When you were a child, did your mother make you taking music lessons that

you always hated and was fnding all ways to avoid it? Without knowingly,
your mother's insistence that you practice your musical instrument an hour a
day actually made you smarter! Recent studies had shown that your mother
was probably right to make you stick to your piano or violin. Here are some
proves
!usic lessons have shown to improve a child's per"ormance in school. #"ter
eight months o" keyboard lessons, preschoolers tested showed a $%& boost
in their spatial '(, which is crucial "or higher brain "unctions such as comple)
mathematics and science that draw heavily upon spatial*temporal reasoning.
Which is the ability to visuali+e ratios, "ractions and proportions. # good
understanding o" proportional math and "ractions is a prere,uisite to
advanced math critical in high*tech felds.
* -rances Rauscher, .h./., 0ordon 1haw, .h./, 2niversity o" 3ali"ornia,
'rvine
!o+art's .iano 1onata 4$$5 was "ound to signifcantly increase spatial
scores o" college students on '( tests when the 1onata was listened to "or 67
minutes, dubbed the 8!o+art 9:ect.8 -ormer choral conductor /on 3ampbell
writes ';he !o+art 9:ect', an instant bestseller that proposes classical music
can help in"ants reach and think better. ;he book launched a stampede o"
!o+art*related children's products.
#t the meeting o" the 1ociety "or <euroscience, held in =os #ngeles, the
researchers presented magnetic resonance imaging scans >!R'? o" the brains
o" @A right*handed musicians. ;hese were contrasted with !R'*brain scans o"
A$ other right*handed men who did not play instruments. ;he musicians
overall showed a B percent increase in the si+e o" the cerebellum ** an area o"
the brain involved in fne motor coordination.
1tudents with courseworkCe)perience in music per"ormance scored an
average o" BA points higher on the verbal portion o" the 1#; and @% points
higher on the math portion o" the 1#; than students with no coursework or
e)perience in the arts.
* .rofles o" 1#; and #chievement ;est ;akers. ;he 3ollege Doard. 3ompiled
by !9<3. 6EEB
Researchers at ;he 3hinese 2niversity o" Hong 4ong gave a series o"
verbal memory tests to @7 "emale students who had had at least % years o"
music lessons be"ore age 6A, and @7 who had had no music training. 'n one
test, "or e)ample, the students listened to a list o" 6% words, and were then
asked to recall as many as possible. 8We "ound that adults with music training
learned signifcantly more words than those without any music training,8 the
researchers, #gnes 1. 3han and colleagues, write. 8!usic training in
childhood may there"ore have long*term positive e:ects on verbal memory.8
# Rocke"eller -oundation study stated that music maFors have the highest
rate o" %%.G percent o" admittance to medical school.
;he very best engineers and technical designers in the 1ilicon Halley a re,
nearly without e)ception, practicing musicians.
Having these "acts show that music can make your child smarter. 0o ahead
and e)pose your child to music. 3hildren who study and love music will be
happier and will do better in school and in li"e!
!usic /evelops ;he 3hild Drain
Dy #lvin .oh
!usic has the ability to train our brain "or higher level o" thinking * the kind o"
thinking "or problem solving, comparing and contrasting the similarities and
di:erence between obFects, analy+ing, reaching conclusion, synthesi+ing, and
evaluating in"ormation.
'n recent research, it was "ound that music can help in developing human's
spatial*temporal reasoning skill. 1patial*temporal reasoning is the ability to
perceive the visual world accurately and "orm mental images o" obFects. 't is
the mind ability to see in very detailed images and to recogni+e, compare and
fnd relationships among the patterns and details on an obFect. ;he temporal
element involves a child's ability to think ahead.
'n learning music, one must be able to play a note, then a series o" notes,
then a series o" chords, and the able to look ahead at the music and
determine where and what will be played ne)t.
!any studies and e)periments have been conducted to prove the power o"
the music on our brain. Delow are the fnding in some recent years research
Research and -inding 6
'n 6EE$, /rs 0ordon 1haw and -rances Rauscher who are scientists at the
2niversity o" 3ali"ornia at 'rvin, conducted an e)periment to fnd out the link
between spatial reasoning and music. ;hey divided seventy*nice college
students into three groups. 9ach group was given a cutting and "olding task.
;he frst group was given the opportunity to listen to ten minutes o" !o+art's
1onata in / "or ;wo pianos, 4. $55. ;he second group heard ten minutes o"
minimalist >.hilip 0lass's !usic with 3hanging .arts? and rhythmically
repetitive music >'an Rich's 3*=evel .roductions mi) o" !ortal 1tomp and
3arry !e ;hrough?. ;he third was the control group where the students did
not listen to any music piece.
;he result was * there was no signifcant occurrence with the second and third
group. However the students in the frst group who had listened to the music
o" !o+art, e)perienced an increase in their spatial '( o" eight to nine points in
Fust ten minutes! #lthough the e:ect was temporary, the scientists believed
that a particular organi+ation o" the elements in the music caused the
improvement in the spatial*temporal reasoning. ;his phenomenon is now
commonly known as the 8!o+art 9:ect8.
Research and -inding A
#"ter the above e)periment which showed that by listening to music, it could
caused an increase in spatial*temporal reasoning, scientists began to
wondered i" the e:ect can be prolonged by studying a musical instrument.
;o fnd out the result, the scientists conducted a test on thirty*three three*
year*old pre*schoolers in =os #ngeles. ;hey choose three*year*old children
because the corte)es o" their brain were still maturing and any e:ect "rom
music education will be most observed as compared to a matured brain.
;he children were divided into two groups. ;he frst group had 6E children
who were provided with eight months o" keyboard and singing lesson. ;he
remaining 6$ children belonged to the control group which did not receive
any training. -or the frst group, their training consisted o" weekly ten to
f"teen minute private keyboard lesson, daily practice periods and a daily
thirty minute singing time.
;he children were tested a"ter eight months later. ;hey were re,uired to
per"orm fve tasks to test their spatial reasoning
* arranging pieces o" a pu++le to "orm a complete picture
* matching depicted pattern using Iat, two*colored blocks
* placing correct color pegs into holes under a series o" pictured animals
* per"orming a geometric design task
* describing what was 8wrong8 or 8silly8 about a picture.
#nd here were results
;he spatial*temporal reasoning o" the children in the control group increase
by only % percent. However children "rom the group which received music
training showed a great improved in their spatial*temporal reasoning by $%
percent!
Research and -inding @
;o confrm the results and fnding in the above e)periment, the scientists
conducted another test. ;his time they took another group o" seventy*eight
preschoolers and divided into "our groups
* ;he frst group consisted o" thirty*"our students who were given private daily
piano lessons
* ;he second group consisted o" twenty students. ;he children in this group
received ten minutes o" private computer training every day.
* ;he third group had 6A students who received singing training
* ;he last group were a control group where the children did not attend any
"orm o" lesson.
;he children were tested a"ter si) months later and the results were
3hildren in the frst group had the most dramatic improvement in spatial*
temporal reasoning * an increased by @$ per cent in per"ormance!
Research and -inding $
'n 6EE5, the scientists per"orm another e)periment to fnd out how a
computer math game called 81patial*;emporal #nimation Reasoning >1;#R?
coupled with either piano lessons or 9nglish*language training a:ected
students per"ormance in math.
;his e)periment were conducted over $ months period and the subFects were
6G7 second*graders "rom an elementary school in =os #ngeles.
;he children were divided into @ groups
* 0roup 6 consisted o" children who studied the piano keyboard and the math
video game
* 0roup A consisted o" children who received 9nglish language training and
studied the math video game
* 0roup @ were the control group which did not receive any training.
#"ter "our months, a test were conducted and the results were
3hildren in 0roup 6 and A who received training in the computer game
showed a 677 percent improvement in their math skills as compared to the
control group. #lso, the students who received piano keyboard training along
with the math video game did AG percent better on ,uestions related to
"ractions and proportional math than those who received training in 9nglish
language and the math video game. #nd lastly, the teachers o" the group
also reported that the children who studied piano key boarding demonstrated
better attention and concentration abilities!
!usic ;raining #ids Herbal !emory
#merican .sychological #ssociation
;hose dreaded piano lessons pay o: in une)pected ways #ccording to a new
study, children with music training had signifcantly better verbal memory
than their counterparts without such training. .lus, the longer the training,
the better the verbal memory.
;hese fndings underscore how, when e)perience changes a specifc brain
region, other skills that region supports may also beneft J* a kind o" cognitive
side e:ect that could help people recovering "rom brain inFury as well as
healthy children. ;he research appears in the Kuly issue o" <europsychology,
which is published by the #merican .sychological #ssociation. .sychologists
at the 3hinese 2niversity o" Hong 4ong studied E7 boys between age si) and
6B. Hal" had musical training as members o" their school's string orchestra
program, plus lessons in playing classical music on Western instruments, "or
one to fve years. ;he other $B participants were schoolmates with no
musical training. ;he researchers, led by #gnes 1. 3han, .h./., gave the
children verbal memory tests, to see how many words they recalled "rom a
list, and a comparable visual memory test "or images.
1tudents with musical training recalled signifcantly more words than the
untrained students, and they generally learned more words with each
subse,uent trial o" three. #"ter @7*minute delays, the trained boys also
retained more words than the control group. ;here were no such di:erences
"or visual memory. What's more, verbal learning per"ormance rose in
proportion to the duration o" musical training.
;hus, the authors say, even "ewer than si) years o" musical training can
boost verbal memory. !ore training, they add, may be even better because
o" a 8greater e)tent o" cortical reorgani+ation in the le"t temporal region.8 'n
other words, the more that music training stimulates the le"t brain, the better
that side can handle other assigned "unctions, such as verbal learning. 't's
like cross training "or the brain, comparable perhaps to how runners fnd that
stronger legs help them play tennis better J even though they began wanting
only to run. 1imilarly, says 3han, 81tudents with better verbal memory
probably will fnd it easier to learn in school.8
3han, along with Lim*3hi Ho, !..hil., and !ei*3hun 3heung, .h./., "ollowed
up a year later with the $B orchestra students. ;hirty*three boys were still in
the programM nine had dropped out "ewer than three months a"ter the frst
study. ;he authors now compared a third group o" 6G children who had
started music training a"ter the initial assessment. ;his beginner's group
initially had shown signifcantly lower verbal*learning ability than the more
musically e)perienced boys. However, one year later, these newer students
again showed signifcant improvement in verbal learning.
Nn the other hand, unlike the music students who stuck it out, the dropouts
showed no "urther improvement. However, although the beginners and the
continued*training groups tended to improve signifcantly, there was one
consolation "or the dropouts #t least they didn't backtrack. #"ter a year, they
didn't lose the verbal memory advantage they had gained prior to stopping
lessons.
Ho, 3heung and 3han propose that music training during childhood is a kind
o" sensory stimulation that 8somehow contributes to the reorgani+ation*better
development o" the le"t temporal lobe in musicians, which in turn "acilitates
cognitive processing mediated by that specifc brain area, that is, verbal
memory.8 ;hey contrast their evidence with inconclusive reports that
listening to !o+art improves spatiotemporal reasoning, which most
researchers have been unable to replicate. #t the same time, 3han notes that
it's too simplistic to divide brain "unctions >such as music? strictly into le"t or
right, because 8our brain works like a network system, it is interconnected,
very co*operative and ama+ing.8
!ost important, the authors say, 8the OcurrentP fndings suggest that specifc
e)perience might a:ect the development o" memory in a predictable way in
accordance with the locali+ation o" brain "unctions. 9)perience might a:ect
the development o" cognitive "unctions in a systematic "ashion.8 !ore
research is needed, but knowledge o" this mechanism can 8stimulate "urther
investigation into ways to enhance human brain "unctioning and to develop a
blueprint "or cognitive rehabilitation, such as using music training to enhance
verbal memory.8
#rticle 8!usic ;raining 'mproves Herbal but <ot Hisual !emory 3ross*
1ectional and =ongitudinal 9)plorations in 3hildren,8 Lim*3hi Ho, !..hil.M !ei*
3hun 3heung, .h./.M and #gnes 1. 3han, .h./.M ;he 3hinese 2niversity o"
Hong 4ongM <europsychology, Hol. 6G, <o. @.
Raising Lour 3hildren' '( through !usic
Dy #ndrew =oh
!usic... 8;he science or art o" ordering tones or sounds in succession, in
combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having
unity and continuity8 * !erriam Webster
Who does not like music? !usic is surreal and true. 't traverses beyond caste,
creed, religion and borders. !usic is a potent tool to trans"orm one's li"e, "rom
good to better, and better to best. !usic is rela)ing, soothing and healing.
!usic can teach many things to us. !usic can also be a tool to teach children.
While we like and adore music as a "orm o" rela)ation, what we do not know
is that it can be used as a means to enhance intelligence among children.
Recent research fndings suggest us that music is a combination o" several
use"ul things that relate to our mind, body and brain. -or e)ample, music is a
fne art "orm, where the medium is sound and silence. 'n a typical musical
note, you will have a pitch, melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, meter,
articulation, dynamics, timbre and te)ture. 'n "act, all these issues relate to
our body, its daily, circadian rhythms, moods, bodily rhythms and total
harmony. !usic can strike brain cells with its power"ul notes made by both
vocal and instrumental variations. !usic can easily touch and inIuence brain
cells and their "unctions.
How can you use music to enhance brain "unctions in children? 's it possible
to enhance '( in children by using music? 3ould musical notes trans"orm the
way in which human brains think and act? /oes !o+art 9:ect help children
become smart and intelligent? ;hese serious ,uestions can help you
understand more about music and its e:ect on your children. #vailable
research fndings also suggest that music could act as a very good tool in
schools and homes to make children think and study in an e:ective manner.
Here are some o" the notable research fndings on how music plays an
important role in enhancing children's '( and intelligence
# decade old study on e:ect o" music on children revealed that making
music could actually improve test scores in class tests as well as reading
capability tests.
3hildren studying in middle and high school developed the ability to score
better marks in math and verbal tests.
3hildren who know how to play piano have better ability to understand
math and science concepts than those who do not.
.iano lessons over a period can enhance pattern recognition and mental
representation.
!usic students could easily outper"orm those who do not learn music.
When children learn music, they also develop the ability to sharpen their
skills and ability to per"orm better in classroom.
Research linked to music lessons also revealed that children who
participate in lessons tend show better social behavior.
3hildren who learn to play piano will know how to identi"y the length o"
notes and the rhythm associated with it. ;his ability will help them in
enhancing the capability to think in a proportional manner.
!usic can help steam*line the brain's hardwiring "or the capability to
visuali+e and presume things both in time and space.
#ccording to some researchers, better '( enhancing e:ects are visible
when children associate with making music.
;he most remarkable research result o" the last century has been the
invention o" the so*called !o+art 9:ect. 1ome "orms o" music can help
children temporarily increase their spatial*temporal reasoning. ;his reasoning
relates to the ability to visuali+e something in space and over time. Reading a
map is one e)ample where children can display spatial temporal ability.
.iano keyboard seems to be the most result*oriented tool to enhance
children's '(. ;his is because it has a spatial layout, while the music played
on a piano keyboard is spread over time "rom one note to the other. ;his
mental traveling will enhance spatial thinking along with imagination.
!usic in any "orm is good. 9very region or country in the world has its own
music "orm. =earning music in any "orm is advantageous and benefcial. #part
"rom piano and violin, several other instruments can help children enhance
their '(. Nn the other hand, vocal music has the ability to process intricate
brain wiring in a rapid manner. When children learn music at a young age, the
benefts are "ar more superior and better. Nne best advantage o" playing
musical instruments is the development o" muscle*eye*brain coordination
that is so important "or a growing child. =earning music is never
disadvantageous!
!usic is potentially very power"ul tool in providing a brain*enhancing e:ect
that eventually leads to an all*round development o" di:erent brain "unctions.
<ot all music can enhance your children's '(. However, some o" them can
easily inIuence the way in which children think and per"orm. 1uch types o"
music can lead to "orging o" new nerve connections within the brain and
make them convey impulses in a rapid manner. ;he benefts o" learning
music are numerous. 9ach musical instrument has its own '( enhancing
e:ect.
(uick '( increase !usic is e,ual to better mental health and streamlined
brain "unctioning. 't is also good "or arranging brain cells in a se,uential
manner. ;he "re,uencies used in classical music are specifc and se,uential.
;his arrangement can easily place your children's mind in di:erent, yet
specifc states o" activity. 3lassical music can easily enhance '( by at least 67
points. 3lassical music consists o" sounds, tone and melodies those mimic
natural rhythm and Iow o" the brain. 'n other words, the rhythm o" the brain
is in complete synchronicity with that o" the classical music. 'n any way,
classical music can help your children "ocus on their studies and homework.
.laying instruments can help improve memory and brain "unctions .laying
an instrument demands considerable attention and concentration. 'n turn,
this will help children in "ocusing on their studies. 'mproved concentration
means better classroom per"ormance. Doth piano and violin are use"ul in
enhancing attention span in children. ;hese instruments are very diQcult to
play. ;hey also demand better concentration and "ocus be"ore achieving
e)cellence.
Drain and music harmonics are almost similar Drain harmonics imitate the
harmonies o" music. 1pecifc sounds and "re,uencies have the ability to strike
specifc sections o" brain in a se,uential manner. !usic in audio "orm has the
ability to place the brain in highly "ocused and speciali+ed mental status.
!o+art 9:ect * ;he Wonder"ul .otion to 9nhance '(
!o+art e:ect is the most celebrated musical term in the world. Researchers
and academicians re"er to this e:ect as a potion to enhance brain "unctions
and '(. ;his e:ect involves a special and specifc sonata >sonata 4$$5?
composed by !o+art. ;he !o+art 9:ect re"ers to passive listening to !o+art
compositions that enhance spatial abilities in humans. Researchers
recommend a mere 67*mins audio listening to !o+art can help enhance
positive mood, rela) and sooth the brain and help enhance thinking power. 'n
other words, !o+art 9:ect could act as a power"ul tool to Fack up '( in
listeners. #lthough it is not a wonder drug to enhance one's '( in a
remarkable way, it is still a great way to enhance '( among children. 't is
most likely that the classical music can enhance total cognitive arousal and
attention span.
Kust listening to !o+art may not be enough to enhance '( among children.
;he best combination is to learn how to play his compositions by playing an
instrument, especially violin and piano. Research fndings suggest us that
brain scan o" children playing a musical instrument showed both le"t and right
side o" brain acting like a highly energetic pinball machine. 't means that the
both lobes o" the brain become highly energetic and active thereby e)posing
all nerve cells to great activity.
Here are some simple methods and techni,ues that you can use in your
home to make children learn and master music
Dring home audio 3/s o" great classical composers like !o+art, Hivaldi,
Deethoven and 3hopin.
Duy a piano or a violin "or your children.
9nroll them to a music lesson class to learn how to play instruments.
!ake it a regular habit to take them to music school.
;ake them to an opera or a classical musical concert.
Dring home books and maga+ines on classical music.
#sk your children to take music lessons in their school.
=earn how to listen to music and e)pose your children to that habit.
.lay classical music when your children go to bed and let the music play in
the background.
.laying !o+art needs considerable e)pertise and skills. Lou can take your
children to a teacher who knows how to play !o+art.
'n all, some o" the mental "unctions that tend to improve a"ter listening and
playing to classical music is
1patial ability
;emporal thinking
3ritical thinking
Reading ability
Hisuali+ation and imagination
Detter memory and attention span
3oncentration improvement
Detter brain "unction processing that leads to increased math ability
!usic lessons increase musical aptitudes that subse,uently enhance brain
"unctions. Detter brain "unction is a combination o" several mental "aculties.
'n other words, music could be a surefre way to enhance '( in your children.