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Wishing all mothers out there a happy mother’s day. Let’s sing for our mothers…

Dear readers,

Time flies and in a flash, we are coming to the end of 2007.

I wish to thank all readers for visiting,  contributing to and providing valuable feedback since the inception of the NewSongStore.com months ago.

Come 2008, we hope that you will continue to support me and my blog.

Thank you and wishing you a prosperous year 2008!

From,

HARVEY

Dear readers, I wish everyone a merry x’mas N a happy new year!

As a parent of 3 young children, just like others, I would like my children to be excelled in whatever they do. As far as I can afford, I will send them to art class or music classes to cultivate their interest in these areas. I sent my elder son to attend music class when he was 3 year old. He spent 2 years learning what music is all about for 2 years before I decided to withdraw him from the music class in order for him to concentrate on the subject interest him most, which is art. To make that decision was really painful. But there is nothing much I can do when he demonstrated signs of no interest in music. I could have realized it long before.Since that incident, I have been more careful when assessing what is right for my children. Especially in considering music class for my second and third children. Here, I would like to share my experience with other parents who are considering music class for their kids. In fact, there is no hard and fuss rules on what age should a kid attend music class. But parents may want to take into consideration of the following.

1. The minimum age for music school enrollment is usually 3 year old. If you have kids who are younger than three and you are planning to send them to music class, you can first start something at home. For example, you can turn on your audio/video player to fill your house with music. This will ensure the kids have enough exposure to music and give them chance to appreciate music. Some parents play classical music for their babies even before they were born.
2. When you note that your kids responded to music positively (they sing, dance, shake their body or clap along), this actually demonstrates that they have certain level of interest in music. They have started to learn through exploring and experimenting what they have seen and hear.
3. Teach them the fundamental to get them ready for music class. Your kids should be able to distinguish left and right hand? They should not have problem in counting from 1 to 5? They must be able to recognise alphabet from A to G? These are important basic skills a kid must equip before they are consider suitable for enrolling into music class. It’s no brainier why they must learn these.
4. The kids must be able to pay attention to the music teacher for a reasonable period of time, say 20 minutes. The professionally run music school also recognise the short attention span of young kids and therefore, the music teacher will normally have some simple game session or physical movement after 15 to 20 minutes of teaching.

If the kids do not show any sign of interest, just don’t force them. For your information, my elder son is now begging me to send him back to piano class after seeing his younger brother enjoying the music. I’m still assessing his real interest in music….

Music Therapy is recognised throughout the world as a powerful force for transforming lives. In 1999 Music Therapy became a registered profession with the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine, now the Health Professions Council, an acknowledgement that Music Therapy is respected and established within education, social services and health care.
Music is universal in that it can encompass all heights and depths of human experience, all shades of feeling. It can lead or accompany the psyche through all conditions of inner experience, whether these be superficial and relatively commonplace or profound and deeply personal.

Music has the power to touch us all deeply and this power is used in music therapy. Through improvising and creating music together, a trusting relationship is built up as the therapist helps the child or adult to find renewed self confidence, self esteem and improved quality of life.

The overall aim of music therapy is to actively engage individuals in their own growth, development and behavioural change and for them to transfer musical and non-musical skills to other aspects of their life, bringing them from isolation into active participation in the world.

Music for health again! Just to share with you that how significant is music to your health. Like it or not, we have heard in many occasions (included in my previous post, I said that:)) that music is good for relaxing your mind. Music can decrease anxiety levels, lower blood pressure and heart rate, and change stress hormone levels. It affects your respiration, reduces muscle tension, increases endorphin levels, and boosts your immune system. The effect of music is so powerful, hospitals around the world use music to reduce stress in patients waiting for surgery.

Now there’s fresh evidence on the power of music to affect our health. Researchers at Italy’s University of Pavia found something new, something no one had expected to find. Dr. Bernardi and his colleagues were interested in using music to reduce stress in medical patients. In their experiment, the doctors recorded the vital signs of 24 test volunteers (12 musicians and 12 non-musicians) for 5 minutes. Then the volunteers listened to 6 different styles of music in random order. Random two-minute pauses were inserted in each piece of music.

The study found out that fast tempos increased heart rate, blood pressure and respiration and slow tempos reduced them as expected. The style of music and the volunteers’ personal taste in music had not had any significant impact at all. It didn’t matter what kind of music it was, be it classical or rap. The only thing that mattered was the tempo i.e. fast or slow. This means that the music you hear, whether you like it or not, is going to affect your health.

The Italians further discovered that the silent pauses between musical selections, the test subjects’ vital signs returned to normal, in some cases stabilizing at healthier levels than before the music. The researchers say this suggests that listening to any kind of music–fast or slow–could benefit your heart. A well done “Italian job”.

What are you waiting for? Go download now! Just any music. Let me know if you are looking for some unique voice, try me:)

My article published before this mentioned about the wonderful way that music can release stress. Same for the little one, music is also a wonderful way for to calm and soothe your baby, especially during the first year. How many times have your heard parents say that there was nothing that they could do with their crying, fussing baby until they tried music. This is because music does indeed soothe the savage beast, or in this case, the baby.

There are certain sounds that have been proven to calm even fussy babies: the sounds of nature and music are among them. Even if your baby isn’t fussing or crying you may want to use music as often as you can to encourage that feeling of calm and peacefulness. All it takes is a few minutes every day and before you know it your baby will be looking forward to hearing that certain song emanating from the CD player.

Playing music has other benefits besides soothing baby. For instance,

1. Babies are introduced to musical sounds.
2. Music enhances your baby’s behaviour and cognitive skills.
3. Relieves stress for the entire family.
4. Will stimulate curiosity and an interest in music.

As mentioned in yesterday’s article, music can release stress. Some may ask what type of music that helps in relaxation. Although there are music CD that so call can help to relax, but you don’t have to stick to music that is designed specifically as relaxation music. As mentioned, I feel comfortable and relaxing when listening to my favourite artist sings. If you feel more comfortable with pop songs than classical music, it is perfectly alright, it need not be only classical music that can help to relax as many people might think.

To many peoples, it is unlikely that heavy metal can calm one down but surprisingly there are still peoples who are responded positively to heavy metal. Conversely, the relaxation music you use should be composed in a way that makes it easy to listen to and moderately upbeat. It shouldn’t just be background music; it should also catch your attention and the focus of your mind.

There is no specific requirement for a location to enjoy relaxing music. However, you will feel more comfortable physiologically if you are at your own premises, in a darkened room, with some aroma from the burning of therapy oil. Make sure the music volume is not too loud; the sound level should be just nice to overwhelm the external noise. In this respect, a headphone can be very useful. Most importantly, you have to feel comfortable.

But one must bear in mind that relaxation is not something that comes naturally to many of us. Pressure in life means that we are robotically finish our office work and go home, then start to worry about tomorrow. This causes anxiety and hence lack of sleep in many cases. These are unlikely to be cured by occasionally listening to just a few minutes of music. Relaxation music has the greatest effect when you listen to it for at least 30 minutes each session.

Great Music, Good Life!

Imagine what kind life we are living in if there is no music on earth. We daily routines are almost the same, day in day out. Our lives have becoming so monotonous nowadays. There have been more and more peoples heading to SPA to seek therapy treatment in order to release stress. We may not realised that music can achieve an equally good result as the SPA treatments. Scientific studies have proven that listening to the right kind of music can help to reduce stress and soothes one’s mind. I personally find that listening to my favourite artists singing is soothing and relaxing. I can immediately forget about the pain and stress that I’ve experienced. We have also heard that the study indicates that a pregnant woman who listened to Mozart’s music regularly will tend to have a smarter baby.

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