Does Making Music Make You Smarter?

 

Think about it—as a parent, would you be interested in an activity that would not only help your child perform better in school, but also increase their chances for success later in life?  And what if that activity was something your child actually enjoyed and wanted to take part in.  Interested?

 

Sure, you’re interested.  And, surprise!  This activity is not news, and as a matter of fact, you might have taken part in it yourself.  It is the process of making music.  

 

The connection between active music making and intelligence is better understood than ever before.  Ongoing studies prove that music education, particularly piano lessons, dramatically increases the types of reasoning required for excellence in math and science, resulting in higher SAT scores.  Benefits include enhancement of social skills in children as well as a lower incidence of drug use and antisocial behavior among teenagers.

 

How can you or your children benefit from the wealth of research on making music and increased brain activity?  It’s pretty simple, if you’re willing to discard a few outdated notions.  If you’re like many, your experience with piano lessons brings back unpleasant memories of playing boring, plodding pianos exercises in a stuffy room for what seemed like hours.  If you didn’t hate it, you at least didn’t like it, much less look forward to practicing or learning.  Today, we know music can help make our children smarter.  So how do we get them actively involved?

 

 

Back to the Future 

 

It’s not that scientists didn’t recognize a connection between the process of making music and increased brain functionality.  Many centuries ago, Plato said, “Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education.”  And today, scientists have dubbed the 1990s as the “decade of the brain” because of the explosion in brain research.  Recently, dramatic new research regarding the benefits of music making might have altered Plato’s views to read, “Making music is a more potent instrument than any other for education.”

 

Scientists have long suspected a neurological connection between making music and intelligence, but it was not until recently that specific data became available directly linking the two. 

 

Consider the following:

 

• Research completed at the University of Munster in Germany discovered enlarged portions of the brain in children who took music lessons.  An area used to analyze the pitch of a musical note was found to be 25% larger in those who participate in making music regularly than in those who have never played an instrument.

• A research team exploring the link between making music and intelligence reported that music training (specifically piano instruction) is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills—mental tools necessary for learning subjects like math and science, or for playing chess and mastering concepts of engineering.  Thirty-four percent of the children performed higher on tests measuring these criteria after only six months of piano lessons.

• Students with coursework/experience in music performance scored an average of 52 points higher on the verbal portion of the SAT and 36 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students with no coursework or experience in the arts.

• A research team studying first-graders from two Rhode Island elementary schools found that students who participated in a regular and structured music learning program exhibited dramatic increases in reading and math.

• A study in the March 1999 issue of Neurological Research showed that after learning eighth, quarter, half and whole notes, second and third-graders scored 100 percent higher than peers who were taught fractions using traditional methods.  Because of this research, we know there is a direct connection between making music and intelligence in children.  But how and why does this connection take place.

 

Putting the Research into Practice

 

How can you or your children benefit from the wealth of research on making music and increased brain activity?  It’s pretty simple, if you’re willing to discard a few outdated notions.  If you’re like many, your experience with piano lessons brings back unpleasant memories of playing boring, plodding pianos exercises in a stuffy room for what seemed like hours.  If you didn’t hate it, you at least didn’t like it, much less look forward to practicing or learning.  Today, we know music can help make our children smarter.  So how do we get them actively involved?

 

Enter the new era of music education—learning inspired by new technology and teaching methodology that makes learning music fun and exciting.  This environment puts the research done on the benefits of music making and intelligence into practice.

 

Today’s classrooms and teaching methods are not the same as they were when baby boomers were growing up.  Today’s music learning environment embraces new technology and computers, tools and techniques that the new generation of music makers is comfortable and familiar with.

 

New Kids on the Digital Block

 

Dubbed the “Net Generation” by author Don Tapscott in his new book, Growing Up Digital – the Rise of the Net Generation, these children, between two and 22, are hungry to learn new technologies.  And they love music and interactivity.  Recognizing the proven connection between brain  development and music making within this demographic group, musical instrument companies are bringing new technologies into the music education field to help foster interactive keyboard learning environments which are on the cutting edge.  These “N-Gener” kids are discovering that the combination of digital keyboards and computers is making the process of learning music fun and challenging.  Should we tell them that it’s making them smarter, too?

 

In a chapter of his book about N-Geners and computers, Tapscott says, “N-Geners are using digital media for learning.  The computers which populate 60 percent of American households with children are used for learning how dolphins give birth and for composing essays on ‘my summer vacation.’”  And, we should add, for music education, too.

 

One music teacher who understands this is Amy Perdew.  She entered the world music education technology because demand for her services was greater than her teaching facility could bear.  She quickly learned about the benefits of digital pianos over traditional pianos in the learning environment, ignoring any preconceptions that the digital piano would be too difficult for a child to function on,