Play - Don't Listen.

Last Saturday, twelve concert bands from across Michigan converged on Okemos High school to participate in the Red Cedar Festival of Community Bands. Carolyn Sherrill, conductor of the Meridian Community Band had the bright idea of a community band festival fifteen years ago, and she and her committee have been running it ever since.

It was an inspirational day, watching bands (50-90 musicians each) earnestly play their 40-minute concerts and dutifully leaving the stage to make way for the next group. The bands were made of octogenarians and teenagers and everything in between. Factory workers, homemakers, retirees, professors, stockbrokers, business owners, nurses, doctors - every profession you can imagine played their music with surprising accuracy and musicianship.

All these amateur musicians have in common is their love of music. Some have music degrees and some have no degrees, but they all do it for the love of playing their horns.

It's one of the only activities I can think of that combines such a variety of ages, professions, nationalities and abilities into one performing organization. In Lansing alone, there are four community bands.

Playing amateur music together used to be a very common practice. Back in the day, every house had a piano and there were reams of sheet music on the bookshelves. It was not uncommon to have people come over to play music together on a Saturday night. Now, with CDs TV, and professional concerts we have become too intimidated to perform in public.

But playing music is good for the soul, for the brain and for social interaction. In fact, new studies are being published that say that the old idea of having your baby listen to Mozart to expand their little brains cells is all bunk. The studies are now showing that the key to building strong bodies and strong brains is to play music, not listen to it. The concentration, memorization and physical focus of perfoming music develops intelligence and guards against memory loss for oldsters like me.

One of the most entertaining parts of the Red Cedar was the appearance of a nine-year old phenom cornet player. Geoffrey Gallante performs all over the country and played Bugler's Holiday with two 80+ year old trumpet players with the Meridian Band. It was wonderful. And age wasn't an issue.

So if you have an old clarinet or trombone or fiddle gathering dust in your attic, don't sell it, play it. You'll feel better and you may just keep your memory sharp.