Benefits of Instruction
Early Piano Practice Gets Brain on Course
Practicing the piano as a young child gives the human brain a musical capacity that is difficult to acquire later in life, Swedish scientists found in a study. It is well-known that most of the world’s great pianists were already practicing their scales and arpeggios while still under 10 years old, and the study, published in the Nature Neuroscience journal, shows that this is no coincidence. Childhood is the best time in life to boost the brain’s so-called white matter, according to the study, and boost the pyramidal tract, which is a major pathway of the central nervous system, transmitting signals between the brain and the pianist’s fingers. The scientists, who investigated the brains of eight concert pianists in their 30s who started practicing as young children, found that the pyramidal tract is “more structured in pianists than in non-musicians.” Fredrik Ullen, one of the scientists and himself a pianist, said he did not yet know how exactly the white brain matter development improves a concert performance. “But it is likely that it gives pianists that extra boost to reach the absolute top level,” he said. Ullen said similar brain mechanisms may help explain the performances of top dancers and athletes.—The study was published in the journal “Nature Neuroscience.”
Little Music with Exercise Boosts Brain Power, Study Suggests
It’s no secret that exercise improves mood, but new research suggests that working out to music may give exercisers a cognitive boost. Listening to music while exercising helped to increase scores on a verbal fluency test among cardiac rehabilitation patients. “This is the first study to look at the combined effects of music and short-term exercise on mental performance,” said Charles Emery, the study’s lead author and a professor of psychology at Ohio State University. “Evidence suggests that exercise improves the cognitive performance of people with coronary artery disease,” Emery said. “And listening to music is thought to enhance brain power. We wanted to put the two results together.”
Piano Lessons Help Children Develop Many Skills
Music Helps children develop as they grow. In preschoolers, music promotes coordination of words and actions, builds memory, verbal and non-verbal skills, boosts confidence to perform in public, and helps teach cooperation and other social skills. In school age children, music performance develops precise control of smaller muscles in the arms and hands, builds accuracy, speed, timing, coordination and memory, and helps teach teamwork. —New York Magazine, April, 1995
Music Beats Computers at Developing Smarter Students
A research team from the University of California, Irvine, exploring the link between music and intelligence, reports that music training—specifically piano instruction—is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science. Just 15 minutes a week of private keyboard instruction, along with group singing at pre-school, dramatically improve a kind of intelligence needed for high-level math and science, suggests a new study. Music lessons appear to strengthen the links between brain neurons and build new neural bridges needed for good reasoning, says psychologist Frances Rauscher of University of California-Irvine. “Music instruction can improve a child’s spatial intelligence for long periods of time—perhaps permanently,” Rauscher told the American Psychological Association meeting here.” —USA Today, August 15, 1994
Music Experience Raises Students’ SAT Scores
Students with coursework/experience in music performance scored 51 points higher on the verbal portion of the SAT and 39 points higher on the math portion of the SAT than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. —Profiles of SAT and Achievement Test Takers. The College Board, compiled by MENC, 1995
Keyboards & Kids
A study of second graders in Mississippi has found that keyboard lessons can dramatically improve the basic learning skills and concentration of young children. “In studying piano, children learn to read two lines of music,” said C. L. Stevenson, Superintendent of the Greenwood Public School District, where the study was done. “They use two eyes, two ears, both arms, all ten fingers, legs, and both feet, with the brain giving each of these a different assignment to perform simultaneously. That’s a powerful task in concentration for the brain.”
Weekly lessons were offered to 115 children from socially disadvantaged families, while no instruction was given to the control group of 127 students from similar backgrounds. Mr. Stevenson said the keyboard group demonstrated a greater ability to concentrate and showed marked improvement in coordination and self-confidence, and scored an average of 7 percent higher than the control group on the Stanford Achievement Test. According to the Superintendent, the children who played the keyboard learned pre-reading skills, such as listening and the ability to understand sequences. “One reads sentences from left to right,” he said. “One also reads music from left to right. Many of our students have improved their concentration skills.” —Long Island Parenting News, February, 1992
All Children Can Benefit from Musical Exposure
There are measurable benefits musical benefits for children, but there are also benefits beyond measure, says Radford University music professor and elementary music educator Marilyn Meador. “Your child doesn’t have to be a musical prodigy to have their life enriched by music,” she says, adding that every child can benefit from musical exposure and training.
Music Does More for Children Than Meets the Eye
Boys and Girls who hate to practice on their instruments ought to hear Dr. Frank Wilson sing the praises of learning to make music. The San Francisco neurologist claims learning music helps physical, mental, emotional, and social growth, at least tripling the pay-off for music lessons.—Patricia McCormack, United Press International