Let customers speak for us
All In The Details
Not all instruments for kids are created equal. Our Playful Pitch collection are made from quality materials that produce beautiful sounds. Also, our song cards are printed on premium gloss card stock and features a thoughtfully curated song list in each card set.
Listen to the bars!
Our Materials:
True to the Montessori philosophy, our materials are real, beautiful instruments – made with natural elements to produce a high-quality, beautiful sound.
Beech Wood, Aluminum Bars —
Accurately tuned so that the child’s pitch awareness is being taught and reinforced in the subconscious, as the child works and plays their way through our songs and pitch cards.
Professionally Tuned:
Tuned to a C major scale (C5-C5), each pitch bar is professionally tuned and quality checked before leaving the factory, to ensure a quality, accurate, beautiful sound for every set we send out!
Playing the Instrument:
Each pitch bar has a letter name and colored symbol to help children identify each note. Use the mallets to strike the bar with a bouncing motion to sound the note.
It can be played alone, or multiple musicians can work collaboratively to play a song.
Bars are separated, so the instrument can be simplified for the youngest learner. Children can set up only the bars needed for each song, and play with more confidence and accuracy!
Educational Context:
The pitch bars and song sets are designed so that children can learn, practice, and master songs with self-led direction. Pitches are incrementally introduced so that the most natural singing intervals are presented early.
Children’s sense of pitch and rhythm are reinforced as they work their way through the song sets and master playing familiar tunes and songs. Check out our Musical Rosary Guide or Religious Song Cards 2 for more info.
Quality Standards:
The pitch bars meet the standard of ASTM F963 and have been certified by TUV. All the materials are safe and non-toxic. The beech wood bars are sanded and polished for a soft, smooth finish, safe for little hands.
Please contact us if you have any questions about our instrument and song cards. We look forward to being a part of your family’s music education and helping you in any way we can to grow musical joy and skill in your home!
Our Wall of Love
FAQs
The Faith
How does this instrument help teach the Faith?
We use traditional Catholic Hymns and Bible Songs to introduce music playing. By including songs of the Faith in your Domestic Church and traditions, it helps children learn and feel and grow with the beautiful lyrics and melodies of the Faith.
Many of our customers have also incorporated this instrument into their family’s prayer time, which includes playing and singing hymns after their family rosary in the evenings.
Music is such an integral part of Catholic worship and experience, and Playful Pitch makes it accessible to the Church’s youngest members.
What are other ways we can use this instrument as a family?
Some customers have used it as a guide on incorporating music of the Liturgical seasons and special feasts throughout the year. They sing and listen to the Playful Pitch songs together as a family, and then their children play the songs on the pitch bars independently throughout the week.
We have customers who have used Playful Pitch to allow the youngest members join the older children to play music together. The older child will play the song on the piano or violin (and a variety of other instruments), while the younger child plays the tune on the Playful Pitch Bars.
The Music
Do I have to know how to read music to help my child use Playful Pitch?
Nope - our notation is color coded and intuitive. We use familiar and popular tunes so learners can know how the song should sound - and use our friendly, simplified notation to play it out!
How is Playful Pitch notation different than reading other music?
Our notation and instruments are color-coded to make music-reading intuitive and fun. We also slightly change rhythm notation - so that long notes appear long, and short notes appear small.
We blend traditional black-and-white music notes with a fun, easy-to-read system for a gentle introduction to music reading.
Will there be new songs available in the future?
Yes, The Online Classroom will have a new melody to play with the change of every Church Season, or every month. Additionally, we are constantly designing new printed song cards that we’ll put in our shop when they’re ready!
The Instrument
(About Our Pitch Bar Set)
What’s the difference between Playful Pitch Bars and toy xylophones?
Toy instruments are typically made with low sound quality, cheaper materials, or with battery-operated, electronic sounds.
Playful Pitch Bars are made from professionally-tuned, high-end aluminum bars and beech wood – for a child to learn music-reading and pitch-training from a real, professional, durable instrument.
Do the digital bars work just as well as the physical instrument?
Unfortunately - No. There’s just no substitute to a real, natural, professionally-tuned instrument. The timing, feeling, and sound of digital instruments will never be as good as the physical thing.
We love the digital bars for introducing kids to the concept of our music notation! But it works much much better for the real instrument.
Does it take a lot of guidance/time to teach a child how to use this instrument?
We designed Playful Pitch to be as child-led and intuitive as possible. We believe in the Montessori principle of fostering an independent work environment with rich materials, so that the child’s natural curiosity and delight take over the learning process.
An adult may demonstrate the initial set up and care, but after a short time, the child’s natural love of music and intuition should be able to take over!
As parents, we personally love to send our 4 and 6 year old children downstairs to play the pitch bars independently while the toddler and baby are taking a nap. The sound is soft enough to keep the babies asleep. We love to hear the pleasant, subtle background sounds of the pitch bars in the home, similar to soft wind chimes.
What age is this instrument/method for?
It was designed as an introduction to music making and reading for ages 3-10. Though, most of our customer feedback tells us that THE WHOLE FAMILY loves this instrument. Adults and teens have just as much fun as children, playing beloved familiar tunes on the color coded instrument.
Our most common review is “EVERYONE is wanting their turn on it....from the youngest child to the parents”. Many parents messaged to tell us they secretly played with it before wrapping it up and giving it to their children.
We LOVE that!!
Why not just start kids off on piano or violin?
We believe that fostering a love for music making should start with a play-based approach that capitalizes on the child’s natural love and intuition for music.
Formal lessons often come with a stigma of overwhelming assignments and mandated practicing - things that can squash a child’s joy for music making. If they first experience success on our gentle process and simplified with relative ease, it builds a confident, joyful musician who becomes inspired to work through the later challenges of music making.
Also - some kids and parents are just not ready for the time and financial commitments of formal lessons and professional instruments. Playful Pitch provides a way to introduce children to music, without spending the thousands it costs to buy a professional instrument and provide ongoing lessons.
I want to order the bars now, where can I get them?
If this is your first interaction with Playful Pitch you can simply enter your email below (or on this page) where we give you a welcome discount to any of our physical items in our online shop. Even if you dont intend to use the free Playful Pitch Online Classroom, you will still receive the discount promo codes.
You’ll receive your welcome discount codes immediately via email (check all your mail folders if you don’t see it) and there will be links to our shop where you can place an order.