Students Work Harder To Music

Monday, April 11, 2016 No Comments
A study of healthy male college students found that, while riding stationary bicycles, the participants worked harder while listening to fast music. Extra bonus: They also enjoyed the music more.
~ Scott Christ, “20 surprising, science-backed health benefits of music,” USA Today, December 17, 2013.

Music Can Meaningfully Reduce Pain

Friday, April 8, 2016 No Comments
Music can meaningfully reduce the perceived intensity of pain, especially in geriatric care, intensive care, or palliative medicine (an area of healthcare that focuses on preventing and relieving the suffering of patients).
~ Scott Christ, “20 surprising, science-backed health benefits of music,” USA Today, December 17, 2013.

Music Has Positive Effect On Blood Vessel Function

Thursday, April 7, 2016 No Comments
Scientists have found that the emotions patients experience while listening to music have a healthy effect on blood vessel function. Music both made study participants feel happier and resulted in increased blood flow in their blood vessels.
~ Scott Christ, “20 surprising, science-backed health benefits of music,” USA Today, December 17, 2013.

Repair Craft – Always Learning

Tuesday, April 5, 2016 No Comments

Our craft. How do we learn?

napbirtAround this time every year there is an international convention of repair Technicians that gathers together to discuss instrument repair. There are usually over 200 technicians in attendance from all over the world. This year we will be sending three of our own technicians.

It is called the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Technicians or NAPBIRT.

Instrument manufacturers will be there showing off their new designs. Tool manufactures and suppliers will be there showing their latest and greatest wares. There will be about 20 different training sessions on various repair techniques. All being taught by fellow repair technicians.

In addition to this convention there are several mini-sessions throughout the year for specialized training that we also sometimes attend.

We regularly send our Technicians to these events in order to keep them at the top of our craft so that we can better serve you, the customer.

Always Learning!

Music Has Postive Effects On Emotions And Creativity

Tuesday, April 5, 2016 No Comments
“Music has positive affects on people’s emotions and creativity. When we sing together, we synchronize our breathing and feel more connected. Music is also an effective, almost magical medium for learning and retaining information, [because] it activates three different centers of the brain at the same time: language, hearing, and rhythmic motor control. By inducing emotions, it also creates a heightened condition of awareness and mental acuity. Words paired with music are far easier to retain. As an example, most of us can remember the words and meanings of songs we haven’t heard for years. Isn’t it interesting how you still remember your ABCs?”
~ Don McMannis quoted in, “Use Music to developm kids’ skill and character,” Edutopia, March 19, 2009.

Arts Teach Teamwork

Monday, April 4, 2016 No Comments
“When a child has a part to play in a music ensemble, or a theater or dance production, they begin to understand that their contribution is necessary for the success of the group. Through these experiences children gain confidence and start to learn that their contributions have value even if they don’t have the biggest role.”
~ Lisa Phillips, “The artistic edge: 7 skills children need to succeed in an increasingly right brain world,” ARTSblog, Americans for the Arts, 2013.

Creative People Are Needed

Friday, April 1, 2016 No Comments
“We need people who think with the creative side of their brains—people who have played in a band, who have painted…it enhances symbiotic thinking capabilities, not always thinking in the same paradigm, learning how to kick-start a new idea, or how to get a job done better, less expensively.”
~ Annette Byrd, GlaxoSmithKline

Music Training Leads To Greater Gains In Auditory And Motor Function

Thursday, March 31, 2016 No Comments
Music training leads to greater gains in auditory and motor function when begun in young childhood; by adolescence, the plasticity that characterizes childhood has begun to decline. Nevertheless, our results establish that music training impacts the auditory system even when it is begun in adolescence, suggesting that a modest amount of training begun later in life can affect neural function.
~ Adam T. Tierney, Jennifer Krizman, Nina Kraus, “Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015.