Great Lakes Toy Piano Blog

We recently addressed how to combat your young musician’s seasonally plummeting motivation levels (reread here), but our topic today is the mid-to-late-winter blahs, and not just for musicians.  The truth is I’m experiencing an extreme version lately, and have tried to dig out some science on it, partly because it’s good to know there’s actually a legitimate reason to feel this way, but not necessarily because I plan to do anything about it. Other than the usual advice regarding Seasonal…

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We’re not using the word relevant here (another topic for another discussion) but rather meaningful, or significant in a wider, more subjective context.  Here’s my definition for purposes of this article:  ‘packing sufficient emotional wallop to hold interest and drive enthusiasm’. Despite the nearly overwhelming amount of music and related data assaulting our children these days compared with the ‘limited’ exposure which the average elementary school student experienced BTI (before the internet), most of that music is definitely not classical,…

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I recently read some musical text online in order to ‘hear’ how it would sound when sung or played, and the genius of those symbols which turn visual images into internal sounds hit me like a ton of bricks!  So I decided to research its development, and was completely blown away by the complexities involved.  Plus I became acquainted with new symbology (for me), even after having studied piano for several years as a child, stopping for 20+ years and…

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Did you know:  music is sometimes forbidden from athletes’ personal use during competitions to prevent their gaining an unfair advantage, similar to the action of steroid drugs and stimulants; it’s that powerful!  Almost everyone knows how musical motivation feels, but not many of us know how it works. Let’s tackle the question by looking at our personal experiences:  what is your first response to an environmental challenge (something you must do but maybe/probably don’t want to?)  Depending on the context,…

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The purpose of this article is not to disparage the pleasures of listening to music, but rather to compare the results of doing so with those of actively creating and playing it.  While both elevate mood and affect energy levels (for relaxation and energizing purposes), my question is:  can we rely on either one of these types of musical interaction to provide the maximum benefit for us and for our children? We’re all familiar with how music can positively affect…

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It often happens around this time of year that the bloom is coming off the rose for many new music students, and we tend to default to motivation, or its lack, as the prime factor. But that isn’t necessarily the case.  After all, no one can maintain a white-hot level of enthusiasm for anything all the time, so it’s unrealistic to expect it.  Some degree of diminished interest is normal, if not desirable, but it definitely should not and does…

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Recent studies in the field tend toward viewing music affinity as more biological than cultural, due in part to the discovery of some culturally consistent ‘musical universals’.  One study, documented and explained here, identified 18 widely-shared features across nine geographic regions, six of which relate to rhythm:  a steady beat, two- or three-beat rhythms (think marches and waltzes), two-beat preference, regular weak and strong beats (as in a tom-tom cadence), limited number of rhythm patterns per song, and using those…

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How many areas of the central (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral (nerves outside brain and spinal cord) nervous systems are involved in playing a musical instrument (and who doesn’t want to know these things?) I’m borrowing from a beautifully written and illustrated, user-friendly article published by the Portland Chamber Orchestra which can be accessed online in its entirety here. The article includes short and to-the-point fact statements regarding brain areas/systems affected: Motor – fine and gross Auditory – sound…

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Continuing with our theme from the Savvy Children’s Holiday Gifting blog posted below on October 15, we’re highlighting five more great products from our website at www.greatlakestoypiano.com with the reminder that your purchases finance our community-oriented activities, including donations to fundraisers and silent auctions, canvassing for local in-school music education programs support, our blog site fees, etc.  These gifts are virtually foolproof, providing fun for now and inspiration for the future. This 30-Key Fancy Baby Grand in black is just…

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