Feeling inspired! I was fortunate enough to get to see one of my musical idols in concert this past weekend, none other than Paul Simon. His music certainly touched my soul from a very young age. I can remember countless hours of listening to records of Simon and Garfunkel with my friends back in high school. And how can I forget my parents blasting the Graceland album throughout the house while all of us would sing along at the top of our lungs!

Paul Simon was definitely a strong musical influence in my life growing up and I love his music today just as much as I did then. His music is so beautiful, with rich harmonies, interesting melodies, fantastic instrumentation and unexpected nuances in form. What an inspiration. Seeing him in concert was a real treat - something I never would have thought would happen in my lifetime! Not only that but seeing him at such an intimate venue as the Sound Academy made it even better! And to make him even more iconic in my mind, he actually invited a young woman up from the audience to play with him! Wow, what it must’ve been like to be…

Did you know that signing with your baby can actually help him to speak and understand language sooner? So many people believe that by signing with baby, they will inhibit their baby’s ability to speak as he will just rely on signing to communicate. Well this is simply not the case.

Signing can actually improve your baby’s language comprehension and ability to speak sooner. By signing with baby, we add a level of understanding that surpasses simply pointing and labelling. Not only that, but we are giving baby the tools to communicate with us long before their vocal chords are capable of producing language. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of muscle control to put the syllables together to create words. Certainly ample vocal play, as we do in our Kindermusik Village baby music class, can help strengthen those muscles and practice syllables. But your baby will not be able to communicate with you much sooner. No wonder both you and baby can experience so much frustration.

Signing can help to alleviate a lot of the communication frustration you both experience. However, it’s not as simple as just signing…

It never ceases to amaze me how much the babies get out of our Kindermusik Village music classes! This morning was the loudest baby class I have ever experienced. Not in a negative way, in a super cute way! All the babies were full of conversation! Squealing with delight. Trying to converse with each other in their babbling, conversational way. And vocalizing with me just as much as they were vocalizing with each other! They were really working their vocal chords and practicing their conversation and socialization skills.

Since our music class is exactly halfway through the session, you can really see that the babies have the routine down pat! They’re are feeling comfortable and ready to explore the instruments and materials. Anticipating what comes next and flowing easily from one activity to the next. Of course it helps that we have a really involved group of moms, dads and caregivers that are terrific at participation, really getting into the groove of dancing and movement in class and even doing activities at home! Sure makes for more learning for the babies!

What a fun class this is! I’m enjoying every minute and can tell that not only are the…

Guitar lessons are the newest area of business here at the Sing Music Studio. I’ve played the guitar for many years but just haven’t taught it. I recently bought myself a new guitar (my 10 year old one was sounding pretty sad) and, due to the high demand from my students, shortly thereafter began teaching guitar lessons. I tell you I love it! Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching singing lessons and piano lessons and Kindermusik too! It’s just fun for me to tap in to a new part of my brain and teach a new instrument. I love learning and teaching too. Teaching, for me, can be just as much a learning experience for me as it is for my student - finding out what each student needs to work on and how to reach each student as we all learn and understand differently. Apparently my guitar students are enjoying it too because I received this cute picture from one of my students of us during our lesson. She even included Mokie!

Music is the only activity out there that actually makes use of the entire brain. Try this on for size. A study on brain activity was done on musicians. They were hooked up to a monitor that measured activity in each part of the brain. The musicians were asked to play a tune that they knew from memory. Every single light that measured every single portion of the brain actually lit up! So it’s science, brain functioning is actually improved by making music!

I don’t need the science to tell me that though, I know this from personal experience. Every time I play a gig, rehearse or teach a music lesson or music class, I feel energized afterwards. I am literally ready to take on the world and tackle any project that comes my way. It’s not just my mind that feels open, but also my body. It’s no wonder I am so productive after musical activity!

It’s for these reasons that when the parents of my music lesson students ask me about practice schedules, I tell them to practice first and do homework second! Spending that time being musical and working the brain and body opens up the mind…