?Listen, you spoiled little cretins, the world does not revolve around you,? I patiently explained.

?You?re kidding right?? hooted my students derisively.

?Pick up your instruments, start together on the downbeat and count carefully.?

How many music teachers have had the first part of that conversation? Almost none, at least not out loud. The second installment is an every day plea for many.

Our youth-obsessed culture seems to make a liar out of me, but lest you think your work is in vain, let me present you with a few ideas.

One of the things adults commonly complain about in their later years looking back on school, aside from a lousy prom, was that they felt ?alone? and like an ?outsider?. The band and orchestra students that I have canvassed don?t often feel that way. Isn?t that interesting? I?m lobbying to have my son do a graduate research project on this issue. I?d love to see the results, wouldn?t you?

Common sense, that harbinger of things ?everybody knows? insists that if you learn to be part of a group that needs you in order to get something done, you will feel valuable and worthwhile. Anecdotal evidence supports this concept.

Our sports-mad country feeds us with stories of the scrawny child who becomes Mr. Olympia seven times, makes multimillions in movies and then governs California. What is often overlooked is that music serves many valuable parts of the maturation process that sports do not.

Let me elaborate briefly. Most people involved with music know the statistics. Music makes you brighter, helps you focus in all areas of study, gives you greater mastery over fractions than heretofore thought humanly possible, etc.

But here?s a thought for all those guitar players strumming alone in their garrets. When you have to listen and fit in, when there is the tyranny of a written part to play you are going to find yourself learning new musical concepts at light speed. Why? For the same reason that learning say, mathematics, is easier with some formal guidelines. Reinventing multiplication or discovering every formula newly takes a few lifetimes of inquiry, just check your history texts. Solitary inquiry is necessary and good and I hope it has a place of honor in everyone?s intellectual pantheon, but it cannot be the only method of realization.

One thing ensemble music instruction teaches you is that you must ?make nice? with others in order to get the job done. ?So what?? you say. It gets back to the heart of both of our issues.

One of the signs of maturity, which my adorable dumplings in the lower grades find difficult to exhibit, is one?s place and involvement in an activity. In spite of what our youth worshipping culture and media would have you believe individuals are generally not the most important things on the program. In music you learn that you can have a part that is vital to the results, but so are the other parts. Together you all help to create a whole that is satisfying to everyone.

This is something that musicians learn and team players discover, but many other people miss completely. Unlike sports where there can be a competitive factor to be the ?best?, music requires everyone be good to make the whole creative performance satisfying. This is an even higher level of sophistication than sports because creating your part well and thoroughly gives you no personal glory but makes the whole experience better for all the other players and the audience. And all without someone else having to ?lose?.

A good musician must practice alone but still be able to play with a group to create something larger than themselves. The product of this collaboration? All of us have favored pieces of music associated with the times of our lives, and a majority of those pieces were created within a group, rather than by a solo artist.

Both musician and listener profit from this synergy. With recordings you can hear your favorites repeatedly extending the memories for a lifetime. So, although the world doesn?t revolve around any one of us, the extended fruits of our conspiracies are definitely worth striving for. Go forth and make music for yourself and for all of us.

Suzie Hammond is a teacher turned writer and factotum for: http://www.musicalcompositions.net

There you may purchase and download sheet music for concert bands, choirs, chamber ensembles, jazz groups. See it, hear it,download it, rehearse it. FREE Newsletter and FREE Special Report written by Carl Hammond Phd. a 35 year international music veteran.

Well written interesting music for your groups to play right now via download. Score pages, MP3s to help you decide suitability.

Music is a great teacher and healer, too. Ever since human civilization evolved, music has been an integral part of life. Through music many things can be achieved.

Music is present in all walks of life on all occasions. Lullabies, birthday songs, wedding songs, religious prayers, solemn occasions like mourning, national anthems, etc.- there is a song for every occasion.

So, from birth till last breath, there is music present everywhere. Befitting to this, child music education is an important field. This simply means teaching music to children from a young age, the sooner the better. Children must be encouraged to develop hobbies.

Hobbies will improve children?s creativity, talents, intelligence, attitude and aptitude.

Among other hobbies, music is especially useful in developing these qualities in children. Parents need to encourage the talents latent in their children and help them to develop and utilize them.

Research has proved that music education has an almost astonishing effect, especially on children. Their young minds are ever-receptive and it is our duty to pass on the right message to them. Not only that, as elders, we need to cultivate culture among the children of today, who will be the citizens of tomorrow.

Music education develops self-confidence and a positive attitude in kids, so they can excel in school, life, their social circle and the society at large. Teenage violence, aggression, depression, psychic problems ? all these can be remarkably controlled and reduced through music education.

It is high time that conscientious efforts are made to recognize not only the melody of music, but also its intrinsic value in refining and fine-tuning our children?s character. In other words, music education should be included as a regular course of study, rather than being optional.

Music Education provides detailed information on Music Education, Benefits Of Music Education, Music Education Theory, Child Music Education and more. Music Education is affiliated with Piano Sheet Music.

Have you ever played a melody on a guitar? Well, if not let this be the first time! I will show you how to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on one string with one finger on your left hand and one finger on your right.

What string you use on your or somebody elses guitar doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of personal choice.

As you know Mary Had A Little Lamb is a popular nursery rhyme. Here is the first verse:

Mary had a little lamb
little lamb, little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
its fleece was white as snow

Thomas Edison used this poem in testing his invention of the phonograph in 1877. It became the first audio recording to be successfully made and played back.

Let’s start by playing on a string of your choice. Play the string with the thumb. If you play the string three times with your right hand thumb we can write it down like this:

0-0-0

If you press down the string on the second fret with your left hand first finger and play it three times and then lift your finger and play on the open string three times like you did before it will look like this:

2-2-2-0-0-0

Got the idea? Well, to play Mary Had A Little Lamb you need two more notes. Press down your first finger on the fourth fret and then on your seventh fret and you have all the necessary notes. The song looks like this:

4-2-0-2-4-4-4–2-2-2–4-7-7

4-2-0-2-4-4-4-4-2-2-4-2-0

If you still have questions you can ask a guitar playing friend to help you. She or he will probably be proud to help you.

If this melody is a little bit to easy for you, you can show it to a not guitar playing friend. Many people start to smile when they can play something on the guitar for the first time!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Do you recall the day you traded in your guitar for a job at the bank or gave up your piano lessons to become a doctor? Have you been thinking about rediscovering your musical roots as soon as your retirement kicks in? Are you still hoping that some day you?ll get to dust off your sax and join the local jam session? If this sounds all too familiar, you?re not alone. In fact, it?s more common than you think for people in the latter stages of life to get the itch to return to their musical beginnings.

Like most closet musicians, you likely arrived at a turning point in your life where you had to decide between the certainty of a job and the uncertainty of a life in the music business. And, like the vast majority, you chose the more stable path. Do you ever wonder though, what it would have been like if you had enough courage to pursue the other path – even if it would have totally freaked your parents out?

As a professional concert pianist I have people say to me all the time that they would give anything to do what I do. A lot of these folks wish they just could turn back the clock and get another shot at it, even if it might not have been the responsible thing to do.

That?s why I?m so grateful for the path I have chosen, not only because I love it but because, I never have to worry about what I might have missed. The truth is; I love music and what it does for my soul. I wake up every day with excitement because I really don?t know what?s going to happen or where I?ll end up. That to me is a gift, not a liability. The only thing certain in my life is uncertainty and that I can always count on.

But, our society is not programmed to think in these terms. We?re groomed in school to play it safe, get a job and pay the bills. It?s definitely the easy thing to do but is it the right thing? I think we were all born to learn something new and exciting every day. For most people who go to the same job day after day, a job they most likely hate – how is this learning?

Many people find themselves at a turning point in their latter years when they think to themselves, ?What exactly happened to my dreams?? But, then you think to yourself, ?I got married and had kids, it would have been completely irresponsible of me to follow my dreams because so few actually make it.? That?s true, except why couldn?t you have been one of the few?

In any case, I often say to people, ?Why don?t you quit your job now while you still can?? To my mind, living every day in a situation you hate will only lead you somewhere you don?t want to go. It?s important to choose a goal in life that you really are passionate about because, that?s what will make your life exciting and challenging. Anybody can get a job.

But, even if you absolutely cannot give up your job, why not take up music seriously at the same time? For now, start practicing in secrecy. Then eventually you?ll be good enough to perform for others. And, if you?re passionate enough, you may even get to be the performer that you?ve always admired from a distance. You know, the one you?ve often cheered for with mixed delight and sorrow because, you know you could have been that person?

The good news, it?s not too late!

Take my friend Bruce for example. With three years left to go to his retirement as a bank executive, he reintroduced himself to blues guitar. Shortly thereafter he reunited his high school band and now they?re actually booking themselves for dances, concerts and private functions.

And, my friend Mary Ann is doing the same thing. She had a music degree in classical piano which, she eventually gave up to become a family doctor. Now, several years later she?s formed a jazz quartet with some friends and another doctor on drums, and the band performs at least 5 nights a month around town.

These are just two examples of people who understand that they can have it all; both a successful professional career and a life in music. Like them, you don?t have to wait for your retirement to get back to doing what you love.

So next time you feel the need to rejuvenate your life with music, come on out of the closet. Because, the truth of the matter is the only thing stopping you, is you. Take my advice and start living your life the way you want and not the way everyone else expects of you. Live the rest of your life doing what you love because, the only risk in life is not taking one.

Paul Tobey is a professional concert pianist who is well-known for his motivational music seminars and popular free piano music downloads.