“When the music and dance create with accord…their magic captivates both the heart and the mind.” – Jean-Georges Noverre

Music inspires movement. Movement by oneself is free, seemingly without bounds. But movement, aka dance, involving a pair requires coordination – leading, following, advancing, retreating, planning for success, and planning for recovery.

Relationships are like dances, swelling and fading, forming life’s soundtrack. Like an expertly choreographed dance team wherein one member’s success hinges on the movements of another, the quality of our relationships is determined by the intentionality with which we lead, follow, advance, retreat, plan for success, and recovery plan.

Neither music nor dance is happenstance, despite emerging freestyle forms. There are underlying principles that, when violated, create chaos rather than harmony. Relationships follow similar guidelines.

Conflict in relationships arises when the dance steps of one person change from the anticipated routine. The music scratches to a halt and the partners stumble. In this way, relationships diverge from orchestrated musical pieces. They are rife with unexpected changes in tempo and key.

Knowing this, we must prepare ourselves to expect the unexpected. How do we do this? Read More

Spoiler alert: You’re not supposed to be happy all the time.

It’s ironically sad that the general population believes that we’re supposed to feel happy more than we do, and if we don’t – well, there must be something wrong with us, right?

Wrong.

Happiness is a feeling that’s supposed to come and go. 

Happiness is part of the song of our life, not the entirety, nor the purpose of it.

Let’s think about this in musical terms. A song builds. It goes through lows and lilts, changes in tempo and even key, but it never ends at its climax. Read More

Are you stuck in your ways or open to new ideas? If you’re feeling stuck in any area of your life, chances are you’re keeping yourself there.

To our detriment, many of us go through life trying to get new things, make progress, or achieve new levels of success by doing what we’ve always done. We get stuck in our old ways of thinking; not necessarily because we want to, but because the old is familiar. The new is unfamiliar and sometimes downright scary.

You’ve probably heard a person older than you say something like, “They just don’t make music like they used to anymore.” Such a statement carries the implication that they don’t appreciate newer music; probably because it’s unfamiliar to them. It’s easy to shut down the new when the old feels so much better.

But the truth is that if you want to grow, achieve, and move forward in life, you’re going to have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Doesn’t sound fair, does it? Well, you’ll have to decide what matters to you most. Do you want comfort or growth? Read More

Imagine if you arrived at the Kennedy Center to hear the NSO perform Beethoven’s No. 5 symphony, but to your surprise, only the violin section appeared on stage with all other instruments and their accompanying maestros completely absent. Imagine that you pulled up one of your favorite songs, “More Than Words” by Extreme, hit play, and heard only one member of the band singing, while the other with his masterful harmonies was suddenly gone. Or imagine singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” rounds alone.

None of it would work. And, honestly, all of it would sound awful.

That’s a lot like life…

without connection.

Humans are designed for connection, not isolation. We intend to create in partnership and cooperation. It’s how the greatest music works are etched in our hearts and minds. It’s what enables a call-and-response performance and what spurs a concert audience to sing along with flash-lit phones held high. Read More

Before the Show Starts

This article is the second of a series focusing on Musicians and Mental Health. This a partnership between CVSM and Thriving Thoughts Global.

Have you ever gone to a Taylor Swift concert thinking to yourself, “Wow, I wonder what all the critics are going to say about her performance, or I wonder what she will think about herself?” If you’re not a Swiftie, you might have thought that, but chances are you wouldn’t have gone to the concert either.

How about your own performance? Consider that recital, audition, presentation, or interview you’ve got coming up. Where’s your focus? What someone will think about you after it’s over?

If you’ve described yourself as having stage fright, chances are you’re concerned more about the outcome than the actual performance. And assuming you are a Swiftie, we bet you couldn’t care less about what her critics might say, or what even she might think about her performance. Instead, you would anticipate immersing yourself in the show, taking videos of her, and snapping selfies. Read More

Thoughts, Villains, and Superheroes

Everyone needs a hero. And today the one you need could be you!

Do you have a performance coming up? Or a special project that’s gotten your nerves into overdrive?

What kinds of things are you saying to yourself?

Are you being your superhero or your worst villain? Read More

What can you give someone who has everything? An amazing music EXPERIENCE. 

As you wrack your brain trying to think of the perfect gift, consider a music class or series of lessons. The recipient will gain not only the direct experience of participating in the instruction but also the additional benefits of music on health and well-being, and the creation of a new hobby for them.

Research at Johns Hopkins University has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. Music sparks creativity in the brain; new music challenges the brain as it works to understand a new sound.

For small children and their caregivers, attending a music class together can create bonds between them as well as provide connections with other families in the community. Children are inherently musical and will love sharing this experience with a parent or grandparent. As the children learn a variety of age-appropriate skills (gross & fine motor skills, impulse control, coordination, etc.) the caregivers learn to respond to their children and support them as they learn new skills. Read More

Did you join the millions of people who set New Years Resolutions?

I heard an interesting change to the terminology that I find empowering: instead of a Resolution, it is a DETERMINATION. No matter the time of year, you can DETERMINE to make changes in your habits, including your musical habits.

• Be determined to attend more live performances.
• Be determined to learn a new piece of music by your favorite composer.
• Be determined to learn one new piece from each musical time period.
• Be determined to learn more information about your favorite composer or piece of music.
• Be determined to practice more.

Let’s focus on being determined to practice more. Read More

With access to wifi and an internet device, we can learn just about anything from anywhere. This is an amazing age of having information at our fingertips! For many people, it may have been a challenge to imagine those first room-size computers eventually being able to fit into our pockets, but that is the reality of now. Not only can we use and learn from the content on the internet, we can also create content (such as this blog post!). This includes MUSIC. 

There are many websites and online communities where people can go to learn music theory, download sheet music, and learn to perform music on an instrument or with their voice. When it comes to online music lessons, YouTube has a vast library of lessons. Want to learn the basics of holding a violin? Check. Want to learn a specific guitar riff? Check. Want to learn a plagal cadence? Check. Want to learn how to compose a pop song? Check. Want to have an interactive musical experience? Nope.

There are various differences between YouTube learning and in-person lessons (see graphic), but the biggest is the level of personal interaction between the student(s) and the instructor(s). Music lessons that are in-person are flexible, adaptable, social, and personal. The student can share their personal interests and goals with the instructor, and the instructor can adapt the instruction to the needs of student. Not to say that instruction can’t be done virtually via Skype, FaceTime, or any other virtual method (that is a post for another day). For the purposes of this post, I am focusing on recorded or one-way videos (such as Facebook Live).

• Cost: The recorded lesson is free to the student, with no income to the instructor (unless they have ads or sponsors). The in-person lesson involves a fee to the students which is income for the instructor and payment for their expertise and time.
• Scheduling: A recorded lesson can be taken anytime from almost anywhere, while there is a scheduled date and time for the in-person lesson, often at a specific location.
• Interaction: Only the comments section offer a somewhat interactive component to the recorded lesson. The entire lesson is interactive when in-person, offering specific feedback to benefit the student.
• Variety of topics: There is a WIDE variety of topics available online, whereas one particular teacher may have a limited number of topics they are qualified to teach in-person. Depending on where the student lives and how far they are willing to travel to learn in-person on a specific topic, this will limit what is available.
• Availability: If a student lives in a remote area, there may not be any teachers of the music topic they wish to explore. Hopefully, they will have online access and have all of the information available through the internet, although some remote areas also make that challenging.
• Other factors: An in-person lesson is a personalized, social activity (usually one-to-one, but can also be group). Recorded lessons are completely universal (not personalized), anonymous (no one will know what you are learning), and lack a social component, unless the student chooses to comment and initiate some type of interaction with other viewers or with the instructor.

As a student is learning the guitar riff from a video, how will they know that their hand position is correct? That the guitar is tuned correctly? That they are at the correct fret and/or applying appropriate pressure? That the guitar is a quality instrument without issues that affect the playing and sound of the instrument? That they are sitting or standing with appropriate posture? That they are using the correct technique?

Video learning is a great supplement for in-person learning. Go ahead and search for that specific song or technique you want to learn! But the foundation of the musical learning will be strongest when built in an interactive student and instructor format. Many instructors point their students to online lessons. This is analogous to attending a workshop or clinic… at least one in which you are not able to participate actively in the instruction. And as many of us know, sometimes we learn best when a topic is presented in a variety of styles from different sources.

So, if you or your child desire to learn an instrument or improve your singing skills, find a qualified instructor to take in-person lessons, and supplement that instruction with the wealth of knowledge on the internet.

Written by: Heather McEndree, January 2020

Practice. This single word brings many emotions to a musician: expectation, hope, frustration, dread.

Practice means to perform, over and over again

In the face of all obstacles,

Some art of vision, of faith, of desire.

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

~ Martha Graham

Practice is necessary to musical progress, but can be cumbersome Read More