Happy new year...

Well I've frittered away most of the day practicing scales while trying to get a clip of our Music Ambassadors doing "Take 5/O Come, o come Emmanuel" up on Youtube. Paul did an incredible job with the richness of sound and the vibrant colors - and the band played to perfection - but I'm currently caught in the gap between my limited techno abilities and the possibilities that are waiting just around the corner with this clip. (Until I get it worked out, you might go to: http://www.pittsfieldtv.net/Cablecast/Public/Main.aspx?ChannelID=1 . Go to the schedule at the top, look for the date Sunday, December 26th and go to Sunday Street.)

In an OP-ED piece in today's NY Times, Oliver Sacks, writes: Neuroplasticity - the brain's ability to create new pathways - is a crucial part of recovery for anyone who loses a sense or a cognitive or motor ability. But it can also be part of everyday life for all of us. For while it is often true that learning is easier in childhood, neuroscientists now know that the brain does not stop growing even in our later years. Every time we practice and old skill or learn a new one, existing neural connections are strengthened and, over time, neurons create more connections to other neurons - even new nerve cells can be generated.

And then he writes what I have known in my heart all my life: Music is an especially powerful shaping force, for listening to and especially playing it engages many different areas of the brain, all of which must work in tandem: from reading musical notation and coordinating fine muscle movements in the hands, to evaluating and expressing rhythm and pitch, to associating music with memories and emotions. Whether it is by learning a new language... or playing music, all of us can find ways to stimulate our brains to grow in the coming year... This is not only fun, it is essential to cognitive fitness.

So dare I say: Party on, dude?!?