Music Can Improve Your Academic Performance!

Hi All!
Here’s hoping everyone had a great summer!

And with summer over the school year is upon us.  I’d like to share with you a reminder as to why we all value a music education and how it can help us in the classroom this year.

The following is an excerpt from a PBS article highlighting the ways that a music education can help a student far beyond the notes, scales, chords, and melodies they’re learning.  Find the full article here.
“A study published in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts. Johnson compares the concentration that music training requires to the focus needed to perform well on a standardized test. 

Aside from test score results, Johnson’s study highlights the positive effects that a quality music education can have on a young child’s success. Luehrisen explains this psychological phenomenon in two sentences: “Schools that have rigorous programs and high-quality music and arts teachers probably have high-quality teachers in other areas. If you have an environment where there are a lot of people doing creative, smart, great things, joyful things, even people who aren’t doing that have a tendency to go up and do better.”

And it doesn’t end there: along with better performance results on concentration-based tasks, music training can help with basic memory recall. “Formal training in music is also associated with other cognitive strengths such as verbal recall proficiency,” Pruett says. “People who have had formal musical training tend to be pretty good at remembering verbal information stored in memory.””
All of us here at Bridgewater School of Music are wishing you a fruitful and musical new school year.

See you all soon!
Jon Torgrimsen

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Experience and Support The Arts This Summer

 

A Great Time For Music and Art

One of our favorite things about the summer are the multitude of music and arts events available here in our area.  We can’t stress enough how important it is to expose ourselves and our kids to live music and arts.  It’s a crucial element in developing young artists.  The experience and inspiration are things that can’t be found anywhere else except to experience real art and music in the flesh.

The folks at NJArts.net put together an exhaustive list of family friendly shows, concerts, and events to attend this summer.  We encourage you to take the family out to one of these events.  Maybe we’ll see you there!

July Calendar
August Calendar

Summer Lessons

Take advantage of some extra time this summer and get started learning to play and sing.  We offer a handful of flexible lesson options during our Summer session (6/27 – 8/26).

Packages:

4 30 minute lessons – $122

6 30 minute lessons – $175

8 30 minute lessons – $230

For more info email us at schedule@bwatermusic.com or call 732-469-9559

Rituals – The path to accomplishment

A key point we bring up early on with our students (and/or parents) is the importance of ritual. Learning an instrument can only be fruitfully accomplished if practice time becomes part of one’s daily routine. As routine as eating a meal or brushing one’s teeth. Like any of these things we should be acutely aware that we missed it. It can’t be something where we wait until the time is just right that we now have time for it.

In Mason Currey’s book “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work” you’ll find a collection of short recordings of ritual from some of the great musicians, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians of the last few centuries. It’s an intriguing look into the routines of these titans, giving us a glimpse of the strategies and maneuvers that allowed them to produce their work.

While some of the examples may prove impractical, at the bare minimum one can surely pick up some ideas or inspiration. The importance of ritual is the common thread that runs through these achievers lives (also coffee, lots and lots of coffee) and we’re certain their example can help you and/or your loved ones achieve great things as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artis…/…/0307273601

Toddler Time Starts Soon

Spring Toddler Time music classes start March 22nd.

We’d love for you to join us for an interactive and enriching musical experience for you and your child. We meet 10:45 Wednesday mornings at the Martinsville Community Center.

It’s a great opportunity to get a valuable jumpstart on your children’s music education in a safe and fun environment while building bonds with your child and other music loving families.

I’ve attended class with my daughter Gianna and her cousin and they love it. We can’t stop singing the songs at home.

Our 8 class Spring session kicks off this Wednesday.

Cost:

– $150 for all 8 classes – $100 for both of you if you sign up with a friend
– $120 for 6 classes (you choose the 6 you’d like to attend)
– $80 for 4 classes (you choose the 4 you’d like to attend)

Call, or email us for more info and to register.

Call: 732-469-9559
Email: schedule@bwatermusic.com

Hope to see you there!

Toddler Time

We’re so excited about our new program “Toddler Time”.  It’s an interactive weekly class for your  little ones to explore the exciting world of music through singing, dancing, and fun.  

Our spring session starts soon. Contact us to register.

The Anatomy of a Christmas Song

We hope your Christmas was extra special this year!  We’re winding down by dissecting what makes a Christmas song sound, for lack of a better term, “so Christmassy”?  
Here’s a video for all you music geeks (and/or Mariah Carey fans). It’s fascinating.