New Year's Eve, 2024, Reflections

Peace on Earth and Good Will to People

May family and friends have continued happiness.

How to Live a Good Life: Advice for Wise Persons

In 2025 I plan to, intend to, and will apply effort to:

Continue to enjoy playing and learning about making music with my harmonica and electric keyboard.

Write and study poetry, e.g., At the Edges of the West.

Walk over 5,000 steps per day for three months, then increase.

Go on a 4 day Yurt Camping trip each month.

Eat under 150 Grams of Carbohydrates each day.

Practice Yang Style Tai Chi Chuag each day for 30 minutes.

Benefits of Playing Music

The Benefits of Playing Music Help Your Brain
More Than Any Other Activity

By John Rampton, 2017

"Long-Lasting Benefits for Musicians

Brain-scanning studies have found that the anatomical change in musicians' brains is related to the age when training began. It shouldn't be surprising, but learning at a younger age causes the most drastic changes.

Interestingly, even brief periods of musical training can have long-lasting benefits. A 2013 study found that even those with moderate musical training preserved sharp processing of speech sounds. It was also able to increase resilience to any age-related decline in hearing.

Researchers also believe that playing music helps speech processing and learning in children with dyslexia. Furthermore, learning to play an instrument as a child can protect the brain against dementia.

"Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can't," says Loveday. "It's a strong cognitive stimulus that grows the brain in a way that nothing else does, and the evidence that musical training enhances things like working memory and language is very robust."

Other Ways Learning an Instrument Strengthens Your Brain

Guess what? We're still not done. Here are eight additional ways that learning an instrument strengthens your brain.

1. Strengthens bonds with others. This shouldn't be surprising. Think about your favorite band. They can only make a record when they have contact, coordination, and cooperation with one another.

2. Strengthens memory and reading skills. The Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University states this is because music and reading are related via common neural and cognitive mechanisms.

3. Playing music makes you happy. McMaster University discovered that babies who took interactive music classes displayed better early communication skills. They also smiled more.

4. Musicians can process multiple things at once. As mentioned above, this is because playing music forces you to process multiple senses at once. This can lead to superior multisensory skills.

5. Music increases blood flow in your brain. Studies have found that short bursts of musical training increase the blood flow to the left hemisphere of the brain. That can be helpful when you need a burst of energy. Skip the energy drink and jam for 30 minutes.

6. Music helps the brain recover. Motor control improved in everyday activities with stroke patients.

7. Music reduces stress and depression. A study of cancer patients found that listening to and playing music reduced anxiety. Another study revealed that music therapy lowered levels of depression and anxiety.

8. Musical training strengthens the brain's executive function. Executive function covers critical tasks like processing and retaining information, controlling behavior, making decisions, and problem solving. If strengthened, you can boost your ability to live. Musical training can improve and strengthen executive functioning in both children and adults."

St James Infirmary Blues - Jeff Barnhart

Practicing Piano Again

One of my objectives is to play the piano every day for 60 minutes (2 sessions of 30 mintes, or 3 of 20 minutes).  
I play because it is enjoyable, challenging, and enriching.  
Currently, I am using the Casio LK 280 electronic keyboard with 61 keys.
I use a variety of instructional books and online UTube tutorials.
I like playing with chords.  
I played for one year when I was 41, and for two years when I was 63.
Being 70 years of age, and now recently retired, I have adequate time for renewed pleasures.
I intend to take lessons from a piano teacher when I move and get settled in Vancouver, Washington. Our home is currently for sale.
Lately, my favorite piano music is the Nocturnes by Chopin, performed by Maria Joao Pires.  

Software and Chopin

One of my favorite albums is The Nocturnes by Frederic Chopin as played so beautifully on piano by Maria Joao Pires. 
A splendid and sensitive interpretation by Ms. Pires, with an outstanding sound recording by Deutsche Grammophon.
All 21 Nocturnes, 109 minutes, are found on the following delightful classical music album:  

In the string quartet genre, my favorite, I have greatly enjoyed listening to the Danubius Quartet playing the string quartets of Heitor Villa-Lobos. 
Try listening to the 11th, 16th, and 17th Quartets by Villa-Lobos for starters:

A brief list of modern string quartet albums, recommended by rm508, might be useful to you. 

I listen to music recorded in the the MP3 digital format and played back on my Sony Walkman 16GB player.  I carry this reliable and versatile player with me everywhere.  Most stereo players offer a Audio-In plug for use with these MP3 players. 

I'm a Microsoft Windows user at home and at work, and the Sony Walkman unit works just fine with that common software.  I like to organize specific ordered and sequenced playlists of music for use in my yoga and taijiquan classes, and just organize them within folders in numbered order using Windows Explorer.  Renaming and copying files is an elementary task with great benefits.  

I am now setting up a new desktop computer.  I'm moving up from a 9 year old Gateway desktop computer operating on Windows XP ..... to .... a new 2014 HewPac HP desktop computer operating on Windows 8.  

All of my working C:/ drive files were all backed up {while listening the the Chopin Nocturnes} and moved between the computers yesterday.  

Tomorrow, starting to load my old familiar daily and primary software tools: Cute FTP, Microsoft Front Page 2003, Macromedia Dreamweaver/Fireworks 4 Suite.  We shall see.