Music permeates our lives. We listen in our homes, turn on the radio while driving, go to concerts, plug ipods into our ears, visit local music scenes.  We have Bach, jazz, reggae, bluegrass and cowboy poetry and music festivals. This Sunday there is the Teen Battle of the Bands at Central Library.  All summer long we can go to free concerts with famous rock groups at the Beach Boardwalk.

Some of us are talented and make music with voices and/or instruments.   Local musicians share their music with us on Pacific Avenue (drumming with Jim Greiner for Jacob's Heart this Saturday), in parks (Bluegrass in Ocean View Park) and at beaches (Ukelele Club at the bandstand at Capitola Beach). Saturday the Banana Slugs will celebrate Urban Birds in two free concerts.

For our children we have many talented music teachers, music camps, music-drama camps, choral groups and more.  See our Classes or Camps.  Runners and walkers in Sunday's Wharf to Wharf will be entertained along the way by musicians.

Everywhere music!  Enjoy, Parmalee

New sessions and new summer camps are beginning every week.  Check the Camp Calendar for new ideas!

Many more events are on our Annual Calendar.

Find everything with our Easy Search drop down menu on the upper right of the homepage!

We rocked it so hard last year, we are coming back for more! Yes, that's right, the 2nd Annual Santa Cruz Public Library Teen Battle Of The Bands is on for 2010. This year we are going BIGGER and rocking HARDER!!!!!!

Join us for an afternoon of music and fun as the next generation of young musicians takes to the stage. As always, this FREE, family friendly concert will definitely be rockin'. So come cheer on the bands as they "battle it out" for their choice of top prizes that have been donated by our awesome sponsors.

Audience members will also have the chance to win some fantastic prizes in our free raffle drawing.

The Battle of the Bands concert is an outdoor event, so remember to bring along your sunscreen and folding chairs. Don't miss this opportunity to rock out with your favorite librarians and help support the future of the Santa Cruz music scene.

So come on down and get a library card, check out a book, and get ready to feel the power of rock n' roll !

Thank you to Susan Parrish, Parrish Piano, for leading us to this article.

Evidence continues to grow that musical training may not only serve as a powerful tool for treating mental illnesses but may also rewire the brain to be more nimble at learning math and other subjects.

This ability to alter brain connections was the focus of a recent "Music and the Brain" lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Gottfried Schlaug, an associate professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, outlined three lines of neurological research into musical experience and explained why scientists are optimistic about its potential for education and rehabilitation.

"Music making engages quite a lot of real estate in the brain," he said. "We wanted to know if everyone has the potential to become an accomplished musician, or if [musicians] start off with an atypical brain."

In adults, for instance, he said, musicians with a long history of practice tend to have bigger corpus callosa-the bundles of fibers that connect the right and left halves of the brain-as well as enhanced motor and auditory processing areas than do non-musicians. Many of these changes were specific to the primary type of instrument used by a musician. But everyone seems able to benefit: Adult non-musicians who took a crash course in piano showed changes in their sequencing, musical and math abilities even after just two weeks. continued >>>>