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.)

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…

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.”

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 5^th 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 4^th grader asks his instructor to “teach him some theory”.

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.

This last week, my husband and I went to the musical Beauty and the Beast. WOW! What a production.  I have seen this show once before when it came through town about 12 years ago or so. I had one memorable scene that has stuck with me through out the years and has made me want to see this musical again. I was SO excited when the Paramount Theater announced its line up for the 2011/2012 season and Beauty and the Beast was on it! I went so far as to mark it on my calendar, each month, reminding me when tickets went on sale and to save money to be able to afford them.

When the day finally arrived, I was over the moon happy. Now, a couple things came into play that could’ve dampened my mood but I was not going to let that happen! The biggest thing that I was worried about was my son. He is 6 months old and we had yet to leave him in the evening to be babysat. I have NO problem leaving him with Nana or trusted friends but this was the first time that we would be breaking up his evening routine. Thankfully, he had taken a bottle from my husband that day so I was hopeful that he would do that at night as well.

After giving all the instructions to my mom, who was watching him, off we were to the Paramount Theater.  We went with a couple of friends and on the way down we were talking about our favorite parts of the movie. Singing the songs, recapping the story and talking about the anticipation of the costumes were all in our conversation. As soon as we parked the car, I saw it. There it was – a sea of gold amongst the theater goers.

Now, I have to say, we were lucky in that the night before was technically opening night. However, the trucks couldn’t make it over the pass and so the people who had opening night tickets had to be rescheduled for closing night. That meant that we had opening night tickets! This element just added an extra excitement in the air.

About the sea of gold. As you know, Belles’ dress when she dances with the Beast is gold and very elegant. There were so many little girls dressed in gold dresses holding roses. You could just see and hear them, non-stop talking to their parents about how excited they were to see the show. The sparkle in their eye was so bright you could see it from across the room.

Once we were seated, you could hear the buzz in the audience when the lights went down and the music started. It really was electric. Every one, adults and children alike, were sitting on the edge of their seats soaking up every note played, word spoken and song sung.  Through out the musical you could hear children laughing and little comments like ‘oooo, look at the Beast!’, ‘Belle is so pretty’ and ‘I just love this song’.

At one point in the show, I took a moment to look at my friends on my left and then my husband on my right, and all of them had smiles on their faces and an intent happiness in their eye. How can one musical, one show, one experience evoke so much emotion and reach an audience of young and old? It’s the magic of the theater!

Once the show was over it was a popcorn conversation between us about our favorite scene, song, dance and just about everything. As I was soaking everything in, an overwhelming feeling came over me. I can now share this love with my son! Obviously, I’m not going to take him to the paramount theater at 6 months old, but I can take him to Benaroya Hall for the symphony concert that Studio3 puts on. I can play music around the house and as he gets older introduce him to musicals, plays and art.  And, when he does come of age, I WILL be taking him to see a musical in the theater so that he can experience how a musical comes alive on the stage and not just the TV screen. : )

When we finally got home we learned that Miles had not taken his bottle and it had been a rough night for him. But, he didn’t starve, and my mom had a wonderful time with him. Even though things hadn’t gone ideally at home, the night couldn’t have gone any better. The memory of it all will stick with me for some time and I look forward to my next time at the theater. But, even more than seeing a musical myself, I cannot wait to introduce Miles to the art of the theater!

-posted by Miss Anna, who will jump at every chance she can get to attend a show!

At our Christmas concert in December we sang the “Hallelujah Chorus”.  I’ve always loved the Hallelujah Chorus.  The best part of my Birthday this year was getting up at 5:30 am to make it to Choir rehearsal with the high-school students who joined us at the concert.  I sang the “Hallelujah Chorus” three times before 7:30 am… oh, bliss….

And in January we focused a whole show on Mozart.  There are scads of Mozart pieces on my Happy List.  I love Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, I love the Piano Sonata in C Major, I love the Haffner Symphony and the Piano Concerto No. 22, and there are so many things on my LOVE IT Mozart list that I can’t even remember the names of some of them.

On March 17th, at our Symphony Serenade concert, we will be putting the spotlight on another one of my favorite pieces of music (and one that is definitely on my Happy List), Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony.

I love the playful nature of this piece, and I can’t ever quite get the vision of Fantasia’s capering cupids, centaurs and Pegasus out of my mind when I hear it.  I did manage to quash them down low enough to write a story without any fantastical mythical creatures. However, it does have animals, and they do talk, so perhaps I haven’t escaped the fantastical after all.

You’ll also be hearing part of the Overture for William Tell (yes, the famous part), the theme from the Lone Ranger.  There is nothing quite like hearing that brass fanfare and watching the faces of the children light up as they realize something wonderful is coming.  That fanfare creates a sense of excitement; it stirs something deep within us.  It literally screams, “Heroic deeds are heading your way!”

Introducing classical music to your child is fun, and not as hard we seem to think…. It can be daunting to search for a piece of music: the names are odd, technical descriptions that read like food labels for items produced entirely from polysyllabic ingredients that never existed in nature, and most of the composers have names that are hard to spell, too.

But coming to a Symphony Serenade concert is a way to find music that your child can connect with, and sing along with.  And if you’d like to know the name of a piece of music we’ve focused on or the name of the composer you can always send us an email, we’d love to pass that information on to you (it’s not like we announce them during the show).  And we’d love to give you few pointers for looking farther afield in the classical world, too. If you like X you just might like Y.

And yes, my kids did listen to classical music when they were little. And they liked it.   They were moved to play a game of monster search through and behind the furniture in my family room when the radio station we listened to in Denver played the Sinfonia Antartica, and everyday at noon all the kids came running from where ever they were in the house to hear Mozart’s Impresario ring in Mid Day Mozart on that same radio station.

I think it’s what has saved Nathaniel from the horrors of the really depressing music his peers listen to, because I know I gave him a musical heritage that is deep and wide, long and curvy with twists and turns and pockets of a little bit of everything. (Except smooth jazz.  I have saved him from that. And jazz fusion, too!)

So come see us on March 17^th.  They’ve just released few tickets for the 9:30 show. The 10:30 is sold out on the website, but you can call the box office at 206.215.4747 and plead.  And when you come, you’ll find out what you might miss if you sleep too late when the Rooster loses his ear shattering COCK-A-DOODLE DOO!

-posted by Miss Allison, who stayed up late last night with the prop making crew sewing costumes for sheep, cows, horses, ducks and a rooster, and creating a giant tree!

The researchers gathered two groups of college students, gave them all an assignment to do, and put them in two separate rooms.  In one room they played Bach and Dvorak – both classical composers.  In the other room, they played hardcore techno rock.  (I really don’t know what that means, but it does sound really awful.)  When the music/homework time was over, a group of professors went into each room and harshly critiqued the students’ work.

Can't you just hear the irritating music?

Now the study got interesting.  The students in the techno room and the students in the classical room reacted differently to the criticism.  The techno students were much more likely to get angry than the classical students.  Listening to the techno music increased their levels of aggression, and decreased their happiness levels.  I’m sure the students who listened to the classical music weren’t happy about having their work reviewed so harshly, but they didn’t respond the same way as the other students.

I recently had a similar experience.  Last summer, we took our teenage sons and two friends to the amusement park in Idaho.  It’s a six hour drive, so we took turns choosing the music we would listen to.  Nathaniel, my 15-year-old son, got the first pick.  He chose Led Zepplin.  I was playing Tetris, and after the first song my game started to fall apart.

After the third song, I couldn’t stack the square pieces on top of each other, let alone make the zig-zags, and the Ls, and that other shape go together properly.  It was really irritating.  I usually play a nice clean and tidy game of Tetris.  I can “fix” a tower with multiple holes and get my stack back to solid square.  I very seldom ever clear a single line – the game is Tetris, right?  So I clear four lines at a time.

This was the worst game if Tetris I had played in years.  And I was really irritated about it.  We stopped for gas and I snapped at all four boys to clean up their snack mess, and not to wander off, and to be polite in the gas station.  They stared at me, kinda shocked. I like these kids, all of them, and seldom snap at them, even when they track filthy mud in the house, and leave their backpacks in front of the door and I can’t even get in the house. (I do make them clean it up, but with a smile and a joke.)

Gotta be Brahms or the Beatles.

By the time all eleven songs in the playlist were done my shoulders were hunched up and my skin hurt, it was crawling all over the place trying to get out of the car and then, thankfully it was my turn to pick the music.  We listened to Brahms, and I apologized for being snappy less than halfway through the first song. It was an instant fix for me.

As a footnote, Nathaniel does listen to some dreadful music, and he likes it really loud.  But recently I’ve noticed that he plays the really awful music for a little while, and then it gets swapped for Glad and the Nylons and Straight No- Chaser and the soundtrack to Glee and some wacky song sung by a Russian Bass who only says OOOO…. And I hear the Beatles and the Monkees, and I hear hope… hope that Led Zeppelin may be on the train heading out of the front door of my house, along with the other stuff that makes me cranky, so cranky I don’t even want to know their names.

-posted by Miss Allison, who wants you to head over to Facebook right now to continue the conversation by telling her what music totally drives you up a wall, makes you completely cranky and irritated, and what music  soothes your soul.

I heard an interesting program on the radio as I drove to work one morning this week about music and how it affects your mood.  I’ve always known that I was somewhat sensitive to the emotional impact of music, and that if I was in a gloomy mood I did not need to listen to Samuel Barbers’ Adagio for Strings (as lovely as it is). It is breathtakingly lovely; I can barely listen to it when I’m over the moon happy.  It exudes sadness from it’s every sound wave; it actually physically hurts me to listen to it.   So listening to it while already gloomy would be excruciating.

Music can intensify a mood for me. Listening to Copland’s Appalachian Spring while already in a happy mood will make me joyful, as will Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  Listening to Bach when I need to be productive will increase my ability to produce an organized closet or kitchen cabinet, or a well made bed. (I hate to make up the beds.)

These effects go beyond the classical world. I will enjoy mindless cleaning, like dusting and vacuuming and shelving books and bathroom scrubbing more if I have some mindless 1980’s new wave, a little Talking Heads, or the B-52’s, maybe some Paul Simon or Madonna.  The house gets cleaned faster and I feel less grumpy about it.

But if Michael gets to the stereo before I do and Alanis Morriset pours out her broken and angry heart as I dust and vacuum, I will be cranky.  I like her music, I do, but it’s not good for an activity that tends to make me less than happy anyway.

And Harry Connick Jr. gets my vote for the perfect music for making dinner or baking anything.  (Funny enough, Michael is cleaning the kitchen as I write this, singing “Love Shack”  GO B-52’s!)

-posted by Miss Allison, who says “Okay. Back to that interesting radio program tomorrow. But first, click over to Facebook and tell me what music you choose to listen to and for what task? (Cleaning, working out, focusing, etc.) See you there!”

Do you know someone who would love and benefit from Kindermusik, but does not have the financial resources to pay for a class?

Every year we set aside a portion of our class enrollments for scholarships for children that would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience Kindermusik.

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway), that we believe that music is the most powerful tool you can give your child now for future success in school, work and life, and that everyone deserves access to a Kindermusik class. Not only for the sake of your children, but for the wonderful benefits for the grownups!

Our 2012 Scholarship application can be found HERE.

If you know a family that has a financial need and would like to participate in Kindermusik, please share this post with them. Or, like this post and it will show on your wall. You never know who it will reach that you might not otherwise have thought of.

Thanks so much for your help.

-posted on behalf of Miss Analiisa, Miss Allison and Miss Beth, who are full of the blessings they’ve received over the years from our Studio3Music families.