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Music On The Mind: Newsweek Articles
Music On The Mind is a series of articles in Newsweek magazine on the Shaw Report, the first study which documented the benefits of music study.
Piano Is Easy
Music on the Mind
by Sharon Begley (excerpted from Newsweek Magazine)
"....The most controversial finding about the musical mind is that kid's piano lessons can help children do better at math. When a researcher at a recent conference in New York brought up these studies, he got an auditorium full of laughs. Yet the link, reported in 1997 by Gordon Shaw of the University of California, Irvine, and Frances Rauscher at the University of Wisconsin, has held up."
Introduction To Brain Issues
"...But might music work its magic simply by making school more enjoyable, or because kid's piano lessons bring more one-on-one time with teachers? If that were so, then music should bring about improvement in many subjects. But it doesn't. Although kids who receive piano lessons often improve somewhat across the board due to the "good mood" and attention effects, finds psychologist Martin Gardiner of Brown University, "they just shoot ahead in math." This can't be explained by social effects or attention alone. There is something specific about kids, music and math."
When they compared the corpus callosum in 30 nonmusicians with the corpus callosum in 30 professional string and piano players, researchers led by Dr. Gottfried Schlaug of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston found striking differences. The front part of this thick cable of neurons is larger in musicians, especially if they began their training before the age of 7."
Music Is Magic To The Brain
"....Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, but scientists are finding that it works those charms through the brain. Perhaps the most striking hint that the brain holds a special place in its gray matter for music is that people can typically remember scores of tunes, and recognize hundreds more. But we can recall only snippets of a few prose passages."
From "The Heart Of Teaching"
"Educational researchers have known for years that certain kinds of music can increase concentration and boost retention in learners. Now it's being found that the effects of music are even more wide-ranging than currently thought."
"The power and effectiveness of using music to enhance learning, abstract thinking and memory retention are well documented."
"Kids who listened to Mozart for ten minutes before taking a standardized test raised their scores in spatial and abstract reasoning. On an intelligence test, the gain was nine points after only ten minutes of listening."
"On standardized college entrance exams, students taking music classes scored 20-40 points higher than students who didn't take music."
"Worldwide, all of the countries that are top-rated in science and math have strong music and art programs."
"People who listened to light classical music for 90 minutes while editing a manuscript increased accuracy by 21% in a University of Washington study."
"Researchers have found that whatever an individual's musical preferences, music.....invariably calms the listener's mind and body rhythms; improves spatial perception; and promotes better communication of emotions, concepts and thoughts."
REFERENCES
Introductory
Eight Best Ways To Learn Piano For Beginners
Playing Piano By Number
Playing Piano By Number – Complete
Starting To Play Piano By Number
Beginning Piano Music With Numbers
Beginner Piano Tutorial
Beginner Piano Books for Kids
Introduction To Piano By Number
Piano By Number Basics
Piano By Number Is The Missing Step
There Are Many Ways To Start Piano
A History of Piano and Numbers
Basic Piano Skills for Kids
Easy Piano Songs for Beginners with Letters
Easy Piano Notes for Popular Songs
