DOWNLOAD PDF TEN REASONS WHY MUSICAL TRAINING CAN AND SHOULD BE STARTED EARLY

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1 Chapter 1 : 10 Reasons To Train In The Morning - AskMen Early musical training can also improve verbal competency, auditory skills and problem-solving techniques, and children who study music longer than two years exhibit better information retention and behavior regulation. But despite this almost universal interest, many schools are having to do away with their music education programs. Read on to learn why music education is so important, and how it offers benefits even beyond itself. Musical training helps develop language and reasoning: Students who have early musical training will develop the areas of the brain related to language and reasoning. The left side of the brain is better developed with music, and songs can help imprint information on young minds. A mastery of memorization: Even when performing with sheet music, student musicians are constantly using their memory to perform. The skill of memorization can serve students well in education and beyond. Students learn to improve their work: Learning music promotes craftsmanship, and students learn to want to create good work instead of mediocre work. This desire can be applied to all subjects of study. Students who practice with musical instruments can improve their hand-eye coordination. Just like playing sports, children can develop motor skills when playing music. A sense of achievement: Learning to play pieces of music on a new instrument can be a challenging, but achievable goal. Students who master even the smallest goal in music will be able to feel proud of their achievement. Kids stay engaged in school: An enjoyable subject like music can keep kids interested and engaged in school. Student musicians are likely to stay in school to achieve in other subjects. Music is the fabric of our society, and music can shape abilities and character. Students in band or orchestra are less likely to abuse substances over their lifetime. Students of music can be more emotionally developed, with empathy towards other cultures They also tend to have higher self esteem and are better at coping with anxiety. Students learn pattern recognition: Children can develop their math and pattern-recognition skills with the help of musical education. Playing music offers repetition in a fun format. Students who have experience with music performance or appreciation score higher on the SAT. One report indicates 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on math for students in music appreciation courses. Students who practice music can have better auditory attention, and pick out predictable patterns from surrounding noise. Music builds imagination and intellectual curiosity: Introducing music in the early childhood years can help foster a positive attitude toward learning and curiosity. Music can be relaxing: Students can fight stress by learning to play music. Soothing music is especially helpful in helping kids relax. Musical instruments can teach discipline: Kids who learn to play an instrument can learn a valuable lesson in discipline. They will have to set time aside to practice and rise to the challenge of learning with discipline to master playing their instrument. Preparation for the creative economy: Investing in creative education can prepare students for the 21st century workforce. The new economy has created more artistic careers, and these jobs may grow faster than others in the future. Development in creative thinking: Kids who study the arts can learn to think creatively. This kind of education can help them solve problems by thinking outside the box and realizing that there may be more than one right answer. Music can develop spatial intelligence: Students who study music can improve the development of spatial intelligence, which allows them to perceive the world accurately and form mental pictures. Spatial intelligence is helpful for advanced mathematics and more. Kids can learn teamwork: Many musical education programs require teamwork as part of a band or orchestra. In these groups, students will learn how to work together and build camaraderie. Performing a musical piece can bring fear and anxiety. Doing so teaches kids how to take risks and deal with fear, which will help them become successful and reach their potential. With encouragement from teachers and parents, students playing a musical instrument can build pride and confidence. Musical education is also likely to develop better communication for students. Leave a Reply Mail will not be published required Website. Page 1

2 Chapter 2 : WHY MUSIC? WHY BAND? Music teachers feel that music can help teach patience. In a world of instant gratification, learning to play an instrument is not something that can happen overnight. It is the daily effort of everyday practice that can help a musician learn how to play without mistakes. What gives these children an advantage? Why are music students recruited with such intensity by every profession? Are they different or does learning music make them different? It is believed music learning activates various areas of the brain and synchronizes the mind for learning at a fast pace while stretching the memory to a higher level of retention. Music enhances cognitive learning and facilitates growth in many areas of human development, i. Music touches a part of our psyche that helps us regulate our lives. Music helps us understand and express our moods and attitudes. Music helps us reorganize our thoughts and feelings while keeping us on track. Music allows us to respond appropriately in social structure that is often confusing and complex. This essay does not suggest the reason for music education is to bolster math grades, or increase S. The following pages are designed so you can share this compelling information with parents and decision-makers. Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. There is no substitute or replacement for music making as it relates to the positive growth and development of the human mind, body, and spirit. Participation in band avails the musician to the infinite journey of creative expression connecting to a language music that is understood, communicated, and appreciated by all of mankind around the globe. Rightfully so, the emphasis of most music educators is the teaching-of-music. The young men and women who find their way to our rehearsal rooms are the focus of our daily teaching efforts and energies. The mission is to teach the mastery of musical skills so our students can access quality music and experience the joy of an ever-evolving sense of aesthetic expression. The intrinsic value of this musical blueprint is priceless, and every musician will attest to the immeasurable benefits of making music. The music culture adamantly agrees on the importance of music; it is a fundamental need of life. Granted this philosophical perspective is very convincing, especially to those who have been involved in some aspect of music. In fact it is inconceivable to musicians that music education is not considered a core subject in every school curriculum, and for EVERY child. It is apparent if students are not part of the school music program, there is little if any chance they will seek to develop their musical skills outside the school setting. One out of six possible candidates opts to become involved in band, orchestra, or choir. For various reasons, they opt to drop their study of music within the first two years. The compelling research generated over the last two decades has not for the most part made its way to the general public. While the music advocacy data is powerfully convincing, it certainly is not common knowledge. Suffice to say there are many potential music students who, for one reason or another, have inadvertently missed the window-of-opportunity, and therefore they will most likely never have the chance to participate in a music ensemble. Such a decision must be approached with the knowledge and awareness of the impact it will have on the creation and nurturing of personal success habits of the individual. What stands to be gained as a result of the investment of time and energy? Do we highlight the potent character building disciplines as part of the reason to be involved in band? Many argue we could dilute the value of music education by focusing on the by-product rewards stemming from the group activity perspective; teamwork skills, self-discipline, healthy self-esteem, personal confidence, learning to reach short and long term goals, etc. We know music itself is the driving force, the ultimate payoff; however does this mean we should ignore the obvious data that quickly gets the attention of the non-musician parent? Being a musician maps the human mind for success; success in all avenues of life. The learned skills needed to excel in music are transferable to every academic subject. Playing a musical instrument creates a multi-dimensional template-of-quality adaptable and applicable to every personal and professional challenges. Through music learning we teach: All-too-often the numerical outcome becomes and end within itself and it tells us very little about the pragmatic value of the class material. For the safety of the drivers on our highways, we have speed Page 2

3 limit RULES, and if these restrictions are not properly observed a penalty is assigned to the violator. Society protects itself with guardians law enforcement, spokespersons attorneys, interpreters judges, juries to guarantee we live in harmony while still enjoying freedom-of-choice. Although it is altruistic, it is feasible there could be a society absent of rules if each individual believed, practiced, and lived an agreed code of ethics. These are the character values we seek in every leadership role: Yet we know a social order cannot move forward without efficient and effective decision-making. Healthy, happy societies are not solely based on the individual opinions of the members, but rather on the mutual understanding of the importance of UNITY and the willingness to make personal sacrifices and contributions time, effort, energy to the agreed mission. The power base of the leader the authority, the band director is supported by the cooperative contributions of the followers the band members. Domination, by intent, discourages creative thinking. Now there is research indicating we can only remember and access the information we reinforce in our daily habits. Content information without context an understanding of the benefits is a dead-end street. Memorizing a long list of anything for the mere purpose of passing the test is an exercise in memorization, nothing more. Being in the band deals with both achievement a measurable set of disciplines and guidelines and wisdom learning that will support a positive, purposeful lifestyle. Band is one of the few areas of the school day that supports expression as well as impression. Music learning embraces all forms of cognitive learning and goes a step further by integrating the data into the human soul: Music reinforces the principles and ideals that have a significant and lasting effect on the way we choose to live. It teaches the ability to work with others, nourishes the love of learning, encourages cultural awareness, promotes cooperative flexibility in a communal climate, develops self-discipline, extends understanding, etc. Whether it is a new car, a college education, a house, a boat, a job, a title, or any other extrinsic reward; the chase and the race for goal attainment is threaded into every aspect of the educational docket. When and where do we come to the point of personal satisfaction, the payoff, the joy of living life, and the very reason we choose to educate ourselves in the first place? Is success measured by what we have or who we are? Is the student connected to the product the grade at the end of the semester or the process the holistic experience of blending intelligence, aesthetics, and emotion? Nobody can nor should dictate what brings pleasure and joy to the human spirit. Band offers a new paradigm-of-learning. The means and the extremes are one-in-the-same. We do not play music to get to the end of it; we play it to make music. As the educational system continues to evolve we often become so focused on the HOW, it is easy to lose sight of the WHY. Let us stand back and take a careful look at the development of the entire school system to gain a clearer perspective of not only WHAT we are doing, but WHY we are doing it. The value of knowledge is measured by the fulfillment it brings to the knower. Is this the goal? We often tend to answer these questions from an artistic position: The only way one can explain music is with music; it is a language unto itself. If we are to convince non-music makers about the importance of music learning, we may have to step off our podiums and put the recruitment spotlight on the extended human needs and essential human qualities: Music is NOT a frill subject or a fringe activity, but music-study is a microcosm of society bringing the requisite disciplines of success to the ensemble experience. Music learning for the sake of music; and music learning for the sake of life. What better way to prepare for a successful future? Who should study music? Who should be in band? Music is a place for everyone. The study of music actually breaks down societal barriers from race to socioeconomic strata. Do parents, administrators, community leaders, and teachers of other disciplines understand even know this information? Are we as music educators sharing this extraordinary news with our educational partners? So many parents at the point of registering a student for beginning band do not understand the extended value of learning music. The discipline of music making is transferable to every learning situation in and outside the academic community. From singing in the church choir to playing in the community band, music should not be relegated to the school environment, but music becomes our trusted friend-of-expression forever. Framing the message for the welfare of the child. What is the most important priority for all parents? Mothers and fathers around the world dedicate their lives to creating an even better life for their children. In a highly competitive society they want to see their sons and Page 3

4 daughters have every possible advantage in their educational climate, their chosen profession, and their selected community-of-living where, once again, the cycle will repeat itself with-and-for the next generation. Might I suggest the study of music is a cultural imperative fulfilling all the wants, needs, and wishes of every caring-sharing parent. We know we have the most convincing recruitment information available to bring them to our rehearsal rooms: It might be more appropriate to ask: It is evident music education should be experienced by every student. We, as a culture, will be best served if the hearts and minds of our youth are filled with the knowledge and the understanding of MUSIC. The time has come, the time is now: Page 4

5 Chapter 3 : How musical training affects cognitive development: rhythm, reward and other modulating varia Informal activities with music should start soon after birth, followed by more systematic classes around age three, and lessons with the goal of learning the instrument should start between six. Children who study music tend to have larger vocabularies and more advanced reading skills than their peers who do not participate in music lessons Arete Music Academy. Accessed July 17, Regardless of socioeconomic status or school district, students 3rd graders who participate in high-quality music programs score higher on reading and spelling tests Hille, Katrin, et al. Accessed February 24, Schools that have music programs have an attendance rate of Students in high-quality school music education programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of community Nature Neuroscience, April Students in all regions with lower-quality instrumental programs scored higher in English and mathematics than students who had no music at all Journal for Research in Music Education, June ; Dr. Christopher Johnson, Jenny Memmott. Students at schools with excellent music programs had higher English test scores across the country thanstudents in schools with low-quality music programs; this was also true when considering mathematics Journal for Research in Music Education, June ; Dr. The College Board identifies the arts as one of the six basic academic subject areas students should study in order to succeed in college Academic Preparation for College: Research at McGill University in Montreal, Canada showed that grade-school kids who took music lessons scored higher on tests of general and spatial cognitive development, the abilities that form the basis for performance in math and engineering http: A study of 8 to year-olds found that, those who had extra-curricular music classes, developed higher verbal IQ, and visual abilities, in comparison to those with no musical training Forgeard et al. Department of Education report that compared surveys from and found that music was offered in 94 percent of elementary schools during both timeframes, and that visual art offerings dropped only slightly, from 87 percent of schools in to 82 in Jessica Siegel, "Amid Tests and Tight Budgets, Schools Find Room for Arts," CityLimits. Org, June 7, Learning a musical language could have cognitive benefits similar to those evident in bilingual children. Although this view has intuitive appeal because music and language are both auditory communication systems, the positive effects of bilingualism are evident for fluid intelligence i. Everyday listening skills are stronger in musically-trained children than in those without music training. Significantly, listening skills are closely tied to the ability to: Kraus, Biological impact of auditory expertise across the life span: A little goes a long way: The Journal of Neuroscience, 32 Studies have shown that young children who take keyboard lessons have greater abstract reasoning abilities than their peers, and that these abilities improve over time with sustained training in music Rauscher, F. A field experiment" Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 15, Children with learning disabilities or dyslexia who tend to lose focus with more noise could benefit greatly from music lessons Arete Music Academy. Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training National Association for Music Education. Music education sharpens student attentiveness Arts Education Partnership, Music and math are highly intertwined. By understanding beat, rhythm, and scales, children are learning how to divide, create fractions, and recognize patterns Lynn Kleiner, founder of Music Rhapsody in Redondo Beach, CA. Certain instruments, such as percussion, help children develop coordination and motor skills; they require movement of the hands, arms, and feet Kristen Regester, Early Childhood Program Manager at Sherwood Community Music School at Columbia College Chicago. They have to be actively engaged in the music and participate in the class Dr. A study at the University of California at Irvine demonstrated that young kids who participated in music instruction showed dramatic enhancements in abstract reasoning skills. In fact, researchers have found neural firing patterns that suggest that music may hold the key to higher brain function Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky and Wright, "Music and Spatial Task Performance: Playing a musical instrument strengthens eye-hand coordination and fine motor Page 5

6 skills, and kids who study an instrument learn a lot about discipline, dedication and the rewards of hard work http: Music training not only helps children develop fine motor skills, but aids emotional and behavioral maturation as well, according to a new study, one of the largest to investigate the effects of playing an instrument on brain development Amy Ellis Nutt, "Music lessons spur emotional and behavioral growth in children, new study says," The Washington Post, January 7, Music training leads to greater gains in auditory and motor function when begun in young childhood; by adolescence, the plasticity that characterizes childhood has begun to decline. Nevertheless, our results establish that music training impacts the auditory system even when it is begun in adolescence, suggesting that a modest amount of training begun later in life can affect neural function Adam T. A Canadian study of 48 preschoolers and published in, found that verbal IQ increased after only 20 days of music training. In fact, the increase was five times that of a control group of preschoolers, who were given visual art lessons, says lead researcher Sylvain Moreno, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. In a study in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers used an MRI to study the brains of 31 6-year-old children, before and after they took lessons on musical instrument for 15 months. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practice self-expression. Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education Arte Music Academy. Music education supports better study habits and self-esteem Arts Education Partnership, Group classes require peer interaction and communication, which encourage teamwork, as children must collaborate to create a crescendo or an accelerando Kristen Regester, Early Childhood Program Manager at Sherwood Community Music School at Columbia College Chicago. Playing an instrument teaches kids to persevere through hours, months, and sometimes years of practice before they reach specific goals, such as performing with a band or memorizing a solo piece Mary Larew, Suzuki violin teacher at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, Connecticut. Lessons offer a forum where children can learn to accept and give constructive criticism. Turning negative feedback into positive change helps build self-confidence Mary Larew, Suzuki violin teacher at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, Connecticut. Making music together, children learn to work as a team while they each contribute to the song in their own way. Kids who make music have been shown to get along better with classmates and have fewer discipline problems. More of them get into their preferred colleges, too http: Nearly four in five 79 percent even say that music education should be mandated for every student in school Gallup Poll conducted for NAMM. The arts can help students become tenacious, team-oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively. I would concentrate in my music and it was something to be focused on and not be bothered by anyone. I was using that on my homework and on any type of class work also. Science is now one of my best subjects. We are project managers, marketers, Finance folks, IT people and engineers. In my twenty-some years as a corporate HR person, I was always impressed by the way musical people excelled at logic and non-linear thinking, both. In an arts program, your child will be asked to recite a monologue in 6 different ways, create a painting that represents a memory, or compose a new rhythm to enhance a piece of music. If children have practice thinking creatively, it will come naturally to them now and in their future career. In an increasingly competitive world, where people are being asked to continually develop new skills, perseverance is essential to achieving success. Keeping a balance between listening and contributing involves a great deal of concentration and focus. It requires each participant to not only think about their role, but how their role contributes to the big picture of what is being created. They children have an enthusiasm for life a spark of creativity, and vivid imaginations that need training â training that prepares them to become confident young men and women. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music. Calahan, Director of Cooperate Communications, Xerox Corporation "The hope of our music, the entire future of our music, unquestionably lies in our children. Research tells us children who play music do better in school and in life. A recent Gallup Poll revealed that 94 percent of Americans consider music to be part of a well-rounded Page 6

7 education. NAMM Gallup poll A Columbia University study revealed that students in the arts are found to be more cooperative with teachers and peers, more self-confident and better able to express their ideas. Champions of Change, Arts Education Partnership, Students indicate that arts participation motivates them to stay in school, and that the arts create a supportive environment that promotes constructive acceptance of criticism and one in which it is safe to take risks. A study examined the influence of music education on nonmusical abilities, the effects of music lessons on academic performance, and cognitive abilities. The study revealed that students who participated in music lessons showed statistically higher intelligence quotients. With music in schools, students connect to each other betterâ greater camaraderie, fewer fights, less racism and reduced use of hurtful sarcasm. The vast majority â 96 percentâ of the school principals interviewed in a recent study agree that participation in music education encourages and motivates students to stay in school. Further, 89 percent of principals feel that a high-quality music education program contributes to their school achieving higher graduation rates. Harris Interactive Poll, The skills gained through sequential music instruction, including discipline and the ability to analyze, solve problems, communicate and work cooperatively, are vital for success in the 21st century workplace. House of Representatives, Concurrent Resolution, March 6, Rob Davidson Photography Additional Links. Page 7

8 Chapter 4 : Earlychildhood NEWS - Article Reading Center Music and Movement for Young Children's Healthy started to dance to the music, including the teachers. Early childhood educators can create. This article is sponsored in part by Philips Sonicare. Some people will tell you that it makes absolutely no difference what time of day you train. The claim is that the end result will be the same whether you train at 7: Then again, there are other people who say that it is better to workout in the morning or vice versa. While the verdict is still out on that debate, there are many benefits to training first thing in the morning. Here are 10 reasons why the early bird gets the worm: You can completely avoid this situation by training first thing in the morning. Number 9 No waiting It drives me up the wall when I have to wait for a machine at the gym. I like it even less when someone takes the weights I was using when I went to get a drink of water at the bubbler. You can exchange knowing glances as you wipe the sleep from your eyes. Number 8 Jump starts your metabolism Working out jump starts your metabolism and helps keep it elevated for hours. Why not get your engines running as soon as possible? In this way, your increased metabolism will be working â and burning more calories â while you are, instead of when your body is at rest. If you are like many people who sit at a desk all day, you know that this is reason enough to train in the morning. Number 7 Gives you energy Did you ever notice that the military trains in the morning? So, if the weather and accumulated fatigue have you feeling less than crisp lately, you might want to try hitting the gym first thing in the morning. Doing so will release endorphins and other hormones to give you a much-appreciated boost that often lasts all day. Training before your day officially begins allows you to start each day with a fresh perspective as you destroy the stresses of the previous day with a bench press or a treadmill. This will help you reduce the chances of become stressed or upset during the course of your new day. This may be an individual thing, but the general consensus is that exercise reduces stress. Believe it or not, but there are five more reasons to take the morning train Page 8

9 Chapter 5 : Whatâ s the Right Age to Begin Music Lessons?. Music & Arts. Education PBS Parents Musical training helps develop language and reasoning: Students who have early musical training will develop the areas of the brain related to language and reasoning. The left side of the brain is better developed with music, and songs can help imprint information on young minds. The Benefits of Music Education By Laura Lewis Brown Whether your child is the next Beyonce or more likely to sing her solos in the shower, she is bound to benefit from some form of music education. Research shows that learning the do-re-mis can help children excel in ways beyond the basic ABCs. More Than Just Music Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. Making music involves more than the voice or fingers playing an instrument; a child learning about music has to tap into multiple skill sets, often simultaneously. For instance, people use their ears and eyes, as well as large and small muscles, says Kenneth Guilmartin, cofounder of Music Together, an early childhood music development program for infants through kindergarteners that involves parents or caregivers in the classes. While children come into the world ready to decode sounds and words, music education helps enhance those natural abilities. This relationship between music and language development is also socially advantageous to young children. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a practicing musician. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent. Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, as published in a issue of Psychological Science, found a small increase in the IQs of six-year-olds who were given weekly voice and piano lessons. Schellenberg provided nine months of piano and voice lessons to a dozen six-year-olds, drama lessons to see if exposure to arts in general versus just music had an effect to a second group of six-year-olds, and no lessons to a third group. Surprisingly, the children who were given music lessons over the school year tested on average three IQ points higher than the other groups. The Brain Works Harder Research indicates the brain of a musician, even a young one, works differently than that of a nonmusician. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches a specialized music curriculum for children aged two months to nine years. In fact, a study led by Ellen Winner, professor of psychology at Boston College, and Gottfried Schlaug, professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, found changes in the brain images of children who underwent 15 months of weekly music instruction and practice. The students in the study who received music instruction had improved sound discrimination and fine motor tasks, and brain imaging showed changes to the networks in the brain associated with those abilities, according to the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports brain research. Spatial-Temporal Skills Research has also found a causal link between music and spatial intelligence, which means that understanding music can help children visualize various elements that should go together, like they would do when solving a math problem. These skills come into play in solving multistep problems one would encounter in architecture, engineering, math, art, gaming, and especially working with computers. Improved Test Scores A study published in by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts. Johnson compares the concentration that music training requires to the focus needed to perform well on a standardized test. Luehrisen explains this psychological phenomenon in two sentences: As Pruett explains, the many intrinsic benefits to music education include being disciplined, learning a skill, being part of the music world, managing performance, being part of something you can be proud of, and even struggling with a less than perfect teacher. It enriches his or her appetite for things that bring you pleasure and for the friends you meet. It gives you have a better understanding of yourself. For Page 9

10 several years, she wrote a national online column on relationships, and she now teaches writing as an adjunct professor. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and three young children, who give her a lot of material for her blog, EarlyMorningMom. Page 10

11 Chapter 6 : SMA Article: Ten Reasons Why Everyone Should Learn To Play Musical Instrument1 Sixteen-year-old students should be starting school no earlier than 10 a.m., a group of scientists wrote recently, citing the effects of changing sleep patterns on areas like health, learning, and. Now, based on the research, we understand why. With the help of cat scans, we have been able to see what happens to the brain when listening to music. Each component of music affects a different part of the brain, e. One side of the brain processes the word while the other processes the music â activating the whole brain ensures better retention. Short-term memory has the ability to hold only seven bits of information. If bits of information are bonded together, as in a song, it can be processed as one piece. By condensing the information, the brain is able to receive and process more. In this article, we will discuss brain research findings and explore how music and movement can be used to enhance memory skills and retention and language development. Language Begins Early The ability to speak and hear language begins before birth. At 23 days of gestation, a fetus can feel sound and, at around four months, hear. At twelve weeks the fetus moves spontaneously. A fetus will respond to music by blinking or moving to the beat. Alfred Tomatis, who will be discussed in the next paragraph, used fiber optic cameras to observe the movement of the fetus in regard to sound. Though the particular muscle moved varied in each child, each time the same phoneme was sounded, the same muscle responded! This sensory-motor response allows the fetus to begin learning language in utero. Once the amniotic fluid has dried out of the Eustachian tubes and outer ear canals, the sense of hearing becomes pretty accurate. The ear is the most fully developed of the sense organs at birth and the last sense to stop at death. Much of the previous information is a result of the work of Dr. His research has done much to help with developmental delays and disabilities including autism. Damage to hearing can cause depression. It is believed it is because the music stimulates a part of the brain related to memory. There have also been many anecdotes of people remembering melodies that had been played while they were in utero. This is not only fascinating, but also functional. Having this information, we need to implement it in early childhood by providing activities that encourage active listening skills. These activities can include rhythm stick activities, imitating vocal sounds, and marching. Time should be taken to note the window of opportunity to learn sounds and words. Children will make sounds that are common to humans universally. Over the first year, they begin to produce only the sounds heard in their own culture. Newborns can perceive any phoneme they hear, but this ability is lost within the first year. The ability to learn languages is during these first years. The opportunity to learn foreign language is believed to end at about the end of the twelfth year, but the phonemes must have been presented to them in the first year. This is the reason why music from many countries using different languages should be played for children in the early years. This prepares the brain for the ability to use these words later in life should it be necessary. It also exposes the children to the sounds of different cultures. Think of it as inputting data in long-term storage. According to Howard Gardner there are at least eight different types of intelligence. He cites music as the first of the multiple intelligences to become functional in a person. For many children, music is that thing. Keeping the Beat Studies by Phyllis Weikert reveal the importance of the ability to keep a steady beat and its link to adequate linguistic development. In, 80 â 85 percent of female high school students could keep a steady beat and 60 â 66 percent of males. In, the percentages dropped to 48 percent and 30 percent respectively. Less than 50 percent of adults have the ability to keep a steady beat. Only 10 percent of kindergarten students could keep a steady beat. This ability should be in place by two to three years of age. The prime time to teach it is up until the age of seven. Older students and adults without this in place will find deficiencies in different skills that they will not be able to overcome. Being able to keep a steady beat helps a person to feel the cadence rhythm of language and involves the vestibular system. While working with very young children, I began to notice how syncopated rhythms were absent from their vocabularies, e. Winnie the Pooh becomes WinPoo! Although the ear is the most fully developed of the senses at birth, children were not sounding the syncopated rhythms. I wondered if Page 11

12 they were not hearing them as well as the accented sounds because they moved so quickly. I wondered if by tapping out these words in straight rhythms it might help them hear the entire word better. Using rhythm sticks or hands, the child alone or with adult help says each sound of the word â Wi Ni the Pooh. After hearing it that way several times, the adult can then say the word with the proper cadence. It seems to work. Parents are reporting to me that children are speaking words they were having difficulty with after sounding them out in this fashion. Of course, the fact that with maturation vocabulary was going to improve is a factor; however, there was noticeable increase also with children who were having problems with language. Simplification of the words has had a definite impact on these children. This activity can be used to introduce new vocabulary. Talk with babies and tap out rhythms. Research is showing that infants who have mothers who talk a lot have more words at twenty months than other toddlers and more at twenty-four months. This article begins with the alphabet. Teachers and parents have had favorable responses and the children are realizing the letters are separate sounds. Although these activities are helpful in preparing the brain for language, it should be noted that children should not be pushed to read early. Reading too early puts stress on the eyes and causes other potential damage. If this information is given to a child before they are neurologically ready, it may just result in meaningless memorization. If this is done prematurely, it may process in the wrong region of the brain, which is not as beneficial as processing in the proper region. In Denmark, reading is not taught until the age of eight and their literacy rate is percent. A wonderful, easy music tool for young children is the kazoo. In Music with Mar. Kazoos activate bone structure because of the vibrations. This activates the vestibular system. As a child plays kazoo, they are developing self-esteem, internalizing rhythms, having fun and establishing the beginning of inner voice, a skill necessary for higher-level thinking. Inner speech is the process through which we hear ourselves think and listen internally. Children without inner voice need to hear something to understand it. These children may have impulse control problems because they need to move to think and may act before thinking it all the way through. Beginning at the age of four, games can be played with the kazoos. Then that person gets to play a song and have someone else guess. Children will play this game for quite a while. Repeating patterns is also fun to do with kazoos. You play a rhythm pattern and the children echo. Kazoos can also be used for marching or just playing along. After children get their things put away, they get out their kazoos and play along. When the song is over, everyone is in one spot ready for the next activity and the room is clean! Another benefit is the exposure to the style of music known as the blues. Moving to the Music A natural partner to music is movement. Movement is a nonverbal response for children who do not yet have language ability. The vestibular system part of the ear related to balance and movement must be activated for learning to take place Hannaford, The eighth cranial nerve is the Vestibulo-cochlear. It comes from the inner ear mechanism, the semicircular canals and cochlea. The eighth cranial nerve pair carries auditory information from the ear to the brain. These connect through the vestibular system to all the muscles of the body. All learning in the first fifteen months of life is centered on the vestibular system development Hannaford, p. Disturbance to the vestibular system can cause learning difficulties. This highlights the importance of movement in the beginning years to strengthen the vestibular system and ready the brain for learning. The brain works by electrical current thereby needing oxygen and water to function well. Movement helps to provide one of these two elements, oxygen. Another wonderful thing happens with movement. The brain produces a neuro-chemical called endorphins. Page 12

13 Chapter 7 : 10 Reasons You Should Start Running Barefoot Personal Excellence The music literature included in the curriculum should be of high quality and lasting value, including traditional children's songs, folk songs, classical music, and music from a variety of cultures, styles, and time periods. Trost Find articles by Wiebke J. Received Jul 20; Accepted Dec The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author s or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Musical training has recently gained additional interest in education as increasing neuroscientific research demonstrates its positive effects on brain development. Neuroimaging revealed plastic changes in the brains of adult musicians but it is still unclear to what extent they are the product of intensive music training rather than of other factors, such as preexisting biological markers of musicality. In this review, we synthesize a large body of studies demonstrating that benefits of musical training extend beyond the skills it directly aims to train and last well into adulthood. For example, children who undergo musical training have better verbal memory, second language pronunciation accuracy, reading ability and executive functions. Learning to play an instrument as a child may even predict academic performance and IQ in young adulthood. The degree of observed structural and functional adaptation in the brain correlates with intensity and duration of practice. Importantly, the effects on cognitive development depend on the timing of musical initiation due to sensitive periods during development, as well as on several other modulating variables. Notably, we point to motivation, reward and social context of musical education, which are important yet neglected factors affecting the long-term benefits of musical training. Further, we introduce the notion of rhythmic entrainment and suggest that it may represent a mechanism supporting learning and development of executive functions. It also hones temporal processing and orienting of attention in time that may underlie enhancements observed in reading and verbal memory. We conclude that musical training uniquely engenders near and far transfer effects, preparing a foundation for a range of skills, and thus fostering cognitive development. Studies in the domain of auditory cognitive neuroscience have begun revealing the functional and structural brain plasticity underlying these effects. However, the extent to which the intensity and duration of instrumental training or other factors such as family background, extracurricular activities, attention, motivation, or instructional methods contribute to the benefits for brain development is still not clear. Music training correlates with plastic changes in auditory, motor, and sensorimotor integration areas. However, the current state of the literature does not lend itself to the conclusion that the observed changes are caused by music training alone Merrett et al. In this article we briefly review the recent literature on how musical training changes brain structure and function in adult musicians and during development. We next report evidence for near and far transfer effects in various cognitive functions that are unprecedented in comparison to other long-term practice activities in childhood. Finally, we point out the important and overlooked role of other factors that could contribute to the observed cognitive enhancement as well as structural and functional brain differences between musicians and non-musicians. We propose the mechanism of rhythmic entrainment and social synchrony as factors contributing to the plasticity-promoting role of musical training that is unique to music education. The proposed mechanism of rhythmic synchronization by which musical training yields a unique advantage of transferrable skills may provide a promising avenue of research explaining the beneficial effects on a developing brain. In addition, we pinpoint the potentially important role of genetic predispositions and motivation that is rarely controlled for in the existing literature. Although we mention and acknowledge the enormous value of music therapy with the aim of restoring lost function in diseased or disabled individuals, this topic is outside the main focus of this review. Reviewing the progress in musical training research embraced in this article leads us to the promising supposition that the induced changes in brain development and plasticity are not only relevant in music-specific domains but also enhance other cognitive skills. Page 13

14 Cognitive, emotional and social functions in music perception and production Listening to music requires certain perceptual abilities, including pitch discrimination, auditory memory, and selective attention in order to perceive the temporal and harmonic structure of the music as well as its affective components, and engages a distributed network of brain structures Peretz and Zatorre, Music performance, unlike most other motor activities, in addition requires precise timing of several hierarchically organized actions and control over pitch interval production Zatorre et al. Music, like all sounds, unfolds over time. Thus, the auditory cognitive system must depend on working memory mechanisms that allow a stimulus to be maintained on-line to be able to relate one element in a sequence to another that occurs later. The process of music recognition requires access and selection of potential predictions in a perceptual memory system Dalla Bella et al. Unlike speech, music is not associated with a fixed semantic system, although it may convey meaning through systems such as emotional appraisal Koelsch, ; Trost et al. Furthermore, music is also known to have a powerful emotional impact. Neuroimaging studies have shown that musically induced emotions involve very similar brain regions that are also implicated in non-musical basic emotions, such as the reward system, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus Blood and Zatorre, ; Koelsch et al. However, music can have a strong influence on the emotion of the listener as well as the performer: Furthermore, in a social context, making music in a group has been suggested to increase communication, coordination, cooperation and even empathy between in-group members Koelsch, Therefore, it could easily be conceived how musical training could have a positive impact on the well-being and social development of children and adults. Instrumental training is a multisensory motor experience, typically initiated at an early age. Playing an instrument requires a host of skills, including reading a complex symbolic system musical notation and translating it into sequential, bimanual motor activity dependent on multisensory feedback; developing fine motor skills coupled with metric precision; memorizing long musical passages; and improvising within given musical parameters. Music performance, unlike most other motor activities, requires precise timing of several hierarchically organized actions and control over pitch interval production Zatorre et al. Music sight-reading calls for the simultaneous and sequential processing of a vast amount of information in a very brief time for immediate use. This task requires, at the very least, interpretation of the pitch and duration of the notes written on the two staves of a piano score in the context of the prespecified key signature and meter, detection of familiar patterns, anticipation of what the music should sound like, and generation of a performance plan suited for motor translation. Formal musical instruction, therefore, trains a set of attentional and executive functions, which have both domain-specific and general consequences. Several recent review papers have critically assessed the effects of musical training on brain plasticity based on neuroimaging literature accumulated to this date Herholz and Zatorre, ; Barrett et al. Several longitudinal studies have found a correlation between duration of musical training and the degree of structural change in white matter tracts Bengtsson et al. While it may not be surprising that structural and functional differences are found in those brain regions that are closely linked to skills learned during instrumental music training such as independent fine motor movements in both hands and auditory discrimination, differences outside of these primary regions are particularly interesting for instance, in the inferior frontal gyrus in Sluming et al. Such findings indicate that plasticity can occur in brain regions that either have control over primary musical functions or serve as multimodal integration regions for musical skills, possibly mediating the transfer of musical training onto other skills. For example, a recent study investigating resting-state activity measured with fmri in musicians compared to non-musicians found that musicians have increased functional connectivity in motor and multi-sensory areas Luo et al. In the next section, we review the effects of musical training on cognitive functions and brain plasticity and discuss the role of the age at commencement. However, we note that the evidence for musical training-induced brain plasticity is largely correlational due to the number of additional variables that have not been controlled for in most of the cross-sectional studies Merrett et al. The few random group assignment studies that have been conducted to this date, typically include a control group of participants that attend theater play, dance Young et al. And while the methodological and subject-specific considerations of this matter have been discussed Page 14