Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.  ~Paul Simon

A few years ago while hosting a daily music appreciation program in a local radio station, a listener called in and asked about what music should they put on for their newly born baby, as they read that classical music or more specifically music by Mozart will actually make their baby smarter when they grow up. The Mozart Effect as it is often called is popular subject, and if we shop around for music in a record store, we find a variety of compilation cd based on “The Mozart Effect” with various titles like Mozart Mathematics, Genius Baby, Smart Baby, etc...Although more than once we find the music is not by Mozart at all. We will not embark in a discussion about the truth of the Mozart Effect, but about music as part of the education process. Eric Awuy

Music is an art, a language. It requires emotion, cognition, aesthetics, and as a music player it develops individual and group skills. Above all, it develop the brain’s auditory system, which are is to often overlooked in our present day “visual” education system. These things have to be develop and synchronized, and the results are a kind of mental stretching that in general will help in learning other things. According to some research, the notational skills in music correlate positively with achievement in math and reading. The ability to process musical symbols and representations is a leading predictor of of music’s association with learning in other subject areas (Larry Scripp, Harvard Project Zero). This research also found that musical pitch is more predictive of mathematical ability while rhythm is more predictive of reading ability.

Of course, education is not only about being successful in school, but about becoming a better person. While most of the core academic subjects (Language, reading, mathematics, science, civics,etc.) emphasize on individual development, music education involve playing and interacting with others, which in turn prepares an individual person to be more active and successful in society.

As mentioned earlier, music enhance the brain’s auditory system. Personally, I think this is the greatest benefit of music. At early age, we learn to speak by imitating sounds that we hear, and eventually we are able to express ourselves through speaking. Somehow, at a certain point in our education, the “learn by listening” system is dropped and a “learn by looking” system sets in. This visual system will be develop through the school years and beyond. Sadly, the present curriculum in schools are majority based on a visual approach and the student forgets how to listen. They have to write down what the teacher is saying to be able to remember it...The problem is that people hear and do not listen. To listen is actually to pay attention, and when we pay attention, we remember. Through music, we stimulate and enhance this listening ability, and obviously, we are able to learn and remember anything much faster. Again, serious research have been made on the subject, and results are that after only one year learning a musical instrument, children performed better in memory test that is correlated with general intelligence skills such as literacy, verbal memory, Visio spatial processing, mathematics and IQ. (Dr. Laurel Trainor, Prof. of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour at McMaster University, Director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind; Canada; published 9/20/06).

There are plenty of articles and research done on the effect of music in education, all with positive results in enhancing our learning capabilities. I highly recommend reading about it, but also to start playing music, as it is as much fun to learn it as it’s effect on our brain.

After all, Mozart was having fun with music and we all should be too.

The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose - and is a test to the quality of a nation's civilization. – John F. Kennedy

Eric Awuy