We will have a tent on Hawkeye Rally Alley Nov. 7th from 8:30AM-10:30AM. (Find us across from Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the grassy area that used to be Grant's Field, next to Duane Banks Baseball Stadium.)
FREE Hand drumming circles
FREE Group guitar lessons
Anyone can participate. NO EXPERIENCE on any instrument necessary. Learn to play immediately and have a blast!
Did you know that 82% of Americans who don't currently play an instrument wish they had learned to play one? (Gallup Poll)
West Music will be handing out $ 5 West Music Money to use in the store for any purchase or you can REGISTER FOR LESSONS FREE!
Come one, come all to The Mill in Iowa City for the Weekend Warrior concert THIS Sunday, October 18th at 7:00PM!!
Weekend Warrior concerts have grown so large over the last few years we can expect 100-200 in the audience. It has become a major event and is ridiculously fun! Come out and support live music and West Music! The food at The Mill is great, the bands have a great variety of music. Here’s a rundown of the groups you will see Sunday night:
Most 91-year-olds are quietly spending their time at a peaceful retirement home. Not Californian Jerrie Thill, who spends her days beating the drums and recording new offbeat tracks while lugging around an oxygen tank. Jerrie Thill is a spunky percussionist from the Jazz Age who still performs regularly.
Need a challenge? Do you feel like you are in a 'rut' learning/playing/performing with your current musical instrument, or are you looking for new musical ideas? Why not try another instrument which is musically 'close' to the one you play now? Like musical cousins!
Of course, what motivated this idea for me is my starting to learn to play the lap steel. It's close enough to guitar to let me feel like I'm not totally in new instrument territory, but different enough that I’m really learning an entirely new skill set: different tunings, different playing technique using a lap/pedal steel bar.
This has really given me a fun song-learning boost: relearn old songs using the new instrument and put entirely new twists into those songs and learn new ones which are not guitar-featured songs (like Steel Guitar Rag, Hula Blues).
This is the band Chicago with their song "Beginnings."
In 1967, Chicago musicians Walter Parazaider, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Robert Lamm, and Peter Cetera formed a group with one dream: to integrate all the musical diversity from their beloved city and weave a new sound, a rock 'n' roll band with horns. Their dream turned into 20 Top Ten singles, 12 Top Ten albums (five of which were #1), and sales of more than 120 million records.
Think you can't rock if you work at a desk?? WRONG!
The FORTUNE Battle of the Corporate Bands is a partnership between NAMM (the trade association of the international music products industry), FORTUNE Magazine, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
Sometimes, you just can’t fight Mother Nature! This was the case this past weekend at the Weststock summer event in Moline.
The day began with clouds and sprinkles. As I made my way from Coralville to Moline, the rain got heavier and the wind got stronger. By the time I reached my destination, the rain had slowed, but not stopped. The staff at the Moline West Music was ready to get the show on the road, but the weather had other ideas. We kept checking the radar, and it looked like we might not be able to pull it off.
The Broadway Center is a safe place for teens to go in Iowa City.
James Mims, the director of the Broadway Center, is truly interested in the welfare and future of at-risk kids. Among other activities, he has put together a music lesson program free of charge to those who wish to participate.
The program is growing, and local top-notch musicians are donating their time and talents to teach lessons there. The instruments are donated and students can use them during lessons and come there to practice their instrument on a daily basis.
To raise awareness and reinforce the statement that music saves lives, West Music in Coralville will be hosting the Music on Broadway Gala on August 13th from 6-8PM. Well-known musicians who teach lessons at the Broadway Center will perform at West Music in Coralville and the students of the Broadway Center will assist in ushering and collecting donated instruments.
The public is encouraged to bring instruments to donate.
We all know that music can boost academic scores and help alleviate stress. But did you know that adolescents who participated in a structured recreational music making protocol as part of their rehabilitation process demonstrated significant improvements in school/work performance and behavior toward others, with less depression, negative self-evaluation, anger and interpersonal problems?
52 adolescents were comprehensively evaluated in the research study, which spanned more than a year and incorporated the use of drums and a Clavinova computerized keyboard. The study was led by neurologist and researcher, Barry Bittman, MD, CEO/Medical Director of Meadville Medical Center's Mind-Body Wellness Center and CEO of the Yamaha Music & Wellness Institute.
"This study is the first of its kind using music as a catalyst for non-verbal and verbal disclosure leading to improved quality of life for troubled at-risk youth," said Bittman. "Our research showed how playing music can help them move past their perceived obstacles and build new bridges."
"The phenomenal breakthroughs that occurred for these adolescents were truly astounding to observe," said Larry Dickson, MA, Clinical Director for Bethesda Children's Home. "Resistant kids who entered our facility angry, bitter and disruptive progressively discovered a productive way to express and better understand their feelings. Expressing themselves musically as part of a group, they discovered a new sense of self-worth and respect for others that often led to surprising transformations."
The reasons to let music into your life are countless, the health-related and social benefits of making music for the rest of your life cannot be measured. Pick up a drum, strum a guitar, tickle the ivories, just play and never stop!!
West Music Staff Blogs
Come one, come all to The Mill in Iowa City for the Weekend Warrior concert THIS Sunday, October 18th at 7:00PM!! 
Never!
The Broadway Center is a safe place for teens to go in Iowa City.