Micek Music

From an article written by Sandy Lundberg, originally posted on the Music Teacher's Helper blog on 10/26/13 : The Many Benefits of Music Music is beneficial on many levels. It is the universal language of our hearts. Just like our spoken language, where we learn to read, write and communicate, and appreciate the communications of others, we can learn to communicate in the language of music. Music grows new connections in the brain. Because of the way our two hands are used, playing the piano develops these connections better than any other instrument. Piano study improves math skills, coordination, and multi-level thinking. Students slowly develop independence of the hands, and the ability for each hand to perform a completely different action in coordinated unison. Studying music develops character. It has been said that it takes 10 years at 20 hours per week to truly master a subject. That’s a lot of commitment and patience, a lot of showing up and doing the w...

From an article on FYI Living, published 6/15/11: "Engaging in musical activity for most of one’s lifetime significantly helps remember names, and enhances nonverbal memory, the ability to work based on what one sees, and mental agility during old age. The habit of physical exercise, in addition to musical involvement, further adds to mental lucidity in old age. Starting musical training early and continuing it for several years have a favorable effect on metal abilities during old age. Musical training also seems to enhance verbal prowess and the general IQ of a person." Read the full article here .

Music education helps children in their studies of other subjects. Several smart people have concluded this. Here are some quotes from various smart people on this subject: 1. On the basis of observations and experiments with newborns, neuroscientists now know that infants are born with neural mechanisms devoted exclusively to music. Studies show that early and ongoing musical training helps organize and develop children's brains. -"The Musical Mind," Susan Black, The American School Board Journal, January 1997. 2. Two research projects have found that music training--specifically piano instruction--can dramatically enhance children's spatial-temporal reasoning skills, the skills crucial for greater success in subjects like math and science. - Neurological Research, February 1997; Rauscher and Shaw, and Neurological Research, March 1999; Shaw, Graziano, and Peterson. 3. School leaders affirm that the single most critical factor in sustaining arts education in their s...

Here is an excerpt from an article written by a music teacher in Bakersfield, CA. She entitled it " Why Music? ": I often hear from parents about your frustration in having to constantly remind your children to practice.  As my Mom says, here you are trying to steer these young lives into beneficial directions, but they all have their own motors!  So it’s easy to begin to question if it’s all worth it.  Well, here are some things to consider. Diligent practice of music will make your children prosperous…successful in life.  To support this idea, think for a moment about the requirements of successful music practice.  To be successful you must: 1. Be willing to work hard. 2. Be faithful on a consistent basis, even when you don’t feel like it. 3. Pay attention to details - not skipping over things. 4. Have the ability to work on your own and not rely on others. 5. Use your creativity to solve problems (i.e. tricky fingerings or new interpretations) 6. Be pers...

From NJFamily.com, August 2009: 1) Music activities boost brainpower 2) Music leads to literacy skills 3) Music adds to children’s understanding of math 4) Music helps children live in harmony with others 5) Music is active 6) Singing helps children stay strong 7) Music supports self-expression Read the full article here .

1. Playing A Musical Instrument Makes You Smarter 2. It Teaches Discipline 3. Playing A Musical Instrument Relieves Stress 4. Sense of Achievement 5. Playing A Musical Instrument is Fun Read the full article here .

Excerpted from a speech by Susan Clark, flute teacher and new MTAC president: - It has been proven that studying music at a young improves a child's (and adult's) math skills. Fractions translate directly to Rhythm; Sets and Intersecting Sets are nothing more than musical keys and related keys. Private music study, and the practice required to learn the music, makes musicians excellent project managers, able to plan ahead toward individual or group goals. Musicians are able to manage time wisely and able to handle multiple projects at once, taking responsibility for each outcome. - Much of musical training has to do with identifying and mastering patterns in everything from compositional structure to technical passages. Musicians can apply that ability to working environments, including computer technology. Those with musical aptitude and training have the closest match to persons with the personality and skills to be successful in today's technical world. - Musici...

“Should we not be putting all our emphasis on reading, writing and math? The ‘back-to-basics curricula,’ while it has merit, ignores the most urgent void in our present system – absence of self-discipline. The arts, inspiring – indeed requiring – self-discipline, may be more ‘basic’ to our nation survival than traditional credit courses. Presently, we are spending 29 times more on science than on the arts, and the result so far is worldwide intellectual embarrassment.” - Paul Harvey – syndicated radio show host “It's [music education] terribly important, extremely important -- because when you are a child, you are in a receptive age ... In high schools, public schools -- that's where they must have the best influence, the first influence, which will go through their whole life.” - Eugene Ormandy – conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra “It is our job, as parents, educators, and friends, to see that our young people have the opportunity to attain the thorough education th...

In support of music education: Ninety-two (92) percent of people who play an instrument say they were glad they learned to do so, according to a 2000 Gallup Poll. - Gallup Poll Shows Strong Support for Putting Music in Every School’s Curriculum , Giles Communications, 2000. The scores of elementary instrumental music students on standardized math tests increased with each year they participated in the instrumental program. - “Music Training Helps Underachievers,” Nature , May 26, 1996. Nine out of ten adults and teenagers who play instruments agree that music making brings the family closer together. - Music Making and Our Schools , American Music Conference, 2000. Students who can perform complex rhythms can also make faster and more precise corrections in many academic and physical situations, according to the Center for Timing, Coordination, and Motor Skills. - Rhythm seen as key to music’s evolutionary role in human intellectual development , Center for Timing, Coordinati...

From BBC News, 9/20/06: "Music lessons can improve memory and learning ability in young children by encouraging different patterns of brain development, research shows. Canadian scientists compared children aged four to six who took music lessons for a year with those who did not. They found the musical group performed better on a memory test also designed to assess general intelligence skills such as literacy and maths ability." Read the rest of the article here .

From Newsweek, 2/19/96: Music: Last October researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany reported that exposure to music rewires neural circuits. In the brains of nine string players examined with magnetic resonance imaging, the amount of somatosensory cortex dedicated to the thumb and fifth finger of the left hand -- the fingering digits -- was significantly larger than in nonplayers. How long the players practiced each day did not affect the cortical map. But the age at which they had been introduced to their muse did: the younger the child when she took up an instrument, the more cortex she devoted to playing it. Like other circuits formed early in life, the ones for music endure. Wayne State's Chugani played the guitar as a child, then gave it up. A few years ago he started taking piano lessons with his young daughter. She learned easily, but he couldn't get his fingers to follow his wishes. Yet when Chugani recently picked up a guitar, he found to his delight that...

From Newsweek, 7/24/00: "The most controversial finding about the musical mind is that learning music can help children do better at math. When a researcher at the recent conference in New York brought up these studies, he got an auditoriumful of laughs. Yet the link, reported in 1997 by Gordon Shaw of the University of California, Irvine, and Frances Rauscher at the University of Wisconsin, has held up. Last year Shaw compared three groups of second graders: 26 got piano instruction plus practice with a math video game, 29 received extra English lessons plus the math game and 28 got no special lessons. After four months the piano kids scored 15 percent to 41 percent higher on a test of ratios and fractions than the other kids. This year, Shaw reported that music can help bridge a socioeconomic gap. He compared second graders in inner-city Los Angeles to fourth and fifth graders in more affluent Orange County, Calif. After a year of piano, the second graders who received twice-a-w...

From Forbes.com, 7/15/04: "It's sure to be music to parents' ears: After nine months of weekly training in piano or voice, new research shows young students' IQs rose nearly three points more than their untrained peers.  The Canadian study lends support to the idea that musical training may do more for kids than simply teach them their scales--it exercises parts of the brain useful in mathematics, spatial intelligence and other intellectual pursuits." Read the rest of this article here .

I came across these figures while doing some web research and thought this data worth sharing. When it comes to SAT Scores, Musicians score: -  38 Points higher in Verbal -  21 Points higher in Math I believe that the SAT test has been allowed to become a far too dominant force in our culture. To quantify an individual's intelligence via the results of a single written exam is a limited scope, to say the least. Nonetheless, intelligence, in its many shapes, is an asset worthy of pursuit. It is certainly notable how music scholarship does enhance a person's intellect. Jesse