LEGENDS OF JAZZ BASS - PAUL CHAMBERS

Paul is yet another guy who played with Miles Davis early in his career. One of the more famous recordings of Mr. Chambers is on the tune 'So What' off the Kind of Blue album.

He is one of the first jazz bassists to use the bow while playing. Mr. Chambers was also known as a studio musician, and played with many of the jazz greats, including Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Oliver Nelson.

Paul was also a great bass soloist. Let's see and hear some of his great playing here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x488r9_the-john-coltrane-quartet-on-green_music

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ BASS-STANLEY CLARKE

The story of how Stanley Clarke began playing bass is funny. When he was a young boy, he was late to the music class when the instruments were distributed. The last instrument left was the acoustic bass, and what do you know, he ends up being world famous!

He is most often associated with Chick Corea (amazing pianist) in the 70s jazz fusion group Return to Forever. He has also worked on tons of soundtracks for Hollywood films and tv shows.

Stanley has a unique way of holding the bass and approaching the strings that allows him to achieve a more percussive attack on the bass. In case you think that Stanley's interests are narrow, consider this: he has an emmy-nominated score for Pee-Wee's Playhouse...ha!

Let's look and listen to some great playing from this bass master:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ BASS-CHARLES MINGUS

Charles Mingus was a great innovator in the realm of jazz. His compositions and playing style often went beyond categorization. He would sometimes allow his groups to engage in collective improvisation (similar to the old New Orleans styles), which allowed for a freer sound in much of his music.

Charles was also known for his temper, and got nicknamed "The angry man of jazz." He would never compromise what he wanted to do musically, and he even got into some on-stage arguments with other players. He was considered the heir to Duke Ellington, because like Duke, he wrote his music based on the strengths of the musicians in his group.

When I first got interested in jazz many years ago, it was so great to hear some of Mingus' music for the first time. It was so far out, complex, ever-changing and grooving. Words do not do the best job describing his music...you should hear and see some for yourself...

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - BILLY COBHAM

I am going to end the jazz drumming series with Billy Cobham. Although there are still many many more great jazz drummers before and after Billy Cobham, I don't want to burn this blog out on drumming (maybe I'll revisit it later :-).

How to sum up Billy Cobham? Technical wonder/genius. Although some may argue (me too sometimes) that he doesn't always lay down a great groove, what can be said is that he has laid down some mind-blowing technicality in his time. He took the technical prowess of drummers like Elvin Jones and Tony Williams to an even higher level.

More evidence that Miles Davis has worked with almost everyone: Cobham started out with Miles Davis also in the 60s and 70s. Cobham is possibly more widely known for his fusion drumming with groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Cobham is also one of the first drummers to play open handed lead: a drummer that plays on a right-handed set but leads with his left hand on the hi-hat instead of crossing over with his left (and also has his ride cymbal on the left side, instead of the traditional right). He typically plays with multiple toms and double bass drums and was well known in the 70's for his large drum kits.

Let's hear and see some of Billy's amazing drumming...hold onto your seat:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - TONY WILLIAMS

Like Elvin Jones, Tony Williams was another beast on the drums. One indicator of how good he was was who he was playing with at a very young age: he started playing with Miles Davis at age 17! Tony was a fantastic player who also (like Elvin) really wanted to push the limits of how the drums were played.

Tony had heard all the greats before him and learned their styles, and then made this statement (one way or another) to the world: "I am going to play the drums in a completely new way that is unique only to me." That is a big reason Miles Davis liked him. Miles was into that same kind of trendsetting and experimentation when he met Tony. Miles said of Tony, "Our group's sound is centered around what Tony is playing." That's powerful!

Tony was great at using metric modulation (transitioning between mathematically related tempos and/or time signatures), which was kind of new thing in jazz drumming at the time. When metric modulation is done right, it can really make the time feel like it is being stretched in various directions. Yet, the player is always aware of the 'home' time signature and how to stay within its confines, even while sounding like he is playing outside of the confines.

Let's see and hear some of Tony's amazing playing with the absolute top-level players in jazz in the 1960's - Ron Carter, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter: 

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - ELVIN!

What is there to say about Elvin, except that he was a giant beast on the drums. Well, there are many other great things to say about his drumming as well: like, he was able to keep up with John Coltrane on many recordings...that's no easy feat! He also had his own very unique style that set the tone for many drummers to come, and opened the lesson book for many drummers after to try and learn his style.

Like Coltrane on the sax, Elvin had a very free-flowing style, and he played in a very polyrhythmic way. In other words, he was capable of having many different rates of rhythms happening simultaneously. Not an easy task! He also played in a legato sort of way...everything was connected and smooth, but highly complex.

He was a true artist, who really like to push the boundaries. I have been told that there is a video of him somewhere talking about how certain sounds in music represent colors, and he liked to think that way. That is thinking outside the box! Here's a video of some great drumming by a true master of the instrument. This is not smooth jazz, this is rough jazz...remember, there is sometimes just as much fire in jazz as in rock or any other genre:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - ROY HAYNES

The youthful Mr. Roy Haynes, 85 years young and still tearin' it up on the drums, and performing worldwide! Roy is one of the most recorded jazz drummers in history. He has played with just about every famous jazz musician you can think of.

He got the nickname 'Snap Crackle' in the 1950's due to his distinct, crisp and rapid fire attack on the snare drum.

Roy is one of those musical drummers, like Max Roach, who develops motives, plays melodically and listens very closely to every other soloist and fully compliments what they are doing. Many people say that way of playing is the highest form of drumming, rather than displaying all the technique and fireworks that many drummers can display. Do the fireworks make a tune more listenable? Usually not. Here's an example of some of Roy's tasteful playing: http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/royhaynes73.mp4

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - MAX ROACH

Max Roach is considered one of the pioneers of bebop, that great phase in jazz where the groups were small and the tempos were blistering. Max was known for being a melodic drummer, who had tight control and a very listenable soloing style. He was also great at creating a little motif, or idea, and really running with it and developing it.

Roach was one of the first drummers to move away from the constant drone of the 4/4 groove on the bass drum, and moved that time to the ride cymbal. This allowed the other players to be a lot more flexible in their playing. Roach helped make drumming music and not just time. The drum set became a complete musical instrument, capable of  expressing the full range of human emotion.

Here's a great video showing how he creates little motifs and develops them throughout the solo. Great stuff! Enjoy almost 11 minutes of Max Roach soloing:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - PAPA JO JONES

Also known as Jonathan David Samuel Jones, he was one of the most influential jazz drummers ever. He was an influence to great drummers like Buddy Rich. Here he is:

He joined one of the most influential big bands ever, Count Basie's big band, in 1933, and stayed with that band until 1948. He was one of the first drummers to promote the use of brushes on the kit, which I also think is a great thing. If you have a tendency to disregard playing with brushes, don't! You are missing out on a whole other huge way of expressing yourself on the kit.

He also was instrumental in getting away from the march-like four on the floor with the bass drum, and moving toward syncopated work on the cymbals. He also used the suspended cymbals, which came to be known as the ride cymbal, and he was instrumental in developing that great ride cymbal jazz pattern, which is still in use today!

Let's take a listen to some of Papa Jo's great drumming:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING - BUDDY RICH

What else can I say of Buddy Rich other than he was a complete beast on the drums. Many drummers today are still trying to figure out some of his licks. This is a guy who started playing the drums at 18 months old in vaudeville shows. I don't know how much an 18 month old can do on drums, but it is safe to say that he began playing drums relentlessly from that age, and his eventual chops prove it.

Buddy was mostly a big band drummer, and his style was based in power, although he had incredible dexterity, touch, endurance, groove and technique. Basically, he had it all. There is an album called Krupa vs. Rich where they engage in a number of drum solo battles. I can always tell when Rich is playing, because there is such clarity, precision and technique. Words are not the best way to describe Mr. Rich...have your mind blown by watching this:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

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LEGENDS OF JAZZ DRUMMING

I'm going to start a small blog series on the legends of jazz drumming, starting in chronological order. One of the early greats of jazz drumming was Gene Krupa... this guy...

Gene had a highly energetic and flamboyant style, as you can kind of tell from this photo. He was mainly known as a big band drummer. Some people credit Mr. Krupa with inventing the 'rim shot,' which means hitting the rim of the drum and the drum head at the same time.

Krupa was part of another innovation: he played Slingerland Drums for quite a while, and urged the company to produce tom drums with tunable top and bottom heads, which are still a standard drum set component.

Now, let's take a little look at Gene's flamboyant drumming:

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Tim Kurteff-Schatz

Tuning Your Drums

Most of the info below is from drumnetwork.com, about how to tune your drums.

Tuning Your Set Unlike guitars or pianos, drums can be tuned any way you want! However, to sound their best, they need to be tuned carefully. Follow the instructions below and you'll have great sounding drums in no time! 1) Tune each head evenly:Choose any drum (other than the snare drum...we'll save it for last) and loosen all of the tuning rods on one side then retighten them finger tight. Tighten each rod 1/2 turn using the criss-cross sequence shown below.
	Repeat this procedure until the drumhead is free of wrinkles and a tone is produced. Tap the head next to each tension rod as shown and listen to the sound.
	If the sounds you hear are the same note or pitch all the way around, you're in luck—this is what you want! However, chances are you won't be this lucky and the sounds will be "high" at some tension rods and "low" at others. Our goal is to get them to be the same note all around…here's how we do it. At the places where the pitches were "high," loosen the rods by 1/8 turn. Where the pitches were "low," tighten the rods by 1/8 turn. Again, tap the head at each tension rod and note your progress. Continue this procedure until the head has the same pitch all around, or as drummers say, "is in tune with itself." Turn the drum over and repeat the entire process on the other head. 2) Tune the heads to each other: Next we need to tune the top and bottom heads relative to each other. Note: There are three ways that this can be done: 1) the top and bottom heads can be tuned to the same pitch; 2) the top head can be tuned higher than the bottom; or 3) the top head tuned can be tuned lower than the bottom. There's no right or wrong method…experiment to see which sounds best to you. For now, we're going to tune the top and bottom heads to the same note. Select a drum and tap the top and bottom heads to determine which is higher. If the pitches are the same, you're in luck—go to the next drum. If they're different, do the following: lower the pitch of the "high" head and raise the pitch of the "low" one*. Repeat this procedure until the top and bottom heads are tuned to the same pitch. Move on to the next drum. *Once a head is in tune with itself, it can be tuned higher or lower by tightening or loosening each tension rod by the same amount. Most of the time, the head will remain in tune with itself; however, if it should change, simply fine-tune using the tuning procedure we practiced above. 3) Tune the drums to each other: You're now ready to tune the whole set. The smallest diameter drums are tuned the highest; the largest diameters, the lowest. Many drummers like to tune their toms a 4th apart. If you want to try this tuning, sing the first two notes of the wedding march, "Here Comes the Bride." "Here" and "Comes" are a 4th apart. Use these notes as a guide. If you prefer the "free-form" method of tuning your drum, go right ahead…as mentioned before, there's no right or wrong notes to tune drums. However, every drum has a range of pitches where it sounds best. Tune it too high and it'll sound "choked;" tune it too low and it'll sound "flappy." Experiment until you find the notes that work for you. Take some drum lessons at Earthtone School of Music! And follow us on Facebook. Tim Kurteff-Schatz

A CHORUS OF SOUNDS - 12 STRING GUITAR

As I mentioned in the last blog, the standard guitar has 6 strings, and there are many variations on the number of strings a guitar might have. A common variation on the 6 string guitar is the 12 string guitar. Take a look here...

At first glance, it looks like a normal guitar, except for the 12 tuning pegs at the end of the neck, instead of the standard 6 tuning pegs. The guitar is plucked or picked much like a 6 string guitar, because each group of 2 strings is placed very close to each other. So, the player usually plays two strings at a time. This creates a very cool chorus effect with the sound. It's sort of a fuller sound than a typical guitar. 

Since it is hard to rip out killer solos while plucking individual strings on this guitar, it is usually used in a more accompaniment-type role...in other words, it is often used as a rhythm guitar. Here's some nice 12-string playing by a guitarist I have never heard of, Dave McDowell...he deserves some recognition, so here you go Dave...

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Tim Kurteff-Schatz

Double Neck Guitar = More Shreddage!

Alright, we're going to talk about the double neck guitar today. I bet you've seen one of these before. They can seem a little silly, but hey, why not have more options to nail a killin' performance?!

Here's a photo of one, in case you haven't seen it before:

This particular one (which is associated with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page) has six strings on one neck and twelve strings (maybe I'll do the next blog on twelve string guitars) on the other. This just allows for the guitarist to switch back and forth quickly from one sound to another.

There are many other combinations of double neck guitars, such as bass guitar on one neck and regular six-string guitar on the other, or you can have a neck with frets and a neck without, etc.

Double neck guitars always seem a little cumbersome to handle while on stage, but the trade-off is that you can switch quickly between sounds, which can add to a dynamic and fun performance!

Here is a GREAT application of a double neck guitar. This was an awesome guitarist (rest in peace), Stevie Ray Vaughn, and his brother Jimmy playing together at the same time on a double neck guitar. This double neck is a little unusual in that both necks are six-string, but the guitar on top is tuned an octave higher, giving it more of a mandolin sound. Check out this fun solo:

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Tim Kurteff-Schatz

SLIDE ON OVER HERE: TROMBONE

In Italian, the word trombone means long trumpet. That kind of makes sense, don't you think? The most common trombone you will see is the tenor trombone, which looks like this:

Of course, you will occassionally encounter the bass trombone, seen here, which has a lower pitch range than the tenor trombone:

Trombones create various pitches depending on where the slider is positioned. Trombonists have to practice for a long time before they can be adept at getting the slider to just the right spot and a moment's notice.

Trombones had a long run as a classical instrument, and they have also become widespread in jazz and other genres. Let's look at how the trombone is being used in a contemporary setting...this is someone doing something different with trombone. His name is Trombone Shorty and he uses the trombone as lead instrument. Never be afraid to try something different in musical situations...you just might have success...like this:

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

Drum Set Instructor

Earthtone School of Music

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BLAST ME WITH BRASS - TRUMPET

Well, trumpets can blast very loud, but they can also play some sweet and mellow tunes. While the saxophone is a newer instrument comparitively, the trumpet is one of the oldest instruments, dating back to 1500 BC! Wow, I just learned that myself, that is really old!

The most common trumpet is a Bb (B flat) trumpet, which is pitched in Bb.

Early trumpets did not have valves, but the modern trumpet has three valves. Trumpet playing during medieval times was a guarded craft, and trumpeters within the military were the most heavily guarded, because they were needed to relay messages to various sections of the army.

In classical playing, trumpet parts in the music are often paired up with the percussion section. Both sections can be loud and have sharp attack. When these sections are paired together, the effect can be intense!

At Earthtone School of Music, we love jazz, and now we would like to show you what you might achieve by learning jazz trumpet. Here is one of the most smokin' trumpet players today: Roy Hargrove...

Take some lessons at Earthtone School of Music and follow us on Facebook.

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

VOICE, THE ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT

Before there were any instruments made by the hands of humans, there was the original instrument, our voice. Our voice is possibly the most emotional of all the instruments. To be more specific, I think the voice has the greatest ability to stir emotions within the listener. We can all immediately identify with a voice, rather than a man-made instrument. Plus, the voice can actually make words that have meaning. This is just my humble opinion. Some people say that music that is played without words is the best stirrer of emotions, due to the fact that the man-made instrumental sounds can express things beyond words. I can understand that point of view too. Here is one of my favorite singers, Jeff Buckley. Let's see if this song strikes a certain chord with your emotions...it does for me.

To develop a good singing voice, here are some things to consider. These are techniques that most vocal instructors will work on: Vocal exercises - Vocal exercises have several purposes, including warming up the voice; extending the vocal range; "lining up" the voice horizontally and vertically; and acquiring vocal techniques such as legato, staccato, control of dynamics, rapid figurations, learning to sing wide intervals comfortably, singing trills, singing melismas and correcting vocal faults.

The voice is an amazingly adaptable instrument. One thing that cannot be said about most man-made instruments is that they can play in any genre. The voice can sing in any genre of music, although there are different techniques to be learned depending on the style you want to pursue.

To learn more about singing, take some lessons at Earthtone School of Music.

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Tim Kurteff-Schatz

PIANO - THE HEART OF MUSIC

Piano is the heart of music for many reasons.

First, the piano keys are laid out in a very logical order, and this can help students learn music quickly. What do I mean when I say the keys are laid out in a logical order? There are seven pitches in a major or minor scale. The simplest major scale is C Major, which has the following notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Here is how the keyboard is laid out - if you look right in the middle of this keyboard image (on the white keys), you will see C, D, E, F, G, A, B. That is the C Major scale:

So, people often say the piano is easier to learn than its chordal (being able to play more than one pitch at a time) friend, the guitar. The guitar is not laid out in a linear and logical way like the piano. This is one reason the piano is so often used for songwriting. Even musicians who do not play piano as their main instrument, can sit down and plunk out (even if it is slowly) some chords and notes, and then have an actual pianist play their tune later.

Take a look at what pianos looked like when they were first invented. They were called fortepianos. They were smaller, and were used by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven for writing music.

With the advent of large orchestras during the classical period (1750-1830), the piano as we know it today came to being. The reason for the invention of the modern piano is that the orchestra, music halls and audiences got larger, so they had to create this amazingly strong behemoth we know today as the piano. Some of the classical pieces that were being written demanded that the pianist bang the heck out of the piano...it had to take a beating, and it could, with it's metal frame and thick metal wires.

We like classical at Earthtone School of Music, but we really love jazz. Check out two of the greatest jazz pianists ever right here (Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock), and learn to play like them, at Earthtone School of Music. Also, check us out on Facebook.

By Tim Kurteff-Schatz

ELECTRIC GUITAR - THE EPITOME OF ROCK!

The reason I say electric guitar is the epitome of rock is because I think it is the instrument most associated with rock and roll. Rock images most often include a shot of the guitarist leaning out over the crowd and burning up a solo.

Like the electric bass guitar, the vibrations are turned into electrical signals, and then amplified out to the player and audience. Of course, electric guitar is not only used in rock - it is played in jazz and probably every other genre of music you can think of.

One big reason the guitar needed to become amplified in the early part of the 20th Century, was due to the increasing size of big bands, and an acoustic guitar just couldn't get enough volume out into the audience.

The electric guitar is different from the electric bass guitar, in that the electric guitar typically has six strings, and the electric bass typically has four strings. The overall pitch range of the electric guitar is higher than the bass.

Les Paul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul) was one of the early innovators of the electric guitar. He helped perfect the solid body construction of the guitar that is most widely used today (in rock). Jazz guitarists often still use a hollow body electric guitar.

Learn how to play all styles of electric guitar at Earthtone School of Music.

Or, check out Earthtone on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EarthoneMusic

And now, I leave you with a great guitar solo by one of the great rock guitarists: Jimi Hendrix, playing a tune called Red House:

BASS GUITAR, AKA THE FUNK STICK!

Ok, well, the bass guitar doesn't always play funk music, but I happen to love that nickname: funk stick. I am going to write about the electric bass today, as opposed to the stringed stand up basses you often see in jazz or classical music. Look below to see what a typical electric bass guitar looks like:

In the 1930s, an inventor named Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, invented the first electric bass. The main differences between Tutmarc's bass and the upright bass are the following:

• The electric bass is much smaller and easier to transport
• The electric bass is held horizontally rather than vertically
• The electric bass is electrically amplified
• The electric bass has frets, which makes it easier to stay in tune

Typically, the electric bass has 4 strings, but there are variations with 5, 6 or 7 strings, which allows for more range than a 4-string.

The bass has a much lower range than the standard 6-string electric guitar, and is also played differently for the most part. Most of the time, bassists will play with a pick or pluck the strings with their fingers. 6-strings can also be played with a pick or fingers, but bassists tend to play one note at a time more often than chords, which 6-string guitarists do all the time. If you listen carefully though, you can hear bassists playing chords once in a while.

Now, check out one of my favorite bassists, Les Claypool, who does a lot of advanced and interesting techniques...and he grooves hard at the same time. Achieving technique and great groove to keep the people dancing is one of the highest goals for musicians to reach. Check out Les here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAkvBqp8R8E

...and learn to play like Les by taking lessons here: http://www.earthtonemusic.org/

Also, check out Earthtone School of Music on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EarthoneMusic

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

THE AX CALLED THE SAX

Among brass and woodwind instruments, the saxophone is a relatively new instrument, only being invented in 1841 by Adolphe Sax. It was not accepted among orchestras for quite a while, and of course now, is widely accepted in almost all genres of music. Saxophones are also called reed instruments because they use something in the mouthpiece called a reed, which is made of wood. See below...

When first invented, saxes filled a gap between woodwind and brass instruments, because it became the most powerful woodwind instrument, yet more adaptive than a lot of brass instruments. The most well-known use of the sax is in jazz. Most saxes, past and present, are made from brass, even though they are categorized as woodwind instruments. That was the genius of the invention at the time: the sax has the projection of a brass instrument, but the sound qualities of a woodwind. Check out this funky variation on sax material - this sax from the 1950s is made of plastic! Not sure how great that would sound?

To me, the saxophone is an instrument that can convey such a wide range of human emotions. It can whisper you to sleep, be very sexy, or blast your ears off. I think that's pretty awesome.

If you are interested in saxophone lessons, take some at Earthtone School of Music: http://www.earthtonemusic.org/

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MUSIC, THE NATURAL DRUG

Most of us know that listening to music gives our bodies and brains a certain amount of pleasure. Recent scientific research is telling us specifically what is happening. A big reason for this buzz in our bodies and brains, is the release of a chemical in our bodies called dopamine. Dopamine is also related to and released when people think about money, eat food, or ingest psychoactive drugs. So, this research is a great reason to listen to music instead of taking drugs!

Here's a visual example of where dopamine travels in our brains...

Researchers who published a study in the journal Nature Neuroscience, showed that dopamine gets released on a graduating scale depending on how we feel about the music. When participants in the study listened to neutral music, not too much dopamine was released. When the participants listened to highly desired music, more dopamine was released. Even the anticipation of listening to favorable music released dopamine in the brain.

This research shows why music has played such a huge emotional role in most societies for centuries.

To get your natural buzz, sign up for some music lessons at Earthtone School of Music: http://www.earthtonemusic.org/

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MAKE MUSIC AND THEN LEARN A LANGUAGE

There has been much research within the past 10 years that proves that learning to play music can increase one's ability to learn a language. The most recent research has involved brain imaging, and shows that when people play music, an area in the brain gets activated, and this area overlaps with the language area.

This is a big reason young children are taught language by singing to them. A researcher named Daniel Schon invented a number of gibberish words, and repeated them back to study participants. When these participants heard the words repeated one after another, it was very difficult to tell where one word started or ended. They had the participants in the study try to re-speak the words after 20 minutes of listening. The participants did no better than chance in recalling the words.

Then the researchers taught the gibberish words to the participants in a melodic way. After 7 minutes of listening, they had almost always a better then 50% recall rate. Below is the chart to show the progress of this study.

The dotted line in each graph represents the average score for all listeners, and each square is the average score for an individual listener. As you can see, the results of the melodic learning greatly improved language recall.

Again, we have more proof of the importance of music in every day life. To get more music in your every day life, take some lessons at Earthtone School of Music: http://www.earthtonemusic.org/

And follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EarthoneMusic

HOW TO KEEP MUSIC IN SCHOOLS...WITHOUT FUNDING

Well, my title might be a little misleading, because I'm referring to teachers playing music (even recorded music) in the classroom in order to stimulate learning in all academic areas. Following are some ideas that come from Chris Brewer, who is an authority on integrating music into all areas of school curriculum. These ideas are probably best suited for teachers.

1. Do you ever play music because it makes you happy and more eager to do what you have to do?

• Play music to set a positive mood at the beginning of the day or at the start of class. Also play music throughout the day and at breaks to maintain a positive attitude from students.

2. Does music sometimes help you focus on the task at hand?

• Use music to sustain student attention and concentration.

3. Does music stimulate your creativity?

• Use during writing, art projects and creative activities.

4. Does certain music bring back memories and the emotional experience of an event?

• During learning activities, play music that will create an appropriate emotional connection to the information and provide a trigger for recall.

5. Does music help you connect to and cooperate with others?

• Play music to encourage interaction and build classroom community.

Here's another way to connect through music - take some music lessons at Earthtone School of Music. www.earthtonemusic.org/

Or check us out on Facebook: www.facebook.com/EarthoneMusic

MUSIC, SCIENCE AND ACHIEVEMENT

It is no coincidence that among several countries whose science students were rated, the top three countries for science education also included music throughout their curriculum, from kindergarten through high school. These three countries were Hungary, The Netherlands and Japan.

Did you also know that is has been found that many of the top technical designers and engineers in Silicon Valley are also practicing musicians? This is yet another connection between science and music.

Another amazing result of adding music to schools is this: in 1984, a school in the New York area was about to fail, and then added an intensive music curriculum. As of 1993, 90% of those students were reading at or above age level.

Here's something fascinating from a man named Dr. MacLean from the National Institute of Mental Health. He found that a small part of the brain (10%), which is called the limbic system, controls things such as emotions and certain types of memory. He found that the limbic system is so powerful, that it can control the 85% of our minds that is devoted to higher order thinking. So, if a person has a lot of negativity in their life, their ability to learn can be impaired, and the opposite is also true - much positivity can heighten learning. It is no wonder that students who get together and play music, and almost always enjoy it, show higher scores in other academic areas.

So, get together at Earthtone School of Music, play some music, and boost your brain!

www.earthtonemusic.org

MUSIC THE HEALER

Did you know that of the many things music can do, one of the most amazing things it can do is help heal brain injuries? Music can not only heal the brain, but heal the bodily functions that the brain operates. Here is an example of what I mean: researchers have found that people who have suffered strokes, and suffer with Parkinson’s disease increase their ability to physically move around when learning music.

Researchers have found that the areas of the brain that process music when learning to play music, also process many functions, such as: processing language, auditory perception, attention, memory, executive control, and motor control.

Dramatic results have been seen with people who have motor (movement) control problems. Since walking our bodies around requires quite a bit of rhythm to coordinate all of our parts properly, the rhythm of music has been shown to help people with these “body rhythm” problems. Rhythmic cues heard by these patients allow for their bodies to suddenly step into rhythm and move more gracefully and accurately.

In upcoming blogs, I will explore more of how music affects the brain, and how it can make us better learners in so many ways! Until then, learn more about music by exploring Earthtone School of Music’s website: http://www.earthtonemusic.org/

Tim Kurteff-Schatz