Upcoming Sample Classes

Due to the interest I got from my booth this weekend, I've scheduled 3 more sample classes:

Sat, July 30, 9:00am
Mon, Aug 1, 1:00 pm

Tues, Aug 2, 7:00pm

Plan on 45 mins.

Email me at alicia.letsplaymusic@gmail.com to register for a sample class!

Lehi Foam Day Booth

I loved doing Lehi Foam Days!  It was so fun to talk about the program to so many different people!  Honestly, "recruiting" people to the program hasn't been my favorite part.  But every time I talk about it with someone, I get that super excited feeling all over again!  I can't wait for classes to start!

My mom came and helped, which was fantastic.  While I was talking to parents, she helped supervise the kids playing the tone bells and autoharp.  My favorite part was when the little ones came and timidly looked at the tone bells...after encouragement to go ahead and give it a try they would beam when they heard the sound!

It totally helps to have so many fun, bright, colorful things to look at.  In fact, several older kids came and asked me how much the puppets were!

Now to follow up with all the interested parents!  I'm a little nervous...I only have six spots open, with a long list of parents who are interested...maybe I should start a waiting list for next year!

So excited!

Today my little Sara has asked me several times to call the LPM kids and tell them to come over for a class.  She is so upset that classes don't start till August!  I guess it's time to do another sample class, since we both have so much fun!

Children and Music

As I prepare for fall classes, I've read so many great things about the benefits of teaching music to children!  It's so amazing that these kids come pre-wired for greatness, but it's up to us, their parents and caregivers to provide an optimal environment for them to flourish!

This article is awesome!  Talking about the child's brain and how it develops.  http://www.newsweek.com/1996/02/18/your-child-s-brain.html

This excerpt talk about music specifically:

"At UC Irvine, Gordon Shaw suspected that all higher-order thinking is characterized by similar patterns of neuron firing. ""If you're working with little kids,'' says Shaw, ""you're not going to teach them higher mathematics or chess. But they are interested in and can process music.'' So Shaw and Frances Rauscher gave 19 preschoolers piano or singing lessons. After eight months, the researchers found, the children ""dramatically improved in spatial reasoning,'' compared with children given no music lessons, as shown in their ability to work mazes, draw geometric figures and copy patterns of two-color blocks. The mechanism behind the ""Mozart effect'' remains murky, but Shaw suspects that when children exercise cortical neurons by listening to classical music, they are also strengthening circuits used for mathematics. Music, says the UC team, ""excites the inherent brain patterns and enhances their use in complex reasoning tasks.''

"Last October researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany reported that exposure to music rewires neural circuits. In the brains of nine string players examined with magnetic resonance imaging, the amount of somatosensory cortex dedicated to the thumb and fifth finger of the left hand -- the fingering digits -- was significantly larger than in nonplayers. How long the players practiced each day did not affect the cortical map. But the age at which they had been introduced to their muse did: the younger the child when she took up an instrument, the more cortex she devoted to playing it.

"Like other circuits formed early in life, the ones for music endure. Wayne State's Chugani played the guitar as a child, then gave it up. A few years ago he started taking piano lessons with his young daughter. She learned easily, but he couldn't get his fingers to follow his wishes. Yet when Chugani recently picked up a guitar, he found to his delight that ""the songs are still there,'' much like the muscle memory for riding a bicycle."