The End of An Era

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 No Comments

As we start a new year we want to begin by recognizing the ending of an era in the ongoing story of the Paige’s Music Repair Shop. As 2019 came to a close, our long time Repair Shop Director, Tim Roethler, retired after 42 years of service. Tim built and led our repair department since May of 1977. His leadership of over 4 decades was instrumental in building what we believe to be one of the premier repair facilities in the nation. He will be sorely missed and we can’t thank him enough for all that he’s done in the past and how well he has us setup for the future. Well done, Tim!

Below is one of “Staff Spotlights” with Tim. Take a few minutes to learn how he got the repair shop started and how it’s grown over the years.

Teens See Music As A Bridge To Building Acceptance

Monday, January 13, 2020 No Comments

Teens see music as their “social glue” and as a bridge for building acceptance and tolerance for people of different ages and cultural backgrounds.

~ Presentation to U.S. Congress, 2007, Washington D.C. (Invited and arranged by the National Association of Music Merchants/NAMM, on “The Impact of Music on the Lives of Children and Adolescents”).

Mute Madness!

Thursday, January 9, 2020 No Comments

Happy Thursday, everyone. Today’s topic is one of my favorite to talk about: Mutes. As stated by Philip Smith, former principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic 1978-2014, “A trumpet player can never have enough mutes of varying types, shapes, sizes, and materials”. With that being said, as trumpet players (and other brass players who may be reading) we are often asked to use a device called a mute while playing certain music. This does not always mean making our sound softer per se, but changing our timbre. Today we’ll talk about the most common mute we are asked to use: the straight mute.

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The Practice Room Attention Diet

Tuesday, January 7, 2020 No Comments

In the time it took me to write this post, I checked my phone for messages four times, checked three separate email accounts, looked at two news sites, browsed a few restaurant menus and opened and closed who-knows-how-many search tabs. In short, I spent a lot of time “writing” that wasn’t actually writing. The same thing happens in the practice room.

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Music Is Spiritual and Mental Food

Monday, January 6, 2020 No Comments

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

Monday, December 30, 2019 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.

Music Lessons Improved Memory

Monday, December 23, 2019 No Comments

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

Thursday, December 19, 2019 No Comments

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.

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