Symposium 2014

Symposium is the awesome time of year when LPM teachers gather together to become better.  I. Love. It.  We attend workshops, laugh, PLAY, sing, be silly, stay up waaaaay too late, and listen to awesome speakers, just to name a few of the haps throughout our 3 day event.

Click on pic to enlarge

This was a room filled with so much talent it was ridiculous!  Our key note speaker on Saturday had all of us stand up and sing together.  Then little by little she had us break off into 4 parts (Solfeg Sea Friends - for those of you who are through the 2nd year)...  It was an AMAZING experience.  I may or may not have had a few tears come to my eyes.  Music is so powerful!  I heard and felt the passion of this room full of Let's Play Music teachers come together in this simple song.  I wish all of you could have heard and felt what I did.  Every year I feel honored to be among such amazing people!

Recital Week

It is time to show off everything we have leaned this year. Our recital will be taking place this Friday, April 25, 2014 at Faith United Church of Christ 1020 Walnut St, Windsor, CO 80550.

We have a slew of third year graduates who will be kicking off the night by playing compositions they wrote all by themselves.   Pretty amazing!  They will play from 5:30 - 6pm.

(Here is a sneak peak of one composition that was written.)

They will be followed by the first year students who will play bells, autoharps and sing about bugs!

Our second year students will show off everything they have learned about how to play songs on the keyboard.

We will finish up by listening to a few more 3rd year students perform their compositions for us.

I can't wait for the kids to show you how far they have come this year.

(This was us last year.  Look how much your kids have grown since last recital!)

Registration Coming Soon

Start thinking about registration for next fall - it is right around the corner.

To help your friends get an idea of how great Sound Beginnings and Let's Play Music are invite them to a current class or to a sample class!

Come try a sample class at the Loveland Library this week on Monday, March 3 at 10am or Thursday, March 6th at 10am.  We will be demonstrating our curriculum for Let's Play Music (starting at 4-6 yrs old) and Sound Beginnings (starting at 2-4 yrs old and their younger siblings).

We will also be at the Windsor Library in May.

During the first year of Let's Play Music we get to play tone bells...

...as well as learn how to strum an autoharp!

The second year is our keyboard prep year.  We begin to understand the layout of the keyboard and how to play chords and scales.

The third year of Let's Play Music is our keyboard mastery year.  We begin to play more complex songs with both hands and we get into some pretty deep theory concepts.

The culminating activity is for each student to compose their own piano piece for the recital!  It doesn't get any better than that!

Gift giving guide

Give the gift of music!

Many families have asked me for ideas of what to get their child for Christmas that will enrich their musical adventure.  In a blog post by LPM Making Musicians some great ideas are shared.  

One of my favorite ideas is for Grandma/Grandpa/Aunts/Uncles to give money to go towards tuition or write a check right to your teacher.  No more $5-10 gifts being broken the day of Christmas and going in the trash.  And score for you because you don't have to find a place for all those new toys that will never be played with!

Click HERE to read the entire article on "The Gift-Buying Guide for Musical Kids".

Sound Beginnings Registration

We have had so much fun this semester in Sound Beginnings!

We have played the gathering drum…

Learned how to point high and low on the staff...

Danced and laughed...

Twirled scarves...

Played sand blocks…

And made a new friend (lots of new friends).

We have had this much fun all while learning to listen with our ears, recognize letters of the alphabet, hear and say the sounds our letters amongst many other skills.

A new semester of Sound Beginnings is upon us. Sound Beginnings Gold Stars semester will be starting the beginning of January.  Don't miss out.  Now is the time to register!  Gold Stars will run from January to April.  Classes are offered on Mondays at 9am and 9:30am and Tuesdays at 9am and 9:30am.  Click HERE to register.

Sorry Kids...

Did you know…?

Music stimulates the mind, encourages creativity and helps to lay a foundation for learning that leads to higher intelligence and aptitude.

Preschoolers who studied piano performed 34% better in spatial and temporal reasoning ability than preschoolers who spent the same amount of time learning to use computers (Rauscher & Shaw. As reported in Neurological Research, February 1997).

Preschoolers who took singing and keyboard lessons scored 80% higher on object-assembly tests than students at the same preschool who did not have the music lessons (Rauscher & Shaw. As reported in Symphony, Sept.-Oct. 1996).

Listening to Mozart’s Piano Sonata K448 was found to significantly increase spatial scores of college students on IQ tests (Rauscher & Shaw. University of California as reported in Nature).

In a study of medical school applicants, 66% of the music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. Only 44% of the biochemistry majors were admitted (Lewis Thomas, as reported in the Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994).

The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians (Grant Venerable, The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989).

For the unborn child, classical music, played at a rhythm of 60 beats per minute, equivalent to that of a resting human heart, provides an environment conducive to creative and intellectual development (Dr. Thomas Veert, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child).

In 1994, it was reported by the college entrance examination board that students with coursework in music performance taking the university entrance exam (SAT) scored 49 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 36 points higher on the math portion than students with no course work or experience in the arts.

It has been shown that high school music students have higher grade point averages than non-music students do in the same school (from Time Magazine June 11, 1999).

"It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the rest of musical perception." - Albert Einstein on his Theory of Relativity.

Plato once said "...music is a more potent instrument than any other for education..." Now scientists know why. Music, they believe, trains the brain for higher forms of thinking. After eight months of musical training, 3 year olds were expert puzzle masters, scoring 80% higher than their playmates did in spatial intelligence – the ability to visualize the world accurately. This skill later translates into mathematical/conceptual and engineering skills.


Sorry kids but, music lessons make you SMARTER!

WE GOT TO ROUND 2!

Although some of you may already know, I wanted to enlist the help of all of you. :)  I have entered my business, Let's Play Music, into a contest called Small Business Big Game which is being put on by Intuit (the makers of Quickbooks, etc).  They are offering a small business the chance of a lifetime to get exposure for their business.  A commercial during the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl!  Plus a trip to New York during the Super Bowl for PR and promotional work as well.  Let's Play Music with Kim needs this!

During round 1 I had to tell about my business in 600 characters or less.  No small feat! Then people went on the site to vote for my company.  And surprisingly I made it through to round 2! 

During round 2 I need you to VOTE DAILY for my business.  I will be expanding my profile by answering some questions they have asked as well as producing a 90 second video.  This will all be happening before October 13th.  So, we have until October 13th to rack up as many votes as possible.  You can vote from your computer at school, computer at work, computer at home, iPad, iPod, phone, etc.  Each one counts as a vote for me.

Click on this link to vote: Let's Play Music with Kim


Let's Play Music with After October 13th Intuit will determine the top 20 businesses based on the scores tabulated from the video, questions, and public vote.  That is why I need your votes each and every day. 

Please share with your friends and family.  The more we can rally together the better chance I have.

Thanks so much for your support!  We can do this!

P.S.  You can also vote each day right from this page.  Just click the "vote" button on the right side!  Happy voting. :)