We’re Opening Our Doors!

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We're so happy to be able to welcome you back into our stores. We've taken our time re-opening to ensure we can do so safely for everyone. Please remember that we are still required to meet State guidelines so we will be requiring masks in the shop and limiting the number of guests in the store at one time. For those who are more comfortable with curbside service, we will continue to come out to you, just give us a call when you arrive. We have missed you all, and look forward to seeing you!

Back to School Means Back to Music

We’ve been asked one question more than any other in the last few months, “Should my student play in band or orchestra this upcoming school year?”

The short answer—Yes, and here’s why:

The benefits of music making are more important now than ever!

It’s not a secret music education provides students with positive experiences and teaches them crucial skills they’ll use throughout their lives. In addition to the joy of making music, students build both cogitative and social skills.  Research has shown music students develop better language and reasoning skills. They also gain increased proficiency in memorization and pattern recognition and have higher emotional intelligence than their peers who do not study music. The list of instrumental music’s benefits is LONG, believe me. Music is comfort and solace. Perhaps most important, music teaches us about our culture and connects us to our humanity. 

During the Coronavirus pandemic, we’ve witnessed music’s power to bring people together. We watched people connect through music from their balconies during lockdown in Italy. Many of the world’s biggest music artists collaborated via the Internet to record music that was shared around the world. Music lifted our spirits and artists used it to raise money for COVID-19 relief and response funds. Right here at home music students participated in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s call to make music on the front porch at 6pm every day. Some of these #playontheporch videos circled the globe!

But, is playing music in the classroom safe?

The Vienna Philharmonic participated in an experiment testing the risk of transmitting the Coronavirus when performing. Players inserted devices in their noses that created a visible mist when they breathed.

“The study concluded that there was no increased risk for musicians playing together in an orchestra as long as they observed at least a meter’s distance from each other.”

This shows that a meter’s distance (about 3 feet) in combination with proper cleaning and instrument hygiene will help keep your music maker happy and healthy in more ways than one.

NAfME, the National Association for Music Education released a COVID-19 instrument cleaning guide. You can view the guidelines here. With these guidelines, you can help your student keep their instrument safe and sanitized.

If you’d like help learning more about cleaning your instrument, or what products to use, please contact us. We can also clean and disinfect your instrument in our shop. After all, we have over 50 years of experience in getting instruments sanitized and safe for students to use! Call us and we can schedule a cleaning and service drop-off today!