Are There Really Benefits of Music Education?  by: Tony Bancroft Despite serious reductions in funding for arts programs in public schools, there is a great need for studying music. Band, orchestra, and choir all offer students a chance to work together in a social and intellectual group setting and excel at complex tasks. The trick for parents is to enroll their children in high quality programs and assist them in purchasing high quality instruments. There are indeed many benefits to be realized from a musical education and a quick reference guide is listed below. Playing a Musical Instrument Can Help your child develop a commitment to excellence Help your child develop self-esteem Provide an opportunity for your child to experience self-expression, creativity, and heightened achievement Engage the imagination Contribute to a balanced, positive, challenging, and stimulating education Prepare your child for other stages of development and participation in society by fostering dedication and sensitivity Increase your child’s brain development, math abilities, and higher thinking skills Help your child develop perseverance when things are looking bleak and hopeless Raise your child’s awareness Expand your child’s knowledge Help your child develop mind and body coordination Contribute to your child’s spiritual growth Help your child develop teamwork skills Be a source of great fun! About The Author Tony Bancroft, Music Teacher and Author of “Growing Your Musician: A Practical Guide for Band and Orchestra Parents” assists parents in developing their musical children. He is an alumni of Yale University and UCLA. He can be reached at www.growingyourmusician.com URL: http://www.growingyourmusician.com Mailto: tony@growingyourmusician.com growingyourmusician@yahoo.com _____________________________________________________________________________________ What does Meditation music do to you?  by: Werner Boersch Personally I belief that it is possible for anyone to live a life of happiness,inner peace, and outward success, no matter what their present or past circumstances. There are very real methods anyone can use to achieve these things-if they are willing to make the necessary changes in how they see themselves and their relationship to the rest of the world, and take the necessary actions. All traditions of meditation flow from one premise: that the entire universe is made of one all-encompassing energy, intelligent and aware, existing forever as the source of everything. Because there is nothing outside of it, say the mystics, because of its completeness, this energy has nothing to get or need, nothing to fear. Simply because it is its nature to do so, this one energy continually spins itself out as the entire, infinite universe. The very nature of this energy, it is said, is contentment, love, peace, happiness, and perfection. The totality of this energy, say the mystics, is who you really are; your seeming separateness, an illusion. Saints and sages have for centuries attempted to describe to humankind a state of awareness where this feeling of oneness with everything in the universe is the predominant experience. For thousands of years, curious seekers have responded to these explanations by asking, "If I am this one, infinite energy, the beginning less and endless totality of everything, if I really am Love itself, then why do I feel so bad? Why do I have so many problems? Why don't I feel the peace and happiness you say is my true nature?" And the mystic invariably would answer, "You do not experience your true nature because of your mind. Your mind keeps you from the experience of what truly is." These explanations state that the one energy of reality, at the moment of creation, polarized itself into a seeming duality-good and evil, male and female, up and down, here and there and all other pairs of seeming opposites. This duality, however, is more apparent than real. In each pair of opposites, each part is dependent on the other for its existence, like two sides of the same coin. "Cold" is meaningless without "hot"; "good" makes no sense without "bad". According to the mystical philosophies of the East, it is the tension between these pairs of opposites, in your mind, that actually causes the universe to manifest. This tension between opposites is also reflected in the human brain. The brain, divided into two hemispheres, right and left, has the same dual structure-made more acute by the fact that in virtually all people the two hemispheres are unbalanced, a state called brain lateralization. Since the brain filters our reality in this split-brain way, we tend to see things in terms of duality rather than the oneness spoken of by mystics. Of course, today we know that this is true-the mind does indeed act as a filter, coloring our view of reality just as colored glasses give an illusory tint to what we see. As we grow up, our brain is programmed that some things cause pain and should be avoided, while others bring pleasure and should be sought. Our brain will always filter reality to confirm that its predominant beliefs and associations are the truth. No wonder we don't see the universe of love and harmony described by saints and mystics! If the brain could somehow learn to operate in a more coherent, holistic manner, if the two sides of the brain could somehow balance, interact more, and function, as one, then possibly our experience of reality would be different. The more lateralization in the brain (in other words, the more tension between polar opposites) the more feelings of separation, fear, anxiety, and isolation. In fact, as we shall see, only a lateralized brain can continue to entertain the types of beliefs that result in dysfunctional and addictive behaviors and the painful feelings that accompany them. But our brain should not be considered like an organ what produces our consciousness, we should consider it instead like the product of our consciousness. The connections between the cells in our brain become created following the necessities of our consciousness. In this way, our brain evolves and produces his self and our implicit consciousness. Therefore, must our mind be seen as a potentiality! Modern brain research indicates that long-term meditation does in fact balance the brain, creating a synchrony between the two hemispheres. They discovered that electrical brain wave patterns of meditators changed, in periods of deep meditation, to a single, coherent pattern, indicating that both sides of the brain - ordinarily out of phase - were working together in a balanced, synchronous manner. This and other research has demonstrated that this balancing, or synchronization, of the hemispheres of the brain happens in all forms of meditation. The degree of hemispheric synchronization can be very precisely determined by measuring the meditator's brain wave patterns with an electroencephalograph (EEG) machine. Any kind of focusing will bring about a degree of brain synchronization (i.e. meditation). The greater the focus, the greater the synchronization (and the deeper the meditative state). The mystic, then, sitting to meditate, balances the brain through some form of focusing, whether by repeating a prayer or mantra, keeping the attention on the flow of the breath, staring at a candle flame, or by using one of many other techniques. Whatever the technique, the effect on the brain is substantially the same-brain synchronization, and after much practice, transcendental experience. So just what is this transcendental awareness? Is it becoming some kind of a blob of undifferentiated guru that wants to sit and stare at its navel instead of going to work in the morning, or some kind of robed, smiling person handing out flowers in the airport? Contrary to common Western mythology about such things, persons operating continually in this type of awareness (a kind of 24-hour-a-day state of meditative alertness sometimes referred to as "the awakened mind") are more productive, happier, and capable of more intimacy, more creativity, and more wholeness. Since the filter through which they view reality does not split everything in to categories based on arbitrary early life programming, they see life more objectively, without fear and judgment, without a need to manipulate others, without need for approval-in short, without the limitations of mental programming. This is, in fact, a state of peak performance. And, when the brain is in this highly synchronous and coherent state, it produces large quantities of pleasure-causing petrochemicals called endorphins, making the whole experience very pleasurable! In order to accelerate the personal growth process, can you take advantage from the results of modern brain research and use the combined method between meditation and brain wave stimulation with scientifically developed meditation music, what stimulates your brain in a more effective and faster way than traditional meditation. By doing that you'll exclude any upcoming difficulties regarding focusing your mind and concentration. Music is harmony; start practicing your meditation with harmoniously meditation music! http://www.meditationsession.com This article may be freely re-published on your website or in your ezine as long as nothing is changed and the resource box is included at the bottom of the article and all links within the resource box and the article remain active for the duration of the publication of the article. Copyright © by Werner Boersch 2004 About The Author Copyright © by Werner Boersch 2004 Studied Psychlogy in Germany on the University of Dűsseldorf, practicing Yoga and Meditation since several years Owner & Webmaster http://www.meditationsession.com Discuss your experiences http://www.meditation-session.blogspot.com   ________________________________ Edward Weiss, of Quiescence Music, was kind enough to offer the following  for inclusion on our Articles page.       The Case Against "Traditional" Piano Lessons  by Edward Weiss Copyright 2004 How would you like to spend 4 years in a University learning how to play other peoples music? If you think this is ridiculous, you're right! Because that's what thousands of piano music students do each day. They sit in front of their piano or keyboard with sheet music of a dead composer in front of them. Then they are told to "play it right." Have you ever heard of such nonsense? Imagine a budding writer forced to copy another novelists work? In essence, this is what classical piano students do. They copy. Although many think this is a creative act, it is not. It is a re-creative one. It's purpose? To give people who are told how to listen to music a chance to hear what is considered "good" music. Only in classical music is there such pomposity. And it exists because a very few people wish to hear the classics. Let me tell you something. I love classical music. But I don't spend my time trying to recreate what has already been created. No. Instead, I want to connect with my own source and allow the music that is inside me to come out. I want to be creative too! And my philosophy is that anyone can be "a composer." All it takes is the desire to create - to want to hear ones authentic self expressed through music. Difficult? Not at all! It's as easy as putting fingers to keys and playing. Hard to believe but true. You see, music students have been cheated from the get go by an academic snobbism that destroys the spirit and the will to create. The suggestion is that the best music has already been created so why bother. The answer is crucial to our own well being. We bother because it makes us feel good. That is all that is required and that is all that is needed to make music. Send this article to a friend  Learn how to improvise and compose your own unique New Age piano music! Study online with Edward Weiss.