<a href="https://www.music-for-everyone.org/news/mfemonday-ideas-month/" rel="bookmark">#MfEMonday &#8211; Ideas Month

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#MfEMondays are Music for Everyone’s new weekly emails designed to keep you up to date with MfE events & to circulate interesting finds, special features, and motivational moments for your Mondays! We are aiming to send out something new each week.

#MfEMonday – The Music of Kindness

17th February 202017th February 2020 Music for Everyone

Today is Random Acts of Kindness day, so we are taking a little time out of our day to tell all you lovely people how much we appreciate every single one of you!

A study by Cambridge University shows that engaging in musical activities on a regular basis greatly improves a child’s ability to empathise with others. An increased ability to empathise can lead to behaviours such as kindness, patience and cooperativeness which benefit the educational environment – for example, children who score higher on an empathy scale are more likely to help others being bullied. They found music to be one of the most effective ways to work with children on social and emotional communication, allowing them to experience another person’s emotional state and produce a kind response.

Imagine the impact in schools and the wider community if teaching emotional intelligence through music became part of the curriculum!

If you know of any young people who may benefit from participating in a musical activity, check out what we have on offer for young people over on our website.

Music Divas of the World Unite For Concert To Mark International Women’s Day, Royal Concert Hall: 8 March 2020 The iconic anthems of female superstars from Shirley Bassey to Beyoncé are to be celebrated in an uplifting live music show to mark International Women’s Day. Diva brings together the 50-piece Limelight Orchestra with pop, soul, jazz and musical theatre vocalists for a special one-off event at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall on 8 March 2020. The concert will also be raising money for the Nottingham Women’s Centre, which has been working for more than 40 years to help women gain the confidence and skills to achieve their full potential.

Tickets are available from the TRCH Box Office.
Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

17/02/2020

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10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Instruments and the Elements

10th February 202010th February 2020 Music for Everyone

With Storm Ciara sweeping through the East Midlands yesterday, we’ve been having a look at various ways the elements have been used to create music.

The singing ringing tree is a 3 metre tall musical sculpture made from steel pipes, swirled to form the shape of a tree. The pipes are blown by the wind and produce a melodious hum covering several octaves with a simultaneously discordant and melancholy sound.

The Aeolian Harp is made up of a small wooden box with a sounding board and strings attached to 2 bridges. Small ones can often be found outside windows or in gardens to enjoy the ‘ghostly’ tunes plucked by the wind! There are several slightly bigger versions, for example, this one in San Francisco stands at 27 feet tall! Have a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtzSm76ppS4

For those that enjoy a good science fact, the wind plays the harp by creating little spirals of air called vortices that move to either side making oscillations. The strings of an aeolian harp are tuned to the same note, which means these will vibrate only when the wind’s frequency of the oscillation matches the frequency of the string tuning. In other words, an aeolian harp will only make sound for a particular wind speed.

Music theory explained with Oreos… (other biscuits are available) need we say anymore? Take a look at this article on Classic FM https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/humour/music-theory-oreos/ to help understand sonata and rondo form, a useful and tasty lesson!

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

10/02/2020

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10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Brahms Triumph!

3rd February 20203rd February 2020 Music for Everyone

Congratulations to all those involved in last Saturday’s performance of the Brahms Requiem at the Albert Hall. Thankfully the Nottingham Festival Chorus’ performance was more successful than the work’s premiere in which the timpanist apparently misread p (quiet) for ff (very loud) and drowned out the rest of the orchestra!

Click here for William Ruff’s 4* review in the Nottingham Post.

Our Nottingham Youth Bands and East Midlands Youth String Orchestra have been successful in an application to take part in the Music for Youth Festival in Sheffield on 17 March. This is a prestigious, nationwide event and it is a great achievement to have been selected to perform. Watch this space for more information on how the groups get on.
While we’re still in a Brahmsian frame of mind (yes, it’s a real word!), check out this Fast and Friendly guide to Brahms, or if you’d prefer something a bit more relaxing watch this video of a cellist soothing fellow transatlantic passengers to sleep with his rendition of Brahms’ Lullaby!

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

03/02/2020

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Happy Birthday Mozart!

27th January 202027th January 2020 Music for Everyone

Today marks Mozart’s 264^th birthday! To celebrate, MfE’s Nottingham Concert Orchestra will be performing his Exsultate, Jubilate motet this coming weekend at the Albert Hall in Nottingham as part of the Nottingham Festival Chorus performance of Brahms German Requiem – there are still tickets left, find out more here!

We are also opening the doors to our youth instrumental groups this week and hosting Open Days where interested players can come along for free to see what it is like to play in a band or an orchestra. If you know a young instrumentalist that is looking for a group to join, why not let them know? We have groups for all abilities!

Today, Monday 27 January, is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day! Whilst the ‘official’ use of bubble wrap is to transport goods securely (they first attempted to market it as insulation but it wasn’t successful, eventually the perfect purpose was discovered!) I can imagine you will all agree that it is an excellent stress relief method (and perhaps a bit addictive) so why not celebrate tonight with a sheet of bubble wrap and see if you can pop every single bubble! How very satisfying…

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

27/01/2020

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10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Bandwise 2020

20th January 202020th January 2020 Music for Everyone

If you had been walking past the Albert Hall in Nottingham yesterday you would have been forgiven for thinking the National Brass Band Championships had come to town! In fact, it was the the culmination of two weekends of Bandwise, our annual event for young brass, wind and percussion players from Grades 1 – 8. However, the standard of playing within the concert was second to none and would have been well placed in any national competition! There was great variety in the programme, ranging from a 16th century Flemish dance, Battle Pavan, an arrangement of Barry Manilow’s Copacabana and a foot tapping version of Tequila by all our percussionists. The concert finished with all three Bandwise groups coming together to play Instant Concert, a remarkable piece which contains 30 well known melodies in just over 3 minutes! So well done everybody!

With Christmas now feeling a very long time ago, some of you may already be making plans for summer. Well, why not come and join us for three days of splendid music making at our annual Summer School? This year’s event is going to held at Trent College in Long Eaton (our venue in 2018) between the 10th & 12th August. Plans are well underway for the 2020 event school with music being chosen around the theme ‘A Grand European Tour’. Guest artists include Hilary Campbell, Chris Swann and Sam Sweeney. Booking will open very soon so watch this space.

Monday 20 January is National Cheese Lovers Day https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/cheese-lovers-day/ If you celebrate this, you might like to look at this article spotted on Classic FM’s website as you nibble away at your gorgonzola! https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/weirdest-musical-instruments/cheese-drums/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

20/01/2020

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10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – January Brainteaser

13th January 202013th January 2020 Music for Everyone

Did you know that January is Brainteaser Month?!

Brainteaser Month aims to raise awareness about the types of mental stimulation that can help boost overall brain activity and reinforce memory power. Keeping your brain active can also improve concentration, brain processing speed and help you tackle complex challenges by breaking them down into smaller tasks.

Experts suggest that you engage in one mentally-stimulating challenge each day. This could be anything from a brainteaser, a crossword, a sudoku puzzle, a quiz or a game of scrabble. However, it is not a good idea to develop a habit of doing the same thing as it can slowly get your brain accustomed to that specific task and you’ll start looking for shortcuts in problems.

At Music for Everyone we take your wellbeing very seriously so here’s a musical brainteaser to keep you on your toes:

https://www.classicfm.com/lifestyle/quizzes/composer-picture-puzzles/composer-riddles/ (Don’t scroll down until you’ve had a guess as it gives the answers away!)

And a musical sudoku for a challenge! https://www.alfred.com/blog/music-sudoku-activity-students/

Here is one more brainteaser to start your week. Can you work out these pieces of music from the first few bars? https://www.classicfm.com/lifestyle/quizzes/identify-famous-classical-pieces-from-first-notes/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

13/01/2020

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – Blowing the Dust off!

6th January 20206th January 2020 Music for Everyone

Hello again and Happy New Year to you all! Here is a fun fact about celebrating the New Year to get us started!

Did you know that new year is celebrated 39 times in different time zones during the span of 26 hours around the world? If you want to be the first to say Happy New Year on dry land though, you will need to make your way to the Kiritimati atoll in Kiribati… or to be the last 26 hours later, Baker Island is the place to be!

2020 is off to a musical start at MfE with our first Blow the Dust off your Instrument event of the year taking place this past Saturday. Over 150 string, wind, brass, percussion and recorder players came along to the Albert Hall in Nottingham for a superb day of music-making, all rounded off with a fantastic concert for family and friends! Here are a few pics from the day…

January is shaping up to be a very musical month for us! The next 2 weekends are for our annual Bandwise course for young wind, brass and percussion players (https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/bandwise/) followed by the Nottingham Festival Chorus course at the end of the month for the magnificent Brahms Requiem! (https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/nfc-course-weekend/) We hope we will see you at one of our events soon!

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

06/01/2020

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#MfEMonday

23rd December 201923rd December 2019 Music for Everyone

We’ll keep it simple this week and just say ‘thank you’ for your support over the last 12 months and wish you all a very Happy Christmas!

Click here to see how we’re celebrating in the office! Just follow the link and click play, it’s a rather accurate depiction of MfE office life…! (Joking of course!)

We would like to say a huge thank you to Pip Flewitt and the Landlord of the Plainsman Pub Mapperley, for arranging for local choir ‘In Accord’ to sing Carols in the Carpark on Wednesday 18 December. Congratulations to all who turned out, despite the driving ran, and helped raise over £100 for our Open voices groups. If you have any fundraising ideas or would like help in organising an event in 2020 please let us know!
Finally… a note from us to say the office will be closed after today until Thursday 2 January for the Christmas break. Emails will be checked intermittently for any urgent enquiries and all other messages will be managed when we return.

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

23/12/2019

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – An MfE Christmas

16th December 201916th December 2019 Music for Everyone

Christmas the MfE way! December is flying by with Christmas concerts by all of our regular rehearsing groups, culminating in the spectacular festive event at the Albert Hall yesterday with the Vocals youth choir and Nottingham Community Voices! There was even a special visit from the big man himself…!

A huge congratulations to all the singers involved yesterday, the singing was wonderful and the Christmas outfits and headgear were outstanding! We’ll let the photos speak for themselves… more to follow on the blog page!

In other news, each December celebrates World Choral Day – an international choral event initiated by Alberto Grau with the main aim to extol the values of solidarity, peace, and understanding through choral music. Singers across the globe take part in events throughout the month with each concert beginning in a proclamation available in 27 different languages.

“It is time to show, with more power and strength, that our choral family contributes, through music to break down the artificial barriers product of politics, different ideologies, religious differences, and racial hatred that separate human beings. We must be able to show that MUSIC, the divine art, is more than the mere search of formal perfection and interpretative beauty” http://worldchoralday.org/

Carols in the Car Park! If you are still looking for some Christmas cheer this week, why not pop along to ‘The Plainsman’ this Wednesday 18 December, on Woodborough Road from 6.30pm – 7.30pm? There will be carol singing in the car park raising money for the Open Voices Fund.
Still looking for that perfect Christmas gift for the musician in your life? Take a look at these ideas…… https://www.cmuse.org/creative-gift-ideas-inspired-by-music/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CMUSE%20Newsletter&utm_source=CMUSE%20Newsletter

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

16/12/2019

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF