SOUTHINGTON - Melody and rhythm are familiar concepts to children as young as 9 weeks and as old as 9 years who take Music Together classes downtown.

The town's Circle of Friends Music Together studio is nondescript. Located on the second floor of a commercial building at Main and Center streets, a passerby might never know the studio existed aside from the faint sound of singing that extends beyond the building's walls while classes are in session.

Cubby holes meant to house children's shoes, which are removed during classes, and door signs welcoming children and parents mark the studio's exterior, while child-friendly musical instruments and a small stereo identify the studio's interior.

"We love our small studio," said Music Together instructor and studio owner Felice Danielson. "It allows me and the parents to keep everyone engaged. You can't get lost in a corner in here."

Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood education program that fosters a love of mu-sic in children. The program achieves its goal by allowing children to experience and create music rather than simply learning about the fine art's concepts. The program requires parental involvement and is quite the oppo-site of "drop-off" programming, the norm for most young children.

"Parent participation is essential," Danielson said. "Your child gets out of the classes what you [parents] put in."

Classes are 45 minutes and consist of teacher-led exercises in identifying and repeating tones, rhythms and melodies. Children take the class sitting next to, or in the laps of, their parents, parents who are singing, clap-ping, and enjoying it as much as their children. When Danielson dumps a bucket of musical instruments on the studio floor, class participants grab instruments for themselves and their parents.

"It's nice that we can do this together, as a family," said Jessica Ruffini, mother of class participants 2-year-old Liliana and 4-year-old Isabella. "Also, a lot of classes are restricted. With Music Together, my younger child learns from her older sister."

Danielson opened her Southington studio in April and has an abundance of interest from local parents since day one. She has enrolled about 75 families in her weekly Music Together classes, and the summer classes are twice a day on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday mornings. Before becoming a certified teacher, Danielson was first introduced to the Music Together program as a parent.

"I'm the mother of a special needs child and I was looking for an activity where we could belong. Everyone fits in in a music class," Danielson said.

While special needs children are more than welcome, Danielson made it clear that the classes benefit child-ren of all ages at all stages of early development. The impact music has already had on students enrolled in Danielson's summer classes is impossible to ignore.

"All I have to do is play a pitch pipe and my students can sing the pitch back to me.," Danielson said. "I have babies who can clap to the beat. I even had a 15-month-old hum a note of one of our songs. The impact is truly amazing."

Retired kindergarten teacher Dorothy Williams said she knows the importance of singing and reading with children from birth because of her background in education, but she is glad the Music Together program is available to families who might not know these things.

"This is by far the best thing for young children," said Williams, who brings granddaughters Ava and Lucy, who will soon turn 5 and 3, respectively, to class each week. "Practicing tonal patterns and repetition of rhythms are gateways to kindergarten math and literacy."

Research shows that introducing music to children at an early age not only helps children develop a lifelong love of music, but also helps them develop listening, concentration, motor and reading skills, said Topher Logan, director of the Community School of the Arts at the University of Connecticut.

"Rhythm games and singing together games are building blocks [to further childhood development]," Logan said. "Music truly helps develop the whole child."