Bowker 1 Holden Bowker Suzanne Gittleman English 1 November 21, 2013 Music of the Mind: How Musical Instruments

Improve the Human Brain The day has finally come, youve graduated high school. It was a long four years, and you put in a ridiculous amount of effort just to keep your grades at a B average. While this whole time your friends easily got As, even in their AP and Honors classes. While you are going to a pretty average college, most of your friends managed to get scholarships to prestigious Ivy League colleges with ease. Thinking back to when you did homework with them, their uncanny ability to spot mistakes was always a mystery. Putting together the complex pieces of college level mathematics with little effort seemed like a trick only robots or computers could achieve. You have always wondered what helped them focus so hard on their homework every night, and how they could Ace a test without studying a single page of notes. Even in situations most others would give up, your friends managed to stay calm, and finish whatever was thrown their way. None of your friends have ADHD, and they do not use medicines like Adderall or Ritalin, so what helped them focus? Their parents are not strict, but help push them a little, but nothing to serious. Thinking of all the possibilities, you begin to notice something. Most of your friends play some kind of instrument. They all can read music, and understand musical theory. Not only that, but they listen to classical music while they study. Even your metal head friend who shreds on his electric guitar, and head bangs can grasp complex concepts faster than you. Listening to rhythmic music can improve studying skills, while playing, or learning how to play an

Bowker 2 instrument can give you a sharper mind, improved vocabulary, verbal sequence, and implicit learning skills. Not to mention 18 other benefits to improve ones overall health and wellness. Research has shown significant results on how rhythmic music can affect someones brain functionality and improve studying skills. In an article written by Shahrzad Haghshenas, it is stated, you can improve your intelligence by either knowing music or simply by listening to some rhythmic music such as those of Mozart (162). Not only does Mozart help soothe its listener, the music activates both sides of the brain allowing for more information to be retained. And improved retention means better memory. Rhythmic music achieves this improvement by changing the states of the brains waves. Brain Waves are categorized into four types: Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Theta. The Alpha Waves are incorporated with learning (164). When rhythmic music is being played it stimulates the brain waves to activate the learning process of physical, mental, and emotional abilities. While at the same time, it allows the brain and heart to stay in sync with each other, which is another reason why people calm down listening to Mozart (164). Enhanced Spatial Temporal Reasoning is another brain function that is improved by listening to music. This being improved is what helps our brain perform higher brain functions. With the improvement of Spatial Temporal Reasoning, students would be able to comprehend difficult subjects like calculus, or statistics (164). Using music in a classroom or a study session can drastically help with things like memorizing math equations, or help by allowing you to interoperate and understand why Winston, from the book 1984, finally loved Big Brother. Listening to music can help brain functions, but so does physically playing an instrument. A study done at the University of St. Andrews shows that musicians have sharper minds and can find mistakes and fix them faster than the rest of us (How Playing An Instrument Can Sharpen The Mind 7). This research, conducted by Dr. Ines Jentzsch, states, The most striking

Bowker 3 dierence she found lay in the musicians ability to recognize and correct mistakes. Not only that, but they responded faster than those with little or no musical training, with no loss in accuracy (7). The participants in the study only had amateur level skill in their instrument, but still showed these results. Not only did this research show that musicians are quicker learners, but playing an instrument can help prevent mental illnesses such as depression. The instrument helps prevent mental aging by keeping it active and aware. The article also states, playing an instrument, even at moderate levels, improves the ability to monitor our behavior for errors and adjust subsequent responses more eectively when needed (7). With all the mental and physical benefits music has on a human brain, it is a shame that schools are not funding it. A better funded music program for a school could mean astronomically better grades in the school overall. Not only does playing an instrument improve mental sharpness, it can help improve reading skills. Other studies into music and education show that children who play the piano have improved reading skills. From the website Science Daily and the article Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills they state, children exposed to a multi-year programme of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers, according to a study published in the journal Psychology of Music. The authors of this book, Joseph M Piro and Camilo Ortiz studied two different kinds of elementary schools. One elementary school routinely trained children in music and the other didnt. The school that was taught keyboard would receive instruction of increasing difficulty over the course of each successive year. They wanted to test if this would impact vocabulary and verbal sequencing in a positive manner. This hypothesis was derived from several other studies, several studies have

Bowker 4 reported positive associations between music education and increased abilities in non-musical (eg, linguistic, mathematical, and spatial) domains in children (Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills). Each school had a similar ten month school year and had intelligence tests given at the beginning and end of the year. The results proved the authors hypothesis true, the musical school had significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequencing scores compared to the non-musical school. Some problems came about with this hypothesis, making the results seem unreliable. But, the authors mentioned that another factor in the improvement of skills was because of the age of the children. The subjects in the quasiexperimental design were all in 2nd grade. The age of the average 2nd grader is 7, and this is a critical year in brain development. It shows that the time you begin to learn an instrument can affect how much brain development is actually improved. But the fact that all of the students were at the same age shows that they all would have gone through the same brain developments at similar times during the experiment, meaning playing an instrument still caused an improvement. Music is a wonderful thing. Besides reading improvements, musical experience can improve other general cognitive processes, as well as greater implicit sequence learning. Multiple studies have shown the benefits of playing a musical instrument. One study had this to say, Experience with playing video games or a musical instrument influences not only domainspecific skills but also more general cognitive processes such as visual perception, attention, memory, multisensory processing and processing speed (Bergstrom, Howard, and Howard 91). These three authors wanted to ask the question if implicit learning is affected by the playing of a musical instrument or playing video games. The results, full of fun statistics which I sadly do not understand, showed that in fact, playing a musical instrument or video game improves implicit learning. The study concluded that, The present study is the first to

Bowker 5 demonstrate that extensive experience with music or video games is associated with enhanced implicit learning of sequential regularities in an environment that is unrelated to the skillspecific activity (95). This means that a musician that has played for more than 4-6 years has the ability to spot changes in their surrounding environment at a quicker rate than your Average Joe. Abilities like this helps when trying to comprehend difficult math subjects, like Abstract Algebra or Calculus. Musical instruments have even been studied to show improvement in students wanting to stay in school and continue their education. In a study done by Geoffrey Lowe, students in a West Australian Secondary School showed improved interest in learning when given the option of playing a musical instrument or having the choice of being in a school band. The choice to play an instrument in school helped keep students interested in the electives given at the school (Lowe 41). Not only does research from scientists show the affects, but teachers too have posted the facts behind music and the brain. Music Teacher Michael Matthews posted an article, or list, of 18 affects music has on the brain on the website Effective Music Teaching: Advice and Tips for Music Directors Who Care. Matthews has 14 years of playing the French Horn, showing he knows what its like to be a dedicated musician. Playing an instrument has all kinds of helpful improvements. The first Matthews mention is increase in memory capacity. The second is how playing an instrument can improve your time management and organizational skills. This happens because a musician must spend time practicing their instrument, meaning they must manage time wisely if they want to improve but also finish everything else thats going on in their daily lives. The third one requires you to be in a band, but it can boost team skills. From my own experiences, being in a band is tough, but it can really help you out. Being in a band is like being on a Rowing team, if one person in the boat is off, everyone else will be as well. So learning how to play and work

Bowker 6 together becomes a huge lesson in playing an instrument. The next few include being taught perseverance. Enhance coordination, greater mathematical abilities, and improvement in reading and comprehension skills. All of those are very important when being a student. Perseverance helps when finishing a big project for school, coordination will help you organize the project, while being better and math and reading helps with pretty much everything else in school and in life. The list continues with, 8. Increases your responsibility 9. Exposes you to cultural history 10. Sharpens your concentration 11. Fosters your self-expression and relieves stress 12. Creates a sense of achievement 13. Promotes your social skills 14. Boosts your listening skills 15. Teaches you discipline 16. Elevates your performance skills and reduces stage fright 17. Enhances your respiratory system 18. Promotes happiness in your life and those around you (Matthews). All of these reasons alone can make the benefits of playing an instrument a necessity for a student trying to improve their grades, or someone just trying to better themselves. Thought it takes time and effort, the benefits out weight the consequences. Now that high school has ended, you decide to pick up an instrument. That could have been one of the best choices youll make in the next couple of years in this crazy place called college. Because of your decision, you may have missed out on some crazy parties, but you are now on the Deans List with a 3.9 GPA, and future employers in your field of study have already taken note. The fact that you can spot your errors with great speed and ease makes proof reading that English research paper a walk in the park. Not only that, but having the ability to sit down and study without having to fight yourself makes getting As another basic task. With your new found love for Classical music, retaining what you studied last night is like remembering your first kiss, that wont be forgotten anytime soon. Lastly, with your expanded vocabulary and flawless articulation, not to mention the new found confidence from performing in front of an

Bowker 7 audience, you learned that talking to the opposite sex isnt so hard after all. So congratulations, picking up and learning to play that instrument was probably the best decision youve made in your entire life.

Bowker 8 Works Cited

"How Playing An Instrument Can Sharpen The Mind." 14-19 Learning & Skills Bulletin 100 (2013): 7. Education Research Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Haghshenas, Shahrzad. "How Music Enhances Learning Ability." E-Proceedings Of The International Online Language Conference (IOLC) (2010): 162-166. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Lowe, Geoffrey. "In Their Voice: Lower Secondary School Students' Beliefs About Playing Musical Instruments, And The Impact Of The Instrument Lesson Upon Those Beliefs." Australian Journal Of Music Education 2 (2010): 41-51. ERIC. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Matthews, Michael. "18 Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument." Effective Music Teaching. EffectiveMusicTeaching.com, 28 Aug. 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. Romano Bergstrom, Jennifer C., James H. Howard, and Darlene V. Howard. "Enhanced Implicit Sequence Learning In College-Age Video Game Players And Musicians." Applied Cognitive Psychology 26.1 (2012): 91-96.Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. SAGE Publications/Psychology of Music. "Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills." ScienceDaily, 16 Mar. 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.