Life & Work with Tyler Wray of Plain City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyler Wray

Hi Tyler, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I got my degree in Music Therapy, and have always really enjoyed working with small children. I spent most of my clinical internship, as well as in my own private practice, holding Mommy and Me music classes, as well as doing music therapy sessions in elementary school life skills classrooms.
I’ve always been passionate about music, and I am a very strong believer that music can help in so many different ways. As a Music Therapist, I have studied exactly how music can impact children’s growth and development in a positive way, no matter what stage of development they are in! Research shows us that music can help children improve essential skills (social skills, emotional regulation, motor skills, cognitive abilities, all the things!) in a FUN and interactive way. I have seen what music can do in classroom settings, but I have also seen the benefit of singing with my own children at home as well.

As my family grew, I realized that I wanted to come up with a way to bring what I was doing right to families. I decided to start “Music For Littles” back in December of 2023 while I was pregnant with baby #3. I decided that I wanted other families who may not necessarily be musical, to have the tools they need in order to have successful, fun, musical experiences at home. I began sharing little videos of songs I use with my own kids, and sharing with my online followers how exactly to use those songs with their own children.

Since then, I have created an ebook that families can buy that walks them through 20 different easy songs they can use with their kids at home, and have also started a monthly subscription for other early childhood professionals where I share more in depth music lesson plans while trying to keep it as cheap and accessible as possible.

My main goal with Music For Littles is to share songs that can hopefully help parents and their children create lasting memories together, and strengthen their relationships, and help teachers get new ideas for their classroom!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It feels like this has been a 7 year journey even though I only started my “Music For Littles” account 8 months ago. Music Therapy is definitely not the easiest degree, seeing as you’re basically a music major as well as a psychology major. So getting through school was definitely a challenge! My oldest daughter was born halfway through my senior year of college, just 3 months before COVID hit so it felt like there were a lot of bumps in the road just getting started with trying to finish up my clinical internship during the pandemic, and getting my own private practice up and running.

Once I came up with the idea for Music for Littles, it was frustrating at first not seeing my social media platforms grow like I knew they had the potential to grow. Filming the songs with my kids is the easy part! The social media managing definitely isn’t a strength of mine, so learning what works best took quite a while, and I still feel like I am just barely keeping up with all of the things I want to do.

I am a full time mom, and I also still work part time as a music therapist with Hospice patients throughout northern Utah. So just finding the time to teach little songs to my kids, film that song, edit that video, and all the behind the scenes things that come with something like this has been a challenge. I also had a baby in March, so I took like 2 months off after my daughter was born which I felt like really set me back as far as growth on my accounts went.

Staying consistent with posting is in all honesty what helps a social media business account grow the fastest, which like I said, can be challenging when you’re making videos on the side, and you’ve got 3 little kiddos who have to cooperate, which lets be honest – doesn’t always happen! I also feel like there is a very big element of luck in social media with having videos go viral, and I just so happened to be one of the lucky few that had a video of me and my daughter doing a fun finger play rhyme go viral, and ever since then I’ve gotten literally thousands of followers a day and it feels very surreal sometimes. I definitely feel very very lucky.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I hold my own music therapy private practice (Wray of Sunshine LLC) where I primarily work in Hospice, but I also work with children who have special needs in group settings. As a music therapist, I specialize in early childhood education and LOVE working with children on things like social skills, emotional identification and expression, fine and gross motor skills, language skills, speech, pre-academic skills like counting and letters, and so much more!! I created “Music For Littles” to help families and teachers have the tools they need in order to take advantage of the benefits of using music with their kiddos, whether that is at home, or in a classroom setting.
I share fun interactive songs focused on child development, and talk about the research behind using music with children.
I also write a lot of children’s songs. I have some songs on music streaming platforms, but am currently working on releasing an album of original children’s songs that parents can enjoy as well.

I think I am most proud of the music I create, and I absolutely LOVE when I get messages from people who have bought my interactive Ebook, or follow me on social media, saying how much their little one LOVES a certain song. I’ll never forget a message I got a couple months ago from a mom who had preemie twins. She told me that one of her toddlers has some sensory processing and social anxiety, but that he has an ear for music that she and her husband do not. She went on to say that she found my account. bought my Ebook, and has been using a bunch of songs with her son who is usually very timid to do new activities but that he LOVES singing along and doing those songs with his mom. She said that singing those songs together really helped them foster special time together. Messages like that are the reason I created Music For Littles, and it makes me SO happy to hear that families are strengthening their relationships, and spending quality time together doing songs that I helped them learn.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
The biggest thing you can do is go follow me on your favorite social media platforms! Just look up @music.for.littles
and you can check out www.musicforlittles.org
And PLEASE share my account with all your teacher, daycare, preschool, and homeschooling friends so that they can also use everything I share!
If you ARE in early childhood education, I would say PLEASE look at my membership on my website (www.musicforlittles.org) and I guarantee that it can help lesson planning go much smoother! I share a TON of resources – songs, printouts, implementation ideas, as well as videos of how the songs can be played, plus access to a community discussion board for fellow professionals.
If you’d like to collaborate with me you can reach out by email (tyler@musicforlittles.org)

Pricing:

• Interactive songbook – $35
• Lesson Plan bundle Subscription – $4.99 monthly
• Music Therapy services – Reach out for quote

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.musicforlittles.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/music.for.littles?igsh=MXB6eWtwNnhucGtq&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicforlittles1/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRtHa_sPxZAXi9fxJDZLVFw
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/tyler-musicforlittles