To My Little Einstein: "We're going on a trip ..."

Anyone with little kids knows the rest.

Seven years ago we completed our little band of four brothers with the arrival of our Surprise Symphony (SS). While MP had "Barney" to keep him company, SS had musical/artistic descendant, the Disney Channel's "Little Einsteins" TV show.

This show has taught him wonderful music, complete with a visual story (including fantastic art). I think I was much older before I could appreciate "In The Hall of the Mountain King" from the "Peer Gynt Suite" by Edvart Grieg the way he does.

SS wants to play the flute. I think he likes it because it is something he saw on the show. Regardless, I hope he continues to appreciate music and art that he was exposed to. I know even at age 4, he was able to follow along as MP's band show performed the "New World Symphony."

Happy birthday, surprise guy. I hope I am able to give you the gift of music, and you carry it on your trip through life.

P.S. The Little Einstein's go on their trip in a little rocket ship. SS loves airplanes (he's playing with a whole set now). You never know ...

Something to share with school boards at budget time

Why We Teach Music

Music is a science.
It is exact, specific; and it demands exact acoustics.
A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities,
volume changes, melody and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.

Music is mathematical.
It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions
which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.

Music is a foreign language.
Most of the terms are in Italian, German or French;
and the notation is certainly not English but a highly developed
kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas.
The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.

Music is history.
Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation,
often even the country and/ or racial feeling.

Music is physical education.
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek and facial muscles,
in addition to extraordinary control of diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles,
which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.

Music is all these things, but most of all, music is art.
It allows a human being to take all of these dry, technically boring
(but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion.
That is one thing science cannot duplicate;
humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.

That is why we teach music.
Not because we expect our students to major in music
Not because we expect them to play or sing all their life
Not so they can relax
Not so they can have fun.
But so they will be human
So they will recognize beauty
So they will be sensitive
So they will be closer to an infinite beyond this world
So they will have something to cling to
So they will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good
- - in short, more life.
Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live?
That is why we teach music.

Author Unknown

Incidentally, I picked this up simultaneously off a band website as well as an elementary school wall. The elementary school had a bit different wording than the above, but it also had this ...

Music is reading.
It reinforces correct pronunciation, language experience, squencing of ideas, sight vocabulary, and memory.

P.S. Happy birthday, artistic sis!

Dear Middle School Parents,

Well, school's back going again.

I bet you are thinking about the 9th grade now. You've heard things about the marching band program. Maybe you've seen it, too, with an older sibling. And you've seen the competition increasing in the sports programs. You're wondering now about the potential for scholarships. But, you don't know. So you want to put it to your kids to decide.

My advice? Don't. You decide.

Now, because I know you will hear from the coaches, let me speak for the person you (unfortunately) may not hear from, the band director. I want to speak to your concerns about band - marching band in particular - and why you should encourage your kids to do it. (Especially if someone told him it's "puff".)

It's physically demanding. Moving feet. Moving fingers. Ten intense minutes that require more than one hour of practice. A week. Per minute. There can be no busted plays, either. There is no injured reserve. And everyone plays.

It's musically demanding. It's not oom-pah up and down in straight lines. (C'mon. You know that. It hasn't been that way since before you were in band!) It's a symphonic display. A rock opera. A full story in a brief time. It's 8-to-5 lines and curves at 7/4, 6/4, 5/4, 4/4, 3/4, 2/4. (I know, because I saw the music!) Speaking of fractions, did you know music students score >100 points higher on the SAT?

It's performance demanding. The largest crowds your kid will play for short of making a career out of music. (And maybe even if he or she does?) It's gratifying instant feedback when the show connects with the crowd. Besides, before you say he's not going pro in music, consider that he probably has better odds of that than going pro in any of the other big 3 - NFL, NBA, MLB.

Need another reason? You can volunteer and ride the team bus!

You make the call, Mom and Dad. Call it band.

Yours. Truly.

Soundtracker

P.S. Did I mention the spectacular color, motion and sound?! Well, if that doesn't move you, you can still ride the bus.