Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance by my Daughter & Son

•  Remembering J Brahms on his birthday (May 7, 1833)

Composer, J Brahms

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HuffPost: Musicians Are Smarter Than The Rest Of Us

 

Musicians Are Smarter Than The Rest Of Us

by HUFFPOST

Musicians’ Brains Stay Sharp as They Age

Summary
While it is known that practicing music repeatedly changes the organization of the brain, it is not clear if these changes can correlate musical abilities with non-musical abilities. The study of 70 older participants, with different musical experience over their lifetimes, provides a connection between musical activity and mental balance in old age. “The results of this preliminary study revealed that participants with at least 10 years of musical experience (high activity musicians) had better performance in nonverbal memory, naming, and executive processes in advanced age relative to non-musicians.”

Introduction
Changing one’s lifestyle may postpone the onset of problems connected with old age, like Alzheimer’s disease. These diseases cause cognitive changes like loss of memory, reasoning, and perception. Adequate rest and physical exercise as well as a lifelong habit of stimulating the mind are favorable for clear thinking in old age. Musical activities, undertaken throughout the lifetime, have an impact on one’s mental health during old age. This has been studied in this current research work. Practicing music for a number of years brings about certain changes in brain organization. Comparing the lucidity in old age of those pursued music related activities and those who didn’t may help to understand the effect of the music-related reorganization of brain on successful aging.

Methods
-- Seventy healthy participants, aged between 60 and 83, were divided into three groups, based on their degree of involvement in musical activities, over their lifetimes.
-- The three groups were similar in average age, education, handedness, sex ratio, and physical exercise habits.
-- The first group, namely the non-musicians, never received any formal musical training. The second group, the low activity musicians, had one to nine years of training. The third, the high activity musicians, trained for more than 10 years and played regularly afterward.
-- All were tested for brain strengths such as memory, attention, and language prowess, using standardized tests. Their mastery on the use of language, ability to remember, and ability to express oneself were tested.

Results
-- Verbal intellectual ability and learning, as well as recall of verbal information, were found to be similar across the three groups.
-- The high activity musicians were significantly better at performing tasks based on visual inputs.
-- Although language prowess seemed to be similar across the groups, the high activity musicians’ memory for words was significantly better than that of non-musicians.
-- The age at which musical training started affected visual memory, while the number of years of training affected non-verbal memory.

Read the full article H E R E < ------

This Pup agrees?!! 😄

O sing unto the LORD a new song: 

sing unto the LORD, all the earth.

Psalm 96

Musicians Are Probably Smarter Than The Rest Of Us

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Virtual Music Lessons During Covid19

Daughter has been doing virtual Music Lessons since Spring 2020 -- with no end in sight! No one at the Music School seems to feel constrained to end the situation  😐😕😟 So far we've missed Spring Recital, and Christmas Recital. 

Lord, please rid our land of Coronavirus!

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Danse Macabre Piano Duo by Camille Saint-Saëns

Danse Macabre Op. 40  

Daughter plays same beautiful & "fun" Piano duet, 4 years apart.  Can you spot the difference between the 2 versions? 

Version 1 Jill is happiest with this version;   played with a friend -- a Piano grad student -- April 2017

Version 2 Jill playing  in year 2013.  Aaaaah, this brings back good  memories.  We will forever miss the multi-talented JP 

Anthropologie: Celestial Halter Gown by Ranna Gill

Gorgeous, metallic DARK TURQUOISE dress by the designer, Ranna Gill. Daughter wore it to her college Piano Recital.  She made a grand entrance.  The dress was shimmery, yet subdued and formal enough through its use of dark color. Compliments by guests were for her piano-playing skills (one hour's worth of difficult, memorized music!);  and for her choice of dress. 

Ranna Gill: Celestial Halter Gown

Anthropologie CELESTIAL GOWN




69.05.23.18

Grace under pressure

Posted this yesterday at the forum:  Well, folks, I'm glad today is over. Pictured below are -- Jared & AJ -- playing their piano pieces at the recital.  DS Jared played a fabulous Frederic Chopin piece, but he flubbed-up more than once (Mom, how can I make 11 mistakes when I've only got 10 fingers?! ).

What can you do?  You grin and bear it, and inwardly cheer him on through 22 memorized pages of a very difficult 12-minute piano piece.  And you thank the Lord above for giving you a son who knows how to persevere.And laugh at himself. And has the guts to post the video on FB. And on YouTube

Then, you break out the Godiva white chocolate. Yum!

Jared: Chopin's Scherzo #2 in Bb Major

AJ: Toccata by Dmitry Kabalevsky

As an added note, the music school the boys attend is far smaller than the other music school we also use, but the teachers are the best.  Pictured below is Mr and Mrs Purim, piano teachers, who grew up under the communist regime in the former USSR.

Godiva ♥

Chopin: Revolutionary Etude as played by Jared

 Music School Recital, Nov 22, 2009

Recital: Frederic Chopin's Nocturne & Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance

Wheaton College's Community School of the Arts (CSA) Recital last night.
Jared & Jillian playing a Piano duo of  Johannes Brahms' "Hungarian Dance"
Farrah played 2 Piano pieces; Jill also played Frederic Chopin's "Nocturne, Op. 72, No. 1"
Praise God for the opportunities.
Enjoy!