In even the smallest towns in the U.S., there are always live music venues to be found. Whether it be the town pub, the performing arts center, the university concert series, the cozy restaurant or coffee house, the community center, or the church fellowship hall, one can always find some form of live music in their hometown. I’ve found that we, as musicians, are usually the first to neglect these opportunities to contribute to a thriving music scene right outside our front door. Admittedly, this article runs the risk of sounding like a rant. But, I’m very passionate about this ‘rant’.
It is always exciting to write this monthly column. Andy and I typically throw a few ideas back and forth before we decide which aspect of the vast area of music education and brain development the column should focus on. The results of the scientific study we are focusing on this month1 suggest that formal instrumental music education and regularly playing a musical instrument benefit brain plasticity and function throughout life. Let’s review this recent study and give you a little more to arm yourselves with when you defend and expand rigorous music education in our children’s schools.
Read more: Music Education and Long-Term Effects on Cognition 103
The study involved 48 children aged 4-9 years of age, who were enrolled in a summer program in Toronto, Canada. The researchers had academic appointments at several institutions including the University of Toronto. Half the children received music training while the other half received visual arts training. The music training involved rhythm, pitch, melody, voice and basic musical concepts. Musical instrument instruction and performance were not part of this curriculum. Both training sessions involved interactive computerized programs. Sessions were 1 hour per day, 5 days/week over 4 weeks. Both groups received tests before and after the sessions to measure verbal and spacial intelligence and performance on an executive function task (“go/no goâ€). The study received the requisite approvals from governing ethics committees, parents and children.
This article is the first in a series written by Christopher Veirek, PhD, and being presented by the Music Empowers Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides financial support to other nonprofits that offer innovative music education programs to communities with limited or nonexistent programs. Read on to view the article or visit the Music Empowers Foundation web site.
Every band program depends upon recruiting new members to continue the pride and tradition established by the current band members. Recruiting can be one of the hardest jobs a band director faces, and for some, the most unpleasant, while others love to meet potential students and “sell†their program to the eager young students. In the end, after all the recruiting is over, you actually get to teach them what you love: music!
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2008 edition of the Iowa Bandmaster Magazine and was written by Patti Bekkerus, a well established and respected music educator currently teaching in the Dennison, Iowa school district.
A new research paper in the September 22nd, 2010 Journal of Neuroscience titled Enhancing Perceptual Learning by Combining Practice with Periods of Additional Sensory Stimulation points to something that many music educators have believed for a long time yet few actually push as a part of their student’s practice routines. The main point of the study appears to be that exposing a learner to additional auditory stimulation while attempting to learn an auditory task has a compounding effect on how much and how quickly the learner improves in completing the task. In other words, if a student practices their trombone for twenty minutes and then listens to twenty minutes of a good trombone performance he or she will reap the benefits of the equivalent of forty minutes of pure practice time.
Read more: New Research Points To Importance Of Listening As Part of Practice Routines
During the mid 20th Century, music, like the other arts, evolved in various directions. Despite different paths taken, rhythm has been thoroughly explored by composers.Â
Read more: Brief History of mid-20th Century Music, 1930-1960
Against this background of change and development, although traditional sounds of classical music still persist, experiments using these new methods occurred in the early part of the 20th century.
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