Attention Current LPM 2nd year parents (current yellow arrows students): Mandatory parent orientation meeting is coming up this month on Tuesday, February 25th. Because success in Let's Play Music is better if parent has attended the parent orientation meeting, I offer 2 times: 12:00 noon and 8:30pm. At this meeting you will be learning how to register for your classes online and how to participate in 3rd year most effectively. You will need my registration code to complete this New and EFFICIENT registration online (it is SLICK!). The registration/studio fee is the only fee you pay to me to register for Lets play Music. My Studio fee is $30 for keyboard years and $20 for 1st years with a Family Studio Fee (2 or more children $45) and is due at the parent orientation meeting. Once the registration or studio fee is paid, I am then allowed to give you my access code. Materials fees are separate moving forward and will be paid to Let's Play Music online and materials will be delivered to the teacher. You will receive your CD's a few weeks before class begins and student booklets and piano song books will be handed out the 1st day of class: Thursday, August 14 2014. Looking forward to this new process!

Frozen helps out LPM teachers

So the movie Frozen, hit theaters with a bang! As I sat laughing and totally entertained, I couldn't help think of how easily I would be able to weave 'Building a Snowman', into my Orange Roots classes. We Build Snowman in Music all the time! Ask any Orange Root Student how to play The Red Chord and what it looks like and they will tell you "SNOWMAN!!!" That is what teaching Let's Play Music is all about: having fun while teaching about musical concepts and skills in the most creative ways and then students, in turn, have fun while they are learning! I love building Snowmen!!!

childhood music lessons improves brain function as we age!

this study was sent to me by Claire Westlake, a private piano teacher that is a lets play music connections certified teacher in Mesa.

Study Links Childhood Music Lessons With Better Brain Function in Older Adults

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

April 22, 2011 -- Learning to play a musical instrument as a child may help keep the mind sharp for years after the last note is played.
A new study suggests childhood music lessons may improve brain function and combat the effects of aging on the brain.
Researchers found older adults who took music lessons as a child performed better on memory and brain function tests than those who never learned how to read music or play an instrument.
The benefits of childhood music lessons on brain function were still evident decades later even if they never played music again as adults. But the study suggests the longer the participants played an instrument, the bigger the benefits may be.
"Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging," says researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, PhD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center, in a news release. "Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older."

thank you 3rd years for makin my 40th a day to remember

My husband involved my 3rd year students in on a surprise during class time as i taught on my birthday. He had Slaton hide out on the front porch and give each child a flower and something with the 40 party to wear while i taught. each child graciously took on this task and presented me with flowers, which have not died yet; and party stuff that i had to wear while i taught my lessons. it was a fun day to remember for sure! i am really glad they got to be a part of it...this is my Thanks to them!!!!

Why MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS CONT.

5. Music is a Foreign Language
Most of the terms are in Italian, German or French, and the notation is certainly
NOT English,but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to
represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal
Language!

6. Music is Art\
It allows a human being to take all accumulated knowledge and skill and use it to
create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate: Humanism, feeling,
emotion, call it what you will.

THAT IS WHY WE TEACH MUSIC!!!
not because we expect you to major in music-Nor to play or sing all your life
Not so you can relax--NOT so you can have FUN!
but...
SO YOU WILL BE MORE HUMAN-SO YOU WILL RECOGNIZE BEAUTY
SO YOU WILL BE MORE SENSITIVE-SO YOU WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO CLING TO
SO YOU WILL BE CLOSER TO AN INFINITE BEYOND THIS WORLD
SO YOU WILL HAVE MORE LOVE, MORE COMPASSION, MORE GENTLENESS, MORE GOOD
IN SHORT....MUSIC WILL BRING YOU MORE LIFE!!

why music in our schools continued

3. Music is Physical Education

It Requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragm, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets. (this is applying to singing/choir)

4. Music is History
Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation, often even the country and or racial feeling.