Columnist Susan Snyder: Project is music to kids’ ears

Friday, Dec. 15, 2000 | 9:19 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

In the grand scheme, the Las Vegas Valley attracts a lot of grand schemes.

Government types say some 6,000 people move here every month, seeking a fresh start and fortune in one way or another.

So someone here probably is more likely to buy a Christmas tree from a struggling concert violinist than someone who lives in, say, Paducah, Ky.

Las Vegas newcomer Joseph Dominic was hawking Christmas trees earlier this week, but he came to Las Vegas hoping to sell something else.

A great idea.

He calls it Musical Funtime. The program is designed to increase a child's intellectual capacity through musical toys that change and grow with the child. It starts at birth and continues to age 18.

Dominic's idea was inspired by the infant siblings of his violin students. Infants picked up the motion of the bow and tuned into the sound of the music. Pretty soon, Dominic says, he was stocking his waiting room with musical toys for waiting tots.

"I'd teach a $20 music lesson, and go out and buy a $40 toy to help the kid. But I couldn't live like that," he said. "I've lost my family. I've lost my friends. I've lost everything over this."

Minutes earlier he had loaded a Christmas tree into a customer's sport utility vehicle and spotted the toddler in the back seat. He explained his idea to the tot's parent with the passion and vigor of a street-corner evangelist.

Phone numbers were exchanged. Dominic remains hopeful. You never know who you'll meet in Las Vegas.

"I am relentless about it," he said.

Dominic's theory that music appreciation in infancy enhances a person's intellectual capacity was bolstered by a 1994 study performed by Frances Rauscher of the University of California-Irvine. Her study showed a 46 percent increase in the spatial IQ of preschoolers who had eight months of music lessons. Life, Newsweek and Time magazines all have published articles on the concept.

Dominic figures he's spent $200,000 over the years testing the theory using 200 currently produced musical toys on about 1,000 children. His conclusion is the music works, but the toys need to be better.

A toy xylophone inserted into a plastic crocodile's back doesn't teach the child anything if it's installed backwards or has only six keys -- two shy of a full octave. A toy instrument should be designed the same as its real-life counterpart, he says.

With a few modifications some currently produced toys can be appropriate, Dominic says.

"I know what button should be where," he said. "I have 1,200 specifications in my head."

Dominic also has a website, musicalfuntime.com, and a toll-free number, (800) 985-9951. And he has dreams of a day when Musical Funtime is offered through franchises. One in every neighborhood, he says, starting right here.

"This could work here," Dominic said. "The guys who built Las Vegas have an inclination that says anything can be done. Las Vegas has incredible potential."

It is, after all, a town where grand schemes are a big part of the grand scheme.

"This is the perfect-size town for this," Dominic said. "I'll be a taxi driver, a letter carrier -- anything just to survive in Las Vegas."