Welcome to October! The whole month unveils before us, so let’s get organized. We mean this literally because the first week of October is the National Get Organized Week. What exactly does this entail, you may wonder? Actually, it could mean a variety of things, from organizing your closet and drawers, to organizing a labor union! In other words, any task or activity to which you give an orderly and coherent structure.

What about music lessons? We are so glad you asked because, while there’s absolutely nothing wrong (and a lot of good) about improvisation in music, when it comes to lessons, good preparation and advance planning – in other words, organization! – are very important.

Get ready!

You want your lessons – and music experience in general – to be both productive and enjoyable, don’t you? We do too! To achieve this synergy, we suggest that you follow these simple steps: First of all, make sure your instrument is in good “working” condition, which means that you always protect it from harm and damage, and generally take excellent care of it. Now that you’ve taken care of your instrument, take care of yourself. Sit (or stand) comfortably and hold your instrument correctly. Proper posture is very important – not only because it helps you play better, but it also prevents aches and soreness. How do you make sure your body is ready? Start by stretching and strengthening your wrists, hands and arms before your lesson. Simple exercises like squeezing a tennis ball or lifting a dumbbell will be useful. Building up the core strength of your diaphragm trunk muscles is essential, especially if you play a woodwind or brass instrument. If you take voice lessons, learn how to use your abdomen muscles and have proper breathing techniques. Your instrument and body are ready, but what about your attitude? Are you enthusiastic, motivated, and focused? We hope so, because mental readiness is just as important as the physical one. Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to schedule your lessons on regular basis and practice in between.

Always prepared

Now that we’ve given you some tips on how to get organized for your lessons, you may be wondering what to expect of our teachers? We can assure you that besides being excellent music instructors, they are also very organized. For instance, they always show up at your Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Riverdale home or office on time and well prepared for the lesson. It’s true that we can’t micro-manage everything, but when it comes to music lessons, we have the right …key! With our organizational skills and yours, we’ll make quite a team!

Photo by unknown, available under Creative Commons License

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We don’t mean to be too inquisitive about your, um, bedroom habits, but we would like to know this: how well do you sleep at night? Are you lucky enough to fall into deep and relaxing slumber, or are you tossing and turning all night long?

If you are like most people, chances are that you sometimes (or maybe often) have difficulties falling – or staying – asleep. If you’ve tried natural remedies like drinking warm milk before bed or counting sheep, but sleep still eludes you, music may be a great remedy. Several studies conducted in recent years have demonstrated not only that certain types of music promote restful sleep, but also that listening to music during sleep could enhance brainpower and lead to better memory.

Land of Nod

We know that lullabies help fussy babies catch some zzzz’s, but what kind of music will lull adults to sleep? For most people, heavy metal is probably not the most effective sleep inducer, unless, of course, you are a hardened Metallica fan and find the group’s biggest hit, “Enter Sandman ” to be a Zen-like experience. For the majority of us, however, soft and smooth sounds have a more relaxing and calming effect. In fact, psychologist Dave Elliot of the University of Cumbria found that the most relaxing music features 90 beats per minute, a 4/4 beat, piano and strings, and narrow note sequences where the notes move from low to high. What does this tune sound like? The aptly named “World’s Most Relaxing Music ” may just do the trick. Then there is a new 8-hour long piece of music by British composer Max Richter, which is believed to be the longest “lullaby” ever recorded. Titled “Sleep,” it will premiere in Berlin in September from 12pm to 8am. The audience will be given beds instead of seats. It will probably be the first time in history that a concert’s success will be judged by how many people fell asleep during the performance!

Night sounds

If you can’t be in Berlin for this particular concert, or can’t wait until September to get a good night’s sleep, you may try listening to these calm and soothing tunes: Binaural sounds
Deep sleep music
Weightless music
Dream music
Relaxing music
Delta waves

A hard day’s night

Many musical instruments can play soothing and relaxing tunes – for instance, the flute, harp, sitar, or the violin. Also, many items that don’t fall into the strict category of musical instruments produce the most beautiful and relaxing sounds: Tibetan “singing” bowls or wind chimes , for instance. And what about our music teachers? Rest assured that when they give you a music lesson, they will never (intentionally) put you to sleep! We guarantee that no matter what time of day or evening they show up at your Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Riverdale home or office, you’ll never catch them napping!

Photo by unknown, available under Creative Commons License

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If you have followed the news for the past couple of months, you surely know that, for the first time ever, a space probe named Rosetta dropped the robotic lander Philae onto the surface of a comet (this phenomenon is not to be mistaken for the other Rosetta Stone – the language school).

There are many amazing aspects of this historic landing, not the least of which is the distance and the duration of the journey: 6.4 billion miles that took a decade to achieve! Another mind-boggling fact is that Philae is as small as a washing machine.

Interestingly enough, the landing occurred only days after the release of the movie “Interstellar,” so no wonder we have been so…“spaced out” lately!

The sounds of space

The whole thing is awe-inspiring, of course, but the part that particularly fascinates us (for obvious reasons) is the “song” emitted by the comet. It is not music in a traditional, earthly sense, but rather a haunting sound that makes us imagine all the mysteries of the universe.

It may (or may not) be true that in space no one can hear you scream, but the extra-terrestrial world is not quite as silent as you might think. In fact, the recording sent from the comet is only the latest proof that far-away galaxies create beautiful – though unusual – music of their own.

Cosmic particles may not be producing sound in the conventional sense, but their speeding paths do emit audible vibrations. In a truly fascinating endeavor, scientists turned the nearly four decades of data collected from two NASA Voyager spacecraft into music that “speaks” to human ears here on earth. By using different groups of instruments for each spacecraft – separated from each other by billions of miles of space – a surprisingly beautiful piano and string duet was created .

We are “worldly!”

At Hey Joe Guitar, we are truly inspired by these “space” sounds. They demonstrate that music really is – in all the senses of the word – universal.

Even though we are earth-bound, we thank…our lucky stars for the wonderful music teachers who work with is. They too are inspired by the eerily beautiful sounds of space music, but when it comes to teaching – whether guitar, drums, or any other instrument – their feet are firmly on the ground. (Even so, they’ll be happy to help you or your child master the more conventional sounds from our solar system and beyond ).

When they come to give a lesson at your Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Riverdale home or office, you will see that these teachers are out of this world!

Photo by unknown, available under Creative Commons License

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Are you reading the above headline and thinking that we overdid it just a tad with the clichés? Yes, we did, but that was intentional to set the mood for this blog’s topic: musical idioms. As you know by now, the subject of music really…strikes a chord with us.

Most of these idioms are well-worn and you have heard them – and maybe even used them – yourself. The interesting thing about them is that they are actually not so much about music per se as about real-life situations.

Let’s explore some of them, but first, here’s a challenge: can you spot all the idioms that are interspersed throughout this blog?

All that jazz

Jam session: No, it has nothing to do with making preserves (but you already knew this, didn’t you?) It simply means improvising music in an informal setting “Jam Session.”

Fit as a fiddle: You are in good shape (hopefully because you play the violin!)

Play by ear: This expression conjures comic images of someone playing an instrument with his / her ear, but that is not the idiom’s intended meaning. Rather, it refers to handling a situation in an impromptu manner, or, in the musical sense, playing an instrument without annotation.

Tickle the ivories:  If you are a linguistic purist, you may take this to mean touching an item made out of ivory, but this actually refers to playing the piano. We hasten to reassure you, however, that these days no animals are harmed in the process – modern piano keys are made of plastic.

Hit the right note: This idiom hasnothing to do with a wonderful singing voice; it means you have a positive influence on people.

Call the tune:  Make an important decision and control the situation.  And if you change the tune, you change your mind or actions.

For a song: Buying or selling something very cheaply – singing is not actually required.

These are just a few musical idioms. There are, of course, many more…

We’ll make beautiful music!

Idioms aside, we are totally serious about making sure that you or your children get the best possible music experience.

We don’t mean to sound like a broken record but we do like, on occasion, to toot our own horn. And the message we want to convey is that our excellent teachers play second fiddle to no one.

Whether you want to play guitar, piano, drum, or any other musical instrument, one of our awesome instructors will come to your Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Riverdale home or office and pull out all the stops.

This may sound like a lot of bragging, but it’s true – when it comes to teaching music, our teachers sure know the score!

Photo by Kelly B.

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