Hometown Music Gazette

More Music in Motion!

Due to ongoing demand for our Music in Motion classes (Music for Little Mozarts toddler-level, ages 18 months - three years), we have added a session to begin on Tuesday, March 6 from 6:00 - 6:30 p.m., to be taught by Abby Buse. Cost is $100 for the eight-week session.

Included in the class will be singing, listening, movement, and rhythm activities especially designed for this age group. Call, e-mail or stop by the store today to enroll your child in this excellent music enrichment class. We look forward to giving your child the gift of music!

Hometown Students Perform at ISSMA District

Eight Hometown Music students performed pieces in piano at the Indiana State Schools Music Association (ISSMA) Vocal/Piano District Solo and Ensemble, held at Southridge High School in Huntingburg on Saturday, January 28, 2012.

Pieces are grouped according to difficulty, with Group V being the easiest and Group I being the most challenging.

Receiving a Silver rating in Group III was Abigail Hopf (“Minuet in G” by J. S. Bach).

Receiving Gold ratings in Group V were Avery Bell (“Musette in D Major” by J. S. Bach), Katey Bell (“Spinning Song” by Ellmenreich), Libby Bell (“Toreador Song” by Bizet), Jonathan Breckler (“Solfeggietto” by C. P. E. Bach), Natalie Hopf (“Arabesque” by Burgmuller), Justin Lammers (“Musette in D Major” by J. S. Bach), and Louisa Nino (“Prelude in A Minor” by J. C. Bach).

We are so proud of all of you, and look forward to more great performances as you continue growing and learning!

Music Participation Is Our Business!

At Hometown Music, we really believe in bringing out the music in everyone!

We think that music isn’t just for the select few who make it big on American Idol or The X-Factor…but is something that everyone can enjoy – whether it’s singing, playing a musical instrument, keeping the beat on some percussion, or just humming along.

We’re here to make music available to all…with musical instruments for every price range, private lessons for every age, and sheet music for every level and interest.

Kids and Music: Compelling Evidence

Early exposure to and active involvement with music helps children in a myriad of ways. So much so, in fact, that it’s a mystery as to why more parents don’t take full advantage of this readily available resource. Here are just a few of the benefits of musical education, beginning in infancy and continuing into adulthood.

Early Childhood

Musical training actually changes the brain, enabling it to form the new neural connections needed for speech, language, memory, attention, and personal expression.
Working with musical sounds helps the brain to adapt, thus enhancing overall learning.
Premature babies hearing 30 minutes of Mozart a day grew far more rapidly than those who did not.

Elementary School

Young children with developed rhythm skills do better in school in the primary grades than children without these skills.

Music education leads to improved achievement, attitudes, and behavior in the classroom.
Musical training helps children with learning disabilities by helping them to focus better in the midst of background noise.
Playing musical instruments enhances children’s cognitive development, builds their confidence and self-discipline, and helps them to make friends and enjoy relationships with others.
The study of music helps children to master advanced math concepts, especially the proportional math (fractions, ratios, proportions) so important for advancement to higher level mathematics, such as trigonometry, analytic geometry, and calculus.
Kids who study music tend to have a wider vocabulary and better reading skills.

Middle and High School

Middle school and high school band students perform better on standardized tests than students with no instrumental music education.
The number of years of instrumental music instruction correlates strongly with academic achievement in math, science, and language arts.
Music participants receive more academic honors and awards than non-music students, along with higher grades overall.

Post High School and College

The most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school are music majors.
College-age musicians enjoy greater emotional health, including less test-related performance anxiety, less alcohol abuse, and greater emotional stability.
Music majors consistently score the highest in reading among all majors including English, biology, chemistry, and math.

Lifelong Benefits

Arts education programs can help improve American education and better prepare people for work in the 21st century, say many top American business executives (“The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of Education,” Business Week, October 1996).
People suffering from excessive blood pressure experience dramatic reductions in hypertension by listening to classical, Celtic, or Indian (raga) music once a day on a regular basis. Playing an instrument or singing also helps reduce excessive blood pressure.
Playing a musical instrument exercises the brain and helps fight memory loss.
Lifelong musicians experience less stress, less depression, and less loneliness.

(The above information was obtained from www.nammfoundation.org, the home page of the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation.)

Ways to Begin

All it takes is a decision!

Whether it’s providing musical enrichment for toddlers or preschoolers, offering music lessons for kindergartners through adults, or finding the perfect musical instrument or music book, we’re here to help you reach your musical goals.

Why play music? It’s so fun! Something fun for everyone!

Why play music? Let’s all start - song to song and heart to heart.

Let’s play music, one and all - you’re guaranteed to have a ball!

Sharpen Up on Music Theory

If you're looking for a way to beef up your music theory skills, we have the perfect website resource for you! Found at www.musictheory.net, this wonderful website will take you through the basics of music theory, with a wide variety of self-paced tutorials to choose from.

You can easily review everything from key signatures to intervals to chord inversions. Many of the lessons also include audio of notes and scales, along with the excellent and clear graphics and step-by-step explanations of each topic.
Check out MusicTheory.net today!

Pick a Chord...Any Chord

No more searching for the Lost Chord with the fantastic website Chord House, found at http://looknohands.com/chordhouse/. Whether for piano or guitar, this website has it all. Just one click on the link above will take you to its homepage. From there, you can navigate through a number of different musical rooms according to your interests and needs.

In the Piano Room, you’ll find easy-to-read keyboard diagrams for all scales and chords in all 12 key signatures…and then hear them played.

In the Guitar Room (Easy), you can find any chord in any key, and with every possible fingering located up and down the neck of your guitar. If you’ve been wondering what an augmented, diminished, suspended, or even a major or minor seventh chord sounds like, this website allows you to choose a certain chord and then hear it played on a variety of guitars (classical/nylon, acoustic/steel, and electric jazz, clean, or muted guitar). All chords may be printed out or e-mailed directly to you.

The Guitar Room (Advanced) truly lives up to its name, with its wide variety of standard and alternative tunings (drop, double-drop, open, modal, minor, custom, and others) and scales (major, harmonic minor, melodic minor, chromatic, whole tone, pentatonic, octatonic, exotic/international and others). All scales can be diagrammed for the right or left hand as well as bass string on the top or bottom. As with the other two Rooms, you can listen to everything - quite educational and fun!

Have Fun While Learning More About Music

Ahoy, kids! Be sure to check out this fun website, http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/music_and_art_games/music_and_art_games_musical_notes.html. When you go there, you'll find all kinds of fun stuff to do, not only with music but with art, nature, science, geography, and math too! Just click on the various icons on the website and you'll be having more fun than you ever thought you could!