How Do You Keep Teenagers Interested in Music Lessons???

Many times children will start out learning to play an instrument when they are in elementary school. Very often it will be piano lessons at home, or perhaps a band instrument at school including trumpet, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trombone and drums/percussion being the most popular. However, by the time these same children become teenagers and begin entering high school, their interest in music and music lessons often begins to fade.

There a number of reasons for this of course, not the least of which the number of distractions now presenting themselves these days. Teenagers now have computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones, cable TV, Netflix, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Tumbler, and the grand daddy of all social media Facebook. With all of these entertainment options and distractions now available is it any wonder that teenagers today have a hard time wanting to stay focused on music and continue learning their instrument.

I can think of several ways to try and rekindle the interest of your teen (or perhaps yourself) in music lessons and music in general. Not in any particular order, here are a few:

• Try learning a new instrument you haven't played before - Sometimes we get stuck in a rut playing the same instrument for years, and if we just try learning how to play something new maybe an instrument you've always wanted to play this would do the trick.
• Consider learning songs in a different genre - If you've been taking classical piano lessons for years and perhaps you're tired of it, try beginning to learn how to play popular songs from the radio and YouTube. This is a whole different experience and playing songs that are more familiar to you may help recharge your musical batteries.
• Try learning from a new teacher - It can be difficult to tell a teacher you've had for a while that you want to move on and try something different but sometimes that what you need to do. Get a new and different perspective from someone else who will undoubtedly have a different style of teaching. In fact don't be afraid to take lessons from several different teachers over time as you'll be amazed what different techniques and tips you'll learn from each one.
• Start learning how to write your own songs or instrumental compositions - If pop, country or R&B music is your favorite style then try your hand at writing some original songs; if jazz or classical is your specialty then write a few instrumental musical pieces in those genres. Learning the process of how to write your own music will open up your eyes and musical hearts to so many different possibilities.

That's all the ideas I can think of for now, but I'm sure we will add to this list over time. I got this idea for today's post from an article in the Irish Times about how to keep teenagers interested in music. One major theme they discuss is to share with your music students the social importance and impact of playing an instrument. Playing music with others either in a band, an ensemble or any type of musical group can be one of the most satisfying experiences you will ever have. To learn more about what Music Generations and Limerick Voices are doing over in Ireland to help teens stay interested please read Irish Times - How to Stop Teenagers from Tuning Out of Music Lessons

That's all for today boys and girls - Stop back in a few days for our next post. In the meantime go find a quiet spot and play some music, or better yet call some bands and do a jam session.

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

What if the Beatles NEVER existed??

What do you think music would be like if the Beatles never existed? What if Elvis, Elton John, Billy Joel, Madonna, Taylor Swift or [Insert Your Favorite Artist] never wrote or sang a single song? What if most of the artists you grew up listening while growing up never played a note?? Can you imagine never hearing those songs that meant so much to you? Can you imagine what living in a world without all the music we've ever loved would be like?? Well neither can we!!

Most of the musical history we love and cherish so much was created by people whose very first experience learning to play an instrument or sing was in school. I believe our entire musical history past, present and future depends on continuing to keep music alive in our schools and communities. We need to keep as much music and arts education in our schools as possible. If we fail to do so, then the quality of new music we hear will diminish over time as young creative minds are no longer nurtured and encouraged to create.

As part of our “Keep Music Alive” mission, we are publishing a book on May 1st entitled “88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life”. We are searching for inspirational music stories, anecdotes and quotes to include, and I was wondering if you might have a story or quote you’d like to share with the world? Our goal for “Keep Music Alive” is to raise the awareness of how important music is in all of our lives: educationally, therapeutically and our overall happiness. The book “88+ Ways” will help us spread this message with inspirational stories & quotes, highlights of recent research demonstrating the importance of music education plus tips for schools and communities trying to save or improve their music programs.

"88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life"

Here are some questions that may give you some ideas for a quote or story:

• Did music help get you through a difficult time in your life?
• As a musician/performer or audience member, did you witness a particular touching situation involving music?
• Was there a particular song, or artist, that strongly resonated and influencing you while growing up?
• Was a there a person in your life who influenced you with their music?
• Did you learn to play an instrument or take part in your school's band or chorus and how did this experience affect you?
• Was music used to help you during a type of therapy, either to motivate you or to "just get you through it"?

When you look back now, how do you think your life is different, or has changed, because of music?

For more information on the book and story submissions please visit www.lovesongs.com/keepmusicalive or simply visit LoveSongs.com and click on “Keep Music Alive”. Our story submission deadline is Feb 28th, 2015 so still plenty of time to have your musical story included in "88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life".

Please also LIKE our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/keepmusicalivemission and if you have questions about the book or mission you can email us at MusicStories (at) LoveSongs.com.

We hope you all have a great weekend and we'll be back on Sunday with another pppppost!

Music, Love & Happiness

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

UK Artist Rumer: "Access to music should be every child’s basic right"

Greetings and Happy New Year 2015 to one and all! We've got big plans this year for LoveSongs.com and our "Keep Music Alive" Mission including publishing our book "88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life" and the 1st Annual Teach Music America week coming this spring. We are still looking for inspirational music stories and quotes for the book, so if you've got something you'd like to share please visit www.lovesongs.com/keepmusicalive and let us know.

While researching for our mission, we recently came across an article about music education in the UK, and the title of the article really got our attention. It simply states: "Access to music should be every child’s basic right" and the quote came from UK singer-songwriter Rumer. Up to this point I had not been aware of her music, so I did some digging and really liked what I found. Her voice is eerily similar to Karen Carpenter ("We've Only Just Begun", "Close to You"), not a complete match fortunately, but with many of the same warm and beautiful qualities.

Rumer was speaking at the Westminster Education Forum which was an event held in the UK to discuss the future of music education. While there was much debate on the progress of improving music education and how best to continue, it was Rumer's comments that held the audience most captive. We at Keep Music Alive could not agree more. Every child no matter where they live or where they go to school should have the opportunity to be exposed to both music and music education. They should have the chance to learn how to play an instrument at an early age. Doing so would help open up their creativity in so many ways that would benefit both them and society later in life. We need to find a way to somehow make music and arts education an integral part of every childs education experience. When we finally do that, I believe we will be amazed at what the results for our world can be.

Here is the article from The Guardian that first introduced us to Rumer The Guardian - Access to Music Education is every Childs Basic Right. We also discovered another article where Rumer talks about her latest album and her adventure from the UK to California and what the change in scenery (and climate) have helped do for her and her music. Huffington Post - Rumer, California and Into Colour

Finally we'll leave you with an Album trailer for Rumer's new CD entitled "Into Coulour". I have to say I had not heard of an album trailer before (movie trailers yes), but it certainly sounds like a really good idea. Please take a look and listen to the latest musical works from Rumer including her song "Dangerous"' which has landed her once again on the UK Music Charts.

I hope your New Year has gotten off to great start...we'll be back soon with another post and more details about whats happening in 2015!

Music, Love & Happiness

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

500,000 Australian students sing "Paint You a Song"!

Last Thursday, October 30th, was a pretty awesome today for music education in Australia. At exactly 12:30 EDT, over 500,000 school students sang "Paint You a Song" in unison to support Music Education in Schools.

This event was created by an organization called Music: Count Us In which is a non-profit run by the Music Council of Australia with backing also from the Australian government. A review of Music Education in Australia completed in 2005 demonstrated the lack of meaningful music education in too many of the countries schools. Music: Count Us In was created to help push back the other way, offering resources to teachers, schools and communities to help offer better music training across the board to Australian students.

Music: Count Us In has been holding these events now for 7 years with each year getting bigger and stronger. This year over 500,000 (that's a half a Million) school students from 2100 schools in Australia will participate in the event. The song chosen to be sung is "Paint You a Song" which was written by 5 high school students from across Australia working with music industry mentor Harry James Angus, and Program Ambassador, John Foreman.

For more information on this excellent organization please visit www.MusicCountUsIn.org.au. Here are a couple of press articles from Australia about the event including some video clips from the event itself:

• Canberra Times - Matthew-Mitcham-Dives-in-to-Perform-With-Canberra-Schools
• Standard Net: South-West-Pupils-in-Harmony-with-the-Whole-of-Australia

It so wonderful and amazing to see this type of support form music in the land down under. We'll definitely be in contact with Music: Count Us In in the near future to see how we might learn from their successes to help improve music education here in the US.

That's all for today folks - hope you had a great Halloween weekend (twick or tweet) and don't eat too much candyyyyyy!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

If You Want Kids to Learn Music, First Teach Them How to Sing!

At first this might sound obvious. Kids and adults are always singing, at least the ones I hang around with are :) But when I stopped to really think about it, a lot elementary instrumental programs attempt to start kids off learning a musical instrument, when they haven't had any musical training at all yet. Learning the music basics (melody, rhythm, reading music) AND learning how to make an acceptable sound out of a trumpet, saxophone or (shudder) a violin, can be very difficult even for adults.

We all hear songs that we love to listen to and hum along to. If you start kids off learning how to sing some of their favorite songs, they will learn a lot about how to a musical phrase together, and about different types of melodies and rhythms. You can first start off with songs of the Sesame street variety when they are small (3-4 years old), and then graduate slowly to slightly more complicated songs (Nick Jr & Disney) by the time they are 6 or 7. This will gradually and eventually lead to them learning popular songs from the radio by the time they are 9 or 10 years old. Not the trashy songs from the radio mind you, but the ones that convey a positive message and are appropriate for kids. Believe it or not, there are still some great songs played on the radio every year that are appropriate for all ages. I'll run a separate post later this month and point out some of my favorite examples :)

We recently came across an article about award-winning conductor Richard Gill who is the driving force behind the National Music Teachers Mentorship Pilot Program now beginning in Australia. Core to Gill's program is a mentorship for music teachers by more experienced music teachers. The teachings are led with the philosophy that teaching kids how to sing first is a better when to introduce them to music. Here's a link to the full article on the ABC News website down under ABC News - Singing the Key to Teaching Children Music

All this talk of singing makes me remember a song written by Sesame Streets Joe Raposo and made popular by the Carpenters (top 5 hit in 1973) and by almost every character on Sesame Street over the years. Yes its "Sing" or as you may remember it "Sing a Song" - Check out this beautiful rendition of the "Sing" by the Carpenters

That's all for today folks - I'll be back soon with another post. In the meantime please consider teaching your little ones how to sing as soon as they can talk (maybe even get them humming sooner than that). You may be surprised how many other benefits they receive from this very early "musical" training!

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com
www.facebook.com/KeepMusicAliveMission

"Keep Music Alive" Visits the Lennon Bus in Springfield, PA

Each year, the John Lennon Education Tour Bus visits schools throughout the US to help elementary, middle school and high school students learn different ways to express their creativity. They teach them how to write songs, and then help them record those songs. Taking it one step further, they then help the students create a music video featuring their newly created song and the students that created it. My wife and I were very fortunate last week to be able to tour the Lennnon Bus while it visited E T Richardson Middle School in Springfield, PA as part of the Support Music Coalition and NAMM Best Communities for Music forum. The Lennon Bus itself is a technological wonder, with a full audio recording studio, full video recording & production suite plus living quarters for the three onboard engineers who literally live on the bus 10 months out of the year.

First we arrived for the "Support Music Coalition" forum that began at 8:30 AM in the school auditorium. The forum was a outstanding panel of folks including representatives from the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA), National Association of Music Merchandisers (NAMM) as well as music teachers and parents of music students. The panel also included the Superintendent of the host school district, Dr. James Capalupo, who is an outspoken supporter of music in schools with the quote "Support the arts, ALWAYS, cut the arts programs, NEVER". Dr. Capaulop is part of a growing trend of Superintendents across the country who started their own careers as music teachers.

The "Support Music" panel discussion centered around the benefits of music education in the schools, what it does for the students, both academically and for their confidence and social skills. The panel also touched on some ways that schools and communities can help with the arts programs in schools. One method that has been very helpful in the Springfield School district is the non-profit parent and alumni booster organization that helps rally the community with fundraisers and other activities to help keep the focus on the arts.

After the forum we headed outside into the light rain to wait for our turn to get the official Lennon Bus tour. There was a tent set up outside with music equipment including a full drum set, keyboard and guitar. I couldn't resist the opportunity to jump on the keyboard and I played a few songs with Bryce from the Lennon Bus keeping the beat on the drums. If my voice was awake that early in the morning I might have started to sing as well, but I'm pretty sure the frogs were still in session :)

After a brief wait, we jumped in on the last general tour of the bus before the students began to line up for their days activities. Peter, one of the 3 Lennon Bus engineers, then demonstrated some of the videos that the students had done, including a high school group with a polished, MTV-like quality to a fun and quirky music video done by an elementary school group - something about saving themselves from the "Land of the Stashes" in reference to mustaches and beards. This is the cutest video, and you can tell the kids had so much fun creating it. This was a story the kids made up all by themselves and the Lennon Bus team helped them create & record the song and then film a 3 minute music video to help tell the story. The resulting music video is colorful and entertaining and would be a big hit in any grade school classroom or even as a Nick Jr segue way in between shows.

Springfield's ET Richardson Middle School was previously chosen as one of the 500 schools in the nation to have the best music education support. Each of these schools was asked to submit a short video about "What Makes Music Education Great in Your School" for a chance to win a visit by the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. For more information on upcoming Support Music events and John Lennon Educational Tour Bus visits please visit SupportMusic.com and LennonBus.org . Here's the winning video sent in by E.T. Richardson Middle school which will then also play into videos that some different schools have created during their own visit by the Lennon Bus. Emjoy!

That's all for today folks - It's Music Monday and the Monday part is almost over - I'll be back in a few days with more musical fun and infotainment for you - Until then let the music play on!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Playing Music Will Make You Smarter - Yes its True!

It's been said by many that kids who play music will do better in school. A recent two year study accompanied with several years of observation by Los Angeles based non-profit The Harmony Project has demonstrated just how much music can make a difference. Before beginning the study, they began to notice that kids they were teaching music to were graduating high school at higher rates with many heading off to big universities like UCLA and Tulane. This was despite the fact that this same kids came from disadvantaged areas with the odds stacked against them. The Harmony Project began to study a test group of current students more closely over a two year period including measuring brain activity at various times during the study. To date the testing has shown that while one year of musical training doesn't appear to make much different, a marked improvement was definitely evident after two years. One remarkable statistic from the study showed that 90 percent of the students participating graduated from high school while only 50 percent of their same neighborhood peers did the same.

Here's an introductory video about the Harmony Project - Based on what I'm learning so far I would love to see a Harmony Project in every city in America. We'll have to do some searching to see what exists already and see how we can do our part to help expand this.

Like most studies about music and education, this was a rather small sampling of 44 students and many more studies like this need to be done all over the country and in different socio-economic areas. I am thinking however that when they do the results they find may very well indeed be similar and support what we have been saying: Music and arts training needs to be included in education if we really want our children to have the best chance at succeeding. I talk to countless folks who went to school in the 1950s-1960s and they tell me music instruction of some sort was actually a requirement for many. Compare this to today where its pretty much never a requirement and often not even an option.

Stay tuned as we continue to research more studies and learn as much as we can about all angles of how music and education are tied together. For now, here's the link to an ABC News story about the study, its a very worthwhile read: ABC News: Playing Music Helps Sharpen Kids Brains

RIP to Jimi Jamison

The music world was sad to learn of the sudden passing of one of rock's best known voices from the 1980s, Jimi Jamison from Survivor. Jimi sang on many of their trademark hits including "The Search is Over", "High On You", "I Can't Hold Back" and more. He took over the lead singing duties after Survivor made a name for themselves with "Eye of the Tiger" from the Rocky franchise. The lead singer at that time Dave Bickler had left the band for medical reasons and since then Dave and Jimi had both performed with Survivor at various times over the last 20 years.

I'll leave you with my favorite Survivor song with Jimi Jamison which is "The Search Is Over". Jimi: You and your voice will be missed!

I was living for a dream, Loving for a moment
Taking on the world, That was just my style
Now I look into your eyes, I can see forever
The search is over, You were with me all the while

I hope everyone's week is goin' great - I'm having a blast learning more about music, education and musical education altogether :) Have a great night and I'll be back tomorrow with another post!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Calling all Music Teachers - New and Experienced!

Are you a music teacher? Are you studying to be a music teacher? Do you know someone who is a music teacher or is studying to be one? Now we've got more hands up :) As we all know, the teaching profession in general has been hit very hard over the last few years with too many new graduating candidates and not nearly enough positions open (I've heard the ratio of applications per job opening is 200-300 to 1 in some instances). If you are a music teacher, I think the odds may even be more difficult when trying to land your first traditional teaching job. If that's the case you'll want to prepare early while going to school if you can to help better your chances of getting that first job. And then if you don't land that first traditional teaching job, being prepared will help you create your own job in the field that you love. That's right create your own job. Sometimes you do what you gotta do :)

I found this article today with called MajoringInMusic.com - 7 Things Music Education Majors can do to Make themselves more employable . Written by Dr. Deborah Sheldon, Music Education chair at Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance, it does a really good job of laying out a framework of things to consider as you move from your first years of college as a music major to your graduation. Some of the tips may seem obvious ("Be a great musician"), but you would be surprised at how many musicians aren't really at the level that will get kids and their parents to really notice. Another tip is "learn how to improvise". I can tell you first hand that I've met a lot of musicians over the years who can't play unless that have a piece of music in front of them. Not being able to improvise or play by ear will definitely limit your opportunities both in teaching and in the performing world. 5 more tips follow and perhaps the most important beyond thes efirst two is "learn to be entrepreneurial". That is learn to treat what your doing as a business (anybody ever hear of the music business?). Just like other trades, the better you are at handling the business aspects and the more creative you are at making your own opportunities, the more successful you will be hands down.

Perhaps the best part about this particular article is the comments and feedback left by readers mostly made up of other music educators. The breadth and depth of their experiences really help them to offer a multitude of pros and cons about their career and different scenarios of how to make it as a music teacher. If you teach music or you're going to school to teach music or you're just thinking about it, I encouragte you to read the article and comments right here - MajoringInMusic.com - 7 Things Music Education Majors can do to Make themselves more employable .

We'll definitely be exploring the subject of teaching music and careers in music much more as we expand our mission. If we're gonna get more kids and adults playing music we're absolutely gonna need more music teachers.

That's all for this week kiddies - have a great weekend and stop back tomorrow for the weekend edition of the Love Songs Blog - Part 1 :)

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #11 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission