Benefits of playing Musical Instruments you can't live without

Americans Agree On Benefits Of Playing Musical Instruments  

Recent Gallop Survey polls reveal that a very high percentage of Americans agree there are many benefits gained by learning to play a musical instrument.   As outlined by the 2009 Public Attitudes Towards Music study, more people own musical instruments and are playing than have in the last decade even though there have been challenges to music education programs.  In these harsh economic times, where music education in schools is often threatened, the report shows that it is more important than ever to provide opportunities for everyone to enjoy the benefits of music, particularly our youth.   More than nine in ten surveyed agreed that making music helps children make friends, develop creativity, build teamwork skills, and enhance intellectual development. 

According to the survey, Americans completely or mostly agree that benefits for young children and teenagers playing musical instruments include: 

• Helping children develop creativity (59% completely & 37% strongly agree)
• Helping develop teamwork skills from playing in band (51% completely & 45% strongly agree)
• Helping a child’s overall intellectual development (45% completely and 49% strongly agree)
• Helping make friends (42% completely agree)
• Helping prepare them to be creative & innovative in the workforce (42% completely & 49% strongly agree)
• Yielding better grades, teaches discipline, motivates them to stay in school (36% completely & 52% strongly agree)
• Relieving stress and providing relaxation (47% completely agree) 

Additional study highlights include: 

• Nearly all (96%) survey respondents believe musical skills can be learned at any age
• Most (92%) completely (56%) or mostly (36%) agree schools should offer music as part of the regular curriculum
• Most (80%) completely (43%) or mostly (37%) agree that music education should be mandated by the states.

Music Educator tells 4 Secrets to Success in Music and Careers

Whese 4-Rs Are The Most Important Of All!

I had amazing jr. high and high school band experiences growing up in a small farming community in southwest Kansas.  We were taught if we consistently applied and stayed dedicated to the 4 R’s (Right Place, Right time, Right materials, Right attitude) that we would be successful both individually and collectively.  We learned if any of these basic tenets were absent that the other three could not make up for the resulting deficits and negative consequences caused by leaving one out, and this incompleteness only served to noticeably diminish progress towards our goals.  By holding one another accountable for these basic 4-Rs we able to not only perform musically at a very high level, but also assimilated these core values into every other aspect of our lives.   This master teacher-band director utilized music as the vehicle to teach us how to excel personally and collectively as an organization.   

As schools have pushed for excellence measured by testing results for the 4-Rs we have consistently heard from business owners and employers that the four basics outlined above are far more important to them.  What good is it to have well educated individuals in the workplace if they don’t arrive on time and have poor attitudes? Certainly, the discipline, focus and dedication required in learning to play a musical instrument and perform flawlessly as part of a large ensemble requires these basic skill sets which are needed more than ever in a society which has become dangerously permeated with an instant gratification and entitlement outlook.  More than ever, we need music in our schools for every child to help teach them these basic fundamentals of human functioning.  Our society may well depend on it.  

Brad Bone

Musician & Music Educator

National Sales Manager - rentMYinstrument.com

30+ year Music Education Veteran weighs in on where to rent a musical instrument

Ralph Weber and the Joy of Music.

As a child I was exposed to music at very young age.  My father was a band director for 37 years, and my mother continues to be a church organist (over 40 years).  

From the first night my Dad brought home my new student trombone to directing bands and choirs as an educator and church choir director, music runs through the Weber Household. All of my children were also fortunate to experience the joy of music.  Each of them either played in band or orchestra and my daughter continues as a music educator today.

My experiences as a musician, educator, and school music dealer have served me well in all my business and social relationships. To see the joy on the face of a young student in middle school band being able to master the “buzzing” and play that first note on a trumpet, to the awkward feeling of holding the violin and drawing a bow across the strings to make that first “screeching sound”, is very satisfying. Helping parents answer the question "where can I rent a musical instrument" has evolved over time. Parents truly have it easier today for SBO rentals (school band and orchestra) using rentMYinstrument.com because of the quality, economics, choice and convenience through renting instruments online with our eCommerce platform.

Having spent 30 years traveling around to all sizes of schools in the Midwest and testing children on all the instruments, assisting to develop rentMYinstrument.com gives me the opportunity to bring music to more students. After years of servicing students and parents over the counter and face to face, we still have a counter in our showroom at rentMYinstrument.com's headquarters, but I use email and the phone to help assist people in their choices and decisions.

Every day brings that new mom or dad to the rentMYinstrument.com website looking for a quality instrument at an affordable rental rate for their son or daughter. I enjoy helping parents on renting a trombone, to helping advanced students pick out the right step up instrument. I personally inspect every instrument before it goes to the shipping department making sure everything is setup and ready for instant success.  Many times students fail when they inherit Mom or Dads old smelly clarinet. Being able to provide that name brand quality instrument and not an  “instrument shaped object” gives me great joy and satisfaction.  

Every child should have the opportunity to experience the lifetime of music.

How to Get into College - A Consistent Theme

Colleges Desire Participation In The Arts

Harvard University:  “The ARTS are clearly an integral part of life at Harvard and Radcliffe, important for their value to the college environment and also for the potential they provide for lifelong enrichment.  In addition to academic criteria, therefore, we always consider extracurricular talents and personal strengths when we evaluate a candidate’s credentials.  We look for students whose previous participation in the ARTS shows that they can make substantial contributions to our community” 

Yale University:  “Qualifications for admissions to Yale University include not only the reasonably well-defined areas of academic achievement and special skill in non-academic areas, but also the less tangible qualities of capacity for involvement, commitment and personal growth.  The ARTS offer remarkable opportunities for the exercise of these qualities.  The highly skilled artist, the student whose intellectual interests include close study of the ARTS, and the many applicants who demonstrate motivation and the willingness to extend their reach through participation in the ARTS, all promise to enhance the quality of life at Yale.” 

Stanford University:  “…..we believe that exposure to the creative and PERFORMING ARTS enhances a student’s intellectual breadth.” 

Cornell University:  “There is no magic formula that ensures admission – or forebodes rejection -  to Cornell University……the ARTS can play an important role.  As we seek students who will make contributions to the Cornell community, where are ARTS are so prevalent, their exposure and experience in high school are highly valued.” 

John Hopkins University:  “The real challenge in selective college admission is not to assemble a class capable of negotiating a rigorous academic curriculum, but one that also will enhance the quality of life on our campus.  Participation in the PEFORMING ARTS during the pre-college years is a clear indication to our admission committee that a student is dedicated to, excited about and engaged in the educational journey.  As such, a background in the ARTS is one factor that helps us choose, among academically qualified students, a class which will avail itself of the many opportunities at Hopkins and will contribute to the life of the University.” 

The University of Michigan:  “Intellectual leaders from Plato to the present have recognized the importance of the ARTS to a thriving civilization.  The University of Michigan joins in recommending the ARTS because of their humanizing influences, their demands for self-discipline, their abilities to evoke idealistic dreams that transcend everyday issues, their effectiveness in reflecting the achievements of diverse peoples, and their capacities to stimulate that most important of all intellectual abilities: creativity.  Perhaps in no past era of our increasingly global civilization have these qualities been more sorely needed than they are today.”

Music & The Changing Workplace

Music & The Changing Workplace 

In the space of a single generation, work and the workforce have changed dramatically.  If we could put a typical 1966 worker into a present day factory or organization, he or she would be disoriented in virtually every dimension of the workplace.   

It’s not just new machines and management philosophies, or that services have replaced manufacturing as the dominant sector of the American economy:  it’s that the character of the work itself has been transformed, largely through application of information-based technologies and systems thinking to almost everything American business does.  The express train to the 21^st century left the station long ago and we have been waving goodbye to the rapidly receding 200 year history of industrialism. 

Today’s and tomorrow’s workers have to be multi-skilled and multi-dimensional, flexible and intellectually supple.  Even the physical office is being relocated to accommodate new work styles as cell phones and telecommunications software stimulate the growing edge of the workforce as it migrates down the information highway to homes, cars, airport lounges and telework centers. 

But the changes go far beyond new technologies and the shifting venues for work.  Richard Gurin, President and CEO of Binney & Smith, Inc., and member of the National Alliance for Business, expresses a growing consensus among business leaders: 

“After a long business career, I have become increasingly concerned that the basic problem gripping the American workplace is not interest rates or inflation; those come and go with the business cycle.  More deeply rooted is…the crisis of creativity.   Ideas…..are what built American business. And it is the arts that build ideas and nurture a place in the mind for them to grow….Arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American education and better prepare workers for the twenty-first century.” 

An education in the arts addresses and delivers precisely these kinds of skills.  The potential contribution of arts education extends across the board.  It builds thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and critical judgment. It nourishes imagination and creativity. While recognizing the importance of process, it focuses deliberately on content and end-product.  It develops collaborative and teamwork skills, technological competencies, flexible thinking, and an appreciation for diversity.   

The implications of this argument have slowly been working their way into the struggle to reform the nation’s schools, even as the “high performance workplace” remains a core driver for education reform.  The public’s preoccupation with “getting back to the basics” is being reinforced by school restructuring and testing standards.  Most educators, indeed most Americans, genuinely welcome the renewed interest in stronger fundamentals and higher standards for performance and learning  Too few Americans recognize, however, the breadth and depth of the contribution arts education can make, both to education reform and to the quality of the workforce. 

**The material in this article is from Business Week in October of 1996.   How much longer we will allow arts education in our schools to be viewed as something outside the core curriculum?

DATE: Sunday April 29th, 2012 
TIME: 12:00pm-9:00pm 
EVENT: 1st Annual "The Doctor Is In!" 
Where: The Howlin’ Wolf

On his upcoming Repair Mission Trip, Mike Corrigan, a.k.a The Horn Doctor, will be rolling out his most extensive repair project since his first trip to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. The timing could not be better because the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will be in full swing. Accompanying Corrigan will be three horn doctors from his Kansas-based company B.A.C. Horn Doctor Inc., Kansas City Musicians, and New Orleans native, Stafford Agee of the Grammy-award winning Rebirth Brass Band. Stafford has been apprenticing with Corrigan on each of Corrigan’s previous trips to New Orleans and will be officially dubbed a Doctor of his practice.

Agee, who has already been hustling to fill a gap in downtown New Orleans where musical instrument repair services are needed, is officially announcing the opening of his own Rebirth Music Center and Repair Shop. Acting as an affiliate of B.A.C. Horn Doctor Inc., and www.RentMyInstrument.com, his store will help meet the needs of musicians of all ages and experience levels. B.A.C. Instruments designed by Corrigan (http://www.BestAmericanCraftsman.com) are available through Rebirth Music and other national affiliate music stores.

Please join us at The Howlin’ Wolf this Sunday. All attendees and their instruments will receive FREE REPAIRS. We are inviting local school bands to perform at the Wolves Den while the Horn Doctor crew provides students with any needed repairs. All musicians are invited to come throughout the day, and are asking any professional musicians to stick around for an evening performance and benefit serving local music-education causes including, Sweet Home New Orleans, Roots of Music and Trombone Shorty's Horns for Schools.

The benefit concert will commence at 8:00pm and features several of New Orleans finest musicians, including, Kermit Ruffins and his BBQ Swingers, Rebirth Brass Band, Baby Boyz Brass Band, YoJimbo, Music Street, Saint Bell, NOLA's Big Sam Williams, and Loren Pickford. Making the trip from Kansas City is Kansas City's finest, Project H with Ryan Heinlein and Josh Williams, and out-of-town musicians Joe Beaty of NYC and Cory Distefano from Nashville, TN. Keep an eye out for other musicians or bands who may show up unannounced for this first ever event! Audience members will hear the B.A.C. horns in action alongside the headlining bands, particularly the popular Artist B.A.C. trombones and trumpets designed by The Horn Doctor himself.

Rarely do great music, helping musicians and free instrument repairs all take place in one fun-filled evening. We look forward to seeing you and 15 of your closest friends as we support these 3 great causes!

Beyond the Music - Enhancing Intelligence

Beyond The Music – Enhancing Intelligence

Scientific studies clearly show that music participation enhances vital intellectual skills in children.  Why would anybody ever consider allowing their child to discontinue performing in a school band or orchestra program?  

“A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reports that music training (specifically piano instruction) is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science.  After six months of keyboard lessons, those children who received piano/keyboard training performed 34% higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability than the others.  The findings indicate that music uniquely enhances higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science and engineering.”

Neurological Research, February 28, 1997

 “After learning eighth, quarter, half and whole notes, second and third graders scored 100 percent higher than their peers who were taught fractions using traditional methods.”

Neurological Research, March 15, 1999