Blogpost 1: Smart Music

Music is an art form that works within the bounds of noise and silence. It has played a very important role in my life especially when I was still soul searching for an answer whether to go back and get an education or just work and make a living while putting up a family of my own.

I read an article online on “The Impact of Music on Language & Early Literacy“ which was formulated by the people behind Kindermusik, which is an online teaching group, composed of expert teachers from Europe and Asia. Their medium which uses music as a methodology and method of teaching to foster development caught my interest and although there are many related literatures or studies that have been conducted to answer this question, this simple article research made by this group opened my mind into coming up with this idea. Hopefully through this simple blog I hope to stimulate the imagination of whoever that may stumble upon it and hopefully in the process see the relevance of this medium called “Music” and its effect to students like me who strive very hard to make good at the end of the Trimester.

Obviously the soul searching is over and now regardless the age difference that I have with majority of my peers, I am here now writing this blog for class and the topic that I felt the most relevance with is with Music and I thought: “What is the relevance of Music in my present challenge? “ Grades!  Getting better grades at that.

Have you noticed when we were younger how most parents would get their kids to learn a musical instrument or instruments? They believed then mostly through their gut that learning a musical instrument enhances ones intelligence ergo ones grades. They may have been on to something there as many studies today prove this practice to be true. Apparently, when your child learns to play a musical instrument, not only does he learn how to make tunes, but he also enhances other capabilities of his brain as well.

He said after a 10-year study that involved 25,000 students in both the private and public schools that music making improves test scores in standardized tests, as well as in reading proficiency exams.  I think that's pretty stone cold and not only that, it was also discovered that High school music students scored higher on the math and verbal portion of SAT, compared to their peers who were not inclined to being more musically astute.

The fact that those who had nine months of weekly training in piano or voice rose nearly three points more than their untrained peers with respect with their IQ’s is true enough to take seriously the big role that music can play in activating or stimulating the dormant parts of the brain that require a more cognitive function, is a testament enough to see the importance and direct connection of music and attaining better grades.

With that said; I can safely conclude, based on the studies that I have taken note of earlier in this blog particularly on the study made by Judith Colbert about Brain Development Research Can Influence Early Childhood Curriculum which states that being exposed to music (Good Music at that) offers many benefits to a one's brain, in fact it promotes easier language acquisition, better listening skills, better memory, and more accurate and efficient motor skills. While having musical experiences integrates these different skills and this results in the positive development of multiple brain neural connections.

The fact is I am quite musical literate as I have been playing the piano and keyboard since my teens and I also used to play in a band in Dubai playing the Bass Guitar. I guess that all that time even if I was out of school then, I was unconsciously sharpening my brain for something big in the future I did not know then till now that I was actually doing something good.

The fact is not everyone is blessed to know how to play and appreciate good music and until now it is only after actually reading up on this topic that learning musical instruments and making music has helped me today in so many ways and writing this blog is one of them.

Music making therefore has “hard-wired” me for the long journey of learning ahead and hopefully with this ability to visualize and transform objects in space and time using melodies as my tool I will be able to apply this learning to a more serious discipline that would be beneficial to my future academic achievements and my life in general.