Music is a passion for many of us. Just listening involves so many pluses for the human mind, body and spirit. But playing intensifies all of those and more. Music also stimulates brain cells to repair and to improve their functions. It makes you smarter. Studies have been done that prove listening to Mozart helps very young children grow to be smarter than they might otherwise have been. It keeps the brains of seniors sharp and functioning. And music provides great joy/pleasure just in and of itself.

There are, of course, many varieties of music in jazz, rock, heavy metal, folk, big band, classical and some I haven’t thought of. Classical music is probably the best teacher and brain stimulator. Playing classical music in small and large groups provides one with a multitude of advantages in joy and preservation of brain functions.

Ah, but how does one participate? With minimal competency, a person can play in both large and small music groups. Orchestras and smaller ensembles all provide everything positive associated with playing music with others. But I especially like the smaller, chamber ensembles of duets, trios, quartets and chamber orchestras. These music situations are more intimate with the music and with the musicians playing together, and, also for the listener attending a chamber concert.

The quest of chamber musicians is to find sheet music to play that is also economical to obtain. It is easy to find expensive sheet music but most chamber groups do not have the means to purchase a lot of expensive music. Enter www.virtualsheetmusic.com  For a very nominal annual fee, Virtual provides a wealth of music to download, copy and distribute to musicians in any group to play and enjoy. Virtual’s sheet music copy is a good size, put together well and easy to read. Sometimes less expensive and free music is almost too small to read well or even has too many different parts on a page making it difficult to read. I’ve done a lot of copy, cut, paste and copy again to make more readable pages for single or duet instruments. Virtual makes it easy!

If you play in a smaller group or know those that do, pass along this information to them. They will thank you for it!

This fine violin is for sale. Contact me by leaving a comment and your email address.