More benefits of music for children include learning cooperation, sharing, compromise, creativity, and concentration – skills that become invaluable as they enter school, face new challenges, and begin to form new friendships and develop social skills.
These past couple weekends have been going full tilt with ISSMA Solo & Ensemble events. You’ve all worked hard on your solos. The ensembles large, small, and mixed have all been rehearsed. During this long period of preparation from November until now, you have probably heard many thoughts about your solo from your band/orchestra/choir director, friends, or private teachers. How do we take the things they have said and apply it? Is there really anyone out there that can read judge’s handwriting on those ISSMA sheets? What if your judge accidentally compliments your Baroque style when you are CLEARLY playing a classical era piece? There are ways to take all the comments you receive and organize them into your plan of attack when going to state.
1. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
“Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”
It’s easy to get distracted. I’ve been distracted by outside noise in writing this sentence. Everything seems designed to distract us. That’s what the entire discipline of marketing is for–to distract the potential user or customer. Google and Facebook are companies that literally pay engineers, psychologists, and etc. to find new ways of grabbing and making use of your attention. Other things do it too–our desire for attention, affection, recognition, and so on and so on ad infinitum.
The War of Art is antidote to that. If we want to succeed in the arts, in business, in life, we must control the resistance that surrounds us. This resistance is “any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, and integrity.”
We can choose to put our higher nature (art, creativity, health, etc.) first and make it truly great, or we can give in to our lower nature (everything else). The choice is yours.
Researchers found that after two years, children who not only regularly attended music classes, but also actively participated in the class, showed larger improvements in how the brain processes speech and reading scores than their less-involved peers.
Paige’s Music has 2 immediate openings in our repair shop. More specifics can be found below, and by following the link to the official job posting:
We’re adding a Woodwind/Brass Repair Technician to our growing repair team! We are hiring a new prep position to help maintain our student rental stock. This is a perfect fit for a recent repair school graduate and a great learning opportunity to work alongside our large, experienced staff, with potential for future growth and additional responsibilities.
Learn more about this position: https://www.paigesmusic.com/paiges/run?id=6&_jlid=7036&lvid=557
We are looking to fill a part-time position providing administrative support to the repair department office. The position would average 20-25 hours per week, 3-4 weekdays plus Saturdays, and has potential for full-time hours. Responsibilities would include customer service, data entry, and other general administrative duties.
Learn more about this position: https://www.paigesmusic.com/paiges/run?id=6&_jlid=7030&lvid=557
For more information, please contact Scott Kinnard at 317-842-2102 or by email at skinnard@paigesmusic.com.
Three in five Americans (61%) said music education provided a disciplined problem solving approach and 59% said it prepared people to manage tasks more successfully.
One thing I love about music that is performed by orchestral or concert band musicians is that we get many different interpretations and sounds from them. There are so many different recordings that are great and while people usually have a favorite recording, it’s not quite the same as popular music where Stairway to Heaven is usually best done by Led Zeppelin or wanting to hear Lizzo perform her own material. This week I wanted to share some “classical” music, and the recordings that I personally enjoy and even strive to emulate.
Eight in 10 teachers and more than seven in 10 parents believe the number of minutes of music education required every week is an important quality component.