Author: Belinda

Learning music is a fun and healthy pastime. It offers numerous benefits including improved memory and muscle coordination. If you didn’t learn to play an instrument as a child, it’s never too late to start. 

In the next two blogs, we share ten tips to help you start learning music as an adult. 

1. Choose Music You Like – It is easier to play music that you enjoy because it keeps you motivated to practice. Pick an instrument you’ll enjoy playing. If you love the sound of a clarinet, or always wanted to play the piano, don’t take drum lessons. 

Also pick an instrument that fits your lifestyle. If you’re constantly on the move, pick a portable instrument like a violin or a saxophone. If you live with others, or in an apartment with thin walls, consider a digital piano with an adjustable volume. 

2. Set Goals – Setting realistic goals keeps you focused and helps track your progress. Consider why you want to play music, what pieces you want to play, and how much time you want to spend practicing. 

Make SMART Goals – SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. 

For example, “I want to learn to play the first four chords of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata in the next two months because I want to play it for my sister.” 

3. Practice Consistently – Create a practice schedule with regular, timed sessions. Start with 30 minute sessions. If they are too long, consider a few 10 to 12 minute sessions throughout your days. Music practice is a great way to destress before tackling your next challenge. Also be flexible. Sometimes other tasks are more important than practice. 

4. Practice Sections or “Chunks” – Learn shorter sections of music, or chunks, to make practice easier. The music is easier to absorb and stays with you longer. Start with one measure and then move on to the next. Continue until you learn the entire piece. 

5. Use a Metronome – Use a metronome every time you practice. Set the metronome to a slower speed and master the finger and timing before increasing the speed until you’re at tempo. Practising with a metronome will also help you play with other musicians. 

We’ll list the remaining five tips in our next blog. If you’re ready to learn how to play music, consider the Brady Arts Academy’s courses in piano, guitar, drums, trumpet, trombone and saxophone. Visit our website today. 

Written by: Nicole Holas

Are you trying to find ways to fit music practice into your busy lives? In this week’s blog, we list five more ways to keep you inspired as you learn to play your favourite instrument.

6. Create Specific Goals: Reduce your practice time by setting a specific goal for each practice session. It doesn’t matter what you are working on – a new scale, playing from memory or maintaining your tempo – put your energy into one task. You’ll quickly accomplish your goal, and be inspired to keep practising.

7. Set Realistic Goals: As we said above, make your goals specific. But also make them realistic. Don’t expect to learn Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor in one session. Setting an “ambitious” goal will lead to feelings of failure and discouragement. Keep your goals simple. Start with the first few bars and work up. 

8. Practice What You Love: Once you know the basics, cast your eyes near and far for new inspirations. Ignore the pressure to play what everyone else is playing. Follow your heart and play the music that moves you. Feel passionate about your music. 

9. Review Previous Materials: Don’t forget to go back and practice what you already learned. You can easily forget the music you played last month or last year. Revisiting pieces keeps them fresh in your mind and renews a sense of pride in your accomplishments. 

10. Take A Break: If today was really busy and you’re too tired to play, that’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up for skipping a day. Negative reinforcement will hamper your desire to learn. Remember, music is about enjoyment and self-expression. 

Use a combination of these tips to set a practice schedule that works with your busy life. These strategies will motivate you to learn your next piece and improve your musical skills without feelings of frustration and failure. 

Contact the Brady Arts Academy today to fulfill your love for music. Our various musical courses will satisfy any budding Beethoven.

Written by: Nicole Holas

A lot of us complain that we don’t have enough time for the things we enjoy. With our busy lives, practicing music is often dropped for more “important” tasks. 

Staying motivated to practice is also difficult, especially if you’re learning a new piece or struggling with a tricky movement. But there are ways to increase your musical knowledge and skills. 

Over the next two weeks, our blogs will share 10 ways to stay inspired as you learn to play your favourite instrument. 

1. Learn To Read Music: Reading sheet music is an important skill to master, as it opens a door to a wider variety of music. Find time during your day to practice your reading. You can read the musical piece’s sheet music while listening to it, or during a break from work while sipping your coffee. 

2. Listen To Music: This might seem obvious but listening to a piece of music while learning it helps you notice mistakes. The piece won’t “sound right” as you play. 

3. Visualize Playing the Instrument: Close your eyes and mentally see yourself playing the instrument. Just as an athlete visualizes winning a big game, you can see yourself playing the piece flawlessly. Practicing is as much a mental activity as a physical one. 

4. Break It Down: It can take hours of practice to learn an entire song, even short ones. Break down the song into smaller segments and work on them independently. This increases your success and encourages you to continue mastering the piece without the countless hours of practice. 

5. Set Shorter Practice Times: You don’t need to lock yourself in a room for days on end to learn to play music. This leads to “burn out” and discourages future practice. Instead, practice in 20-30 minute blocks, and then take a short break. If you feel good at the end of 30 minutes, it’s o.k. to keep going. 

Next week we’ll share the five other tips to help you practice music. For now, consider taking a course from the Belinda Brady Arts Academy. Our skilled, knowledgeable teachers can help you find your love for music. 

Written by: Nicole Holas

In today’s challenging world, people who can process information quickly, ignore distractions, and switch smoothly from one task to another are enormous advantages to any business. Those skills also extend to home-based businesses. 

New research shows that trained, experienced musicians process these skills disproportionately to other people. 

A new study shows that music training increases our capacity for “fluid intelligence” defined as the ability to think abstractly and solve problems. It also positively enhances our memory, attention, and the ability to plan, organize, and accomplish goals. This supports the positive relationship between music training and cognitive function. 

The study tested several tests on seventy-two college undergraduates.

The undergraduates were grouped into three categories:

• Musical Experts: People who started formal music training at age ten or younger, and continued for at least a decade
• Musical Amateurs: Those with at least one year of musical training
• Non Musicians 

The study’s findings show that musicians with extensive experience scored significantly higher than non-musicians and less-trained musicians. Specifically, they did better on attention, working memory and processing speed. 

They also show that the ability to think abstractly and solve problems is enhanced by musical training, as it involves quickly comprehending a complex symbolic system, multitasking, reasoning, and more.

For example, playing in an ensemble requires the ability to focus on one’s piece without being distracted by other musicians, and processing speed is enhanced by learning to quickly react to the demands of the music, collaborators, etc. 

The results of the executive-function test were the most interesting. The test involves rapidly sorting pictures by shape and color, and musical amateurs performed significantly better than non-musicians but not as well as musical experts.

Regardless of the age you start to study music, the skills learned are useful for any adult in a leadership or executive role. A musical education can also enhance your skills if you are a home-based business. 

Contact the Belinda Brady Arts Academy today to discuss our musical education courses. 

Written by: Nicole Holas

In a previous blog we discussed the benefits of a music education. Today we discuss the connection between music and math. 

Can learning, or listening to, music really help us to learn math? Can specific musical techniques help our brains decode math problems? 

In his 1991 book, Pourquoi Mozart? Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis introduced the theory that classical music, especially Mozart’s music, “retrained” the ear and in turn, reordered some of the brain’s processes. This became known as the “Mozart Effect” and other researchers rushed to investigate the theory. The research found no conclusive proof that listening to classical music raises your IQ or helping your thinking in the long term. 

If there is no benefit to listening to music, what about learning music? At the basic level, music is ordered by rhythm and pitch, and learning about tone exposes a child to mathematical sequences. Similarly, learning about rhythm helps a child learn to count. She is not counting numbers but she is using logic to count out the rhythms and bars as she works through the piece.  

Consider the study involving third-grade students learning basic fractions. The children were encouraged to clap as they worked through the math problems. The students who learned about fractions through a rhythm-and-music-based curriculum outperformed their peers in traditional math classes.

Here’s why:

Fractions help you divide a measure of music into notes of varying length. For example, one four-beat measure could contain a single whole note held for all four beats, two half notes of two beats apiece, four quarter notes of a beat each, and so on. 

In the study, students clapped, drummed, and chanted to memorize the lengths of musical notes, and then solved problems where fractional notes must add up to a full measure of music.

Sixty-seven students participated in the study. Half did math problems using the musical system. After six weeks, the students in the music program averaged 50 percent higher on tests than the children in regular math class. Fractions create a solid foundation for further math education. 

A music education from The Belinda Brady Arts Academy can greatly improve your child’s math skills, and her overall academic growth. Contact us today to discuss your option.

Written by: Nicole Holas

In last week’s blog we listed five benefits that a music education offers to a child’s education and personal growth. 

Today we conclude the list with benefits 6 to 10. 

6. Makes the brain work harder: The brain of a musician works differently than a non-musician’s brain. Neuroscience research shows that children involved in music education have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. A musician playing an instrument uses more than their brain.

7. Relieves stress: We all know that listening to a favorite artist or song can lift our mood and relax us. The same goes for creating music. Studying music relieves stress in students. It allows them to immerse themselves in something that’s fulfilling and calming. One student said, “I know that no matter how stressed I was in school, I would always come out happy and relaxed after choir practice.”

8. Creativity: Music nurtures children’s creative abilities, and this can have a positive impact on their future. Creativity is considered one of the top five skills important for success in the workforce. Because music requires creativity and innovation, originality and flexibility are benefits of music education. Students of music programs learn creativity, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking skills that are necessary in any career. 

9. Helping special needs children: Music can have a powerful impact on children with special needs. It helps them communicate and share their thoughts. For this reason, schools are implementing music therapy after-school programs for students with disabilities.

10. Higher graduation rates: Schools with music programs have higher graduation rates. According to a report, “Schools with music programs have an estimated 90.2 percent graduation rate and 93.9 percent attendance rate compared to schools without music education who average 72.9 percent graduation and 84.9 percent attendance.”

If your child’s school does not offer a music program, consider private lessons through the Belinda Brady Arts Academy. They offer a number of high-quality music programs that can help your child learn new skills and build their self esteem. Contact us today to discuss your options. 

Written by: Nicole Holas