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Thanks to all for helping out with round 1- here is the link for round 2:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dancing-flea...
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Dancing Flea - The Ukulele Craze will be an exploratory
documentary. We will follow along as our host travels across two continents to
interview the young ukulele players inspiring this project. We will interview
Pocketfox and Orla Gartland, two staples of the YouTube ukulele scene and we
will also follow Honoka and Azita, two girls performing in the Ukulele Festival Hawaii which has been held in Hawaii for the past forty-five
years. We will look for the motivating
factors behind these young musicians love of the ukulele and the different
means which they use to express this to the world.
Locations for this film are projected to be:
England-
Home of the Ukulele Orchestra of the United Kingdom.
Greenville,
South Carolina- Locale of the high school contest
California-
Home of the Uke Shop.
Hawaii- Home of the
International Ukulele Festival, the largest and most prestigious festival
of its kind in the world.
The Impact!
Empowering Kids through Music. This Documentary can have a big impact on things. Bringing attention to this movement will get more people into playing. It will bring together people of all ages to empower themselves as individuals and as a group. It will also help in getting kids into playing an instrument that they can actually afford and enjoy for the rest of their lives. So many benefits to the community! I think we all can agree that music benefits everyone. It builds confidence like nothing else can. With your help, we can make a huge impact.
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We are proud to be partnered with VH1 Save the Music. There are several Perks offered here that benefit this great program!
VH1 Save the Music Foundation
The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a non-profit committed to ensuring
that music instruction is a core component to a complete education. Since 1997,
we have partnered with more than 1900 public schools in 231 school
districts to give children the tools and confidence to excel in academics
and in life. #PassTheNote and get involved at
vh1savethemusic.org join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
@vh1savethemusic.
“Music has been a central inspiration to Dancing Flea and this is an
excellent opportunity to rally with our community and raise essential funds in
support of school music programs,” said Eric Baltazar, producer for Dancing Flea the Ukulele Craze documentary.
“We are happy to support VH1 Save The Music and to give the gift of music to our
next generation of leaders. It is imperative that we continue to increase
awareness about the importance of music education.”
The Alice Cooper Solid Rock Foundation
Two perks are available that directly give 25% to this great foundation.
Choose the official Dancing flea embroidered adjustable hat or get yourself a new UKE!
T-Shirts are Awesome! Get that Perk.
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Public
Opinion: What the American Public Thinks
A 2009 U.S. Gallup Poll conducted by NAMM (The
National Association of Music Merchants), reveals the majority of Americans
completely or mostly agree that benefits for children and teenagers playing
musical instruments include:
•
Help
a child develop creativity (97% total, 59% completely and 37% strongly agree)
• Help develop teamwork skills
from playing in a school band (96% total, 51% completely and 45% strongly agree)
• Help a child’s overall intellectual development (94% total, 45%
completely and 49% strongly agree)
• Help make friends (93% total
with 42% completely agreeing)
•
Help prepare them to be creative and innovative
in the workforce (91% total, 42% completely and 49% strongly agree)
•
Yield better grades, teaches discipline,
motivates them to stay in school (88% total, 36% completely and 52% strongly agree)
• Make you smarter (83% total
with 37% completely agreeing)
The Benefits of Music Education
The Benefits to the Brain: Cognitive Development
Adults who receive formal music instruction as children have
more robust brainstem responses to sound than peers who never participate in music
lessons and that the magnitude of the response correlates with how recently
training ceased. These results suggest that neural changes accompanying musical training
during childhood are retained in adulthood.
— Skoe, E. & Kraus, N. (2012). A Little Goes a Long Way:
How the Adult Brain Is
Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood, Journal of
Neuroscience, 32 (34)
11510. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1949-12.2012
Students in high-quality school music education programs
score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music
education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of community.
Playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the
brainstem's sensitivity to speech sounds. This relates to encoding skills involved with
music and language.
Experience with music at a young age can
"fine-tune" the brains auditory system.
— Nature Neuroscience, April 2007
Results from The Elementary School Study prove that:
• Students in top-quality music programs scored 22% better
in English and 20% better in mathematics than students in deficient music programs.
• These academic differences were fairly consistent across
geographic regions.
• Students at the four elementary schools with high-quality
music programs scored better than students participating in programs considered to
be of lower quality.
