Music can help lift souls; library books explore topic

“To live is to be musical, starting with the blood dancing in your veins. Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music?” Michael Jackson.

Music is something everyone can relate to whether you’re a fan of classical, rap, indie, country, rock or anything in between.

“Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. 

It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat.  But the power of music goes further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does—humans are a musical species.”

Join Oliver Sacks in “Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain” to explore 29 different scenarios that attest to the psychological and physiological aspects of music.

Want your children to delve into the world of music? 

Learn how to get them on the right path with “Raising Musical Kids” by Robert A. Cutietta. Answering questions such as “What Does Music Study Do for Your Child?” and providing tips on “Getting Kids to Practice,” this book will provide help whether you have a musical background or not. There’s even a list of songs that “Americans, of All Ages, Should Know and Can Sing.”

Expose your children to all the different types of musical instruments with the five book series “Let’s Make Music.” Each book highlights a different classification of instruments as well as gives a brief explanation as to how the instruments work and how they are played.  

Give your kids a music lesson in alphabet form with “M is for Melody” by Kathy-jo Wargin. With appealing pictures, rhyming text for young readers and factual sidebars for older readers, this book is sure to be a hit. 

Music is hearing. Let your kids explore classical music in “The Story of the Orchestra” by Robert Levine.Not only will they learn about the instruments, the music and the composers, but they can listen to 37 selections on the accompanying CD to get all the feels. 

Give children a chance to relate to eight of the great composers in Ann Rachlin’s series “Famous Children.” By illustrating each composer’s early years, kids will have a better understanding of where each composer was coming from, the dreams they had, the struggles they faced, their inspiration and why they wrote the music they did. 

If your kiddo is one who wants to know the how and why, try “The Science of Sound & Music” by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone for science projects to explain it all.

Are you or your kids interested in learning to play an instrument? If you’re ready to take the next step, check out “Ukulele Primer” by Bert Casey, “Piano Adventures” by Nancy and Randall Faber or even “How to Play the Harmonica for Fun and Profit” by Hal Leighton, among others.

Also available to you are DVDs including musicals, Schoolhouse Rock!, Kidsongs, Sing Along Songs and Rock ‘N Learn. Additionally, there are a handful of children’s musical CDs including Raffi, Sesame Street and Wee Sing.

“I love music. For me, music is morning coffee. It’s mood medicine. It’s pure magic. A good song is like a good meal – I just want to inhale it and then share a bite with someone else.” Hoda Kotb.

Music is therapy. Check it out at your library. Contact us at imperiallibrary.org, email youbelong@imperiallibrary.org or call 308-882-4754.