We’ve recently been granted a planning membership with New Horizons International Music Association (NHIMA) to form the New Horizons Bands of Volusia/Flagler Counties. We will share the same vision that is already being realized throughout many locations across the country. Please contact me if you would be interested in participating or getting a band program up and running in your part of Volusia or Flagler County, Florida. New Horizons Bands are for folks 50+ that either have some experience playing a musical instrument, or never had a chance to start. For more information visit my website, Your Place or Mine Music, or go to the NHIMA site.

On Thursday, May 7th I took a trip to the Villages (Leesburg, Fl) to observe first hand a New Horizons rehearsal. I must say I was very impressed by the enthusiasm of everyone involved, from the third chair trumpet player to the directors. There were about 90 in the band on that day and they sounded great. It was inspiring to see and hear what can be accomplished in a fairly short period of time.

I am pleased to announce that starting November 1st, 2008, Your Place Or Mine Music will begin donating a portion of all our website proceeds to non profit music organizations. Some of the worthy organizations under consideration for our giving include: American Music Therapy Association, IFMR, The International Foundation for Music Research, The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, MENC: The National Association for Music Education, , MTNA: The Music Teachers National Association , Music Achievement Council , Music for All Foundation, , Sesame Workshop,  Bands of America, Chorus America, Drum Corps International, M.I.N.D., and others. If you have a favorite non profit musical organization please let me know so I can add it to our list. In the meantime please visit YPOM music. I have located some of the very best music instruction products available; and now when you decide to purchase something, a worthy music organization will benefit as well!

Hi- Just a quick post to let everyone know I’ve been working hard to seek out the very best music instruction products on the web. Whether you are just starting out or have been playing a musical instrument for years- there are music instruction products available for you to check out at Your Place Or Mine Music. What musical instrument are you interested in learning or becoming more skilled at playing? Guitar, piano, keyboard, drums, bass, flute, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, violin, or something else? Whatever it is, you can find it at Your Place Or Mine Music. If you are unable to find anything suitable for your musical instrument or you are looking for a specific music instruction product, please leave a comment here or at Your Place Or Mine Music. I will do my best to locate it for you. Please bookmark Your Place Or Mine Music. I am adding new and innovative music instruction products all the time so keep checking back. Thanks…Marty

At their peril! These students deserve the same access and opportunities that are afforded their public and private school counterparts. That includes access to quality instrumental music instruction, especially for those students who show an early aptitude for music and/or a keen interest. All students at a minimum should be exposed to the recorder starting in the 3rd grade as well as the piano. Starting in the 4th grade those students that are especially motivated and/or show aptitude can begin to play the violin, guitar, flute, clarinet, or saxophone in addition to the piano.

Music, especially instrumental music, can be an important component of a well-rounded homeschool curriculum. Are you, as the teacher/parent musically inclined? Are you at least somewhat proficient on a musical instrument? If so, you are probably ok with putting together a homeschool music curriculum that will be more than adequate for your students/children. However, what if math or science is your strong suit?  Perhaps you have some students/children that would like to play a musical instrument  but you’re unsure of how to get them started? Musical instruments are expensive, even if they are listed as  “student models”. Private lessons can be expensive as well, method books can be confusing, do you rent an instrument or purchase? and so forth…. That’s why I’ve created this page just for you!

Pam and I are homeschool veterans ourselves. We homeschooled our two boys for seven years, including one child disabled with cerebral palsy. Since we we had our degrees in music education, we didn’t need help with the music end of things, but we certainly did for nearly everything else! So I can empathize with your situation!

What are the benefits to students in listening to and playing quality music? Maybe you have heard of the “Mozart Effect”, based on a 1997 book by Don Campbell and founded on the 1991 research of French researcher Dr. Alfred Tomatis. The author claims, and now there is a great deal of supporting scientific research, that listening to classical music, especially Mozart, can further develop the spatial-temporal functioning of the brain. This has now been inked to improved math and science learning, and generally making our children smarter. Learning about music or how to play a musical instrument is always beneficial. Music involves both left and right-brain functioning. Music inspires creativity and passion. Learning to play a musical instrument or sing is a skill that; once developed, can be enjoyed throughout your entire lifetime!

For more information and to check out some great homeschool music instruction products CLICK HERE

There are plenty of websites out there touting themselves to be the latest and greatest in providing the most innovative music instruction products on the web. These products are designed so that once you sign up and pay you are able to immediately download the videos and other instruction materials right away. Here is my review of three of the best.

Rocket Piano (Rock Star Recipes) by Ruth Searle.

Ruth says “people were fed up with the quality of the piano playing books on the market. Studies show that 97% of all pianists discover that learning how to play piano isn’t as easy as they thought it would be. If you use the same old boring exercises and drills that other people use, you’re even worse off!” There are three books with step-by-step lessons, including lots of sound files. The lessons are all laid out in an easy to follow, step-by-step method. They are very easy to understand no matter what age you are and Ruth has gone to great lengths to ensure that you find learning the piano fun!

Rocket Piano also comes with three exclusive computer games – Jayde Musica Pro, Chordinator and the Rocket Piano Metronome. By playing Chordinator and Jayde Musica you learn how to read music, while having fun. The Rocket Piano Metronome keeps you in perfect time! 218 step by step lessons in 3 high quality books takes you on a journey from beginner to advanced in your piano playing. Plus 57 video lessons – It’s like having your own, private piano teacher at your disposal 24/7. You’ll see exact techniques and what they look like. 133 audio files let you hear how each song should sound and what the tempo and timing of each piece should be. This program offers a 60 day money back guarantee and is an excellent value at only $39.95 for the download version.

Jamorama (Rock Star Recipes) by Ben Edwards.

Jamorama is a complete, cutting edge multi-media learning system for the guitar. Jamorama integrates 148 step-by-step video lessons and 26 high quality Jam Tracks for you to jam along with! You can turn the guitar track off and jam along with our drummer and bass guitarist or you can leave the guitar track playing. The song files explain, step-by-step, how to play many popular guitar songs, with new songs being added regularly. Jamorama also offers an acoustic and lead guitar instruction program as well as all spanish version: Guitarra Jamorama. This program, like Rocket Piano comes with the 60 day guarantee and also sells for $39.95 for the download.

WorkShop Live (National Guitar Workshop)

Learn to play guitar, keyboard, bass and drums anytime you want in the privacy of your own home. You can choose from 50 professional music teachers offering over 2000 comprehensive music lessons. Each lesson is designed to provide a full week’s worth of learning. You can take guitar lessons, keyboard lessons, drum and bass lessons in any style of music including: Acoustic, Rock, Blues, or Jazz and at any skill level. There are also great seminars on music theory, classical guitar, bending, slide, hand drums featuring Kalani, and more. Learn to play your favorite songs from The Eagles, Greenday, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and more. More than 50 professional teachers are featured in WorkshopLive’s online music lessons. All lessons are arranged in courses so you follow a great teaching method that really works. There are dozens of Free Sample online guitar lessons, keyboard lessons, bass guitar and drum lessons available for you to try. All guitar lessons, keyboard lessons, drum and bass lessons contain high-quality video, chord charts, synchronized music notation, guitar tab animation, and printable exercises are also available. A monthly membership to WorkShop Live costs $19.95.

Get more information on these and other innovative music products at Your Place Or Mine Music

This is your brain on music!

I know it’s been awhile but I’ve been going back to the proverbial “drawing board” and trying some new ideas. I founded my music teaching studio here in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. We provide quality music instruction to people of all ages on almost any musical instrument. We especially welcome seniors that want to keep their brains active while having fun playing and learning music! Depending on the student’s preference, our teachers can visit the student in their home, or has the option of coming into the studio for their music lessons- hence, Your Place or Mine Music! I soon discovered that our website was being effective in serving our local area. But I was ignoring 99.99% of the world’s population that do not live in New Smyrna Beach! Many of these people want quality music instruction too!

So, if you cannot be here in New Smyrna Beach to take advantage of our great studio and teachers, then the next best thing is for me to help you find quality music instruction products and programs on the internet. To that end, I have searched the internet on your behalf, and I will continue to do so to find the very best online music instruction products available. Please take a look at the products on our site and see if there is anything that suits your needs. If not, keep checking back. I will be be adding new products all the time. Most of these to date are digital music products and can therefore be downloaded for immediate access. I’m also building what will be an extensive “Links” page where you will be able to find a ton of free music instruction information. I’m personally checking out as many of these products as time allows- so I’m asking you to give me feedback (pro or con) on these products if you try any of them. Thanks for checking  out our retooled website…Marty

Did you know it’s become scientific fact that acquiring and developing new skills or re-discovering old ones helps our aging brains stay young? Yes, and further it’s been shown by scientific evidence that when we exercise our brains, for example by playing a musical instrument, not only do we maintain healthy brain cells (neurons), but we actually encourage our brains to create new ones! It’s something that brain scientists call neuroplasticity. A recent PBS feature called the Brain Fitness Program described and documented this wonderful phenomena in detail.

WHY MUSIC?

• Music is a Science. It is very exact. A conductor’s full score is a chart or graph which represents the frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once. If you have had any formal music training at all, and even if you don’t I encourage you to find a musical score online or perhaps at your local library to your favorite classical piece. Any work (or even a portion of it) by a major composer will do: Mozart, Bach, Beethoven. Put a recording of the piece in your CD player or on a “turntable” (remember those?) and try to follow the score and see what all the instruments are doing at a glance. With practice you will begin to comprehend more of what’s going on, you will also gain a greater comprehension of the genius required to compose a masterwork. Concentrate with purpose while you do this and you will feel your brain get stronger!

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

• Music is a 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 abstract ideas.

• Music is History. Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation. For example, jazz. The only true genre that originated in the U.S. Early roots were from black slave songs that evolved into the blues that evolved into jazz.

• Music is Physical Education. Playing and/or performing music requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheek, and facial muscles in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragm, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.

THE BENEFITS OF LEARNING AND PLAYING MUSIC

• Playing music enhances the sense of giving and receiving.
• Playing music helps develop abstract thinking.
• Playing music helps people be more social.
• Playing music aids the mind, develops the memory and fosters coordination of mind, ear and body.
• Evidence exists that seniors provided with music lessons exhibit long-term enhancement of specific cognitive functions.
• New findings suggest that music can stimulate complex cognitive, affective and sensorimotor processes in the brain, whose functions can be generalized and transferred to non-musical therapeutic purposes.
• The use of music in pain therapy has been widely reported.
• Performing music in public develops personal confidence and self-esteem.
• Research suggests that music instruction enhances the development of cognitive abilities, particularly spatial abilities, personality traits, motor skills and achievement in language and math.
• Plus, IT’S JUST PLAIN FUN!

Quotes from other internet blog sources:

“Play a musical instrument and/or sing daily. The therapeutic value of music is conclusive: Good music stimulates growth of the connective tissues of the human brain, especially dendrites and axons that otherwise wither with disuse.

“Learn something new: how to play a musical instrument, a foreign language, or start a new hobby”

“A study from Illinois is suggesting that study participants achieved a 50 to 70% improvement in their memory over a period of 18 months during which time they learned to play a new instrument.”

“Try challenging yourself with music, language lessons, or a new computer program; plan a trip with friends; or just hunker down with a good crossword puzzle this weekend – anything that makes you think in different ways is challenging for the brain and beneficial to your memory. And while you’re at it, do it all with a smile. Studies show that a positive emotional state is also good for your brain.”

For More Information Visit Your Place Or Mine Music

We’ve all heard that expression “use it or lose it”. Like most “sayings” the reason they are so persistent and withstand the test of time is because they are ultimately true, even though we often hate to admit it! Nowhere does this particular saying apply more than to a skill or ability like playing a musical instrument. In some respects, playing a musical instrument is like learning to ride a bike. If you played the piano or other musical instrument as a youth, there are certain things you will always be able to remember about your instrument: a favorite recital piece or at least sections of it, a few scales or exercises and the like. Unfortunately, the longer we go without at least “touching bases” by practicing these skills the longer it will take us to get back whatever we had to begin with. In other words, although we may remember how a particular tune is supposed to go- we can no longer recreate it the way we used to. There is a “disconnect” between our brains and our fingers…Are we incapable and just have to chalk it up to old age? To a certain extent, depending on your particular overall state of mental and physical health this may be the case. However, in the overwhelming majority of people, especially those over 55, it is most certainly possible to regain every bit of the skill level you possessed as a youth and possibly surpass it!  Think of this in terms of pathways.  The neural pathways and connections that were blazed in our brains during our learning years have become “overgrown” just like a real world path would if left untraveled and unused. By rediscovering these little used pathways and “travelling” them anew, we “clear” the pathway and it becomes fresh again. This could happen after one time or maybe not until after a hundred times. The important thing is that brain scientists have proved that this is indeed what happens if we choose for it to happen. For further information on the fascinating subject of brain neuroplasticity, get a copy of the DVD-The Brain Fitness Program , A PBS special that aired recently. Please visit my website at Your Place Or Mine Music.

Here’s to your great playing…Marty

I am excited to announce that in addition to teaching music lessons in New Smyrna Beach and most of Volusia county, Your Place or Mine Music now offers quality digital recording/video services. Although the business serves a specific region in east central Florida, I will post items that hopefully will have a wide appeal to anyone that has an interest in learning to make their music better or take you to a higher level. In any event, for those of you that are considering making your first or maybe second stab at a demo recording you would do well to keep the following tips in mind:

• Make sure everyone knows the date and time of the session.
• Come in with prepared solos, background vocal harmonies, etc. You might have a good day and you won’t need them. Then again, you might NOT.
• Come in with a well rehearsed structure for your songs. Genius does not always strike in the studio.
• Don’t invite all your friends to come by the session. While this may seem like a friendly thing to do at the time, after the one hundredth or so interruption you won’t feel so friendly. Recording is actually a pretty boring process to watch unless you are directly involved. Instead, invite all your friends to the album release party!
• Practice! You’d be surprised how many acts come into the studio obviously unprepared. If you can’t play through the song without making mistakes, then you’re not ready to record yet. Take the time to practice the songs you want to record in the studio thoroughly. This isn’t to say that you can’t be creative in the studio, but it’s a lot cheaper to be creative on your own time.
• Make sure your songs are finished. Going into the studio hoping to finish lyrics or parts on the spot is a recipe for a negative experience. You may be inspired by the pressure, but you’ll inevitably listen back to it later on and think that you could have sang it better, or that you don’t especially like this line or that phrase.
• Record yourselves. It’s very useful to record your practice using a simple tape recorder. The finished product won’t sound very good, but you’ll be able to hear if you’re off time, or off key. It may also make you aware that some parts of your song are dragging, or that other parts could be extended or more developed.
• Tune your instrument. Drummers should put on new heads about 1 week before the session. The snare head should be replaced immediately before the session, and if you’re doing more than one or two songs, consider bringing extra snare heads. Nothing sounds as good on tape as a fresh snare head. Guitarists should put a new set of strings on a few days before the session. Bring extra strings, as you probably will break one or two. Bass players can replace their strings, although new bass strings can be a bit overly metallic. I recommend changing bass strings a week or two before the session.
• Let people know you’ll be busy recording! You don’t want to be called in to work half-way through your session. Everyone involved needs to clear their schedules.
• Have a plan. It’s always better to have fewer songs to finish, and to know precisely which songs you’re trying to get done. Often, once a session gets rolling, it’s easy to just go ahead and track some of the other songs you have. While this isn’t terrible, in my experience these tracks are usually discarded, as they haven’t been thoroughly practiced, and may not even be complete.
• Relax! Recording is fun, and there’s really no pressure. Just be prepared, and you’ll have a smooth, enjoyable session with a great product at the end!

Visit Your Place Or Mine Music for further info or to schedule a session.

Do well meaning people ever say to you “you’re as young as you feel” and “you’re not getting older, you’re getting better!” or some other similar phrase that in most cases only makes you feel old! Well, there is good news. Recent scientific discoveries have proven that while our bodies do show the effects of aging: wrinkles, age spots, creaky joints, etc. our brains are are much less susceptible to the effects of aging. A program that recently aired on PBS entitled The Brain Fitness Program documented this remarkable fact in detail. In fact, as the program discussed, our brains seem to enjoy being stimulated with new experiences like learning a musical instrument or foreign language. Our brains in return “reward” us with actually creating new neurons (brain cells) and neural connections. This can happen apparently over our entire lives!

I’ve founded Your Place Or Mine Music in part to help seniors (whatever age you deem that to be!) keep their lives and brains active while having fun playing music. So the next time somebody says “you’re not getting older, you’re getting better” you can smile and say “I know my brain is!”.