Finally a good article about Education in the news...


For years I have fortunately reaped the benefits of having been forced to play piano as a child. While it was curiosity that got me the dreaded piano in the first place, not to mention the horrible examinations and recitals, I always complained about having to practice scales and technical stuff 1-2 hours a day.  The pieces [songs] came easier as I could develop stories or pictures in my head to remind me of how the melody went, but once it got to the more technical side, I wasn't sold.  As I got older, I began to be able to almost photograph my favourite musical pieces in my mind and play with my eyes closed.  Great for me, but the examination gurus weren't too impressed with my "over confidence."

Anyways, I digress...

A recent study showed that children who have musical training do better on memory tests.  That is probably true.

However, from experience, students really connect with music, even if they don't have any musical ability whatsoever [in those rare cases], BECAUSE it is seen as something "FUN".  In music class, one is often DOING something beyond writing things down on paper, and if you have a good music teacher, you are experimenting with sounds and instruments you don't have at home.  The fact that there are not any desks in the room helps too, and music class in general is a lot less stressful than other courses.  [Art, Drama and PE fall into this category too.]

When there is less stress, or at least less teacher telling you to smarten up and get to work and memorize something, I think learning and creating (and memorizing) will come at lot faster.  Without the extra worries of getting 100%, or perfect grammar, students are able to let their brain focus on the subject rather than the "other stuff" that can get in the way.

So I hope that all the parents and teachers see the article or study below and give kids opportunities with music if they haven't already.  They might not show drastic improvements in memory skills, but at least they will hopefully get some fun injected into their day. 

Just don't force to them to go to too many recitals.  Oh, and if they forget what piece they were supposed to play when they get up on stage and then play something else, don't get mad at them.  It really doesn't help.

---The Article----- ----- Pasted over for safe keeping only----

Music Lessons Help Young Child Memories

By Jennifer Kwan Tue Sep 19, 7:10 PM ET

TORONTO (Reuters) - Parents who spend time and money to teach their children music, take heart -- a new Canadian study shows young children who take music lessons have better memories than their nonmusical peers.

The study, to be published in the online edition of the journal Brain on Wednesday, showed that after one year of musical training, children performed better in a memory test than those who did not take music classes.

"(The research) tells us that if you take music lessons your brain is getting wired up differently than if you don't take music lessons," Laurel Trainor, professor of psychology, neuroscience and behavior at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, told Reuters.

"This is the first study to show that brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children change differently over the course of a year," said Trainor who led the study.

Over a year they took four measurements in two groups of children aged between four and six -- those taking music lessons and those taking no musical training outside school -- and found developmental changes over periods as short as four months.

The children completed a music test in which they were asked to discriminate between harmonies, rhythms and melodies, and a memory test in which they had to listen to a series of numbers, remember them and repeat them back.

Trainor said while previous studies have shown that older children given music lessons had greater improvements in IQ scores than children given drama lessons, this is the first study to identify these effects in brain-based measurements in young children.

She said it was not that surprising that children studying music improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying music.

"On the other hand, it is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with nonmusicalabilities such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ," she said.

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