MLT stands for 'Music Learning Theory'. It is simply the theory of how children learn music, and is constantly evolving based upon research in music education. MLT places a focus on how children learn rather than how a teacher teaches them, and build upon previously learned skills. Rather than being a step-by-step series of objectives that a teacher sets out to accomplish, MLT allows the teacher to create a sequential music teaching curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for each student.

Audiation simply means to think musically. It is similar to reading to yourself, as you silently read you understand the words you see, and 'hear' them in your head. As students audiate, they listen to music on a deeper and more active level, picking out form and other essential components.

A child's ability to audiate music is built through listening to a variety of music, meters and tonalities. There are different stages of audiation, the first starting with listening to both familiar and unfamiliar music and the last is that the student has the ability to write, create, or improvise with unfamiliar music. Audiation allows children to become critical music thinkers.

As a teacher, I want my students to be able to become critical music thinkers, and have the ability to create without needing guidance from myself. By building their music vocabulary through pattern-based learning (a key factor in how you build auditory abilities), children gain musical independence.

Over the past few years, I've begun delving into research about how children learn music. Many of the articles and studies that have been done show that students learn best when we teach music the same way we teach a language: listening, speaking, reading/writing. That is how I plan to gear most of my teaching this year (sometimes based on our curriculum needs we can't change everything).

If you ever have any questions about MLT, audiation, or how this benefits your child please let me know! I have several resources that I can share with you, or I can talk further to you about this.