Music+Advocacy

**Creating music aids brain growth **

By Misty Harris, Postmedia News July 23, 2010

For children, learning how to create music is far better than just listening, researchers have found. Brain power, it turns out, is radically better boosted by learning to play music than just listening, according to the report in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois find overwhelming evidence that musical training enhances the brain's adaptive abilities, priming the nervous system for improved language acquisition, speech, memory, attention span and vocal emotion. In other words, unlike the transient "Mozart effect," which in the mid-'90s had parents thinking symphonic CDs were a gateway to baby Einsteins, active engagement with music physically changes the brain. "Even kids who've had 20 minutes a day of music lessons -- which isn't a whole lot -- will, after a year, demonstrate changes in how their nervous system responds to sound, be it music or speech," says lead author Nina Kraus, professor of neurobiology and physiology at Northwestern. "But these benefits are specific to individuals who've actively engaged in musical training. It's like with anything else, you don't get something for nothing." Kraus's conclusions are the result of her own extensive research, as well as a "deep and careful review" of auditory science from around the world. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Most notably, however, Kraus says playing an instrument teaches the brain to enhance relevant sounds in complex processes -- a skill especially helpful to those with learning disabilities that make them vulnerable to background noise. <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">"Musicians are always pulling out melody and harmony lines, and the sound of their own instrument," says Kraus, also director of Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory. <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">"You can imagine how that would impact a child's ability to learn in a noisy classroom." <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Mary Ingraham, associate professor of musicology at the University of Alberta, hopes the findings will help change policy-makers' outlook. Music is often among the first programs cut when schools are hard up for money. <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Ingraham suggests the most convincing argument in a "left brain, left brain, left brain" education system may be music's capacity to help kids cut through the informational clutter being thrown at them. <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">"It's about listening in the context of chaos," says Ingraham. <span style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">"Musicians have the ability to see both the forest and the trees, and maybe move more freely between the details and the big picture." <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

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= Making Music Makes You Smarter  = <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.05in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> **Rhythm students learn fractions easier:** <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · A recent study found a direct relationship between music and stronger grades in mathematics. Grade two and three students that learned about quarter, half and whole notes as used in music, scored 100 per cent higher on mathematical tests involving fractions that their peers who were taught fractions using traditional methods[|[1]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[1]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in;"> ** Piano students are better equipped to comprehend mathematical and scientific concepts: ** <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · Taking piano lessons and using math puzzle software significantly improves math skills of elementary school children[|[2]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[2]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · A 1997 study announced that six months of piano keyboard training caused enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning in preschool children: they scored 34 per cent higher on puzzle-solving tests and found that active music making, not passive music listening, is the key to enhanced spatial-temporal reasoning. The findings also indicate that music uniquely enhances higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science and engineering[|[3]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[3]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.05in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in;">** Music students get higher marks in standardized tests: ** <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.3in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .35in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · An analysis of the U.S. Department of Education NELLS888 database of over 25,000 students followed over a ten year period found that a higher percentage of students who were involved in music scored higher on standardized tests, reading and reading proficiency exams than those students who were not involved in music programs, regardless of their socio-economic background[|[4]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[4]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · A study found that the students in the music program scored higher on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) than non-music students[|[5]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[5]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · Students with course work or experience in music scored 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[|[6]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[6].

<span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in;"> ** Music students enjoy greater academic success: ** <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · Music majors scored the highest reading scores among all majors including English, biology, chemistry and math[|[7]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[7]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66 per cent of music majors who applied to med school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group (only forty-four per cent of biochemistry majors were admitted).

<span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.05in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in;">** Additional benefits of music: ** <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or any illicit drug)[|[8]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[8]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · A research team studying first graders from two Rhode Island elementary schools found that students who participated in an “enriched, sequential, skill building music program” dramatically increased their reading and math performance and improvements were noted in attitude and behaviour [|[9]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[9]. <span style="display: block; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .25in list .3in; text-indent: -0.2in;"> · Research found that musical experience during childhood influences the structural development of the auditory cortex. The brain area, which is used to analyze musical pitch is an average of 25 per cent larger in musicians[|[10]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[10]. [|[11]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif'; font-size: 10pt;">[1]  Dr. Gordon Shaw (Neurological Research, March 15, 1999) [|[12]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[2] Dr. Gordon Shaw (Neurological Research, March 15, 1999) [|[13]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[3] Dr. Frances Rauscher and Dr. Gordon Shaw, ( Nerological Research, February 28, 1997) [|[14]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[4] Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997. [|[15]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[5] J. Robitaille and S. O’Neal, (“Why Instrumental Music in Elementary Schools” //Phi Beta Kappan 3// (1981): 213) [|[16]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[6] Profiles of SAT and Achievement Test Takers, The College Board (1998) [|[17]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[7] “The case for music in the schools” //Phi Beta Kappan, February 1994.// [|[18]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[8] Report released by the Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, as quoted in the Houston Chronicle, January 11, 1998 [|[19]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[9] Nature, May 23, 1996. [|[20]] <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">[10] C. Pantev et al. (Nature, April 23, 1998)

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