he and wife Sandy visit their nieces they become part of the girls’ lives in every way — including attending Music Together� classes. “Seeing their delight in making music that day and experiencing the making of music with them convinced us that every child, parent, grandparent our aunt or uncle who loves them shouldn’t miss out on this experience,” Major said.

But Major discovered that although the program is popular in other areas of the country, the closest class was at least an hour away from here. “One of our tasks as a parish is to assess community needs and respond in a helpful way if we can,” Major said. He got grants from the Episcopal Appalachian Ministries and The Episocopal Diocese of Bethlehem and sent Rickenbach to Scarsdale, N.Y., for four days of training so the church could become an accredited site for the program.

“When I’m shaking a pair of maracas or tapping a tambourine or singing a song with my 4-year-old niece I’m very happy and she is, too,” Major said, noting that builds positive family experiences and good memories. “This is what we want for our participants: something memorable, formative and something that keeps us together—the experience called music.”

That was exactly what brought Kingston resident Melanie Damico and her 15-month-old daughter Samantha to the class. “She loves music and so do I,” Damico said as Samantha stood on the colorful floor mat, holding her egg rattle and bouncing and shaking her diapered bottom to the music’s rhythm. “I wanted us to learn some new songs, meet some new kids and have fun. This is great. It’s perfect.”