The nineties have been the decade for widespread news about the affects of music on the brain. Everyone seems to be asking about the "Mozart Effect", specifically what it is and how to use it to their child's benefit. It is certainly an exciting time to be a music educator and a parent. We are finally able to look at documented research that shows that music is integral to a child's growth, and use this information to help our children achieve their full potential. What more do we want as parents than to give our children all of the tools necessary to become happy, well-adjusted, intelligent human beings?
Unfortunately, like most popular theories, the "Mozart Effect" has become watered down in an effort by some people to make more money at the expense of the general public. You can go into any bookstore nowadays and buy "Mozart Effect" books, videos, tapes, and even bumper stickers.
In researching this article I did just that at several local music stores, as well as on the internet. I looked first in the music section, and when I didn't find any books on the subject, wandered over to the children's section with my 2 year old daughter. Again, aside from a mixed assortment of compact discs with music for children's brains, I found nothing of real value for research. Curious, I went to the information counter where I was told that the "Mozart Effect" books, written by Don Campell, were to be found in the "alternative medicine" section! And, they were all sold out. That gave me my first clue that something very interesting was happening on this subject. I decided to research further in the library and on the internet.
The term "Mozart Effect" has come to simplify (by Don Campbell et al) a large body of research by neuro-scientists and experimental psychiatrists showing a definitive link between music study and improved spatial intelligence. This is nothing to be taken lightly. Children are born with over 100 billion unconnected or loosely connected nerve cells called neurons. Every experience that child has will strengthen or even create links between neurons. Those pathways that remain unused will, after some time, die. Because neural connections are responsible for every kind of intelligence, a child's brain will develop to its full potential only through exposure to enriching experiences. It is important then, to identify the kinds of enrichment that forges the links between neurons.
Music has been clearly proven to improve neurological connections responsible for spatial intelligence. Spatial intelligence is necessary for a person to be able to see patterns in space and time. It is the ability to perceive the visual world accurately and to form mental images of physical objects. This kind of intelligence is used for higher brain functions such as music, complex math, solving puzzles, reasoning, and chess. Music specialists for years have noted that their musically-trained and involved students tend to be at the top of their class, often outscoring their non-musical classmates in mathematical tasks. Until recently, however, there was no way to clearly prove it.
Definitive studies have been done since the early 1980's when Dr. Gordon Shaw and colleagues presented the trion model of the brain's neuronal structure to the National Academy of Sciences. By 1990 the team had shown through computer experiments that trion firing patterns produce viable music, when these patterns are mapped onto musical pitches. This study was important in that it suggested that this musical model could be used to examine creativity in higher cognitive functions, such as mathematics and chess, which are similar to music. By 1991, Shaw proposed that music could be considered a "pre-language" and that early childhood music training exercises the brain for some higher cognitive structures.
In 1993 at UCal Irvine, Dr. Frances Rauscher, a Columbia PH.D. scientist and former concert cellist, joined the Shaw team in documenting a pilot study of the earlier research, but now directly applying their findings to people. This preliminary study showed that a group of college students temporarily improved their spatial-reasoning skills after listening to a Mozart piano sonata for 10 minutes. The same study applied to preschool children showed a more permanent improvement.
By 1997, the Rauscher-Shaw team had significant evidence suggesting the benefits of music to children's spatial intelligence. The team studied three separate groups of preschoolers. The first group received specialized music training, particularly weekly keyboard lessons; the second group received specialized computer training; the third group received no specialized training at all. After several months, the team tested the children using tests designed to measure spatial tasks. Those children who received the keyboard lessons performed 34% better than the children who had taken either computer lessons, or no lessons. And, the effects of the keyboard training was long-term, suggesting that their may indeed be a learning "window" in early childhood, where we may enhance the connections of neurons forever.
Other research has suggested the same thing--that music training in early childhood indeed helps a child's brain to develop. In the Winter '95 issue of Early Childhood Connections (ECC), Dr. Edwin E. Gordon, talks about a Music Learning Window. He says, "A child will never have a higher level of music aptitude than at the moment of birth... A child's potential to achieve in music remains throughout life where it stabilizes at age 9." Harvard Medical School's Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, found (through magnetic-resonance-imaging of musicians who began training before age 7, began later, and non-musicians) that certain regions of the brain are larger in musicians who started their musical training before age 7.
Now we have an entire scientific collection of data suggesting what music educators have known for centuries-- that music has a definitive effect on children's developments.
So, what do we, as parents, do with this information? Here are some suggestions:
1. Although listening to well-structured and performed music such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach certainly is wonderful for exposure to the arts, it is not simply by listening to music that your child's brain develops. All of the research has shown that music TRAINING is required. This means getting your children into music lessons early, while the music learning window is at its peak before age 9. Piano lessons seem to be exceptionally helpful, as the keyboard is symmetrical, balanced, and logical.
2. Support your child's local music programs in schools, churches, synagogues, etc. Here you will find skilled, educated music instructors who will bring new musical experiences to your child, including an appreciation for music in culture, history, and pure listening enjoyment. Demand a quality music education for your children throughout their lives.
3. Reevaluate where music fits into your home. Question why music traditions and activities, once central to family life, have been replaced by mass-market entertainment requiring no familial participation. Get off the couch and onto the floor and sing, dance, play instruments with your child.
Paula Penna, MMed., BMus. is the owner and director of MusicMakers, LLC and The MusicMakers Academy in Manchester, CT. She has a Masters degree in Music Education and Arts Administration from Florida State University, and a Bachelors degree in Music Education and art history. She is a publicly certified music teacher (pre K-12, choral, orchestral, and band). After teaching in the public schools in Westchester County, NY she worked as the Associate Director of Educational Outreach at the famed Manhattan School of Music (university level) where she wrote curriculum and trained the graduate students in how to teach music.
While at MSM she worked with teaching artists such as John Bertles, Pinkus Zuckerman, Itzhak Perlman, and Herbie Hancock to help bring music into the inner city schools which did not have music programs. She also sat on the Arts Roundtable of New York City, often encouraging advocacy for music education for all children. Moving to Connecticut to have her first child in 1996, she started MusicMakers Lessons at Home, which eventually grew to MusicMakers Academy, a classical music school with a progressive attitude. She resides in Connecticut where she is currently working on publishing her own books and resources for music education and etiquette.
