Studio3Music Blog

Posts Tagged ‘music’

May
10

5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Show

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, Symphony Concerts, Things to do

1.  We discovered that puppet making is becoming a lost art. Our search for the perfect puppet took us all the way to New York City.  The fabulous fish puppets you’ll see on stage are hand-crafted by the internationally renowned Furry Puppet Company.

2.  Our brass quintet hails from Central Washington University. And instead of a trombone, they have a euphonium. Isn’t that breaking some unwritten, unspoken, unplayable brass quintet rule? Nope! Did you know that if you unwound a euphonium and a trombone, they’d be exactly the same length? Want to see that done? Come to our concert on Saturday!

3.   For every minute a live production company spends on stage, an hour of rehearsal is required. But our rehearsals are never boring. Often they’re exactly like those funny outtakes you see at the end of movies. Or Psych.

4.   Miss Allison (the star of the show!) and Michael (our delightful tenor) are married. In fact, they met while playing the parts of Laurey and Curly in the musical Oklahoma! It was love at first sight. Still is. 22 years later.

5.  The 10:30 show is sold out, but there are a few tickets left for the 9:30 – so get them here!

 What show you say? Swing Me High and Swing Me Low, our next Symphony Serenade concert for families. It’s at Benaroya Hall (Seattle Symphony) on Saturday, May 12 at 9:30 and 10:30. You’re invited!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, aka The Story Fairy, who gets to wear bathtub fish on her head this weekend. And a new pair of wings! (But on her back, not on her head.)

Tags: , , ,

Join the conversation

May
4

Alzheimer’s and The Power of Music

Posted in Music and the brain

My mom has Alzheimer’s. I can no longer communicate with her. But every time I visit her dementia unit in Ohio, I sing to her.

Growing up, I remember mom singing all the time. In church, in the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, at home on our piano, going about her everyday life. And singing me to sleep every night. She was the reason I became a musician.

So, when I am with her now, I sing, I play ukulele, I lead music time in the recreation room, and we listen to old musicals and Handel’s Messiah, one of her favorites. And mom sings back. She hums all day. Her sentences begin rationally, turn to randomness, and end up as song.

The part of her brain (the left side) where language lives has been damaged, but mom still reacts, responds to and participates when there is music.

I am not an expert in Alzheimer’s research, but I know what I have experienced with my mother. On my last visit, a nurse’s aide was leading the dementia patients in a sing along of old favorites. One of the most lucid comments my mother made during this visit was, “She can’t carry a tune,” referring to the aide. And she said this three times!

I asked the aide if she had another song sheet so I could follow along, and she happily turned over the song-leading to me. (Just try to keep a Kindermusik teacher from singing!) The group joined me happily in song, most of them remembering every word of their old favorite tunes.

Afterwards, I asked mom if I was on pitch, to which she said, “most of the time.” Well, she always was a perfectionist! For the rest of the day, I heard her singing, “Take me Out to the Ballgame.” Those were some of my happiest moments in an otherwise difficult time.

-posted by Miss Judy, who says, “My mother’s name is Annabelle, and she has always had a beautiful voice.”

Here is an article from someone who is an expert, and the author of several wonderful books about the brain, and an amazing video of a man who is revitalized with music.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, Professor of Neurology & Psychiatry, Columbia University

Where I work at a hospital and at a number of old age homes, there are a lot of people who have Alzheimer’s or other dementias of one sort or another. Some of them are confused, some are agitated, some are lethargic, some have almost lost language. But all of them, without exception, respond to music. This is especially true of old songs and songs they once knew. Read more…

Tags: , ,

One response so far, share yours!

Apr
28

It’s good to rhyme, sometimes.

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, Things to do, Things We Love

Today is Great Poetry Reading Day. And, apparently, Kiss-Your-Mate-Day, (but do you really need me to blog about that in detail in order to understand what the intention is)? I love poetry. Growing up, my Dad read to us from poetry collections after dinner, just as often as he read great books.

With its rhythm, expression, emotion and meter, music is poetry without words. Just like poems, music expresses the thoughts and feelings of the composer. In fact, lyrical poems are the form of poetry set to music. (Some of the best at that were Lennon and McCartney.)

A couple of days ago, I asked our Studio3 staff and some good friends of mine from all over North America (who are also musicians) to tell me what their favorite authors were. Were they ever passionate! And prolific in their answers! Which is a great thing.

By far, their number one pick for kids’ poetry was Shel Silverstein. Which was not surprising. This beloved writer has “the official site for kids”, so check it out.

Jack Prelutsky was a new one for me, but I wish I’d found him sooner! He was born in Brooklyn, NY, but lives right here in Washington State. In his bio on the Scholastic website, he says, “I have always enjoyed playing with words, but I had no idea that I would be a writer. There was a time when I couldn’t stand poetry! In grade school, I had a teacher who left me with the impression that poetry was the literary equivalent of liver. I was told that it was good for me, but I wasn’t convinced.”

He also is a musician, and on the audio versions of his anthologies, he sets his poems to music, often singing and playing his guitar.  In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Prelutsky the inaugural winner of the Children’s Poet Laureate award.

He’s written more than 50 collections. Here’s the name of just a couple to get you started at your library: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, The Mean Old Hyena, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems.

One of my favorite poets (when my sense of humor grew slightly more sophisticated) was Ogden Nash. He’s a lover of puns, and witticisms. Take his “Song to Be Sung by the Father of Infant Female Children”, for instance.

Poetry is good for grownups, too! Poetry can help us to slow down, think, appreciate, and express our own emotions more clearly.

Here is a list of favorites I collected (they were often mentioned my multiple people):

ee cummings, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, John Keats, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Naruda, Bob Dylan, John Lennon

Some of Robert Frost’s poetry was set to music by Randall Thompson in a collection called Frostiana. Worth a quick search on YouTube.

Love Poems From God is a translation by Daniel Ladinsky of great saints and mystics from both western and eastern religious traditions.

Ten Poems to Open Your Heart, compiled by Roger Housden.

Heartsongs, by Mattie Stepanek. Mattie was an American poet who had six books of poetry published before he passed away just before he turned 14. All six books reached The New York Times bestsellers list. He suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, and all three of his siblings also died from the disease. He started writing poetry at the age of three when his older brother died. My friend said his poems always warm her heart with his innocence and belief in humanity.

Not sure where to start? Pick something new. Poems are generally shorter than novels, so it won’t take you long to decide if you like a particular poet. (And you’re not in high school AP English anymore – you get to read strictly for enjoyment!) Someone suggested the website www.poemhunter.com. When you choose a specific poem, the site suggests others you may enjoy as well.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who suggests to go kiss your mate, and then have some fun with poetry today. She leaves you with this short ditty from Odgen Nash – “God in His wisdom made the fly, and then forgot to tell us why.”

 

Tags: , , , ,

Join the conversation

Apr
26

Music made me like math. (And I wasn’t even trying.)

Posted in Education, Music and the brain

I was a music major in college. I loved music. I didn’t love math. (Okay, I did rather like Geometry.) I always got A’s in math in high school, but it was hard. In my day, one only had to take 3 years of high school math to get into university. But once I got there, I was told I had to take two math courses to graduate. Ugh. The very last semester of my fifth year (my degree was a five year degree – it was supposed to be four, but explain to me how they expect you to fit 5 consecutive years of music theory into 4?), I enrolled in the required Algebra 103 class.

A week into class, I was thinking my SAT scores had put me in the wrong class. I double checked, but nope, I was where I was supposed to be. It had been SIX years since I had cracked a math textbook. And yet, this stuff called Algebra was easy! I finally understood math. It was all about patterns.

Halfway through the semester, my math professor called me into her office, and said that I really should be in a much higher level math, and had I considered a math minor? Uh, nope. I hated math. Well, wait a minute. I didn’t really hate math anymore. It made sense, and I actually liked being successful at it.

It didn’t take me long to figure out why. If you’ve ever spent time in the dungeons of a music department, you’ll soon discover that 95% of the double majors are music and some sort of math or math-heavy science. The french horn and bassoon players (being generally both the smartest and funniest and strangest of the music breeds) are the astrophysicists, the biochemists, and the aeronautical engineers. (Oh, please, don’t send me nasty emails if you are a clarinet player with a job in the field of quantum mechanics. I’m sure there are brilliant clarinetists out there, too!)

I realized that my 5 years of music theory was, like math, all about patterns. The music had somehow trained my brain to comprehend math.

Years later, when I started learning about how music helps develops the brain, I found a much more sophisticated answer. Imaging studies have shown that mathematical processing and musical training activate the same areas of the brain.

It appears that early musical training begins to build the same neural networks that will later be used to complete mathematical tasks. Although I played an instrument starting in 5th grade, I didn’t really have any good musical training – theory, private lessons, Kindermusik, etc.

So, my years of music theory, ear training, piano, conducting, private lessons and singing in college really did help those neural networks to grow. How I wish I’d had music training when I was very young, all the way through high school. I might have liked math better.

Of all the academic subjects, music and math are the most closely related. Music and math both require lots of counting. Within that counting, there are musical intervals, (the difference in pitch between two notes), and the math counterpart, arithmetic and geometric sequences.

Playing music also requires an good understanding of fractions, including adding and subtracting them. Reading music notes is dependant on comprehension of ratios and proportions – how long is a half note compared to a quarter note? How do you play triplets against sixteenth notes?  Geometry is used when remembering finger and slide positions.

My heart introduced my children to music for love, and joy, and pleasure. My head introduced music to my children so I could give them the very best start in life. Even if they don’t follow in my footsteps and become a music major, they’ll still reap the benefits their musical experiences.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is tickled when her violin playing 4th grader asks his instructor to “teach him some theory”.

Tags: , , , ,

Join the conversation

Apr
16

The Recipe for Learning Success

Posted in Education, parenting, Things to do

I started reading the Little House on the Prairie series to Natalie a couple of months ago. (She’s 6, and unlike my boys, totally enraptured by Laura’s story.)  She was shocked to learn that on Sundays, Laura had to sit still and play quietly or read. Natalie tried it, and lasted about 7 minutes.

We just got to the part in On the Banks of Plum Creek where Laura and Mary go to school for the first time. This time, Natalie was dumbfounded that Laura would have been slapped on the hands “many times” with a ruler if she had wiggled, swung her legs, or talked during school.

What a difference a 120 years makes! I’m so glad we live in a time where we know so much more about the brain, and how learning and moving go hand in hand.

Carla Hannaford (award winning author and eductor) writes, “Movement is essential to learning. Movement integrates and anchors new information into our neural networks. Every time we move in an organized…manner, full brain activation and integration occurs, and the door to learning opens.”

Combine movement, which fully activates the brain, and creates and strengthens neural networks, with music, which is the only activity that simultaneously stimulates every area of the brain, and you have a recipe for successful learning.

As a home schooling mom, here’s some things that we’ve done that combine music (or the components of music like rhythm and meter) that assist in learning. (You don’t have to home school to do these things. You are your child’s first and most important teacher!)

While singing learning songs or poems and chants, we have a small indoor trampoline for jumping on. (Trampolines are also great for getting up a taking a break. Jumping really seems to make the just inputted information stick in brains better.)

My children all sit on exercise balls. I’ve noticed that when new or more difficult concepts are being learned, their ability to sit still decreases. All that electrical energy in their brain is going towards creating new or stronger neural pathways.  An exercise ball allows them to have the movement they need, without being distracting, so that brain energy is spent focusing on learning, rather than using that brain power to sit quietly.  Another option is to put a balance disk on a chair and have them sit on that.

When learning to spell difficult words or skip count (counting by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, etc.), we get up and bounce a ball back and forth, taking turns counting or giving the next letter in a word. The kids love it, and they learn faster and better.

Playing background music is great, too. One suggestion – during homework or school time, the best music to listen to has no words.

Be sure to give your children plenty of get up and play breaks to rest and refocus eyes, and allow the brain to process everything they just learned. Otherwise, the information really will be in one ear and out the other.

How do you integrate music, movement and learning into your family’s life or classroom?

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who loves that music not only helps shape growing minds, but transforms the heart and soul as well.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Tags: , , ,

Join the conversation

« Older Posts