Making Music Matters-

Why Mozart Won’t Help You

by Chris Loeffler

“Music makes you smarter”, is an idea that has been core to the lexicon of our society, especially by parents ready to raise the next generational genius who is going to elevate and enlighten mankind, leading civilization to a new age of peace and interconnection, where the sins of the past are wiped away. So you buy “Baby Mozart” and play it in the nursery every time your infant child sleeps, magically growing their intellect while you skulk away, hoping your exit won’t disturb them so you can reward your efforts with a much-needed glass of (fill in the blank). Parenting!

Except, Mozart isn’t going to make your baby smart. At least, that’s what science says.

Somewhere along the way, the benefits of listening to music (especially classical, jazz, or anything that isn’t “easy to listen to”) became interchangeable with the concept of learning and instrument and being able to perform a song. While there have been many studies showing immediate, one-time boosts to creativity or output when a task is completed listening to classical music, there has been exactly zero evidence that listening to music results in long-term growth. Oh, and classical music performs as well (or poorly) as a Stephen King audio book, depending on the person. Turns out it’s likely the fact that someone enjoys the background input that gives them a temporary boost, not how angular and complex a musical arrangement is.

Music appreciation courses that have been tracked by all credible university studies confirm zero correlation between any enhancement in the fields of science or mathematics.

So what gives?

Turns out one of the most frustrating adages around holds true… you have to work for what you want. The false positives and anecdotal wunderkind used to prop up the “listening to classical music makes you a smarter person” argument had something else going on that researchers apparently didn’t take into account: they had learned or were learning an instrument.

Woodshedding...those painful first few months (or years) where hardly a pleasing note can be produced, where all concepts of rhythm and song structure get throw out in the service of just getting the fingering right to play to darned chord, and the concept of stepping outside of the sheet music is unthinkable. These are the things that slowly teach us symmetry, timing, intervals, and patterns (hurray, Math and Science!).

So, yeah… turns out parents looking to boost their infant’s chances of getting into that exclusive Charter school in five years are going to need more than an audio playback device and recording of songs written hundreds of years ago. They’ll actually need to teach (or at least encourage) their children to play an instrument to extract the intrinsic benefits music offers beyond immediate inspiration (not that there’s anything wrong with that!).

Make the commitment to making music a part of your child’s life...because Mozart isn’t going to do it for you.

Join the conversation in the Open Jam forums!

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Chris Loeffler is a multi-instrumentalist and the Content Strategist of Harmony Central. In addition to his ten years experience as an online guitar merchandiser, marketing strategist, and community director he has worked as an international exporter, website consultant and brand manager. When he’s not working he can be found playing music, geeking out on guitar pedals and amps, and brewing tasty beer. 

Music Mentors

Who helped you make better music?

by Dendy Jarrett

As you read about music gear and articles about how to make better music (at Harmony Central), stop and consider not just how much you don't know, but more importantly, how much you do know – because you may be selling yourself short as to how you can use your talents.

Most of us have had someone, or multiple people, who has mentored us along our musical journey. If you love playing the blues, it would be hard to discount the influence of B.B. King or Stevie Ray Vaughan or a myriad other swampy blues guitarists. While not teachers in the traditional sense, these were "virtual music mentors" even before there was such a thing as “virtual.”

I can look back and trace a line of the people who have mentored me. I grew up in a small town and we had the same band director from 4th grade through 12th grade. There really isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t recall something that Mr. Jim Mills taught me. And that mentoring carried over into everyday life. It wasn’t just a musical influence; it was life lessons, problem solving, leadership, tenacity, believing in oneself...the list could go on.

You may think of yourself as a musician, but whether you're aware of it or not, you're also a music mentor. When you play with other musicians, you can't help but communicate what you've learned – while you learn from how others play their music.

My Keep Music Alive article discussed how sharing music is what makes music immortal. Similarly, being a music mentor helps keep music alive as well. And it doesn’t matter if you're into renaissance period baroque or 1980s death metal—the notes are the same (but that’s another article for another day).

There are so many ways you can be a music mentor: From sharing your music, helping a kid be inspired to play the guitar, volunteering with your child's band booster club, teaching lessons, and of course, posting on Harmony Central's forums.

So, if you haven’t thought about mentoring lately, and this article reminded you of who mentored you, reach out to them and say thank you for the impact they had on your life. Then take the next step: pay it forward.

PS: If someone was a mentor to you, please join the discussion at Harmony Central.

PSS: If you haven't signed up for our bi-weekly e-zine, Make Better Music, please do so on the upper right corner of our home page.

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Dendy Jarrett is the Publisher and Director of Harmony Central. He has been heavily involved at the executive level in many aspects of the drum and percussion industry for over 25 years and has been a professional player since he was 16. His articles and product reviews have been featured in InTune Monthly, Gig Magazine, DRUM! and Modern Drummer Magazines.

Ten Reasons Marching In Band Makes You A Better Person

Perseverance in the face of adversity...and polyester

by Ms. Kruse

1. You become a doer.

While most of your other classes just involve listening or observing, band teaches you to do.  You learn how to perform, how to be flexible, and how to communicate and cooperate with others across groups: Exactly what you need to succeed in any company or organization.

2. Your brain grows.

Learning music helps develop the areas of the brain involved in language and reasoning, but it also teaches students how to think creatively and solve problems. Studies also show a link between music and spatial intelligence, which is vital for solving all types of things—from mathematics to how to efficiently pack up a moving van. It’s no wonder that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests  and also achieve higher grades.

3. You develop self-esteem through self-expression.

giphy.com

Ah, expressing oneself in high school…So much black lipstick. So many chain wallets. No, learning music doesn’t mean you bypass all the crimes against fashion, but it does give you a more meaningful outlet to express yourself—through music.  You can learn sad songs, you can learn ‘80s pop songs, you can play Phantom of the Opera tunes alone in your room ad nauseam. Self-expression builds self-esteem at a time in one’s life when you really need it. Entering adulthood with healthy self-esteem benefits you in every way possible and sets you up for future success.

4. You learn the value of community.

Regardless of their dorky reputation, it’s obvious to high school creatures of every stripe that band kids are having more fun than you.  The way they congregate in the halls….their wacky inside jokes…the ruckus of the band room just before class. Band kids STICK TOGETHER and definitely seem a little bit kinder than the other cliques. This closeness and sense of community may be the first kids experience outside of their families. It’s a powerful feeling that sets them up for building and being a part of other communities throughout the rest of their lives.

5. You appreciate music.

Studying music isn’t just about learning how to play scales and memorize notes.  It’s also a lesson in history, culture, and art movements that you wouldn’t otherwise receive from regular curriculum, or at least not this hands-on. Band turns kids into well-rounded adults who have a richer worldview, are more interesting to talk to at parties, and always have the best classical music playlists.

6. You learn how to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

giphy.com

There’s no “I” in “BAND”!  Being a member of the band teaches you how to work within a group to achieve a higher goal.  You learn the value of teamwork and how your contribution matters as much as everyone else’s. Not practicing just might let your section down.  You must pull your own weight for the good of the group.  Perfect training for the workplace, or being part of a family.

7. You’re more humble.

Because marching band uniforms.  Everyone from the hotties in percussion to the flute section ladies look like hell in that much polyester. This levels the playing field for teens during a very self-conscious time in their lives.

8. You learn how to work hard and persevere.

Band directors don’t tolerate tomfoolery in the band room, nor will let you hide out and let the rest of your section cover up the fact that you never practice.  You have to behave; you have to buckle down; and you have to practice to really learn the music.  Band teaches you to stay focused despite distractions in order to achieve your goals.

9. You have stamina.

giphy.com

There’s something about marching in those uniforms that absolutely don’t breathe, while lugging a large piece of metal in the sweltering early September heat, that requires some serious stamina.  It’s all about that sustained effort in the face of adversity. It ain’t easy, but hanging out after the game sure can be fun.  Marching band proves that the rewards of hard work are undeniable, but only if you’ve got what it takes.

10. You’re no stranger to sacrifice.

Back in band, you gave up basically every Friday night to play at sporting events.  You sacrificed after school shenanigans to go practice or take private lessons. You gave up crucial locker space (and coolness points) to your giant instrument case. You gave up weekends to attend regional music competitions on the road. Band turns kids into adults who don’t balk at giving up small comforts for a larger prize.

Marching Band members past and present: How have you grown from being in band? Share on Harmony Central.

Reprinted with express written permission of the author and Retale Perspectives

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Ms. Kruse is the senior creative content writer at Retale Perspectives and brings more than a decade of copywriting and journalism experience to the blog. Her primary curiosities include women in the workplace, technology, and cats in sweaters.

Is it a sign of the times?

by Paige Tutt, MMR Associate Editor

 "This generation has no Elvis, no Jerry Lee Lewis, no Buddy Holly... All these artists and groups, and scores more like them, inspired generations to pick up guitars, and keyboards, and drums, and horns to make music... You can’t play rap or hip hop on any solo instrument; it’s impossible." 

Daily newspapers, magazines, works of literature printed on paper, greeting cards, graphic artists, the corner quick print shop – these are just a few areas being adversely affected by the age of the Internet. Also struggling to maintain a foothold in today’s climate? Sheet music. Tredwell’s Music Centre of Winnipeg, Manitoba – which was referred to by the Winnipeg Free Press as “perhaps the last retailer in North America to sell strictly sheet music for instruments of all kinds” – closed its doors this past summer. The brick and mortar location has closed, however their online presence remains intact. Tredwell’s connection to Winnipeg, according to current owner Peter Sarmatiuk, can be traced quite clearly to 1933, when Western Music of Vancouver established a branch store managed by Tom and Sadie Tredwell. “They had recently arrived from England,” explains Sarmatiuk. “Tom and Sadie bought the branch in 1956 and renamed it at that time. The Rennie family owned the store for a brief period from 1970 to 1975 and the Sarmatiuk family has owned and operated it from 1975 to present.”

Sarmatiuk has quite a few accomplishments that he’s proud of achieving over the past 40 years. He has spawned three successful music retailers across Canada: Canadian Choral Centre in Winnipeg; Grenata Music in Ottawa, Ontario; and Cobb/Swanson Music in Regina, Saskatchewan. Tredwell’s was the first Canadian music operation, either retail or wholesale, to use toll-free phone ordering in 1978, and was also the first retailer to offer snake-coil bookbinding as an option to customers. Tredwell’s has been the only Canadian music retailer to offer customers the option to trade in an old book for a new one, and has a unique website devoted solely to out-of-print music books and sheets.

At the heart of the matter, one can only wonder what was it that damaged the print music industry so pervasively? “I think it’s impossible to answer this without sounding whiny,” says Sarmatiuk. “Starting in the ‘60s we all thought photocopying would be the death of the print music industry… little did we know what lurked in the ether. Photocopying was just a body blow. The Internet was the knockout punch. Keep in mind that print music is dying alongside others in the world of the printed word/note; daily newspapers, magazines, literature, greeting cards, graphic artists, the corner quick print shop.”

"Photocopying was just a body blow...the Internet was the knockout punch."

While Sarmatiuk doesn’t have a solution, he does have some sort of an idea of another culprit to blame for the slow death of print – rap and hip hop. “I love rap and hip hop,” says Sarmatiuk. “The problem for the music industry as a whole is that it has turned music into a spectacle. The auditory side of things, the actual music making, has become a very secondary factor to all the visual effects viz. fireworks, laser light shows, dancing, video screens. As a result kids are not being triggered into wanting to play actual musical instruments. This generation has no Elvis, no Jerry Lee Lewis, no Buddy Holly, no Chuck Berry, no Eric Clapton, no Chicago, no Elton John, no Billy Joel, no Beatles, no Eagles, no Phil Collins. All these artists and groups, and scores more like them, inspired generations to pick up guitars, and keyboards, and drums, and horns to make music. The impact of rap and hip hop on print music specifically is even more drastic. You can’t play rap or hip hop on any solo instrument; it’s impossible. Here is a huge area of the pop music world that translates into absolutely zero sheet music or music book sales. Sorry, I don’t have a solution, only an observation. It is my belief, however, that evolution will take care of it. It’s just a question of how many millions of years it will take.” 

The closing of Tredwell’s marks the end of an era, but Sarmatiuk has plenty to keep him busy. “To date, we have 5,800 books and sheets logged on our website,” explains Sarmatiuk. “There are about 100 banker’s boxes containing tens of thousands of out-of-print books and sheets to be added. This will occupy some of my ‘downtime,’ but I am advised by absolutely everyone who has retired before me that my time will be filled with all sorts of non-musical things… more time with my wife Gwen and our new granddaughter, London, will definitely be a must.” 

Used with the express written permission of MMR Magazine (Musical Merchandise Review)                                                       

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Paige Tutt is an Associate Editor with MMR Magazine. She has a Master's in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College in Boston, MA. and received her Bachelor's degree in English, General Literature, and Rhetoric from SUNY Binghamton.

The marching band was banned …

This past week one hard-working, long-rehearsing, and sun-baked high school band got benched by a Federal Judge for allegedly having a hymn as part of their half-time show repertoire (although it wasn’t even a hymn…more on this later).

The ruling from U.S. District Judge, Carlton Reeves stated: “Defendants are permanently enjoined from including prayer, religious sermons, or activities in any school-sponsored event including but not limited to assemblies, graduations, award ceremonies, athletic events and any other school event. This means administrators, teachers and staff of the Rankin County School District may not participate in any religious activity, or solicit or encourage religious activities at school or while performing duties as a RCSD employee.”

Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m all for separation of church and state—render unto Caesar, and all that. But with all the issues facing us that need to be addressed, do we really need a federal injunction to stop a high school band in Mississippi from playing “How Great Thou Art”?

And it was going to be an instrumental version, so this isn’t a hymn anyway—it’s by definition an anthem, because it’s an assembly of notes on a page to form a piece of music. What defines a grouping of notes as a hymn are the words that accompany it. However, the band wasn’t planning on singing the hymn.

Now, there’s no dispute that “How Great Thou Art” has religious overtones. But so do pieces of Bach. What’s next, no studying of Bach’s brilliant harmonies because he was the church organist and wrote much of his music as an homage to God? And while I can’t imagine any high school band playing John Coltrane’s “Ascension,” he often played to a higher power. How many times does Prince, a Jehovah’s Witness, mention God in his music? David Bowie’s Buddhism has been a big influence on his songs. Are we going to have to start parsing all music just in case there are religious references in there somewhere? Some people think Taylor Swift’s “Eyes Open” references Scripture. Well, does it? I have no idea.

Listen, people, it’s music—which is primarily a form of entertainment. Entertainers get their inspiration from a variety of sources. What’s next? Should this year’s Drum Corps International’s Second Place Winners, Carolina Crown, have been banned because their closing piece was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and there is also a hymn, "Ode to Joy,"  set to the same music?

It’s really time to lighten up. This kind of stunt simply distracts from real problems. I’d much rather that the government take a long, hard look at copyright law in the digital era. Or why companies get away with not paying royalties…or clarifying laws like the Lacey Act (hello, Gibson!) where it’s hard for companies to know whether they’re violating the law or not.

It’s a shame that a band wasn’t allowed to play a simple piece of music. If I had the funds, I’d tell them to play the song and pay the $10,000 fine myself. No one should be banned from musical expression, especially when in the end it’s all about giving people a little bit of joy in their lives—courtesy of music.

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Dendy Jarrett is the Publisher and Director of Harmony Central. He has been heavily involved at the executive level in many aspects of the drum and percussion industry for over 25 years and has been a professional player since he was 16. His articles and product reviews have been featured in InTune Monthly, Gig Magazine, DRUM! and Modern Drummer Magazines.

Woodwind & Brasswind Contributing Writer – Greg Vail

There are so many names we could mention in classical and jazz, but I am going to focus on the big name, popular saxophonists of their day and look at how they helped develop the saxophone players of our generation.

The history of the saxophone is pretty short. It was invented in the early 1840’s by a Belgian instrument maker named Adolph Sax. The saxophone was first included in military bands, classical music in the French tradition, and later, jazz which was the pop music of the early 20’s.

1873 marks the first military band in the US with saxophone players.

1885 the first saxophone was built in U.S. Buescher

1901 is the year we find Elise Hall’s first recording in the classical tradition.

The saxophone had deep roots by the 1920’s with a popular sensation, Rudy Wiedoeft and Sidney Bechet in the US, and classical icon, Marcel Mule, propelling the saxophones popularity in classical music. By the mid 1920’s the saxophone was heard in wind bands, classical, chamber and orchestral compositions began to grow in popularity and rival the popular sounds of the music world.

We can all thank Rudy Wiedoeft and Kenny G for being current bookends in the saxophone player hit parade. But, there are so many others that helped raise awareness along the way and became musical heroes in their own right.

The big band era in the 30’s brought many sax players to the forefront. Johnny Hodges played alto sax with Ellington for years and is considered to be one of the greatest section and solo saxophonists of that era. His big fat sound was featured on many prominent recording with Ellington and many of his own recordings. And Coleman Hawkins developed a more aggressive sound on his tenor sax, carving out interesting solos with a little more advanced harmonic vocabulary thru the swing era and into bebop.

Lestor Young was a great transitional saxophonist as well. Saxophone became the sound of jazz in the 40’s. Lestor had a big sound and a sweet, swing ease about his playing. He influenced so many of the new bebop players like Parker, Cannonball and beyond.

Charlie Parker was probably my first real influence. Parker was lightning fast in his approach and the lines he created when composing and taking solos were interesting and harmonically advanced. Much of jazz today has been affected by Parker’s creativity and virtuosity.

The 50’s marked a very different set of changes in American music. The Rock and Roll era had begun and jazz left its rule on what was considered pop and dance music in our culture. The sounds that began coming out of the saxophone really changed a lot too, and much of this can be attributed to John Coltrane. His cascades of sound took jazz to a new level of complexity and followed the jazz tradition with a harmonic complexity that was revolutionary in jazz. I believe Coltrane was the most significant sax player of his time and influenced more modern jazz musicians than any other saxophonist.

Many of today’s jazz musicians include John Coltrane as a primary influence. Sax greats like Bob Berg, Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, Kenny Garrett, Jerry Bergonzi, and Michael Brecker all have clear musical roots back to Coltrane and even Parker. Today’s modern saxophonist have simply extended and built upon the traditions of all that preceded them.

The late, great, Michael Brecker is probably the most influential saxophonist of our era. Brecker infused hard bop, post-bop and modern pop music into a exciting blend of aggressive, highly advanced music, that integrated today’s electronic instrumentation, without leaving all the decades of tradition that preceded. He covered all styles with a level of saxophone virtuosity that was beyond what anyone else had developed. Brecker left behind a legacy of jazz and commercial pop music.

There are so many sax players that should be mentioned, but these are the few that have had great impact on many. The modern pop or smooth jazz guys are many. Grover Washington Jr., John Klemmer, David Sanborn and Kenny G continue to inspire a new generation of contemporary jazz players in a tradition that goes back thru so many greats on the saxophone. We all have benefited from the investments and advancements these ‘greats’ have given.

Woodwind & Brasswind is proud to offer high-quality musical saxophone straps and accessories for all musicians. All items are backed by The Woodwind & Brasswind's 60-day satisfaction guarantee, assuring that you'll love your purchase.

Los Angeles based freelance saxophonist Greg Vail is among the most versatile woodwind players on the west coast. His work in jazz, pop and contemporary gospel music spans over 30-years. Greg maintains an active digital presence at www.gregvail.com

While Woodwind & Brasswind compensates writers for their editorial reviews, the views expressed by the writers in those reviews are their own.