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New Era of Music Education

But before you rush out to buy your budding Einstein a Stradivarius, consider the results of a landmark study performed by Gordon Shaw and Fran Rauscher. Shaw is a physics professor emeritus at the University of California at Irvine and Rauscher is an accomplished cellist with a doctoral degree in psychology. Their research on music and brain functions made headlines in 1993 with discovery of "The Mozart Effect," a phenomenon in which college students scored higher on spatial-temporal reasoning after listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major.

The latest body of research into music and intelligence includes the active realm of music making. Shaw published a landmark report in the March '99 issue of Neurological Research based on tests done with 135 second grade students at 95th Street School in Los Angeles.

The research demonstrated that children given four months of piano keyboard training, as well as time playing with newly-designed learning software, scored 27 percent higher on proportional math and fraction tests than other children who had not received keyboard training.

"Piano instruction is thought to enhance the brain's 'hard-wiring' for spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to visualize ratios, fractions, proportions and thinking in space and time," said Shaw.

Shaw's findings are significant because a grasp of proportional math and fractions is a prerequisite to math at higher levels, and children who do not master these areas cannot understand more advanced math critical to those high-tech fields.

Dr. Shaw's latest research reinforces an important point about brain functionality and the differences between listening to music and playing music. It also under-scores the fact that the long-term benefits provided by music playing activities are much greater for brain development than passive music activities. In mid-September, Academic Press published a new book by Shaw called Keeping Mozart In Mind, especially written for non-scientists to help everyone understand the practical implications of his work.

Putting the Research Into Practice

How can you or your children benefit from the wealth of research on playing music and increased brain activity? It's pretty simple, if you're willing to discard a few outdated notions. If you're like many, your experience with piano lessons brings back unpleasant memories of playing boring, plodding exercises in a stuffy room for what seemed like hours.

If you didn't hate it, you at least didn't like it, much less look forward to practicing or learning. Today, we know music can help make our children smarter. So how do we get them actively involved?

Enter the new era of music education learning inspired by new technology and teaching methodology that makes learning music fun and exciting. This environment puts the research done on the benefits of playing music and intelligence into practice.

Today's classrooms and teaching methods are not the same as they were when baby boomers were growing up. Today's music learning environment embraces new technologies and computers, tools and techniques that the new generation of music makers is comfortable and familiar with.