Category : News

Local music instructor Shiho Yamamoto has secured a licensing deal with a national preschool chain to use her “color soundation” musical education technique.

Yamamoto’s SKY Edutainment signed a deal with Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academies of Duluth, Georgia, a chain with 160 franchise operations in 16 states that teach about 35,000 preschool children. The deal vastly expands the reach of the color soundation technique, which is currently being used in about 50 preschools and music schools.

Financial terms have not been disclosed.

Yamamoto’s system associates colors with specific musical notes: a C on the major scale gets the color red, a D gets the color yellow, and so on. The idea is to reinforce the note sound with a specific color, making it easier for children to recognize and learn.

In a recent Business Journal article, Yamamoto said, “Once young children learn the notes with these colors, they don’t forget them.”

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academies, a national early-childhood education franchise with three decades of experience, has adopted a unique music curriculum called ColorSoundation for its franchises across the U.S. This teaching system was developed by Los Angeles-based musician and teacher Shiho Yamamoto to teach very young children the fundamentals of music through the integration and interplay of colors with sounds.

Yamamoto is also the Founder of the West Los Angeles-based Conservatory of Performing Arts, a school that specializes in offering progressive academic music lessons to a diverse range of young students living in Southern California. She developed ColorSoundation in 2005 as a process that blends singing, playing and ear training – along with the illustrated activities of seven colorful, original animated characters and the integration of color-coded stickers and instructional booklets – to capture and hold the interest of young children.

“We saw very positive testimonials from the owners of several of our franchise school locations and their parents during our pilot program, and we learned that ColorSoundation was very successful. We have been searching for a strong music curriculum to offer young students in all of our schools and felt that ColorSoundation was a natural fit,” says Bob Kirschner, COO of Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academies. “With many public schools eliminating music and arts programs in recent years, we know that parents want their children to be exposed to music, and the ColorSoundation program fills that void. The methodology behind it blends perfectly with our curriculum, which focuses on increasing the ‘brain waves’ of young children through educational activities to develop their brain functions.”

Yamamoto added, “We are thrilled to have been endorsed and embraced by the Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academies!” says Yamamoto. “Children reach a greater understanding of music by focusing first on the development of the ‘ear’ and singing voice, and then by concentrating on rhythm and musical notation. Our ColorSoundation process offers lessons which are broken into small steps, and interactive games, so as to not overwhelm children with too much information at once. These lessons allow students to absorb and grasp the fundamentals of music through voice, handbells and basic percussion instruments, in efforts to ultimately interest them in choosing an instrument to play when they get older.”

Kids ‘R’ Kids will begin to market and promote this special music program to all of its 160 franchise schools across the country during the weeks and months ahead.

“Music Class Has It Made With Shades. Instructor says color code helps notes stick better with students.”

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Extera Public Schools, which operates public charter schools on three campuses in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, will present a unique “After School” music program for 60 students ages 5-7 (kindergarten through 2nd grade) for five consecutive weeks.

The new program, entitled ColorSoundation, is a revolutionary teaching methodology by which to teach very young children the fundamentals of music through the integration and interplay of color. Beginning this week, the ColorSoundation After School program will be offered to these students four days a week (Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays) from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Shiho Yamamoto, Conservatory of Performing Arts founder, with Swara Amare, ColorSoundation’s 1,000th student.
Shiho Yamamoto, Conservatory of Performing Arts founder, with Swara Amare, ColorSoundation’s 1,000th student.
Shiho Yamamoto, a Los Angeles-based musician originally from Japan and the founder of the West Los Angeles-based Conservatory of Performing Arts – a school that specializes in offering progressive academic music lessons to a diverse range of young students living in Southern California — is the creator of ColorSoundation. She will be teaching these “After School” classes herself on Mondays and Thursdays, while a colleague from her school will be teaching on Tuesdays and Fridays.

She developed ColorSoundation in 2005 as a process for young children that blends a combination of singing, playing and ear training, along with the illustrated activities of seven colorful, original animated characters, and the integration of color-coded stickers and instructional booklets.

During April, the school achieved another landmark milestone by welcoming its 1,000th ColorSoundation student, Swara Amare, age 4, of Westwood. Swara attends the Montessori Discovery Garden preschool in Westwood, where she loves her music classes. Her parents, Mayura, a graphic designer, and Paresh, an architect, wanted her to further explore her musical foundation by enrolling her into the ColorSoundation program.

Swara represents the 1,000th student to study this program worldwide; ColorSoundation is offered in select schools across the U.S. and throughout Asia.

Says Yamamoto, “We are thrilled to have been invited by the Extera Public Schools to present our ColorSoundation program to their After School program students. Children reach a greater understanding of music by focusing first on the development of the ‘ear’ and singing voice, and then by concentrating on rhythm and musical notation.

“Our ColorSoundation process offers lessons which are broken into small steps, and interactive games, so as to not overwhelm children with too much information at once. These lessons allow students to absorb and grasp the fundamentals of music through voice, handbells and basic percussion instruments, in efforts to ultimately interest them in choosing an instrument to play when they get older.”

The Conservatory of Performing Arts is located at 2372 Veteran Ave. in Los Angeles and can be reached at (310) 470-6006. A second location is 24205 Narbonne Ave., # 101, in Lomita. The number there is (310) 534-0777. For more information, visit www.tcopa.com.