Music for Everyone!

Playing music is a great antidote to the stress of life. Spending a few minutes a day playing your instrument or singing can be just the positive momentum that you needed.

I’ve been noticing music lesson registration coming down across the board as people trim their family budgets. Lessons can be costly, ranging from $60 to $120 a month per person (based on a 30 minute lesson ranging from $15-30 in price), and that from a lesson centre.

But the positive benefits that come from music making cannot be underestimated. As you’re thinking about your lifestyle, here are a few things to consider:

Working in the body
Singing and playing an instrument gets your blood flowing and makes you feel good.

Just as you breathe deeply in yoga or other physical exercise for a calmer mind, breathing exercises are the foundation of singing and playing wind instruments.

Working “in the body” is good for self-esteem and general health. You are developing yourself.

Stress Release
Playing an instrument or singing is good to distract from problems at hand. Taking a break from stress to work out a passage from a song, or to play something familiar will help to bring you back to a calm state.

Problem Solving
By learning a piece of music, or a small section of a piece of music, you are engaging your problem solving skills. Your hands working together, or your body producing sound, hone your skills to work out difficult issues in smaller sections.

This can be applied to other areas of life.

These benefits are great for adults and children. There is no age at which you cannot learn music.

Playing and singing gives the opportunity to pour emotions into a creative vessel. Making music is a way to change around a negative attitude into a positive one. By putting energy into our own development, we increase our potential.

You can make music. You can learn to play an instrument. You can sing, even if you’ve been told that you can’t or aren’t good. Don’t believe me? Give us a try.

Everyone can make music!

Let us help you.

Language

Do you ever find pop music content a little lean?  

I know language has taken a bit of a beating in our IM days but I appreciate the poetry of a sentence.  Even if you are a woma-woma-woma, you're a womanizer, I would kind of rather sing a-long to "Like a lonesome weeping willow lost in the wood, the way I hug my pillow no woman should, I got it bad and that ain't good."  (I got it bad and that ain't good.)  The imagery is better, isn't it?

While we are getting creative about gift-giving, cost savings and adventure taking, perhaps it is time to resurrect the art of conversation.  For this birthday and valentine's day, why not make poetry your cause? 

Maybe we also have to widen our thoughts to be good receivers of language. I admit, I might get really excited if you told me that you were giving me a new wardrobe for my birthday, but in the long haul, if you could put how you feel about me into words, that would really light my fire.  

And, if you are not that good at making up a poem, search the lyrics of pop music until you find the right sentiment, then have it framed for your loved one.   

You just might have to look back a few years to find a sentiment that fits. 

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*note* you may find something on jazzstandards.com *  It makes for interesting reading even if you don't. 

new year

It is resolution time for me, is it for you too?

I resolve to be positive about 2008 where many good things happened to me and for my business and to look ahead to an exciting and ground breaking 2009.

I resolve to self promote and to spend some time every week looking for ways to make my company known to people who I think will be interested. 

I resolve to be the best that I can be at what I do-  Practice my instrument, care for my family, put good food into my body,  take time for spiritual reflection and be there for those around me. 

And, I will continue to provide excellent service to my clients and to pursue music in everyday life. 

I'd love to hear what you are thinking about for this next year. 

Employment

We've been hearing all over that we are living in very uncertain economic times and I've been thinking about the nature of self employment, particularly for artists. 

If you've been there, looking at a whole new year and wondering where your money is going to come from and knowing that you only have plans to make money on your craft, it can be a little daunting. 

Imagine now, for a moment, that you are one of Canada's artists, maybe one of the ones that aren't expecting to make more than $23,500 this year before taxes (as published in the 2007 Toronto Canada Council Annual Report).  What if your vision is to make a CD of your songs (upwards of $20,000)  or you want to make a movie (upwards of $100,000)?  Where is that money coming from? AND, if you do make it and manage not to have collection agencies on your butt for the next five  years, how do you know that it will make a single cent to put in your pocket?

I hear lots of people say "oh actors! oh musicians! oh artists!  so heady, so irresponsible."  The artists I know are all working jobs that they would rather not to make their rent or mortgage payment.  "So does everyone" you may say.  

I'd like to take a moment to recognize all of Canada's artists that are trying to write, speak, dance, play, learn, perform and educate all while trying not to freak out about how they are going to pay February's bills when all the work is drying up in January!

Be brave, press on!

Motherhood

Is there anyone else out there who finds that taking care of your company and taking care of your children/husband is a little nuts?

Here's the question that I like to avoid:  "How's motherhood treating you?"  It feels loaded and people don't want to hear the answer that you are thinking.  Many people expect to hear the word "great" and then we move on to more interesting topics.  But are you ever tempted to say "Motherhood is a joy, I still have back fat, my new perfume is barf, my son cries every time I am not holding him, and my husband wonders where the passion is?"  I can relate to Eva Longoria Parker's statement "My husband deserves to see a wife who doesn't have to tuck her boobs into her pants."  Thank the Lord for Sophia's lingerie on the Danforth!

If you can tell me the secret to being a professional and a mom, I'll give you my EI maternity leave salary. 

I have a company called Music Village.  We provide music education, live music entertainment,  and we write music.  We've written the soundtrack to a feature length film, "the Devil's Tail,"  we've written an educational workshop for the Oakville Symphony Orchestra that was  presented for high school youth,  we provide music for events and write music for my band.  AND, lots of those successes I made while pregnant or caring for my infant.   My team is great at what we do, namely, making sure that you love the music you are hearing and/or learning!

There are lots of moms and dads (or moms and moms or dads and dads, or just mom and just dad, and people taking care of other people's kids) that are a lot like me.   So caregiver -  treat yourself to a massage, because let's face it - Who wants a pat on the back?

This blog isn't just intended for moms and women, men, you are welcomed guests too.   This is a blog about a person who has a job and a family and who thinks you can have it all.  

Now, on to breastfeading. Pass me the KD and a fennel tea chaser.