About
Sounds Like This

Built for educators.
Backed by neuroscience.

We’re Australian neuromusical educators who teach early childhood educators how to use music to support regulation, connection, communication, and learning. 

We’re here for the educators who want their rooms to feel calmer, their children to feel safer, and their teaching to feel more grounded, joyful, and effective.

Music changes brains.
And the grown-ups who know how to use it change everything else.

What we believe

(and we’ll shout it from the rooftops)

We believe children learn best when their nervous systems feel safe. We believe that joy is a legitimate teaching strategy. 

We believe children deserve adults who understand their brains. And adults deserve tools that work, even when the whole room has lost the plot. 

We believe music is one of the most accessible and underused developmental agents we have. And that it can support children in the most fundamental things they can do as humans: Regulate, Connect, Think, and Express. 

 

How We Do What We Do

  • Quality, inclusive repertoire - WITHOUT backing tracks

  • Highly trained and emotionally mature educators

  • Socially conscious

  • Musically and developmentally appropriate materials and games

 
 

  • We know little explorers up to 7 years old are experiencing big changes in their brains.

    Their malleable noggins are forging new pathways and building important connections.

    After 7ish, the brain’s growth slows significantly. So what you nurture now sets the stage for the rest of their lives.

  • Your child’s daily experiences have the biggest impact on their cognitive development.

    That’s why in our musical programs, we focus on soft skills to help children thrive with important social and communication skills.

  • Our musical activities for kids are about making sure the brain is growing to be the BEST it can be (because music activates SO many parts of the brain simultaneously).

    We integrate activities that encourage beautiful neural development to ensure your child’s brain is set to thrive.

  • We create safe spaces and fun activities that help children gain the courage to hold their own. Because nothing makes us more joyful than seeing children:

    • Advocate their ideas

    • Lead a group

    • Own their space

    • Learn turn-taking

    • Be socially included

  • Sounds Like This educators are a tiny team of highly trained and experienced people.

    They have spent years working with young children, and making music and honing their craft.

    Each team member brings their own special flavour through their personality, but at the heart of ALL of our educators is, well, heart. Great big hearts that deeply respect children, childhood development and childhood learning.

    Our staff are always warm, kind, welcoming, and investing in our own professional education so we continue to provide outstanding music education to our community.

 

We KNOW that music making makes

lives richer, humans kinder + hearts fuller

Let’s Play

  • We Make Music to Build Connection

    Music-making creates a beautiful sense of bonding and belonging between children and their parents or guardians, their educators, and their communities.

    And when little ankle-biters feel a sense of belonging, they have the perfect conditions for a productive and effective learning environment.

    Sounds Like This looks at the WHOLE community. We make sure parents and educators alike feel empowered and supported to spend more time nourishing their children and have the practical tools to use music to do so.

    We create safe and respectful spaces to learn, be, and THRIVE.

  • Through Structured, Strategic Lessons Grounded in Strong and developmental Musical Theory

    At Sounds Like This, we believe EVERY person has the potential to become musical, especially when their musicality is nurtured in early childhood.

    But we don’t preach music theory from the get-go.

    Actually, we know we’ve done a good job when we see children embodying confidence. As joyful lovers of music. Who are free to explore, make their own choices and learn through rhythm, pitch, tempo, melody, and harmony without even knowing it.

    Sounds Like This takes an immersive approach to music-making in childhood, and encourage all adults to jump in - the children will benefit greatly from the role modeling and mirror neurons you’re triggering in their amazing brains!

    Mirror neurons are brain cells that fire both when performing an action and when watching someone else do it. This process helps children build skills faster through observation and imitation.

    How does this help?

    • Accelerated Learning: Kids absorb physical movements by watching you.

    • Social Bonding: Shared activities build trust and connection.

    • Emotional Security: Adult presence creates a safe environment.

    • Confidence Boost: Seeing adults try encourages kids to jump in a have a go too. It doesn’t have to be perfect - learning together is PERFECTO! *chef’s kiss*

    First, we teach our little poppets to love music. To knowmusic. To breathe it. From a young age, this musicalimmersion wires their brain so that they quickly catch on when they learn musical theory or wrap their hands around an instrument later in life.

    We plan our kids’ music programs in a way that helps us scaffold learning so children grow and develop naturally.

  • Using Child-Based Play

    Kids are clever young humans. They learn through the natural course of play throughout the day. We take that innate behaviour and make it a central part of their early musical education.

    Nothing is more beautiful than seeing people create freely through an unencumbered sense of self and self-acceptance.

    In our children’s music programs, we encourage:

    • Child-led exploration

    • Autonomy

    • Spontaneity

    • Expression

    • Imagination

    • Movement

    • FUN!

    It’s not about the immediate outcome but the process.

    We nurture every child in their own time, meeting them where they are, whilst encouraging and valuing their unique contributions and perspectives.

Sounds Like This takes an immersive approach to
music-making in childhood + throughout our whole lives.

We believe that music isn’t some added extra, or thing for the talented few - it’s a human thing that fundamentally changes the way a brain develops and should be a foundational part of everyday life for every child from birth.

In fact, we don’t just believe it, there’s a LOT of evidence to back it up!

Learn about how making music changes growing brains

Meet our Team of music practioners + education professionals

Meet our Team of music practioners + education professionals

With a little help from our friends

We’re lifelong learners who keep good company.
We collaborate with and learn from a brilliant circle of specialists:


We’re always reading too. A few favourites:
Oliver Sacks’s Musicophilia, Anita Collins’s The Music Advantage, and Siegel & Bryson’s The Whole-Brain Child. See the full shelf. 


Sounds Like This in the Wild

We love heading out into the community to make music and share our knowledge. Here are some of the wonderful places we’ve worked and been featured on/in…

Julie making music in the children's quarter at State Library Victoria

  • Sunrise - Channel Seven

  • State Library Victoria

  • Mornington Peninsula Kids Magazine

  • Currajong School

  • Frankston City Library

  • Hope Early Learning Centres

  • Glen Education Kindergartens

  • Chaos to Calm podcast

  • Andrea Funke and Julia Poppelton podcast

  • Profit Lovers podcast

  • Party in the Park - Frankston City Council

  • Mornington Main Street Festival

  • The Mayor’s Picnic - Frankston City Council

  • Children’s Day - Frankston City Council

  • Cruden Farm

“The music we absorb during childhood echoes through every stage of life.”

- Nancy Kopman: Canadian early childhood music specialist, composer, recording artist, and performer.

WE'RE HERE FOR EDUCATORS
WE'RE HERE FOR FAMILIES