Music brings joy for LIFE!

Thanks to Kindermusik Educator Karen Schanerberger for this inspiration.

You are my little flower

Mollie Greene has a beautiful blog where she shares her amazing gift for word and picture. Today her blog introduced me to Elizabeth Mitchell. If you are reading this, do yourself a favor and surf over to hear some of this wonderful music. I am going to buy them all.

Music Education Counts

“Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them — a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.” — Gerald Ford, former President, United States of America

The National Association for Music Education narrows down the benefits of a music education into four categories:

• Success in society
• Success in school
• Success in developing intelligence
• Success in life

“Every student [should] have an education in the arts,” they write. “Music is the fabric of our society.”

Read this inspiring article here and congratulate yourself for a choosing to give such a gift to your children!

Thanks to Mollie Greene for finding these words.

Free Live Music Near You!

There is some good live music at a Junior High near you. This time of year there are band or choir concerts nearly every night of the week. I have been to 4 of them in the last two weeks myself. Last night we heard a great rendition of Bolero and Low Rider among other classic selections. You can't beat the school band for a broad program

Just go to your school districts website (ISD ###.org) and click the calendar. High School concerts usually cost a little something, I think they are worth it. Junior or Middle School concerts are going to be free, and quite good. Check the elementary school band concerts if you are looking for the cute factor and like to catch the up and coming talent.

Here is a snap of Tucker at the Eagle Ridge Jr. High Concert. We also got to see him play both the electric and upright bass which totally made Curella DeVille cook.

Thank you Barolomeo

It's the birthday of the man credited with inventing the piano, Bartolomeo Cristofori, born in Padua, Italy (1655). He called his invention "the harpsichord that plays quiet and loud." He had replaced the string-plucking mechanism of the harpsichord with hammers, which allowed the player to adjust its volume by applying different degrees of force to the keys. As the instrument grew more popular, the name was shortened to "quiet-loud" and finally to "quiet." In Italian, the word for "quiet" is "piano."

Thanks to Bartolomeo, we have amazing works of art, pieces like Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, The Gymonopedes by Erik Satie, and any little Mozart piece. Artists, like the great Scott Joplin, Joni Mitchell and our own Davina Sowers.

The list of people who have been touched by the sounds of this simple instrument is endless. What a beautiful soulful world - past, present and future.

drumming created

Watch this little boy compose and create a drumming masterpiece.

What kids can do with music, is a lot. (thanks Molly)