Music Together® classes in Forest Hill
ABC Academy of Music offers Music Together® group classes in Forest Hill, Toronto, taught from our Lawrence Park studio at 2180 Bayview Ave (at Lawrence and Bayview), North York M4N 3K7. We’ve been an authorized Music Together center since 2003, making us one of the longest-running licensed programs in the city. Classes welcome children from birth through age five, with a caregiver attending every session. A 10-week season is the standard commitment; a free demo class is available for families who want to see a class before signing up. Private lessons for children aged five and up are also available. Regular private lessons are $55.38 (30 min) or $64.81 (45 min); a trial private lesson is $20. Our Music Together teachers hold university music degrees or equivalent conservatory credentials. Rating: 4.8★ from 150 students on Google.
What happens in a Music Together class
A typical 45-minute session moves through a sequence that has been designed carefully: a hello song to signal the start, rhythm instruments passed around so every child can tap and shake, movement songs that get caregivers and children on their feet, and a lullaby to bring the energy down at the end. Nothing is optional and nothing is a performance. The point is full participation, not watching.
The same 15 or so songs repeat every week across the entire 10-week season. This is deliberate. Children need to hear a song eight to ten times before they stop listening carefully enough to start filling in the gaps themselves. By week four, a two-year-old who said nothing in week one will start anticipating the melody before it arrives. By week eight, they are singing fragments on their own during the week, not just in class.
Caregivers are the most important variable in the room. Music Together teachers describe it this way: an engaged caregiver singing and moving is fuel to the fire; a caregiver sitting back, phone in hand, is water on it. Singing quality does not matter at all. Willingness to try matters a great deal. Children are not watching the teacher. They are watching you.
Getting to the Lawrence Park studio from Forest Hill
Forest Hill sits directly east of the Allen Expressway, and the Lawrence Park studio at 2180 Bayview Ave is about 12 minutes by car via Eglinton Avenue East, turning north on Bayview. By transit, the 32 Eglinton bus runs east from the Forest Hill and Eglinton area to Bayview, where the 11 Bayview bus connects north to the studio. The full trip typically takes 18 to 22 minutes depending on connections.
Families coming from the Forest Hill Village area near Spadina and St. Clair can take the 512 St. Clair streetcar east to Yonge, then the 97 Yonge bus north to Lawrence, then east on the 124 Lawrence East to Bayview. It is a longer transit trip; many families in that pocket drive instead.
The studio is within easy reach of Sunnybrook Park, Lawrence Park Ravine, and Bayview Village. Parking is straightforward: there is a small lot behind the building, a paid lot directly across Bayview, and metered street parking on side streets nearby. Most families arriving by car find a spot within two or three minutes.
What children at different ages get from Music Together
A six-month-old in a Music Together class is absorbing tonality and rhythm the same way they absorb spoken language: passively but constantly. Caregivers are building a shared musical vocabulary with their infant before the child can respond visibly.
A two-year-old in the same class is at a different stage entirely. They are starting to experiment with pitch matching and will suddenly echo a melodic fragment correctly, then lose it again. The seasonal repetition is especially important for this age: novelty is stimulating, but familiarity is where the learning happens.
By four and five, children in Music Together are beginning to engage with rhythm in a more structured way. For families whose children want to keep going, Rhythm Kids is available at select locations and bridges the gap between group early-childhood music and individual instrument study. Children who complete that progression and are ready to begin formal lessons move naturally into private instruction. ABC Academy offers private piano, guitar, singing, and other instruments for children five and older.
Frequently asked questions about Music Together in Forest Hill
