Music Is Spiritual and Mental Food

It is said that the state of mankind improves through music; music not only trains but educates individuals and makes them fit for a life of community. Music is spiritual and mental food, an edifying and educational power. In comparison with sports (the motion of bodies), music (the motion of sounds) belongs to a higher sphere. In extreme cases, one encounters the tenet that music actually elevates man into a higher realm, transforming him into a new form of the human species.

~ Albrecht Riethmüller, “Music Beyond Ethics,” Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, p. 170, Volume 65, Issue 3, 2008.

Music Training In Children Leads To Gains In Auditory Function

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.

Music Lessons Improved Memory

Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training.

~ Arete Music Academy. “Statistical benefits of music in education.” Arete Music Academy. Accessed July 17, 2014

My Top Three Christmas Albums with Trombones

With the holiday season upon us, I’d like to give you some listening suggestions for some incredible Christmas music that heavily features trombones.

Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite

On this timeless classic, Duke Ellington took favorites from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet and adapted them for jazz orchestra. This is album is one of the all-time great jazz records that shows Ellington’s genius in transforming music that we’ve all heard time and time again into something both familiar and completely unique.

Practicing Over Winter Break

We like to share this post each year to give you some ideas for practicing at home over break!

You’ve made it through the first half of the school year! For many of you, that means you’ve probably played a few concerts, recently completed your marching band season, or maybe you’re headed to the Rose Parade. With winter comes the thrill of pep band, the improvisation of jazz band, the spinning of winter guard, or the rhythms of winter percussion. You know by now, being a musician is a never-ending process with performances and rehearsals perpetually around the corner.

Musical Mastery Helps Language Processing

Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to a greater understanding of language components.

~ Trei, Lisa. “Musical training helps language processing, studies show.” Stanford News. Accessed February 24, 2015

Mouthpieces and how to choose, “Unpopular Opinion Edition”

Raise your hand if you’ve had a band teacher or private instructor tell you that you needed to go from your 7C to a 5C, then to a 3C, then to a 1-1/2C and so on and so forth. Ok, now that we’ve all put our hands up, let’s get down to my unpopular opinion: There is no set progression for mouthpieces. They are not like shoes where you start with a size 5 and eventually get up to a size 12.

As discussed earlier on October 3rd, 2019; we talked about some factors that help us choose mouthpieces. Today we will briefly discuss a couple of those and other things to think about when testing mouthpieces.

Contest Season Starts Next Month – Is Your Instrument Ready?

 

It’s not too late, but time is running out. Contest Season is almost here!

January through April is a really busy time of year for school music students. Many of the annual contests and festivals happen during this time of the year. These include:

  • Solo & Ensemble Contest
  • Jazz Band Festival
  • Junior/Middle School Organizational Festivals
  • High School Organizational Festivals

Your performance level and the success of your organization depend on a properly playing instrument. If your instrument has not been looked over by a technician in the last 6 months you may be overdue.

Send your instrument in for proper maintenance to help avoid small problems from turning into something larger at an inappropriate time. It could help you get to the next level during the upcoming contest season.

If you’d like to send your instrument in for us to check, we have a step-by-step guide on how to do that right here.

As always, please give us a call if you have any questions.

1-800-382-1099