Is Your Child Struggling in School? Get Him (Or Her) Music Lessons

This is counterintuitive, I know. Our natural response to seeing our child struggle is to find a way to help, not to add to the burden. If a child is struggling, why should we risk setting them up for failure in music lessons?

The answer is simple. Playing music has been discovered to have a direct and almost immediate effect on the brain of the student. That's right. Music lessons have been shown in a German study to have a significant impact on the way the brain functions after as little as five weeks!

What they found, when comparing a group of students taking music lessons with a control group that was not, was that students who had taken as few as ten music lessons over a five week period exhibited a significant ear to hand link.

So? What's the big deal? Life doesn't make much use of ear to hand connections unless you want to play an instrument by ear (I've always thought that provoked a strange mental picture - imagine the ears you'd have to have to play the trombone!). The significance is two fold. First, it means that music lessons lead to brain development which ultimately means that music lessons have the effect of giving the individual that is taking the lessons improved brain function from which to draw in the rest of his or her life. Second, (and I saved the best for last) the ear to hand brain connection from music lessons is significant because researchers in Hong Kong took the study one step further and tested a group of students with music lessons and a group without music lessons for verbal memory and found that the group that was taking music lessons outscored their nonmusical peers by a significant margin.

It gets better still. The same groups of students were tested a year later, even after some of them had discontinued their music lessons, and found that they still outscored their nonmusical peers in verbal tests!

The moral to that story is get your child (or even yourself) into music lessons if you want your child to have every advantage possible in life, because these are only two benefits that we know of, but there are bound to be far more yet to be discovered.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions" with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com

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Music industry eases tactics in fighting piracy - Reuters

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#39;08 music sales hit record high - Hollywood Reporter

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Music marketers target female shoppers at home - Reuters

Hyundai Super Bowl ad to feature music by Yo-Yo Ma - Reuters

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A Year in Love and Music - New York Times

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Read all #39;Macworld 2009#39; posts in Digital Media - CNET News

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Bid to open prison doors for music - The Press Association

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Musebin: The future of music reviews? - Los Angeles Times

Music matters at Sundance - Variety

Jack Black finds his country music DNA - Chicago Tribune

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Music - Google News

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I was listening to NPR the other day when they did a report on tipping in the restaurant industry. One they had a list of tips on how wait staff can increase their tips.

What is Music?
That's a fair question!Basically, you can call music any noise that is set to either a rythm as in percussions or that follows a melodic line of some sort.Our early ancestors sitting outside the cave by the fire, after a hard day of gathering and hunting food, probably made music by tapping bones together or blowing in sea shells.

Alternative Sales Sources for Your Music
Following, is a list of alternative sources that may be interested in carrying your music for sale for their particular clients and customers, if only they were aware of your music.Most of the clients and customers are already "captive" audiences who are waiting on a product or service, so why not promote (and sell) to them as they wait?Additionally, if these sources have their own in-house music system (which many do), you should also speak with them regarding adding your music to their own in-house "playlist.

Your PC Is An Awesome Singer... If You Let It!
As an amateur songwriter, who struggles with a computer far from powerful enough to run the necessary software to record vocals of good quality, I have looked for good solutions. And I've found a few.

Rhapsody Music Downloads Part II - A pleasant experience?
Welcome back to Part II of Rhapsody Music Downloads! I hope you took an opportunity to enjoy the first week of your two-week trial. Must have been a joy to stream and download online music by the truckloads.

How to Become a Filthy Rich Record Label Mogul
Let me guess, you love music and would do anything to be able to enter into the fabulous life of the music business? Better yet, you would love to become the next record mogul like P.Diddy or Clive Davis.

Piano Playing For Adults: More Fun Than Sex And Not Nearly As Dangerous!
OK, so I lied about the fun part.Maybe piano playing is the just 2nd most fun thing adults can do.

Piano Chords and New Age Music
There are basically two ways you can compose a piece of music. The first and most traditional way is to write out the melody and then harmonize it.

Interested in Improving the Sound of Your Stereo? Consider Records
Introduced in 1982, the compact disc was intended to provide better sound than the 40-year-old long-play record album, popularly known as the LP. Using a laser rather than a diamond needle for playback the compact disc was smaller, more convenient to use, and less susceptible to damage than the LP.

Solid-Bodied Gretsch Corvette Guitar
The Solid-bodied Corvette (not to be confused with the Corvette hollow-body arch-top electric, produced from 1955-1959) was Gretsch's answer to the Les Paul Jr. by Gibson.

Guitar Practice (Part 2) - Does Practice Make Perfect?
You've probably heard the saying "practice makes perfect" and it sounds true enough, but is t really? We all know the importance of practicing a new skill in order to become proficient at it. This is especially true when it comes to playing the guitar, or any other musical instrument for that matter.