‘Join the Dots Instrumental album’ and ‘The Music Teepee’ have been released this year by the children's ‘edutainment’ company Musical Dots as a series of multimedia resources to use in school or at home. Created by Anna Gilthorpe and Meg Gallagher, Musical Dots uses ‘The Dots’ as characters across all their offerings. These characters are Harmony, Legato, Staccato, Pianissimo, and Forte, and according to the website, ‘each Dot is named after a musical term describing their character’.
The resources reviewed here include worksheets that are centred around different musical terminology and have a range of activities that encourage children to engage with what they might be feeling or thinking. The quality of production and musical performance on the tracks and videos is undoubtedly very high, and it is easy to imagine children loving the pop song style of many of these tracks. ‘The Music Teepee’ is a particularly enjoyable set of videos encompassing a wide range of musical styles.
This is a resource that seems to be geared just as much towards the caregiver as the child, with there being very little need for any adult interaction at all – you can simply click play and the video does the rest for you. As the creators of Musical Dots have rightly pointed out, this is a resource for 3- to 8-year-olds and, for school aged children, it could be a real winner. With children at the younger end of this spectrum, engagement could be a problem, as it relies entirely on the video to keep them captivated. The worksheets are designed well to be completed without a need for supervision.
It isn't hard to see why these resources have been labelled lockdown lifesavers, as they would provide adults in the room, whether at school or at home, with a much-needed break. These products fall into the category of wellbeing resources for all involved, with fun, light-hearted activities and catchy tunes, but I would recommend them as a supplement rather than a substitute to more engaged, long-term musical education.
For what the resources set out to do – to introduce musical concepts in an enjoyable way and provide stimulation to children in a variety of settings – they fit the bill. This is demonstrated by the plethora of glowing reviews they've received from families and schools alike.
