Playing to Learn ~ What an Idea!

I have written several posts about the importance of play and fun in order for young children to learn.  Now a New York Times article extends this idea to elementary school.  If we really want grade-school children to be ready for high school and beyond, this article says that we need to completely overhaul the way we teach them.  Click the link above to read the entire article.  I have listed a few excerpts here:

In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. For example, saying the alphabet does not particularly help children learn to read. But having extended and complex conversations during toddlerhood does. Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.

Here is the quote I found most interesting:

During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions.

A classroom like this would provide lots of time for children to learn to collaborate with one another, a skill easily as important as math or reading. It takes time and guidance to learn how to get along, to listen to one another and to cooperate. These skills cannot be picked up casually at the corners of the day.

Imagine if our leaders had the courage to make these sweeping changes.  What might the world look like in 20 years?

A Happiness Machine?

I wish there had been a machine like this on my college campus!  Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind having it in my house!

Thanks to Helen Peterson for sharing this.  Have a great week!

Group Music Activities and Your Toddler

Some of you who have read this blog may wonder, “Why should I take my  infant or 1-year-old to a music class?  What can they really get out of it?”  A recent study, published in the journal Music Therapy Perspectives, attempted to answer that question.

The study was conducted at Florida State University with a group of toddlers aged 12 to 24 months.  The experimental group attended between 4 and 7 music classes on a bi-weekly basis.  These toddlers were then evaluated on a series of skills (music, cognitive, social, and motor skills) and compared to a control group.  Here is a quote:

Results showed that participation in four to seven music sessions significantly increased higher level developmental skills.  Significantly more children in the music group demonstrated higher level music and cognitive skills than did those in the control group.

And here is another:

This pilot study seems to suggest that structured group music activities…provide a model for successful early intervention with music in the second year of life.

The evidence has been mounting for years that music benefits all areas of the brain.  This is the first study I’ve seen that speaks directly to the benefits of structured group music activities.  I certainly hope that the recommendation of pursuing a longer study is adopted.  I would love to see the results!

Please feel free to contact me if you would like the full text of the study.  Have a great week!

It’s Not Too Late to Spring Into 2010!

The Spring session of Kindermusik with Julie’s Music Brioso begins soon. It’s not too late to enroll or schedule a free preview class.  Here are the classes that have space available:

Family Time (ages 6 and under)

• The Saturday 9:30 a.m. class has 6 openings.
• I have just formed a Friday 11:00 a.m. class.  Contact me if you are interested!

Village classes (ages newborn to 18 months)

• The Wednesday 6:00 p.m. has been canceled.
• The Thursday 9:00 a.m. class has 4 openings.

Sign & Sing classes (ages 6 months to 2 years)

• I will hold this class if there is enough interest.  Contact me if you are interested, and let me know the days and times that work for you.

Our Time classes (ages 18 months to 3 1/2 years)

• The Wednesday 9:30 a.m. has 1 opening.
• Due to popular demand, I have just opened a Wednesday 10:30 a.m. class! There are currently 4 openings.
• The Thursday 10:00 a.m. class is full.
• The Thursday 5:45 p.m. class has 4 openings.
• The Friday 9:30 a.m. has been canceled.

Imagine That (ages 3 1/2 through 5 years)

• The Saturday 10:30 a.m. class has 4 openings.

ABC Music & Me (ages 5 and 6 in Grades K-1)

• The Saturday 11:30 a.m. class has 4 openings.

Make the best decision for your child today by enrolling in Kindermusik. Visit Julie’s website for more information.  I’ll look foward to seeing you in class!

Announcing…Kindermusik’s digital music site!

Kindermusik International has just created a new e-music site:  play.kindermusik.com.  There you can preview, purchase, and download Kindermusik songs and albums.  There are also fun activities to do at home and musical e-cards (some with animation).

Best of all, families who enroll in Kindermusik classes will be able to download music from class, so they can take it wherever they go!

Register now and receive 3 download credits! Just go to play.kindermusik.com today!

Christmas Can-Can? Yes!!

You may remember that I posted a video by an a cappella group called Straight No Chaser 2 years ago.  They sang an amazing version of “12 Days of Christmas” and it is by far my most popular post to date.  (You can view it here for old times’ sake.)  Millions of people saw this same video, including a record producer, and now the group has recorded a CD.  Here is “Christmas Can-Can.”  Enjoy!

Happy Holidays to all of you.  See you in 2010!

Reclaiming My Joyful Spirit ~ Update

It’s hard to believe that it has been over 2 years since I began writing this blog.  It is always my hope that it is a source of information, good music, and (of course) fun.  I was recently honored to have my initial article posted on the Kindermusik International blog Minds on Music.  Here is an updated version.  (Click here to see the article at Minds on Music):

I have always loved music, and have been a musician since I was a young girl. I began playing the piano at age 7, and later added voice, clarinet, and handbells to my repertoire. Music has always brought me joy when I was feeling sad, or calmed me down when I was upset. (My family can attest that I have been known to literally “pound out my frustrations” on the piano.)

After completing 7^th grade, I attended a music camp at a small college a few hours from where I grew up. There I had the opportunity to take a private piano lesson from the dean of the music college. I played for him a piece that I felt I had mastered, and he proceeded to point out all of my shortcomings in a way that put my fragile 13-year-old ego through the shredder. Then he told me that if I really wanted to “do” the piece, I would have to give up the other music activities that I enjoyed (accompanying the junior high chorus, playing at church, etc.) and focus completely on practicing that piece. After the lesson, I felt incompetent and utterly dejected.

As high school graduation approached, I began considering a career in music.  While I knew that my musical ability had improved, that horrible music camp experience was still in my mind, and I still felt that my best efforts would always be inadequate.  There would always be someone like that music professor jumping on my every mistake, and music would become a source of stress rather than an outlet. In addition, the Midwestern work ethic with which I was raised conveyed the message that your job was just a job, and you weren’t meant to enjoy it.

So, I pursued my other talents, mathematics and business, and became an actuary, working for 2 different insurance companies for a total of 16 years. I endured the stress of studying for and passing a series of extremely difficult exams, working 50+ hour weeks with no end in sight, juggling career and family, and always feeling like I wasn’t doing enough. There was very little about my career that I could call fun, and I know I wasn’t much fun to be around. What was fun was making music, as I became a church and community musician and began teaching music to children.

In late 2005, I left my executive-level job to take some time off and figure out “what I want to be when I grow up.” What I figured out is that life is too short to not enjoy what you do, and what I enjoy is music. In the fall of 2006, I began teaching music at local preschools and became licensed to teach Kindermusik.  Shortly after that, I formed my business and chose the word brioso, which means “with vigor and spirit.” In 2007, I began teaching Kindermusik classes and private piano lessons. And I have discovered that singing and laughing with children nearly every day is a wonderful boost to the spirit. It is my hope that all of you reading this are fortunate enough to spend your lives doing work that feeds your spirit as well.

Have a great week!

Music, Science, and the Brain ~ Part 3

This is the third and final post in a series about the impact of music on the brain.  The inspiration for this series was Notes and Neurons, a session at the 2009 World Science Festival devoted to music and the brain.

The third principal point I learned from this session is it is exposure to various pitch combinations, not genetics, that determine human preferences. The music that we hear creates patterns in our brain that filter our preferences.  This exposure may begin forming before children are born, because auditory systems are formed within 12 weeks after conception.  Here are some other interesting tidbits:

• An interval refers to the distance between 2 pitches.  Intervals of a 5th (think of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) and an octave (think of Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz) are nearly universal, found in music from Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, and many others.
• An interval of a 4th (think of Here Comes the Bride) is fundamental to Western music.
• Even when we speak, there are associated pitches and intervals that convey meaning.  Studies have shown that a descending minor 3rd (think of Hey Jude) conveys sad speech, while an ascending minor 2nd (think of the Jaws theme music) implies angry speech.
• Scientists could not find a specific interval(s) that conveyed happy speech.  This makes sense, because the concept of evolution would say that we need to pick up on negative speech for our protection.

As I conclude this series, I will leave you with another clip of Bobby McFerrin improvising a song during the Notes and Neurons session.  This song is culturally diverse, yet contains several examples of 5th and octaves.  Enjoy!

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Improvises A Cappella, Song One of Two from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Kindermusik ~ The Perfect Christmas Gift

Are you looking for a great gift for a child this Christmas?  Something that will be more interesting than the box it came in?  Something that will last longer than 1 day? Well, look no further.  Give the gift of a Kindermusik class.  The class will go on for a few months, but the benefits to the child will last a lifetime.  Check out this video of a grandmother who has offered to buy Kindermusik classes for all 17 of her grandchildren!

I have certificates available in any denomination for all of you grandparents, aunts, uncles, or friends to give to the children in your lives.  Get in touch with me by e-mail or phone, and I’ll tell you how to give the gift that keeps on giving.  Have a great week!

Music, Science, and the Brain ~ Part 2

This is the second in a series of posts about the impact of music on the brain.  The inspiration for this series was Notes and Neurons, a session at the 2009 World Science Festival devoted to music and the brain.  The second principal point that I heard from this event was every part of the brain is involved in music.  This is true if you are passively listening to a piece of music, but is even more true if you are in the act of making music.

Music is a whole nervous system activity.  The cortex, the sub-cortex, and the cerebellum of both the left and right hemispheres of the brain get into the act. When listening to or performing music, the following brain areas are involved:

• auditory
• visual
• physical (planning and organizing movements to, or motor skills to perform, music)
• personality
• memories and associations
• expectations (the brain has a sense of where the music is going and what will happen next)
• emotional experiences and manifestations (these tend to be more abstract and primordial than other emotions humans have)
• social experiences (see Part 1 of this series for more information)

Here is some additional food for thought from Dr. Frank Wilson, an assistant clinical professor of neurology at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco (click here for the source information):

1. Studies show that instrumental practice enhances coordination, concentration and memory and improves eyesight and hearing.
2. Through music, people become an active participant in their own physiological development. They can discover themselves and a sense of self in community through musical involvement.
3. Involvement in music connects and develops the motor systems of the brain in a way that cannot be done by any other activity.  A UCLA study of brain scans indicates that music fully involves more brain functions than any other activities studied.
4. Dr. Wilson feel that these significant findings will lead to a universal understanding that music is an absolute necessity for the total development of the brain and the individual.

This is some great stuff to “chew on” this Thanksgiving week.  Have a great holiday!