Don’t Forget to Take Your Vitamins!

We all need nutrients to live. We need protein, carbohydrates and fats to make energy. But without vitamins and minerals, our body cannot use that energy properly. To grow healthy, the role of vitamins and minerals is especially important for teenagers. In the education system, I think music is the vitamins and minerals for children.

When you meet a physically and mentally healthy people, do you wonder what they eat for daily nutrients to keep their health?  You may not. However, when you meet successful people in their professional fields, you may wonder what made them as they are now. Did their parents have visions for their child’s future? Did the children have wonderful mentors in their lives? Sometimes I have seen talk shows where famous people talked about their youth. If they are famous, loved and admired by public, I used to wonder about the secrets of their success.  I found that many of those successful people share a musical background.

Many renowned scientists, doctors, Nobel Prize laureates play at least one instrument well. I admire Dr. Schweitzer, a German medical doctor, who opened a hospital with his own money in Gabon, west central Africa, in 1913. He also was a philosopher and an organist. Hence, when he was out of medicines, went back to Europe, gave organ recitals to raise funds, bought medicines and then returned to Africa to make his dream come true. I was twelve years old when I read his biography and thought his life style was so fantastic. Now I am a mother of three children, and I wonder if it was possible to take music away from Dr. Schweitzer’s life, would he have been the same person?

You can find many famous people, in different professions, who were in the school bands or can play instruments in the following websites:

http://mukwonagobands.blogspot.com/2009/06/break-your-band-geek-stereotypes.html

http://musiced.about.com/od/famousmusicians1/a/famouspeople3.htm

If you remind your kids to take vitamins every day for their bodies, care for their intellectual vitamins, too. Add music to enrich their lives!

Do you want to share your thoughts?  Please leave your comments.

Muscle Memory-2

The progress is slow, but there is itsy bitsy improvement every day. After about two weeks of struggling, I realized that everything depends on the muscle memory! Just like athletes practice to be perfect on their performances, playing instruments needs muscle memory, too. When I make really nice sounds, I tried to remember what I did with my lips. When I succeeded on holding a long sound nicely, I tried to remember what I did with my tummy. Of course, the coordination of eyes and fingers are, hopefully, engraved and stored right into my brain.
Muscle memories cannot be accomplished in a day or two. Why do athletes practice every day and what makes them continue the hard training? Think about high school football players. They have common goals as a team and there is a coach to lead them and help them to keep going until they accomplish their goals. If you are in a school band, there is a director to coach you to accomplish the goal. The goal is to play the instruments and make beautiful harmony together.
I should join the community band to play in the near future and enjoy playing as a team member.
I found a resourceful article, A Parent's Guide to Music Lessons by Catherine Schmidt-Jones from CONNEXIONS website. The parents can get information about “when and how to introduce their children to music” at:
http://cnx.org/content/m11640/latest/

Any comment?

Muscle Memory-1

Have you ever seen a very young child played piano or violin? Children can start learning to play these instruments at a very young age. There are small sized violins or cellos for young children. Sound wise, the piano or the key board will not disappoint anyone. That is why we can see very young prodigies of piano, violin or cello.
How about wind instruments and brass instruments? Is there any small flute or trumpet for a four-year-old can play? There aren’t any. The young child isn’t strong enough to handle these instruments. Also, their muscles haven’t matured enough to blow the instruments and to hold breaths to make sounds.
Recently I started learning to play a French horn. I have to learn how to play from scratch. I love to learn new things in the beginning of the second act of my life. I heard that if you do something ten minutes every day, you will be an expert in ten years. So, why shouldn’t I learn to play the French horn? It is really hard to blow and make enjoyable sounds, for the muscles around my mouth do not like to be trained. It has been a long time since the area around my tummy has replaced muscle with fat. It is hard to remember which fingers are related to which notes…

Check tomorrow’s posting to find out my progress.

Quality of Life

Let’s look back at our past. Some people had chances to learn how to play instruments when they were young. If parents chose one string instrument for their child, violin or cello, the lesson might be started as young as 3 years old. If a child was an ordinary student, he/she must have a long and lonesome journey of learning how to play well. Sometimes parents switched the instrument from piano to violin or vice versa, because there was not much progress. Parents had to manage all the schedules for lessons and practice sessions for their child, often with frustration. Why did they do that? Maybe parents thought that their child would thank them if he/she could enjoy playing an instrument as an adult. Maybe parents wanted to watch with pride as their child played beautiful music. But, it requires time and patience from parents and children. Money matters, too. However, one thing is certain. Parents loved music. They wanted to do something to help their child learn and enjoy music more than they did. Didn’t they?
The school band program amazed me when I moved to America a decade ago. Middle school students are not babies anymore. Once they choose the band program as their elective, they feel that they are responsible. In their classroom, they learn how to play their instruments, how to read music, and what to practice at home. You don’t have to take them to private lessons unless they want to learn more than they do in the class. They learn, practice and then play many selections in front of an audience at the end of the school year.
Take advantage of it, parents! Why not let your child try for a semester? If your state or county has the school band education in middle school curriculum, meet the director of the band before your child starts middle school. Help your children find joy in music, let them have better quality of life.

What are your thoughts?
Please, feel free to leave comments, experiences, and ideas about American school band.

I Love Music

I enjoy listening to other people play and I wish I could play just one instrument well.

My husband and I raised three children. Each child had music education for several years during his/her school years.  They are all grownups and now I can see the influence of music education in their lives.

The impact was huge. Even though all of my children majored in studies other than music, music has played a big role in composing their personalities. It has affected them making decisions in many areas in their lives.

Music is special.   No matter what kind of environment a child has, growing with or without music would lead the child to different paths.   If I was asked what made education in America distinct from other countries I am familiar with, I would say music education, especially the school band program.

Yes, I am a fan of school band. With three years of experience in middle school band, children can achieve an important life lesson, delayed gratification.  They will learn that practice makes perfection and tenacity leads them to satisfaction, physically and mentally.  They will also learn how important their responsibilities are to the band in order to make music happen. They will experience how their noisy- at -the -start efforts transform into beautiful music in less than a year.

At the end of the school year, you will be invited to their concert. There, you will see, hear and feel what they have accomplished in their band during the year.  You will be amazed at how wonderful the opportunity is that you gave to your children.

I want this Schoolbandmom blog to be the spark to many parents to decide to give their children an opportunity to participate in school band education. I will post my journals from experience as well as information about band education, band instruments, and schedules of different programs that relate to band education through the school year. I wish this to be the place that parents can share the experience, students can get information, and directors can offer advice about participating in this amazing program, school band.

Share your thoughts!

Please, feel free to leave comments, experiences, and ideas about American school band.