Music-making creates VITALITY !     Please watch the videos below.  Singing and music-making transform the experience of being alive.  Elementary School Chorus in NYC; Playing for Change; Bobby McFerrin; Haiti.  Music-making activates more areas of the brain than any other singular activity.  It awakens the emotions and can help the brain recover from injury:  Margot Gardot (from no speech to professional singer); Alzheimer's patient;  "Aha Moment"! Singing boosts our Immunoglobulin A (IgA), a disease-fighting protein (see Beck's study on this website's Research page) and music-making enhances vitality, health, well being and possibly longevity.  70- to 90-year-olds in the Young@Heart Chorus and a couple playing the piano at the Mayo Clinic! “Singing is the outward manifestation of our souls.  [Singing] is not a luxury, it’s not a plug-in, it’s not a nicety, it’s not a small entertainment for lunch time for some of the children; it is every child’s birthright.  And our mission is to bring that back to our 21st-century modern communities.  That singing is not a luxury; it is our children's birthright.”      – Howard Goodall, National Ambassador for Singing (England)         speaking about transforming schools through SingUp

Music is a natural intelligence you are born with; there are no unmusical people.  Babies sing before they speak. Singing and playing an instrument are no more special talents than riding a bike, swimming, reading, or adding and subtracting. Singing is nothing more than vibration on the breath.  Tuvan throat singing on the David Letterman show.  Everyone can learn to sing in tune and play instruments (unless one has a profound disability such as "amusia," the inability to recognize or produce tones, found in only 4% of the population).  Students with severe developmental disabilities can play!  Singing unites people.  The Estonians kept their spirits free by singing during occupation by two foreign countries.  The Singing Revolution.   Some animals respond to the natural power of singing, Bedtime for Puppies, and beat, Snowball. Singing in a chorus or choir or playing in a band enhances well being, motivation, and focus.

Music making raises achievement in other disciplines such as reading and math.  Singing as an intervention for struggling readers using a software program produces dramatic achievement!   Contact Ann Kay, Director 952.937.1110    annckay@comcast.net