Elora Dash

4/28/15
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
The Language and Skill That Transcends All Others: Music
When I was 7 years old, I took my first piano class. My teacher lived in a little
neighborhood in a little house and she had an old acoustic piano. I learned short little melodies
out of beginners piano books. And every year, we had a small recital in a small church. My
parents forced me to start just like every other kid who was learning an instrument at the young
age of seven. . Although my parents forced me, I am glad they did. What my parents and I might
not have known was all the positive effects learning music can have on a young persons brain.
Learning to read music is like learning a different language. Translating notes to physical spaces
on a piano is a skill that can take years to master. Even after ten years of playing piano, its
difficult for me to sightread. What effects can learning an instrument have on a young students
academic skills and test scores in school? Studies have shown that learning music can improve
emotional sensing skills, IQ, spatial reasoning, and test scores.
The idea of Mozart Makes You Smarter is not necessarily the case, but there is a truth
behind it. A 1993 study showed that college students who listened to a Mozart sonata before
taking a spatial reasoning test did better that student who didnt. Spatial reasoning is defined as
the ability we use to position and orientate ourselves in everyday environments. Spatial
reasoning consists of two main abilities namely spatial visualization ability which is your ability
to call up images in your mind and the ability to reason with these images (qtd. In "Spatial
Reasoning - Fibonicci"). While plugging in your iPod and listening to music may not actually

make you smarter, Ani Patel, associate professor of psychology at Tufts University says theres
now a growing body of work that suggests that actually learning to play a musical instrument
does have impacts on other abilities (qtd. In "How Playing Music Affects The Developing
Brain". Music neuroscience is a relatively new field, taking off in 2000. Research in this field has
implications about the effect of music on developing brains. With this research, music could start
being more strongly implemented into school curriculums. Test scores arent even the most
important part. Learning an instrument can improve skills that arent typically measured in
school, but can have a great effect on a childs success in life.
However, music training at a young age does in fact improve test scores. At the
Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston, every student is enrolled in a music class. Diana
Lam, head of the school, says that this helps students strive in all areas of their life and it has
shown results. Since we started implementing El Sistema, the Venezuelan music program, as
well as project-based learning, our test scores have increased dramatically, she reports (qtd. In
"How Playing Music Affects The Developing Brain". As another example, a study published in
2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University
of Kansas, revealed that children who attended schools with superior music programs scored
about 22% higher in English and 20% higher in math on standardized tests regardless of
socioeconomic disparities (Brown, "The Benefits of Music Education).
This raises the question of what is the mechanism that actually causes this? Nadine
Gaab, a neuropsychologist at Boston Childrens Hospital, and a team of researchers study
childrens brain development are looking for a connection between language development and
musical training. Their research so far shows that musical training and improved executive
functioning are correlated. She hypothesizes that the executive functioning skills have an effect

on a students academic skills. To find out, her team gave musically trained and non-musically
trained students executive functioning tasks while scanning their brains with an MRI machine.
They looked for brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, known to be the area in the brain for
executive functioning. Results showed that children and adults with musical training had better
executive functioning skills in comparison to their peers, and children who learned an instrument
had more activation in the prefrontal cortex than those who didnt (Locker, This Is How Music
Can Change Your Brain). Although this is evidence that musical training can be beneficial for
the brain, it is unknown whether musical training leads to better executive functioning or viceversa. Gaab hypothesizes that the former is more likely.
The question still remains: Why does musical training affect developing brains in this
way? Neuropsychologist Patel has developed a theory that could answer this question that is
called the OPERA hypothesis. It stands for overlap, precision, emotion, repetition, and attention.
Patel explains that That level of precision in processing music... is much higher than the level of
precision used in processing speech. This means that developing our brains musical networks
may very well enhance our ability to process speech. So this idea that music sometimes places
higher demands on the brain, on some of the same shared networks that we use for other
abilities, allows the music to actually enhance those networks, and those abilities benefit (Hicks,
How Playing Music Affects The Developing Brain.
On the other hand, one study showed that music can be distracting while taking a test.
Students often have music playing while theyre driving, while theyre walking to class, and
especially while theyre studying. A study at the University of Nebraska at Omaha showed that
there is no correlation between listening to music and better test scores. Students in a music
appreciation class at a small university, none of which were music majors, were exposed to

classical, popular, and no music while taking a math test. Results showed that the music had no
effect on the math test scores with any type of music or listening style (Manthei, "Effects of
Popular and Classical Background Music on the Math Test Scores of Undergraduate Students).
This studys results support that of two other studies by Wolfe (1983) and LaBach (1960), but it
does not take into account the long term effects of actually learning music. This further disproves
the idea of Mozart Makes You Smarter.
There is plenty of evidence that shows that music can improve many types of skills in
developing brains that lead to improved academic skills, but is this true of every case? A study
from Northwestern University revealed that a child must be engaged in a music class to fully
glean the benefits of it. My parents forced me to take piano lessons, but had I not practiced and
actively tried to learn, I would not have benefitted from taking lessons. Nina Kraus, director of
Northwesterns Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory and a co-author of the study says, Even in a
group of highly motivated students, small variations in music engagement attendance and
class participation predicted the strength of neural processing after music training (qtd. In
This Is How Music Can Change Your Brain). Additionally, students who played an instrument
had more neural processing than students who took a music appreciation class. Kraus says that
making music matters. They found this out by attaching electrode wires to students heads to
measure brain responses. Kraus teamed up with the Harmony Project, a community music
program for students coming from low-income families, to back up the projects success with
scientific research. According to the Harmony Projects website, 93% of Harmony Project
seniors have gone to college, even though there is a 50% dropout rate in their neighborhoods.
The research was published in the Journal of Neuroscience concluding that the students musical
involvement did indeed contribute to these statistics. To keep children interested in music, Kraus

suggests finding the music they like and the teachers that are right for them; Making music
should be something that children enjoy and will want to keep doing for many years! (qtd. In
This Is How Music Can Change Your Brain).
Learning music is similar to learning another language. In fact, it can require more from
your brain than learning a language will. Music has been used to help students learn new
languages by singing. According to the Childrens Music workshop (The Benefits of Music
Education), Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the
part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually
wire the brains circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also
help imprint information on young minds (Brown, The Benefits of Music Education). Music
has been around for 500,000 years while speech and language were only developed 200,000
years ago. Researchers at Oxford University indicate that the use of language in humans stems
from our initial use of music which explains why our music and language neural networks are so
closely related and why children who learn music are better at learning grammar, vocabulary,
and pronunciation in other languages. Finnish children are exposed to music instruction at the
age of seven and are taught new languages starting from the age of nine. The average Finnish
person is fluent in three to five different languages. Even an hour of musical instruction a week
can make a difference (Henriksson-Macaulay, "Are Musicians Better Language Learners?").
Music is a big part of many peoples lives. Whether you listen to it or you learn to play it,
there is significant evidence that it has many positive benefits. The future of music neuroscience
is bright and with more research, music can be implemented into every young childs school
curriculum. Even as adults, its never too late to learn something new. Even a small bit of
musical instruction can impact our cognitive abilities. Although my parents initially had to force

me to attend piano lessons, those first few lessons sparked an interest in my seven-year-old brain
and inspired me to become the musician I am today. I am excited to see where music
neuroscience goes in the future and I hope to be a part of it.

Works Cited

Brown, Laura L. "The Benefits of Music Education. PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
Henriksson-Macaulay, Liisa. "Are Musicians Better Language Learners?" The Guardian. The
Guardian, 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.
Hicks, George. "How Playing Music Affects The Developing Brain." CommonHealth RSS. 90.9
WBUR, 17 July 2014. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
Locker, Melissa. "This Is How Music Can Change Your Brain." Time. Time, 16 Dec. 2014.
Web. 02 Apr. 2015.
Manthei, Mike. "Effects of Popular and Classical Background Music on the Math Test Scores of
Undergraduate Students." Effects of Popular and Classical Background Music on the Math
Test Scores of Undergraduate Students. University of Nebraska at Omaha, n.d. Web. 02
Apr. 2015.
"Spatial Reasoning - Fibonicci." Fibonicci. Fibonicci, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2015.