...Playing a Musical Instrument Effects the Brain Throughout history, many musicians have been born and some have acquired fame through playing musical instruments and creating compositions. Humans have not stopped playing music because of war. Kurt Weill, a German composer active from the 1920s to the end of his life, performed and toured during World War II. Humans continue to bring the art of music to life even when going through hardship –like Ludwig Van Beethoven, who aside from composing the well-known Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata, was completely deaf for the last quarter of his life. It is common-sense knowledge that music is not only for the listeners, it is for the performers as well. Why a musician chooses to play music and why one might desire to listen to music is centred in the human brain. In another words, playing a musical instrument benefits the human brain. This research paper will support this thesis by discussing the brain development of a musical child, how playing music helps retain memory and hearing in aging adults, and lastly, how music relieves stress. Although Mozart may have been a musical prodigy, science now has evidence that any individual can benefit from...
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...headphones while we study, music is always there. Music is also extremely underrated, which is why so many public schools are constantly threatening to take away music programs all the time. But why is music education so vital in the growth of students? According to the National Association for Music Education, twenty reasons are given as to why music is helping to enrich students educational experience, not diminish it. 1. Musical training helps develop language and reasoning: Students who have early musical training will develop the areas of the brain related to language and reasoning. The left side of the brain is better developed with music, and songs can help imprint information on young minds. 2. A mastery of memorization: Even when performing with sheet music, student musicians are constantly using their memory to perform. The skill of memorization can serve students well in education and beyond. 3. Students learn to improve their work: Learning music promotes craftsmanship, and students learn to want to create good work instead of mediocre work. This desire can be applied to all subjects of study. 4. Increased coordination: Students who practice with musical instruments can improve their hand-eye coordination. Just like playing sports, children can develop motor skills when playing music. 5. A sense of achievement: Learning to play pieces of music on a new instrument can be a challenging, but achievable goal. Students who master even the smallest goal in...
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...question, using disciplines at every level of instruction. Below, I introduce the skills in question. Those same skills are often the offending skills when taken as parts instead of a whole and when ill-instructed. I introduce the skills using flute pedagogy as a demonstrative example, and discuss why their combined and concurrent application can develop instrumental students more holistically. I see deficiency in current instrumental instruction methods because they seem opposite to the human experience. We are all exposed to language and singing from birth, and on some level we gain awareness of physiology and psychology. Yet the fact that our early lives combine these experience naturally seems lost on traditional instrumental pedagogy. Linguistics, vocal, and pyschophysical instruction usually are taught as completely separate entities. A new, more holistic paradigm would result from changing the instrumental instructional methodology by applying the Natural LEarning Process and Perceptual-Motor Learning. Three correlated modi operandi could include the integration and basic study of human physiology and psychology, vocal study, and phonology of French (or other language relevant per instrument). Copyright © 2012 Jaime Santucci MusicianConFuoco.com. All Rights Reserved. Santucci 3 Few pedagogues...
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...subjects all in one classroom setting. They have a wide variety of curriculum taught to them in many different ways and in an enjoyable manner. They also learn many new skills and can expand their knowledge by learning to play a musical instrument. A crucial aspect to help expand a young child’s mind, as well as help them develop as an adult, would be Music Education. When it comes to music, not many children realize that they are doing a variety of educational subjects. They could be learning to sing a new song or they could be learning a new rhythm. There is Spatial Temporal reasoning which you would need to be able to think several steps ahead. Then there is Language Analytical reasoning which you would need the ability to solve equations and receive a quantitative result. These effects are usually labeled as “The Mozart Effect”. Those who excel in calculus and geometry have good Spatial Temporal reasoning because it requires you to think several steps ahead. Gordon Shaw and Xiao DEng Leng did an experiment where music was played in various pitches by different instruments. It was shown that the Spatial Temporal thinking that is used in mathematics is highly triggered by music and shows greater brain function. Being healthy and active is an important part of what we want in our child’s life, and it is incorporated in music. During their music classes children get to enjoy dancing to music so it keeps them up and moving around. They are also learning how to be more coordinated...
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...everything that the Ambyrym did in terms of their Gong instrument, their creativity and intelligence to use woods and transform it into one of the world’s well known musical instruments is amazing in my opinion. The history and advancement of civilization cannot be mention without its impact on music and the evolvement and development of its instruments over all. The slit Gong is a woody painting tower which is a very large instrument in many cases but might vary in size from culture to culture, it was first recognize in north Vanuatu. The slit gong I believe was used to show expression because I have always believe that music and its instruments are both forms of expression like frowning, laughing and smiling . All of musical expressions comprise a lot of elements which has a lot to do with how we treat our daily lives and our cultures. The slit Gong is used in many countries around the world not just to convey their selves but to represent their country and cultures at large. Every culture makes their own music which makes musical instruments very powerful and helpful in the presentation of these cultures. The Gong woody instrument is recognize and acknowledge to be the world largest instrument, even though the making of instruments is one of man’s oldest made object ever recognize, it is also primarily found in ambrym and mostly neighboring islands, it is also found in parts of Africa, Oceania and Americas .the instrument is dated to be around 1960s with in a culture call ambrym...
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...are lots of good things about letting your child learn to play an instrument. Here are 10 reasons why your child should put down the remote and pick up a musical instrument. 1. It will boost their brain power  Want to give your child a mental advantage? Music can do that. "More and more studies show a correlation between higher academic achievements with children who are exposed to music," says children's music specialist Meredith LeVande of MonkeyMonkeyMusic.com....
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...In a contemporary musical performance context the fiddle is always present and rarely would a band not include a fiddle in their repertoire. On the other hand, from at least 1,000 AD, a rich culture of composition, improvisation, performance and ensemble has been mastered around the harp in Ireland. This instrument has become a very important symbol of the country; pictured on the national flag, Garda caps and in coin currency. Ireland is the only country in the world that has a music instrument as its symbol. The harp is basically a frame supporting strings from a sound-box. Its shape is the reason why there are so many harp traditions around the word, traditions that have constantly strived exploration, retrieval and ingenuity among harpers and harp enthusiasts through the 20th and into the 21st...
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...Music Society and its Impact Music and society have always been intimately related. Music reflects and creates social conditions – including the factors that either help or delay social change. The development of recording techniques in the last half of the 20th century has developed the amount to which most people have access to music. All kinds of music are available to most people, 24 hours a day, at the touch of a switch. The down side of this easy availability of music in the Western world is that there is a tendency for it to be taken for granted. Music is a very powerful medium and in some societies there have been attempts to control its use. It is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which goes beyond words, enables meanings to be shared, and promotes the development and maintenance of individual, group, cultural and national identities. It is powerful at the individual level because it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive and behavioral. Few other stimuli have effects on such a wide range of human functions. The brain’s multiple processing of music can make it difficult to predict the particular effects of any piece of music on any individual. The power of music to act intensely has long been recognized. Therapy can involve listening to or actively making music. Increasingly it may involve both. Music can be effective in coincidence with other interferences in promoting...
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...lowest level. 3. How might an ethnomusicologist approach the study of Western classical music differently from a musicologist? They would take into consideration their cultural context. 4. What is “fieldwork”? What is its importance to the study of world music? Fieldwork is a first hand study of music in its original context, it allows us to travel to a specific area where there is musical curiosity. 5. In what ways does world music study require an interdisciplinary approach? You have to look at it through all the different aspects. 6. What is ethnocentrism? Have you ever experienced it? The unconscious assumption that ones own cultural background is “normal,” while that of others is “strange” or “exotic.” Chapter 2 questions 1. Which of the four basic components of music is most helpful in identifying a world music tradition? why? The most helpful way to learn to recognize a world music tradition is to become familiar with its media. In order to identify a specific medium, we must first become familiar with its characteristic timbre 2. Name at least three examples from each instrument category in the Sachs Hornbostel system. In which subcategories do these examples belong? Aerophones require the direct vibration of air to produce sound. Three examples of those are flutes, reeds, and trumpets. Cordophones have one or more strings stretched between...
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...WORLD MUSIC CHAPTER 5 1. Why does the Indian classical tradition dominate the musical image of South Asia in the west? The classical music of India has gained most of the attention of outsiders probably due to the colonization era that has brought Indo-European invaders (Aryan Civilization) into their territory between 2000 and 1500 BCE due to the presence of rich resources. However, Indian music, unlike the communal music of Africa and Southeast Asia, is individual and often virtuosic and can be both vocal and instrumental. The Hindustani one (North) is more appealing to the Western society as it is more instrumental based, whereas the Carnatic (south) one is more vocally oriented. Another factor that attracts the Western attention to Indian Classical Music is the presence of virtuosic improvisation. 2. Discuss the following terms important to a Hindustani classical musical performance Raga, Alap, Gat, Tala, Rasa? Raga: long Hindustani instrumental improvisations. Several things stand out to the first-time listeners: twangy buzz of introductory instruments, constant ornamentation and pitch bending of main melodic part, and tension changes. The word raga (color, atmosphere) denotes a comprehensive system for the simultaneous composition and performance struggle. Alap: the opening section of a raga performance in which the performer “explores” the raga. It can last for a mere minute or so or even be extended for an hour or more. Gat: the skeletal melody used as a...
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...Lecture 1 July 4, 2012 • Popular Music in the United States: o Lies in the African-American Population o West African music was brought into America and was thrown into a mixing pot that the slave population count themselves as Americans. o Blues is the beginning of Jazz, Rock and R&B • Congo Square –Passage from book: History of Jazz o An eligible black man sits with a large cylinder drum using his fingers and edge of his hand he jams repeatedly on the drum head which is around 14 diameters and probably made from animal skin. ____________________ with rapid sharp strokes. A second drummer holding his instrument between his knees joins in, playing with the same ______ attack. A third black man seated on the ground _________ instrument the body of which is rashly fashioned from the calabash. Another calabash which has been made into a drum and a woman beats at it with two short sticks. One voice then another voice, then other voices join in a dance of scene contradictions __________ give and take ___________ one handed performance spontaneous yet on closer inspection ritualize and precise is a dance of massive proportions, a dense crowded _________ performed in circular groups perhaps five or six hundred individuals moving in time to the pulsations of the music some swaying gently and others aggressively stumping their feet. A number of women in the group begin chanting. This scene could be Africa, in fact it is 19th century in New Orleans scattered first handed...
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...The cerebral cortex selforganises as we engage with different musical activities, skills in these areas may then transfer to other activities if the processes involved are similar. Some skills transfer automatically without our conscious awareness, others require reflection on how they might be utilised in a new situation. Perceptual, language and literacy skills Speech and music have a number of shared processing systems. Musical experiences which enhance processing can therefore impact on the perception of language which in turn impacts on learning to read. Active engagement with music sharpens the brain’s early encoding of linguistic sound. Eight year old children with just 8 weeks of musical training showed improvement in perceptual cognition compared with controls. Speech makes extensive use of structural auditory patterns based on timbre differences between phonemes. Musical training develops skills which enhance perception of these patterns. This is critical in developing phonological awareness which in turn contributes to learning to read successfully. Speech processing requires similar processing to melodic contour. Eight year old children with musical training outperformed controls on tests of music and language. Learning to discriminate differences between tonal and rhythmic patterns and to associate these with visual symbols seems to transfer to improved phonemic awareness. Learning to play an instrument enhances the ability to remember words through enlargement of...
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...CARAGA STATE UNIVERSITY AMPAYON, BUTUAN CITY Importance of Music in Early Education Submitted to: Mrs. Flordelez U. Saspa Instructor Submitted by: Campos,Cristine Q. Nakila,Phoebe kates Quimay,Maria Salome Bagsarsa,Marlyn Balagon,Jessa Abanil,Bliss Lubaino,Josephine Gamolo,Junric Day-om,Richard Hijada,Edgar March 2013 ...
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...people but change their hearts in the process and help people endure positive out takes on life. Gospel music has a long rich tradition with great contributors such as Thomas Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Kirk Franklin. Things such as gospel music workshops and conventions exist today to educate individuals on this peculiar style of music. Recently, I held a gospel music workshop and many things were involved in putting it together. The following paper will discuss my research on the evolution of gospel music and elaborate more on why I decided to do a gospel music workshop. African American gospel music has been implemented with secular and non-African American elements. This has caused many individuals to wonder “what is gospel music?” This musical phenomenon has moved beyond the walls of the “black church” and includes many aspects (Wise 1). Gospel music can be defined from a cultural, spiritual, or musical perspective. There are underlying theological and spiritual principles Gospel music was a sacred folk music that originated out of slave songs, field hollers, Baptist lining hymns, and Negro spirituals and standard Protest hymns and many composed songs. The Center for Black Music Research in Chicago, IL classifies gospel music as African-American Protestant vocal music that...
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...Country: Germany/England See Here the Conqu'ring Hero Comes is one of Handel's most popular pieces. Three minutes and three seconds (3:03) long, it is a movement within a longer composition entitled Judas Maccabaeus written for an ensemble (group) of musicians. If you think of Judas Maccabaeus as a book, then See Here the Conq'ring Hero Comes acts as a chapter in that book. A movement may be enjoyed by itself; however, like a chapter in a book, it also fits into the structure of a larger composition. While you listen to this piece, ask yourself questions such as: what do you hear in this selection? In what way does this piece demonstrate unity and variety? Does listening to this music have any emotional or physical effect on you? Musical Ideas Now that you have listened to the entire piece, let's look at the structure of the work broken down into smaller sections. In this movement, there are two main...
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