New Evidence of Mental Benefits From Music Training

[antigop]

http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-and-culture/new-evidence-brain-benefits-music-training-83761/

As we’ve reported, a large body of research has noted a link between music education and higher test scores. But precisely why learning an instrument would have a positive impact on academic achievement has never been clear.

A new study from Boston Children’s Hospital provides a possible answer. It reports musical training may promote the development and maintenance of a key set of mental skills.

These executive functions, which are coordinated in the brain’s frontal lobe, “allow for planned, controlled behavior,” writes a research team led by Harvard University scholar Nadine Gaab. They enable us to manage our time and attention, organize our thoughts, and regulate our behavior—abilities that are crucial to success in school, as well as later life.

[Demeter]

1. There are years when music was the only thing keeping me sane

[NV Whino]

2. And yet, the first thing to be cut from curriculum is art and music

My "local"* classical station has promoted music in the classroom. They continually receive reports from teachers (and students) of improved concentration and better classroom behavior.

*Due to the Internet and cable, they are heard world wide, but they are located in San Francisco.

[femmocrat]

3. Of course. We don't TEST art and music, so they don't "matter"!

There have been studies linking all arts education to higher SAT scores. I don't know of any recent ones though. Art and music use higher-level thinking skills, not rote memorization, so the effect of brain stimulation seems evident.

[dickthegrouch]

4. My mood improves substantially after a day or so of Bach or Mozart

I feel better, think more clearly, and overall function better after a prolonged exposure to the classical great masters.

My mood plummets if I have to listen to Jazz or Blues.

Of course music is a good thing. But what do they keep? Football, a violent, ugly, incomprehensible, slow travesty of an educational^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H money-raising tool.