Scholarly Article

Music: Exercise for the Brain

Music Training Enhances Learning & Memory

A neuroscience researcher specializing in the area of communication and the brain has concluded from her studies that music training is like exercise for the brain. Music improves the brain’s “neuroplasticity” (the ability of the brain to change chemically and physically in response to learning) thereby enhancing processing of speech and language. Music training improves motor skills and visual-relationship skills as well as auditory skills—all elements of learning. Music training actually changes the structure of the brain, especially when introduced at an early age.

Musical training improves:

• working memory capacity
• verbal memory
• vocabulary
• listening skills
• reading skills

Musicians and those with musical training can better differentiate, prioritize, and predict what is important in an environment with background noise (i.e. noisy classrooms, daily life.) Music education could therefore especially benefit children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADD and autism.

Formal studies indicate that the greatest benefit occurs with early music education, before the age of 7, and there is greater benefit with long-term training. Music training benefits all, not just those with musical aptitude.

These findings lead me to question the societal implications of early music education access. Are economically advantaged children who attend private schools or well-funded school districts in wealthier communities that provide music education thereby not only academically but also intellectually advantaged? Or can ethnic cultural differences of music integration in early home life compensate for formal education disadvantages in music education? Something to ponder…

Reference article:

Kraus, N. and Chandrasekaran, B. August 2010. Music training for the development of auditory skills. Nature Reviews/ Neuroscience, Volume 11: pgs. 599-605.