WHY MUSIC?
Music is a Science.
It is exact, specific, and it demands exact acoustics.
A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies,
intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with
the most exact control of time.
Music is Mathematical.
It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of
time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out
on paper.
Music is a Foreign Language.
Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French,
and the notation is certainly not English - but a highly developed kind
of shorthand that used symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music
is the most complete and universal language.
Music is History.
Music usually reflects the environment and
times of its creation, often even the country and/or racial feeling.
Music is Physical Education.
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers,
hands, arms, lips, cheek, and facial muscles in addition to extraordinary
control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which
respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.
Music Develops Insight and Demands Research.
Music is All These Things, But Most of All,
Music is Art.
It allows a human being to take all these dry,
technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion.
That is one thing science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, emotion,
call it what you will. That is why we teach music - not because we expect
you to major in music, not because we epxect you to play or sing all your
life. But so you will become human. So you will recognize beauty. So you will
be closer to an infinite beyond this world. So you will have something
to cling to. So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness,
more good.
In short, more Life.
Thanks to The Music Achievement Council, c/o NAMM, 5140 Avenida Encinas, Carlsbad, CA 92008-4391. This article has been slightly edited for use.
THE BENEFITS OF LEARNING AND PLAYING MUSIC
- Playing music enhances the sense of giving and receiving.
- Playing music helps develop abstract thinking.
- Playing music helps people be more social.
- Playing music aids the mind, develops the memory and fosters coordination of mind, ear and body.
- Ongoing music instruction is being linked with protecting vulnerable children from negative outcomes like school failure, poor attention, or irresponsibility.
- Some researchers now see music instruction as a form of crisis intervention when it comes to preventing bad things from happening to at-risk children.
- Music instruction gives a child the ability to monitor his or her work through self-discipline, and helps children solve problems through practice.
- Evidence exists that preschoolers provided with music lessons exhibit long-term enhancement of specific cognitive functions.
- New findings suggest that music can stimulate complex cognitive, affective and sensorimotor processes in the brain, whose functions can be generalized and transferred to non-musical therapeutic purposes.
- The use of music in pain therapy has been widely reported.
- Performing music in public develops personal confidence and self-esteem.
- Research suggests that music instruction enhances the development of cognitive abilities, particularly spatial abilities, personality traits, motor skills and achievement in language and math.
- Plus, IT'S JUST PLAIN FUN!
FURTHER READING ON THE BENEFITS OF MUSIC
Music
Lets Them Find Missing Memories: Therapy helps patients living with Alzheimer's
Why Music Matters, by Cindy
Bond
Why Music Matters: Music Benefits Every Aspect of
Development
Music Advocacy
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