Music & Arts is celebrating Music In Our Schools Month with a nationwide sweepstakes that encourages student musicians, teachers and parents to make a Pledge to Practice. Together with Yamaha and the National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME) Give a Note Foundation, Music & Arts is inviting young musicians to commit to practicing 200,000 combined minutes from now to April 4.
Developed to highlight the benefits of school music-education programs, the Pledge to Practice campaign aims to help student musicians improve. To participate, musicians ages 13 to 18 can visit the Pledge to Practice Web site at www.musicarts.com/pledgetopractice. There, they can submit their name or the name of their school to enter the sweepstakes, as well as pledge the number of minutes they will practice. The goal of the campaign is to reach more than 200,000 total minutes pledged.
To support this goal, Music & Arts will make a donation to NAfME’s Give a Note Foundation, an organization committed to expanding and increasing music-education opportunities for all children. Participants who pledge will also be entered for a chance to win Yamaha instruments worth $2,000. In addition, the school with the most practice minutes pledged by its students will receive $2,000 in Yamaha instruments.
“Music-education programs do so much for students. We’re thrilled to be able to support Music In Our Schools Month with our second-annual Pledge to Practice campaign,” said Ken O’Brien, CEO of Music & Arts. “It’s an opportunity for Music & Arts, along with our partners at the Give a Note Foundation and Yamaha, to not only encourage students to grow their passion for music, but also help share the importance of music education.”
Yamaha partnered with the Pledge to Practice promotion to help further the company’s commitment to music education. “Yamaha is dedicated to giving as many students the chance to play and enjoy music as possible,” said Roger Eaton, Director of Marketing, Band & Orchestral Division, Yamaha Corp. of America.