Lincoln Park Days (August 23, 24 & 25)

This weekend offers a couple of festivals downriver. I will definitely be checking out the bands at Lincoln Park Days. Along with my earlier articles praising the Downriver Development Authority and their participation in the Downriver Cruise and InsideOut Art project, kudos to the Lincoln Park Exchange Club.

According to their website:

The Exchange Club of Lincoln Park is a service organization with a focus on the Prevention of Child Abuse. We also promote, Americanism, Youth Programs, and Service to our Community. We  celebrated our 89th Birthday in 2011.

We hold fundraisers throughout the year to allow us to fund our programs like Youth of the Month, Youth of the Year, Scholarships to a Lincoln Park High School Graduating Senior, Believe in the Blue and many more. We host our biggest fundraiser, Lincoln Park Days, in August with a large community festival complete with a carnival, rides, community midway, bands and beer.


The Exchange Club has filled the weekend with an interesting selection of local bands.

The Lincoln Park Days Festival will be August 23, 24, 25. 2013. Festival times are Friday 4-11pm, Saturday 12-11pm and Sunday 12-9pm.

2013 Lincoln Park Days Entertainment Schedule
Friday 5-6:30pm
Lucky Stiff
www.Facebook.com
Friday 8 to 11pm
Ray’s Garage
www.Facebook.com
Saturday 12-2pm
FREE Zumba with Zumba Krista
Saturday 2 to 3 pm
Brass Knuckle Karma
Saturday 4-7pm
Doesn’t Matter
www.Facebook.com
Saturday 8-11pm
Superlast
www.reverbnation.com
Sunday 12-2:30pm
JD Eicher and the Good Nights - acoustic set
www.jdeicherandthegoodnights.com
Sunday 3:30-5pm
Twistin Terantulas
www.twistinterantulas.com
Sunday 6-9pm
Terry Lea and the Mustangs
www.reverbnation.com  

For more information, visit the Lincoln Park Exchange Club website.

http://www.lpexchange.clubexpress.com/

Thanks to the Exchange Club for providing this showcase of bands.

If you have any thoughts to share on Lincoln Park Days, please let us know your experience.

Peace,
Annette DeMaggio
www.songsofjoymi.com

Landfill Harmonic Orchestra --- Building Instruments from Trash

Thanks to Nancy Piatek for sharing this video with me.

According to the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra website:

Welcome to Landfill Harmonic. A film about a garbage picker, a music teacher and a group of children from a Paraguayan slum who play instruments made entirely of garbage. Landfill Harmonic is a beautiful story about the transformative power of music, which also highlights two vital issues of our times: poverty and waste pollution. The story develops in one of the poorest slums in Latin America. Just outside Asuncion, Paraguay; Cateura is the city’s trash dump. It is built on a landfill. Here, people live in a sea of garbage. And they live from garbage. 

Surrounded by stories of drug-violence, alcoholism and destitution, they make herculean efforts to reaffirm their life and dignity. 
There was no money for real instruments when local musician Favio Chavez started his music school in the barrio, so together they started to make instruments from trash - violins and cellos from oil drums, flutes from water pipes and spoons, guitars from packing crates. Our film documents the origins of the Orchestra and, as the story evolves, follows them on a world tour. Join us in this journey and witness the mind-boggling inventive effort of a humble garbage picker, and a music teacher that using their ingenuity, where able to create instruments out of recycled materials, bringing to life one of the world’s most unlikely orchestras. 
It is entirely made of garbage. They call it “The Recycled Orchestra”. 
Coming soon. On January 2014.

View a short video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UJrSUHK9Luw

This is inspirational and all musicians should be even more appreciative of the beautiful and melodious instruments we are privileged to play. So, go hug your instrument right now!

If you would like to add any comments about home made instruments, we'd like to hear your story.

Peace,
Annette DeMaggio
www.songsofjoymi.com

Early Music Lessons Boost the Brain --- CBC - Quirks and Quarks with Bob McDonald

Again, CBC radio has provided another thought provoking story regarding the long term benefits of learning an instrument. This interview examines the benefits of early musical training, especially for those under the age of 7 and its effect on the brain.

According to the preface:

If you started piano lessons in grade one, or played the recorder in kindergarten, thank your parents and teachers. Those lessons you dreaded – or loved – helped develop your brain. The younger you started music lessons, the stronger the connections in your brain.

 

A study published last month in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that musical training before the age of seven has a significant effect on the development of the brain, showing that those who began early had stronger connections between motor regions – the parts of the brain that help you plan and carry out movements. 

 

This research was carried out by students in the laboratory of Concordia Universitypsychology professor Virginia Penhune, and in collaboration with Robert J. Zatorre, a researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University.

 

The study provides strong evidence that the years between ages six and eight are a “sensitive period” when musical training interacts with normal brain development to produce long-lasting changes in motor abilities and brain structure. “Learning to play an instrument requires coordination between hands and with visual or auditory stimuli,” says Penhune. “Practicing an instrument before age seven likely boosts the normal maturation of connections between motor and sensory regions of the brain, creating a framework upon which ongoing training can build.” 

I expect that there are other benefits too. The confidence, persistence and good habits that are formed in my students are enough for me to say "early musical education is paramount to joy, inquisitiveness and exploration."

Listen to the full interview:

http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2013/02/16/february-16-2013/

If you have any comments on the benefits of early music education, please share with us.

Peace,
Annette DeMaggio
www.songsofjoymi.com