We study the dispersion and dissipation of the numerical scheme obtained by taking a weighted averaging of the consistent (finite element) mass matrix and lumped (spectral element) mass matrix for the small wave number limit. We find and prove that for the optimum blending the resulting scheme
(a) provides $2p+4$ order accuracy for $p$th order method (two orders more accurate compared with finite and spectral element schemes);
(b) has an absolute accuracy which is $\mathcal{O}(p^{-3})$ and $\mathcal{O}(p^{-2})$ times better than that of the pure finite and spectral element schemes, respectively;
(c) tends to exhibit phase lag.
Moreover, we show that the optimally blended scheme can be efficiently implemented merely by replacing the usual Gaussian quadrature rule used to assemble the mass and stiffness matrices by novel nonstandard quadrature rules which are also derived.