Music Information

Is Your Child Struggling in School? Get Him (Or Her) Music Lessons


This is counterintuitive, I know. Our natural response to seeing our child struggle is to find a way to help, not to add to the burden. If a child is struggling, why should we risk setting them up for failure in music lessons?

The answer is simple. Playing music has been discovered to have a direct and almost immediate effect on the brain of the student. That's right. Music lessons have been shown in a German study to have a significant impact on the way the brain functions after as little as five weeks!

What they found, when comparing a group of students taking music lessons with a control group that was not, was that students who had taken as few as ten music lessons over a five week period exhibited a significant ear to hand link.

So? What's the big deal? Life doesn't make much use of ear to hand connections unless you want to play an instrument by ear (I've always thought that provoked a strange mental picture - imagine the ears you'd have to have to play the trombone!). The significance is two fold. First, it means that music lessons lead to brain development which ultimately means that music lessons have the effect of giving the individual that is taking the lessons improved brain function from which to draw in the rest of his or her life. Second, (and I saved the best for last) the ear to hand brain connection from music lessons is significant because researchers in Hong Kong took the study one step further and tested a group of students with music lessons and a group without music lessons for verbal memory and found that the group that was taking music lessons outscored their nonmusical peers by a significant margin.

It gets better still. The same groups of students were tested a year later, even after some of them had discontinued their music lessons, and found that they still outscored their nonmusical peers in verbal tests!

The moral to that story is get your child (or even yourself) into music lessons if you want your child to have every advantage possible in life, because these are only two benefits that we know of, but there are bound to be far more yet to be discovered.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions" with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Ars Technica

Fair Use Must Be Considered In DMCA Notices
Slashdot - 54 minutes ago
I thought that the takedown notices sent to printers was ridiculous because it showed that the method the RIAA used to determine who was pirating music was ...
Will court ruling on take-down notices hamper anti-piracy efforts? CNET News
Universal Music was wrong about YouTube dancing baby iTWire
Woman can sue over YouTube clip de-posting San Francisco Chronicle
The Associated Press - Los Angeles Times
all 178 news articles


Seattle Post Intelligencer

Sheryl Crow Gives Away Her Music To Young Voters
Hollyscoop, CA - 3 hours ago
Everyone loves free music downloads. And Sheryl Crow has figured out a way to give away her music for free, all in the name of politics. ...
Sheryl Crow Rocks The Vote With Free Music Offer Ecorazzi
Sheryl Crow Gives Free Music As Reward To Vote News4Jax.com
Sheryl Crow offers free music to voters The Express Times - LehighValleyLive.com
CaymanMama.com (press release) - AceShowbiz
all 275 news articles


Trans World offering in-store digital music download service
Bizjournals.com, NC - 2 hours ago
Trans World Entertainment Corp. has become the first national retailer in the US to launch an in-store digital music download service, the company's ...


An Essential Report with UK Consumer Insights for HMV - Music ...
MarketWatch - 12 hours ago
... http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/97babb/uk_consumer_insigh) has announced the addition of the "UK Consumer Insights 2008: HMV - Music & Video" ...


Washington Post

Rihanna, Pink, TI added as performers at VMAs
The Associated Press - 4 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Rihanna is back for another performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, along with Pink, Paramore and TI, who will be making his first ...
NEWS: TI & Rihanna Set To Rock The VMAs SOHH
Pink, Rihanna, TI and Paramore Will Play the VMAs People Magazine
Photos: Sexy Rihanna Preps for MTV Awards With Pastelle National Ledger
all 101 news articles


Metal music educational - artist
Independent Online, South Africa - 7 hours ago
Parents need to be educated on the good influences of heavy metal music and how to deal with teenagers listening to the odd "bad" songs, an artist said on ...
'Spend time with your kids' Independent Online
all 25 news articles


Search for iTunes music by star rating
Macworld, CA - 2 hours ago
by Kirk McElhearn, Macworld.com You probably know that you can use smart playlists in iTunes to filter your music. Say you want to find all your 5-star ...


TopNews

Glasgow honoured as UNESCO City of Music
AFP - 12 hours ago
LONDON (AFP) — Glasgow was named a UNESCO City of Music in recognition of its musical past and role in present-day music-making and enjoyment. ...
Glasgow gets city of music honour BBC News
Music-rich Glasgow wins place in UN cultural network of cities UN News Centre
UNESCO Names Scottish City Glasgow As City Of Music AHN
Easier (press release) - NME.com
all 35 news articles


Cnet Asia

iTunes Unlimited: music subscription rumor returns
ZDNet - 6 hours ago
It doesn’t hurt that Steve Jobs has long been a vociferous opponent of rental music (paying one monthly fee for unlimited music downloads). ...
Rumored iTune Music Subscription: $130 Per Year Wired News
iTunes Subscription Buzz is InternetNews.com
Apple iTunes: "all-you-can eat" Telegraph.co.uk
Macworld UK - iTWire
all 19 news articles


dBTechno

SoundExchange Head: Pandora Is Great, But It Needs Audio Ads
Wired News - 22 hours ago
But in an April 2008 interview with Loyola University professor George Howard on ArtistHouse Music, Simson sings Pandora's praises. ...
Is this the day the music dies? Computerworld
Internet radio booming but threatened San Jose Mercury News
The Internet Radio Death Watch PC Magazine
Washington Post - MLive.com
all 101 news articles

Music - Google News

home | site map
© 2006