Music and the Mind: Music Education

Music and the Mind: Music Education

Music and the Mind

The mind is said to be responsible for an individual's actions and thoughts. People trained in music have increased acoustic recognition capabilities, this results in a streamline thought process. People who listen to music have temporarily increased intellectual performance scores on simple puzzles and memory games (Gorman 4). Proficiency in playing an instrument has the potential to make the mind function with greater precision. Both learning and listening to music give the student a better chance for success in the classroom, making it an important part of today's education. Becoming proficient at playing an instrument increases cognitive ability and the use of both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously enhances the mind (Merzenich 2013). Music is an imperative part of education because of its positive effects on the mind, and cannot be cut from public schools.

There is a distinct separation between the mind and the brain which must be addressed before the discussion of music's effect on both. "The mind is said to be responsible for an individual's thoughts and actions" (Pandya 2). The mind is the non-physical portion of the brain that is memories and is unique to a person's life experiences, meaning that it can be altered by experience. Learning music alters the mind, and creates connections. "The brain is the organ of the mind just as lungs are the organs for respiration" (Pandya 2). The brain is physically altered by playing an instrument, forming connections within the tissue. These mental and physical changes have specific effects. There are several positive results correlated with learning and listening to music in both the mind and brain. Fluency in an instrument has the capability to improve memory and logic skills, as well an improved connection between the hemispheres of the brain. Various regions of the brain, located in separate hemispheres, form connections between each other in order to communicate. These connections allow for faster communication between different sections of the brain. While playing an instrument, a vast amount of communication between various regions of the brain creates synapses connecting either side of the brain. Connection such as these allow efficient communication between areas of the brain responsible for emotions, auditory processing, mathematics, and visual interpretation (Merzenich 2013). These connections result in a productive thinker.

Learning an Instrument Makes You A Better Student

Learning an instrument will result in a student succes. Young people trained in music have further developed auditory abilities (Besson 7). "Phonological awareness, speech-in-noise perception, rhythm perception, auditory memory, and the ability to recognize sound patterns are linked to music training (Merzenich 2013). Abilities such as these are linked to the study of language, increasing a student's ability to detect grammatical errors and abnormalities, such as spelling errors or mispronunciation. Recognition of auditory patterns allows a student to understand and memorize grammatical rules such as conjugation changes and detection of different tenses. As opposed to students with no training with a musical instrument, musicians have the capability to match and often times excel past their peers in regards to grammar.

Music training offers better detection of speech incongruities as opposed to training in painting (Besson 7). Musical training is unique in that it offers a wide range of benefits, such as detection of speech incongruities, that other activities do not offer. Electives such as art have their separate benefits, but simply cannot be compared to the positive effects of music training. Painting harbors creativity, higher self esteem, and stress relief; thus having no direct correlation to academic success. Music is often used as a form of stress relief and playing music offers a wide range of self expression in all ages, as well as academic advantages.

Students who learn instruments take the lead in studies such as vocabulary, reading, reasoning, and attention skills. “Music and language skills rely upon auditory processing. Although reading may not be thought of as a primarily auditory activity, its foundation rests on a child making sense of incoming auditory input in order to map speech sounds correctly on to orthographic representations” (Sukel 2015). Thus the connection between music interpretation and reading is a direct result of tags placed on each activity. Music begins as interpreting symbols on a page, which translate into a series of sounds. The pitch that results from these sounds forms a song, thus creating a logical and emotional tag. For example, a minor pitch has an emotional tag of fear and anger, while a major pitch is associated with happiness. The understanding of words follows a similar pattern. Words on a page are read, then translated as auditory information, which is then assigned a logical and emotional tag, creating meaning. Practice at