Music is good for human beings –it makes us calmer, smarter, more emotionally balanced, and happier. We are not exactly reinventing the wheel here because the beneficial effects of music are well known.

But wait – let’s take this one step farther. Did you also know that non-humans enjoy playing music as well? This news comes from an unlikely (at least in this context) institution – Smithsonian’s National ZOO in Washington D.C, which has its animals playing various musical instruments.

Now, this may sound like monkey business, but the zoo’s management explained in a statement that musical activities “allow animals to demonstrate their species-typical behavior, to allow them to exercise control or choice over their environment, and to enhance their well-being.” The zoo concedes that while animals wouldn’t necessarily encounter a keyboard or the harmonica in the wild, “the activity engages their sight, touch and hearing senses.”

What this means is that ALL creatures large and small, and not just humans, draw benefit from music.

The zoo is alive with the sound of music

In all fairness, the zoo doesn’t claim that its animals are virtuoso musicians. As these videos demonstrate, at very best they could be categorized as beginners, but they should certainly get applauded for being curious and enthusiastic – the very same qualities that human musicians should have.

Having said that, otters could very well be an exception. The zoo gave them a keyboard and reports that the mammals have mastered the music of “Chopsticks” (also known as – even more appropriately – “The Flea Waltz”) and advanced “to something bolder, more expressive and individualistic”.

Here are more “awww” moments: an orangutan playing the xylophone and a bear blowing into the harmonica . We are not quite sure what melody the bear cub is playing but we’d like to think it is, fittingly enough,  “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

Not a dog and pony show

At Hey Joe Guitar, we are animal lovers. However, we will not give music lessons to your pets – whether you own a dog, cat, zebra, or an orangutan. Our teachers are well trained and highly qualified, but their experience is limited to humans (we are not saying animals can’t be taught to play, but we are not the ones to teach them!)  Just like a leopard can’t change his spots, we can’t make a horse play the guitar either!

But if you, your child, or another (two-legged) family member would like to learn an instrument, we’ll come to your Manhattan, Brooklyn or Riverdale (Bronx) home or office to give you lessons. We won’t even mind if your animal sits in on the lesson – talk about the proverbial elephant in the room!

Photo by Christina Quinn

The post A NYC Music School That’s Not For the Birds appeared first on Hey Joe Guitar.

Recently, a heart-warming story about the benefits of music came from an unlikely source: The World Bank. The international financial organization provides loans to developing countries to reduce poverty in various regions of the world. But, it seems, it is no stranger to music either!

An article in the organization’s publication describes how music classes are keeping young people in violence-ridden neighborhoods of San Salvador (El Salvador’s capital city) off the streets.

The World Bank-supported initiative, which encourages at risk-youth to develop skills in music and the arts, has had a positive impact. “It enabled 75 young Salvadorians to take up music classes and learn to play a musical instrument,” the article reports. “These after-school workshops fill the youth’s free time, keeping them out of trouble.

Now plans are underway to create a youth symphony orchestra in San Salvador’s most precarious areas.

Instrument for change

Similar projects exist or are being organized in Honduras and Guatemala, which, along with El Salvador, are Central America’s most violent regions.

In the United States too the importance of music training for disadvantaged children and teens has gained recognition among educators. So-called “music clinics” and other music and arts-related programs and projects are taking place in school districts across America. They all share the same goal as their Central American counterparts: to keep at-risk kids focused on a positive, nurturing, and fun activity as an alternative to street violence that is prevalent in their communities.

Keeping kids out of trouble

Many studies, including one by the National Arts Education Research Center, have demonstrated that violent behavior decreased in kids who participated in music and arts programs.

There are many reasons why music and arts education is effective in keeping potentially violent teens on the straight and narrow. For example, many youngsters turn to crime because of peer pressure, lack of purpose, hopelessness, or deep-seated but unexpressed anger. In all these cases, music education provides a benefit by giving the teens a meaningful purpose, self-confidence, a sense of accomplishment, civic pride, discipline, and a way of expressing – through music – their feelings.

As the 19th century poet Berthold Auerbach so eloquently put it, “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

We are sure all the kids who participate in the World Bank’s project, as well as those in our country, would agree.

Let’s be in tune!

We at Hey Joe Guitar are proud to do our part by offering, though our non-profit CWB Foundation for Children & Music, a variety of music programs to schoolchildren in New York City’s economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. We hope to make a positive and meaningful impact on their lives and to help them develop a lifelong passion for music.

However, music education is, needless to say, beneficial to people – kids and adults alike – of all sociocultural backgrounds and conditions. Our school can give you in-home or in-office music lessons in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Riverdale – whatever instrument strikes your fancy.

With Hey Joe Guitar, you can be part of a (good) gang!

Photo Credit: Nelomi Jangos

The post At Manhattan Music Lessons, We Believe in the Power of Education! appeared first on Hey Joe Guitar.