Cash strapped schools make a mistake to cut music

And cash strapped families too....private lessons and classes like Kindermusik can mean the difference between a so-so musician and a musician that can really play and use their ears on a more advanced level....And can make the difference between a so-so reader and a reader who enjoys a higher academic success!

More and more research shows how music is a powerful tool for helping children reach their potential....(when I grow up I will be a neuroscientist so that I can understand all this....)

Well, someday........

But reading online about what researchers are saying happens in the brain when musicians use their ears helped me to focus the 3 1/2 year olds in our Imagine That! class this week as we are listening to layers of sound (water making waves, the bell bouy, the sea lions, and the work boat horn) and then listening to the music with the singer (the words to the song, the drum beating, the rattling percussion, the man's voice, etc) listening to many layers at once.......

"Playing an instrument may help youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice," says Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Communication Sciences at Northwestern University.....

Studies in Kraus' laboratory indicate that music -- a high-order cognitive process -- affects automatic processing that occurs early in the processing stream. "The brainstem, an evolutionarily ancient part of the brain, is modified by our experience with sound," says Kraus. "Now we know that music can fundamentally shape our subcortical sensory circuitry in ways that may enhance everyday tasks, including reading and listening in noise."

Read it all here.
And if you'd like to hear one of Nina Kraus' lecture click here (it's very interesting!)

Music and Language and Emotions and the Brain

The other day I had a chance to sit for a while when things were quiet and listen to this radio program from WYNC's Radio Lab. It was a very interesting and even entertaining program. I really do want to know more about how the ear "hears"...how our brains get the message!

Really it was so fascinating that I listened twice to the segments about how babies are attuned to pitches as infants and how in societies with tonal languages (languages like Mandarin Chinese) it is more likely a child will grow up with perfect pitch compared to a language (like English) which is not tone specific. (Many many great composers had perfect pitch.) But that we do teach babies certain vocal inflections as part of communication and some of that is common around the world.

Also I enjoyed the segment about Stravinsky's Rite of Spring which some call the most important music written in the last century. I followed up the radio program by listening to my daughter's orchestra at the Conservatory at Lawrence University as they played a fantastic concert of mostly Stravinsky pieces!
A great evening!

(This picture is actually from the November concert with the LSO choirs. Also a really great concert.)

I play loud sounds on my drum!

Brady plays LOUD sounds on the snare drum. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
There's a pattern here...and that's related to math.

We explore the snares. You can make quiet sounds by touching the snares.

Pulling down the "ears" of the big marching drum. This drum is a revolutionary war replica. I used to have a fife and drum corps when I lived in Maryland...way back when....



LOUD SOUNDS BOOM!
Quiet sounds tap.

Carnival of the Animals - Aviary

We listened today with my Kindermusik Young Child 1 class to the Aviary from Camile Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. I mentioned that when you are listening with intent to this piece you might hear the flute and maybe the piano at first. When we listened again we heard more and more layers of sound. This complex listening gets kids ready for paying attention at school and for being extra observant to auditory input.

So here you can listen again and see for yourself! Do you hear the pizzicato cellos? And do you hear the wispy sound of the violins? I mentioned that there were 2 pianos and of course the star of the Aviary is the flute! (My favorite!)

the Aviary by Camile Saint-Saens

We listened today with my Kindermusik Young Child 1 class to the Aviary from Camile Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. I mentioned that when you are listening with intent to this piece you might hear the flute and maybe the piano at first. When we listened again we heard more and more layers of sound. This complex listening gets kids ready for paying attention at school and for being extra observant to auditory input.

So here you can listen again and see for yourself! Do you hear the pizzicato cellos? And do you hear the wispy sound of the violins? I mentioned that there were 2 pianos and of course the star of the Aviary is the flute! (My favorite!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFFt_kFq_eQ

Conscious listening.

Every Kindermusik day I help children and adults with conscious listening skills. Today in our Village class (newborn to 18months) we modeled wonder and attentiveness when listening to something specific. Our faces held wonder and our bodies were still as we listened. The babies right away were curious! They "froze" wide-eyed. After hearing the recording of the squirrel, bee, and owl we then mimicked the sounds vocally. If we continue to do this then the children will imitate us both with acute listening skills and with vocal play. It's a big job to help our brains to know exactly what to listen to and what to filter out......listen to this informative (5 minute) talk about listening:

Children's music concert--FREE!

Do families already know about this???? It sounds fabulous! I hope to make it to the first and the third event.

When we were growing up, by some stroke of luck, our family attended many concerts. Some were concerts where siblings were performing but many were recitals, ensembles from the local college, or when the symphony traveled to our region...I think it's very important to take children to as many live concerts as you can manage. Live music has special qualities that affect our well being! Concerts like these that are free are wonderful because if you have to drift out with an especially wiggly one--it's OK! After the concert talk about what you heard, what you liked, what was amazing....It doesn't take too long before you have children who are attentive and critical listeners. And they start to apply these skills to their musical endeavors and also to their listening skills for school and everywhere else!

Keowee for Kids!
Festival 2009

Friday, May 29, 3:30 and 5 pm • flute & guitar
Lord Auditorium, Pack Library, Downtown Asheville

Saturday, June 6, Noon and 2 pm • flute, guitar & cello
The Hop, 640 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville

Friday, June 19, 1 and 2 pm • flute, viola & harp
First United Methodist Church, Waynesville

KEOWEE for KIDS! are mini-concerts which introduce young listeners, ages 5-12, to chamber music and instruments through story and sound. The programs are designed to help children explore creativity through active participation in the musical experience.

Free Admission • Thanks to the generous support of Dr. Dennis R. Campbell, DDS, Pediatric Dentistry of Asheville and The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation

Ready for school:

Camilla counts the ringing steeple bell.

Have you noticed when children first know how to count to ten (oh, we are so proud!) they know really only the poetry of
one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten!

You can tell this for sure if they point to their fingers while counting and assign 2 or more numbers per finger and skip some fingers to land on the last finger with the right number. They are missing the one-to-one ratio. So we are practicing just that right now by putting up one finger every time we sing the word EAT: I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas!

And how about counting with our ears? With this we are refining our listening skills. Listening is different from hearing--we hear it all and choose what to really listen to. So this week we count things we can hear like microwave beeps, telephone rings, footsteps....what will you listen to?

In music we are always counting. Eventually these young musicians will count with their ears and by feeling the patters of beats. I think this is a very special skill. We are not saying 1,2,3,4 for every measure of a concerto! (some tough measures, yes....) Someday do you think the researchers will recognize that sensing the beats and the numbers is what develops our brains in special intelligent ways? I have a hunch!

Scultptures! 1,2,3, CLICK!!!!

Here I am with one of my favorite statues! I am adding myself into the statue!
















Here's Dylan's statue of a horse. It is made of pinecones, pine needles for a mane and very carefully cut sticks for legs. Two of the legs are off the floor like the horse is prancing. The horse in our "Cities" poster has one leg off the ground. Here is Dylan posing next to his statue.









This is Will's statue of snakes and a lovely butterfly.














Here's Will posing as a sssssnake!!!
















Now here the guys are posing as cool modern art statues.
































Camilla, We'll get yours on today!

These fun games we play encourage creativity and also the important school readiness skill of "inhibitory control" which is education jargon for being able to follow directions to stop on cue (maturing their ability to control their body!) But all that aside, we're having fun and that's tops!

Listen With Your Whole Body

I hope you enjoy listening to this artist: Evelyn Glennie. She talks about listening with open ears and an open mind. Indeed, listening with your whole body!

I also really enjoyed that she shows an exploration of the drum like we do in our Village class this week....exploring freely, no wrong answers. That's how children explore. And the feeling of absolutely no wrong answers, freedom to take risks, freedom to make hypothesis and to prove and disprove them...This is what opens the doors to a child's creativity--the freedom!

I have learned so many new ways to play music from children's exploration of instruments and music making in our classes.

So click on Evelyn Glennie and open yourself to listening as a whole body experience.
Enjoy,
Yvette