Music takes center stage on the heels of the official registration opening for the Nike+ Human Race, the world’s biggest one-day running event taking place on August 31, 2008.  The race brings together the power of sport and music to inspire and connect runners from every corner of the planet.  Participants in this unprecedented event will experience an exclusive music performance by some of today’s top artists in each of the 25 designated race cities.

In Los Angeles, nine-time Grammy Award winning artist Kanye West will headline the run’s post race concert for the grand finale of the 25-city Nike+ Human Race.  Runners will take to the streets passing the city’s most famous landmarks before ending at the LA Coliseum to see West take the stage.  
“I’m hitting the stage in Los Angeles for the Nike+ Human Race, Nike's dopest 10k run ever. This race is bringing together hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to run and listen to some great music while serving a higher cause, and I’m excited to perform in L.A. as part of the grand finale.”
West’s performance will bring to a close, an unprecedented day of races and activities around the globe starting in Taipei, ending in LA and including cities across Europe, Asia and North and South America. 

In London, runners will be treated to an exclusive performance by world-renowned American DJ, songwriter, musician and singer Moby in the city’s famed Wembley Stadium.  Other all-star artists confirmed to play at the Nike+ Human Race include chart-topping rock band All-American Rejects in NY; hometown favorite Fall Out Boy in Chicago; R&B songstress Kelly Rowland in Paris; dance-electro-pop duo The Pinker Tones in Madrid, Turkish pop sensation Kenan Dogulu in Istanbul; the Fantastic Four in Munich; Beijing-based singing duo Yu Quan in Shanghai and American rock band Boys Like Girls in Singapore.  

Beyond running and music, the Nike+ Human Race is also an opportunity to give back. Participants will be able to run for a worthy cause and support the three official Nike+ Human Race charitable partners: the Lance Armstrong Foundation – uniting people in the fight against cancer; WWF - the global conservation organization addressing the causes and impacts of climate change; and the UN refugee agency's ninemillion.org campaign – bringing sport and education to refugee youth.  Together, Nike and runners will raise funds to donate at least USD $3 million to the Nike+ Human Race charities.  Money will be raised via givebacks from registration fees, a percentage of Nike+ Human Race t-shirt sales and a donation of USD $1 million from Nike.
The Nike+ Human Race will also feature an online pledge tool so individual runners can donate additional funds to the cause of their choice and invite friends and family to contribute on their behalf.

“As a committed runner and a cancer survivor, I’m proud to be participating in the Nike+ Human Race,” Lance Armstrong said. “The race offers the best of both worlds by bringing together a global community to run together and support worthy causes like the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the UN refugee agency’s ninemillion.org and WWF in our combined efforts to have a positive impact on the world.

Other Nike athletes will also be joining the movement to run with the world and for a cause.  Like Lance Armstrong, they will serve as honorary athlete ambassadors for the charities and join in Human Race activities.  Six-time marathon winner and current NY Marathon Champion, Paula Radcliffe and middle distance runner Kara Goucher will be running to support WWF, while marathoner Meb Keflezighi will be representing ninemillion.org.

Nikeplus.com will be the official destination for the Nike+ Human Race and for all pre-race training needs. Here, runners can create a personal profile page or stay motivated by sampling and downloading the latest in Nike+ Sport Music offerings. Sport Music offers runners the best in original Training Run and Coaching Mixes designed specifically for treadmill and road runs.  Beginning June 15, runners will also be able to visit Race City pages covering local race info and news, Training pages for information and links to in-city training runs, events with official race partners including 24Hour Fitness and Starbucks and Nike+ Coach training.  Gear pages covering the latest in Nike performance training gear and Nike+ product will also be offered.

About Nike+ Human Race
On 08.31.08, Nike hosts a run like no other before with the Nike+ Human Race - the World’s Largest One Day Running Event.  Nike’s first global race will take place over the course of one day, with a goal of one million runners, across 25 cities and featuring 25 top musical acts.  The 10k event celebrates runners and their sport, offering participants across the globe the chance to run and compete together in an unprecedented race experience.  Spanning multiple continents, Nike+ Human Race cities will include LA, New York, London, Madrid, Paris, Istanbul, Melbourne, Shanghai, São Paulo and Vancouver among others.  Following races in each city, participants will be treated to an exclusive music concert featuring one of today’s top artists.  Participants will be able to run for a cause as a portion of funds raised will be donated to three Nike+ Human Race beneficiaries: WWF, the global conservation organization, Lance Armstrong Foundation and UN refugee agency's ninemillion.org campaign.  The race will be open to anyone, anywhere. Runners outside of the 25 race day cities can join by logging into nikeplus.com.  With the help of Nike+ and the Nike+ SportBand, every city and every road can become a race-day course.  For more information, visit nikeplus.com.  

Johann Sebastian Bach was unique among the great composers in many ways.

Not only did he teach his family music and harpsichord, but several of his sons became famous composers in their own right.

Bach's teaching method for the keyboard was valuable in that it gives us insight into a great master's view of children at the piano.

Most of Bach's great teaching pieces, the most famous of which is the Minuet in G (remember the Diana Ross version?) were written expressly for his children and appear in a volume called Anna Magdalena's Notebook.

Since his children became famed composers, perhaps Bach had some great ideas on teaching children the piano. Of course, since musical talent is often inherited, perhaps he was also just starting with good material!

The first thing one notes when looking at Bach's teaching pieces is that they are all good music. By that I mean that the music itself, regardless of the fact that it was written for a child's capabilities, is of the highest musical quality.

I mention this only because so many piano methods today consist of utterly boring exercise pieces that kids are forced to play. Bach, in the wisdom of a great master, knew that to interest children the music must be enjoyable and tuneful.

Next, we see that the pieces are cleverly arranged such that the child is immediately using all five fingers of the right hand, spread in a row. Not only that, this five-finger position is used everywhere, so that the child is constantly asked to put their hand and fingers in this position, instilling the habit of good fingering immediately and automatically.

The child's hand is rarely asked to make advanced finger moves, such as turning the thumb under the index finger. And the complexities of this type of fingering are gradually introduced, starting with the Minuet wherein the index finger occasionally is turned over the thumb.

And once again, Bach is clever in his design of the curriculum, for the further one goes in the Anna Magdalena Songbook, the more complex the fingering problems becomes. But at the beginning of the book, he avoids the more difficult positions until the child has had a chance to gain familiarity with easier positions.

In a line of piano teachers that reaches from Bach to the great Franz Liszt, from the late 18th century to the early 20th, Bach's works for children are unique in their longevity, quality and understanding of both teaching and children's psychology.

Like any intelligent piano teacher, Bach understood the value of starting with something very easy to understand and then building slowly to more complex levels.

His children benefited from this easy approach, and your children can too.

By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2000 Walden Pond Press. Visit http://www.pianoiseasy.com to see the fun PIANO BY NUMBER method for kids.

John Aschenbrenner is a leading children's music educator and book publisher, and the author of numerous fun piano method books in the series PIANO BY NUMBER for kids. You can see the PIANO BY NUMBER series of books at http://www.pianoiseasy.com