Issue #3 Notes from The Music Hub January 19, 2025 How Music Helps with Problem-Solving, Part 2 Playing an instrument changes your brain. There are numerous studies that show how music affects brain health, including the way the two hemispheres communicate. Among other benefits, musicians have a thicker corpus callosum, which helps with cognitive processing and motor control. What I want to talk about today is the way learning to play music helps with problem-solving. It does so in several...
16 days ago • 3 min read
The break between the end of Fall semester and the beginning of Spring semester was a couple days shy of one month! Not long enough!!! In that time, I had four performances, Christmas, a trip to Florida to see my in-laws, writing 2 syllabi, continuing to work on my app, finishing a piece, and - most of all - a trip to South Bend Indiana to see the South Bend Symphony perform my piece Daughter of the Stars. That kind of schedule is a bit crazy; I have to be honest. And there were points where...
29 days ago • 6 min read
Issue #3 Notes from The Music Hub January 19, 2025 What is Your Reason for Playing? The role music has played in my life has changed through different seasons over the years. When I was very young, my dad taught me, and piano was something special I could do with my dad. In elementary school, I didn't socialize a lot, and piano was often my only friend. By age 12, piano became a source of exploration of new music as I taught myself pieces that were not part of my lesson assignments. When I...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Issue #3 Notes from The Music Hub January 2, 2025 Can You Recognize Bad Form? Happy New Year! If one of your New Year's Resolutions is to start learning piano or improving, I've got you covered! If you are not yet a paying member with full access to The Music Hub and you want to start, see the details below or simply respond to this email and let me know you want to get started! When I was a kid, I played two sports: softball and basketball. And like all physical activities, there were safe...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Hannukah! 2025 finished out with a bang. I had four gigs in 8 days: a private party, 2 choral concerts, and a funeral. Then, my church's Christmas Cantata, of course, which is always a good time. My semester officially ended on December 15, when grades were due. Snow in the mountains messed up the finals schedule a bit, but we made it through! I am happy to say that I am taking over as the organist at St. Luke's UMC, along with playing...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Issue #3 Notes from The Music Hub December 16, 2025 Learning Music, Not Just Songs Music majors in college take a wide variety of classes beyond learning to play their instruments. Of course, they do take lessons focusing on their performance technique. But they also study music theory, music history, and music literature (the repertoire for their specialty.) Additionally, they perform in a variety of ensembles which play music across genres. The combination of all these classes produces a...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Issue #3 Notes from The Music Hub December 16, 2025 Writing Notes to Yourself - in the Music When I was in high school, I played lead tenor saxophone in the jazz band. But I was new to saxophone and new to jazz, so I had a lot to learn. Why I ended up as lead tenor is a story for another day... One of the ways I learned was by writing notes to myself in the music. I kind of made a mess of my music since I wrote SO MUCH back then, but I am convinced it was what helped me to learn how to play...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Issue #3 Notes from The Music Hub December 9, 2025 How Much Should You Practice? Over the years, my cats have always visited me while I've practiced, even jumping on the piano and walking on the keys themselves like they know how to play. So, I had to pick a kitty picture for this post! It seems to me that animals love music. Have you also noticed that? Anyway, back to the question at hand: How much do you need to practice? This is a difficult question to answer, because it depends. It...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Issue #3 Notes from The Music Hub December 3, 2025 Why You Need a Teacher Yesterday, as I was lesson planning, I did a little research online. I was hoping to find out more information about Boogie-Woogie bass lines than I already know. I know quite a bit, but since the internet is a big, wide world, I thought I would be able to round out my knowledge. I was wrong. I found two types of websites: 1) websites that gave me good information that I already knew. 2) websites using AI to create...
3 months ago • 2 min read