Let Your Kids Study Music - says Forbes!

The folks who write for and read Forbes Magazine generally know a thing or two about succeeding in our highly competitive world, and a recent Forbes article trumpets the cause of allowing, wait, encouraging kids to study music. We're not talking just having kids play music while they are growing up, but encouraging them to study music in college say instead of generally more preferred careers like engineering, computer science, math and other STEM subjects.

The article talks about how we really need to let our kids follow their own path and if that path happens to be music then absolutely encourage them. A little known fact is that many kids that go to school for music eventually end up in other highly successful careers like lawyers, doctors, scientists and more. It's very interesting, because most of us myself included always thought that going to school for music meant a lifetime of either teaching music or trying to scratch out a living as a touring musician living forever on the road. It turns out that many of these kids going to college for music are also some of the smartest and motivated kids there. After their well-rounded 4 years of liberal arts education, many go on to advanced degrees or sometimes end up in highly sought after positions in business and banking. This realization definitely aligns with what I have always said. It doesn't matter where you go to school or often even what you go to school for. It's what you know, what you're willing to learn and your ability to network and strive to be better that will be the ultimately be the deciding factor in your success.

I have to say this article caught my attention because it brought me back a few decades to when I was deciding where I wanted to go to college and for what major. I had my heart and mind set on going to West Chester University to study music, however the folks at home gently swayed me toward what they thought was a more practical course: engineering. At this point I would never go back and change the path I took, simply because it gave me the interactions and ultimately the beautiful family that I have today (although incidentally I met my beautiful wife through music many years after college). I do however occasionally ponder for just a moment what my life would have been like if I had gone to college for music instead of engineering. We'll never know, but what I do know is that for my children I will absolutely encourage them to follow their dream path whatever it may be. Follow your passion with all of your heart, might and soul and see where it leads.

Here's a link to this very interesting and informative article by writer Liz Ryan for Forbes Magazine:

Let the Kid Study Music, Already! Forbes Magazine

I'll leave you with this picture of an incredible piano & violin shaped building in China - apparently you enter the main piano shaped building via an elevator in the violin. Boy would I love to visit this place :)

Have a great day everyone and stop back tomorrow for another post - yep I'm gonna try and go for two in a row!!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. LoveSongs.com is looking for YOUR Music Story - "How Has Music Changed YOUR Life??" - For more information please visit www.LoveSongs.com/keepmusicalive

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

Taylor Swift says "Shake it Off" but I just can't do it!

If you haven't noticed already, Taylor Swift's new song "Shake It Off" has been inescapable - Every where I turn the song is being played again and again. I first heard it when my daughter was listening to it, and I was like "is that Taylor Swift's new song? Don't tell me you actually LIKE that song!" I asked her. Now before all you Taylor Swift fans get up and protest, I have been a big Taylor Swift supporter for years, simply for the fact she has come out with a multitude of really great pop tunes. There was "Teardrops on my Guitar", "Our Song", "Should've Said No", "Love Story", "You Belong With Me", "I Knew You Were Trouble" and I probably missed a few. Whether or not she wrote or co-wrote all of these songs I don't know, but I do know that she has remained a star all these years because she consistently released quality songs (if your a pop song fan you can't deny this!).

When I first heard "Shake it Off", it immediately struck me as the type of song that a new artist would NEVER get radio to play let alone put it in rotation. It's a great idea for a song, but the melodies are just second rate at best. Does anybody remember what a "B" side is? That's the flip side to the "A" side on an old 45 vinyl single and its the "A" side that's the hit. I'm afraid to say that "Shake it Off" in my opinion is definitely a "B" side. Tonight I forced myself to listen again, just trying to be as objective as I could and the result was the same. Good beat, great lyrical concept, but melodies, melodies melodies need some work. Oh well I tried :) If you haven't heard this yet (probably not possible :)) please take a listen yourself here and let me know your thoughts:

I also came across a good article explaining why "Shake it Off" is such a big hit (and just how big a hit it is already after less than two weeks). I can't argue with the logic they present: "Shake if Off" is a huge hit simply because Taylor Swift is probably the biggest pop star on the planet right now. I can only hope that she has more pop gems in her pocket to share with us, because this phenomena won't last forever unless she can bring some of that magic back. Here's a link to the article Slate Magazine - How "Shake it Off" became a HUGE hit!

Before I go today I'll leave you with one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs called "You Belong with Me" - no doubt about it its just a great song and deserved every bit of the attention it got!

Today is new Blog Day #2 - Stop back tomorrow when we try to make it Blog Day #3 - Getting back up on the horse and riding again is funnn!

Music, Love & Happiness,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Tell us your Story about how Music changed YOUR Life!

LoveSongs.com wants to know how music changed your life, whether as a child or some time as an adult. What specific song or artists helped you get through a particularly difficult time in your life and why? We are compiling your original quotes, anecdotes and stories about how music has affected you.

Many of us already know how important music is to our lives: The educational value, the therapeutic value and how music makes us a much happier society. Imagine what our lives would be like if the Beatlesor Elvis never existed, if Michael Jackson, Billy Joel or Elton John never wrote a song or sang a note, or Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones (or insert your favorite artist) never picked up a guitar and began to play. Can you even imagine this? Well unfortunately I can foresee a future where there is no new quality music because of the continuing de-emphasis of music and arts in our schools and the general devaluing of music in our society (when was the last time you bought a CD or purchased an MP3 download)?

We are looking for your stories to include in our blog and a book about "how music can change your life" to be published in the spring of 2015. If you have a quote, anecdote or story you would like to share with the world about why music is so important to you and how it changed your life, then please hop on over to www.LoveSongs.com/keepmusicalive where you'll find a link to be able to send us your story. Each quote or story that is included in our blog or in the book will entitle you to a complimentary copy of the book when it is published. Even more importantly you'll be sharing your music story with the world which will greatly help in our mission to let the world know what music really means to us.

That's all for today kiddies - I'll be back with another post tomorrow as we resume our daily posting now that the "Summer Love & Music" Tour has finally come to a close. Have a great night and will see ya very soon!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

"Summer Love & Music" Tour - Now in its Final Leg!!

So when I say final leg, I'm not talking about a leg of lamb or not even a chicken leg :) All I'm saying is that this is the last week of our "Summer Love & Music" Tour and its been an incredibly inspirational month. I'll recap the whole month and tour in another post when its over, but for now I'll say its been 20 amazingly fun performances so far playing to kids from 1 to 92 (actually I think some were closer to 100 years old). Seeing how playing music for people young and old makes them light up has been such an amazing feeling. It constantly reminds me of why I am on this new mission to help people remember how important music is in all of our lives!

If you're local to the Philadelphia area I invite you to join us for some of our final dates on the tour which include:

• Thursday August 28th (Noon) at The Bourse, Philadelphia/PA
• Friday August 29th (8 PM) at The Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore/PA
• Saturday August 30th (Noon) at Barnes & Noble, Plymouth Meeting/PA
• Sunday August 31st (7 PM) at Coffee Works,Voorhees/NJ

The show this Friday night(8/29) at the Ardmore Music Hall is going to be a very special event and will feature 7 incredibly talented artists on the bill ( okay maybe just 6 incredibly talented artists plus me :)). We've got 12 year old Valerie West singing today's pop tunes like she was already a star, 15 year old Brooke Falls bringing Broadway tunes to the stage and if you close you're eyes you'll really think you're there and 17 year old Kelsey Coan will get your Country music engine started like nobody's business. Then we move on to the over-18 performers who wish were still under 18 and we've got Kim Edwards who was a finalist in the Philly Songwriters Project contest this year, Jeff Twardzik who has a male country voice like no other and who has opened for many country stars including Diamond Rio, John Michael Montgomery, Lee Ann Womack, Dwight Yoakam and more and then Leigh Goldstein whose songs, beautiful bass voice (I still think he's a baritone) and his funny comedy on stage will leave you laughing out loud and smiling on the inside (money back guarantee on this one!). Somewhere in the middle of the show I'll also be doing my Love Songs thing, whenever I'm not emceeing or playing stage hand to make sure we finish on time (you know us musicians we love to be on time!).

So if you live in the Philadelphai region (and you're reading this before this weekend :)) definitely try to come out for the show. It promises to be a fun night of music and community with friends, fans and family alike with so many musicians in attendance as well.

I'll be back on Wednesday with another post promoting Music Empowers which happens to be one of my favorite Music Education Foundations.

Peace, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

"Summer Love & Music" Tour in FULL SWING!"

Our Summer Love & Music Tour is now in full swing - To date we've done 10 performances so far including stops at bakeries, diners, coffee houses, nursing homes and one incredible gig at The Bourse down at Independence Mall in Philadelphia. Come to think of it all of the shows were incredible as we got a very positive response every where we have gone. The Bourse was just a little extra fun as we had tourists from all over the world taking pictures and videos of the 4 performers on that day and sharing it with their side of the world. To learn more about where we'll be next in the Philadelphia area this month (and beyond) please click on KEEP MUSIC ALIVE at LoveSongs.com

It seems everywhere we go I'm reminded of how important our mission is. In some instances people seem to have forgotten what its like to hear live music (or is it possible that perhaps they've never experienced). Once they realize that the music they are hearing is LIVE in person they are like WOW this is really cool. I can honestly say we are just in the beginning phase of whats going to be a lifetime mission to reawaken the world to the importance of music, live music, pre-recorded music, country, R&B, pop, rock, ALL kinds of music!

Last 4 weeks was especially crazy in my world, hence why no new Blog entries. We'll be trying to post every day again going forward - wish us luck and as Shannon said way way back - "LET THE MUSIC PLAY"!!!

Peace, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Ed Sheeran & BBC/1XTRA - is it time to drop the "Urban" label for music?

1XTRA, a BBC radio station that describes itself as the new black music network, recently named its top 20 most important artists in the UK over the last 12 months. The big "surprise" of course is that there are several non-black artists throughout the list including a very talented Ed Sheeran holding down the #1 spot. This of course has many in the black music community up in arms with many black artists were left off the list in favor of Sheeran and several others including Jessie J, Disclosure, DJ Fresh and Rita Ora.

Personally I think the real problem is that we still find it necessary to give color labels to music at all. In the USA, do we call basketball and football urban sports just because they appear to be dominated by black players? And if we did what would we label hockey and baseball, the later which of course has many black players.

My point is why do we let music still be defined by labels such as urban that suggest skin color? There are so many other words that can be used to describe music, many themselves that often lend themselves to one color or another (country, rap, R&B). But thes "music style" labels can appropriately be tagged to music that is that style. Labels like Urban no longer make sense to be used in my opinion, no more than we should call it "black music" or "white music". Music is music people and yes there are many styles and all of those styles are played by people of all different colors. If we really want to end prejudice in our world someday, we're going to have to stop calling music black or white and simply call it by the style it is.

If you'd like to take a peek at the 1Xtra list yourself here ya go: 1XTRA Power List - Most important UK Artists

This next article by The Guardiangives its own take on the list and how it believes having Ed Sheeran top the list is not the lists biggest problem. In there opinion the list shouldn't be limited to artists because there are too many in the music business world that would be perceived by many as "more important" or "more influential" than the artists. I see where they are coming from, but hey its supposed to be a list about artists - Consumers don't generally care about the people behind the scenes, no matter how important or influential they may be. We want to talk about the artists themselves and that's what the list is about.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jul/14/ed-sheeran-not-biggest-problem-1xtra-power-list

While we're on the topic of Ed Sheeran, here is the video for his latest song "Sing". As a lover of pop music its a really good song but not something that makes me want to jump up and down (and definitely not something I can sing along too). He did take "Sing" all the way to #13 on the Billboard chart and to #1 in the UK and Australia AND Sheeran demonstrates some crazy awesome vocal skills on the track.

That's all she wrote for today - will be back tomorrow with another view on our favorite topic: MUSIC!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #14 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission