Help me describe why music education is important please

[Michaelangelica]

Help me describe why music education is important please

 

I am trying to work up a submission to local council local state government and federal government why they should invest in Music Education

 

I KNOW it has all sorts of good effects with young children and young adults . But I need to show the social, and psychological, and community benefits of investing in music education

 

I am a bit stumped.

It seems so obvious to me yet I need to convince hard headed politicians to release some purse stings

Can any one help with suggestions and ideas that may convince people with no music background?

 

I would be very greatfull for any ideas or suggestions.

[Tormod]

Maybe this can help?

 

Music Education Facts and Figures

[InfiniteNow]

Children are a lot like plants, and schools are there to help them grow and be more nourished. Forcing children into force fed, rote memorization, non-critical thinking tasks limits their growth in far reaching and fundamental ways.

 

While math and reading and science are incredibly important, the importance of each is trumped by the need for children to experience different things in dynamic and organic ways. Music stimulates all parts of the brain, and it's effects are far reaching, both emotionally and intellectually.

 

Children do not go to school for memorization and grades, they go to school to learn, to become inspired and enriched, and to become ready for the very dynamic world they will each ultimately face as they mature.

 

Music is the water and fertilizer which makes their roots stronger and more able to absorb nutrients. Cancelling the music program is a short sighted and misguided approach to saving money, and does little more than to cut our childrens progress off at the stem.

 

I do hereby submit that Death Metal and Punk Rock be taught to ALL children beginning in kindergarten! :shade:

 

 

[Michaelangelica]

Thankyou with you help with this.

It is along term project that has been bubbling at the back of my mind for some time and I need to convince Career Politicians ( all we have now, the Radical have joined the Greens; the Idealists the Democrats the rest the Marijuana Party) to part with money to help music education.

 

I don't listen to music, go to concerts or play. My father and grandfather played a few instuments

In fact I don't think I like music. But I know it has been very important to the rest of my family and helped a lot with bringing up my kids (No time to get into trouble too busy).:hyper: They really know HOW to listen. The intellectual gymnastics and hoops I saw them go though were astounding. Astounding too that a teacher passes on what he was taught by his /her teacher , who passes on. . ad infinitum

It is the closest think to an "oral" tradition or shaman- craft that I know. I have seen, an been amazed, how the teacher's suggestion of moving a finger or slightly changing a bow stoke can suddenly make the violin sing.

 

However I feel it has become an elitist subject.

I could (then) afford $1,500- $5,000 violins violas etc, music lessons weekly, music camps etc. However I think it has become an elitist, middle class thing. Even a few sheets of music can cost $20-$50. A good bow can cost many, many thousands.

It seems to me that it would be easy to get disadvantaged or "Sensory Deprived" children into studding music IF they could afford it. It could turn a lot of kids lives around.

Local charities help keep kid in pencils and pens but there are "no-frills" -no enrichment activities. Not even enough money for a bus to take a school choir to a competition- even if there was an inspired teacher around to put in the time to make a choir.

 

I remember fondly the first teacher who took me to a live Gilbart and Sullivan show. It changed my life like nothing else ever had. I was simply bowled over by it. I very nearly trained for the stage. But plays, ballet and now Opera ( forceably- a kid studying it!) have been a huge enrichment of my life.

I feel the lack of music like an autistic or Asperger's person might. It is just an empty hole. Music rarely, if ever, moves me.

 

I desperately wanted to learn as a kid by my parents were too dumb , poor or stupid to help. I resent that. I resent sitting home waiting for them to come home to take me to my first guitar lesson (You had to have a parent come on the first night) They never came home.

 

 

I came across this too. I hope the writer is after hearts and minds- and won't mind me re-posting it here.

Let music lead Rudd's revolution

By Stephen Crabbe - posted Friday, 22 February 2008 Sign Up for free e-mail updates!

 

Quality teaching of music in all Australian schools must become a high priority in the education revolution Kevin Rudd promises. If it does not, he will disappoint a great many citizens and condemn the nation's children to a second-rate education.

 

Why is this so? And what is necessary to deliver universal, effective music education?

 

As the Prime Minister stands there at the helm and Julia Gillard formulates her education policy, the answers are right there under their noses. And the two previous Ministers for Education, now Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, would do well to remind them of this.

National review of music education in schools

 

In 2004-05 the then Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson, initiated the National Review of Music Education in Schools. It attracted about 6,000 submissions - an unprecedented response to a government enquiry. There was obviously a lot of passion among the public about giving all school students access to quality music teaching.

 

The Government funded a report by Professor Margaret Seares based on the findings of the Review. In her introduction she wrote: "Raising the quality and status of music education will have a positive impact on the breadth and depth of aesthetic, cognitive, social and experiential learning for all Australian students and, ultimately, for our society at large."

 

The broad thrust of the report was summarised thus:

 

* music education is valuable and essential for all Australian school students;

* students miss out on effective music education;

* high priority action is needed in a number of particular areas;

* quality teaching is the key;

* effective teacher education is essential;

* the partners in effective music education need to take leadership and action roles; and

* raising the status of music in schools will improve the quality of music in schools.

 

For substantial reform along these lines to occur, Seares pointed out, required "collaborative action and a leadership role for the Australian government". The report made 99 recommendations in all.

 

The Seares' Report led to a national summit convention of music educators and organisations. The result was a blueprint for government action.

Coalition support fades

 

Not long after the music summit in 2006 a cabinet reshuffle replaced Nelson with Julie Bishop. She made a couple of very helpful but minor funding announcements and apparently did little more in response to the Seares' Report and the summit's recommendations.

 

Bishop did, however, proclaim (PDF 605KB):

 

The educational success of our children depends on our creating a society that is literate, creative, and imaginative. Music education is an integral part of developing these key skills.

 

This surely must be taken as testimony that music education is essential for all Australian schools.

Quality teaching of music must be in the core curriculum

 

As a musician and long-time music teacher I naturally have a keen interest in the issue. For me, music is real life. After all, evidence suggests that humans were singing and making music before they had language, and there is even a substantial argument that the ability to sing was the foundation for language.

 

But my advocacy for music in schools is based on a solid foundation of not only personal experience but also a growing body of educational research. Consider for example the following.

* Learning music enhances general memory and concentration.

* Children who learn music tend to handle stress more easily.

* Learning music significantly facilitates development in mathematics and English, both oral and written.

* Students who have regular music lessons are inclined to learn foreign languages much more easily.

* Children in a musical program tend to develop superior social skills and to manage their time more effectively.

 

Such findings provide a strong basis for including music in the core curriculum for all schools.

 

Yet most children in Australian schools do not have access to effective music education. A trained music specialist is essential to teach music properly in a school. The Music Council of Australia demonstrated that only 23 per cent of public school students had access to such a specialist, compared with 88 per cent of private school students. The same body also found that at least 74 per cent of the Australian public believes provision of music education should be mandatory in every school. (The figure was 87 per cent when the question was about "learning an instrument".)

Music education excluded from the national curriculum debate

 

So it is clear that music is essential to quality education, that most children aren't getting it, and that the Australian community wants it.

 

Yet the Federal and State governments do not propose to include it in the national curriculum. The four components are to be English, mathematics, science and history.

 

There is nothing surprising about the first three. More unexpected was the readiness to give history a guernsey ahead of all other possibilities. What, we might ask, does history have that makes it more important than music? For the evidence indicates that learning music could underpin students' progress in history as well as English, mathematics, science and much else.

 

In contrast with Australia, in the last couple of years the United Kingdom has taken great strides. Its Music Manifesto aims to ensure that all schoolchildren get involved with music-making.

The education game - a match of mixed doubles

 

Now that the Australian Government is in the hands of the Labor Party, it will be interesting to watch the education game played anew. It will be a peculiar match of mixed doubles. On one side the two former Ministers of Education, Nelson now Opposition Leader, with Bishop as his Deputy and Shadow Minister. On the other side Prime Minister Rudd himself with Julia Gillard as his Deputy and Minister for Education. So far the government pair seems, by its silence, to be relegating music to the margin of the school curriculum at best.

 

Will Nelson continue to champion music education as he did before 2006? Will Bishop's actions reflect her assertion that "music is integral" to our children's educational success?

 

The Opposition could win plenty of electoral support by putting pressure on the government to give high priority to effective music education in Australian schools. The main winners, though, would be the Australian community, particularly the children.

 

Before long Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop should be settled into their new roles on the Opposition benches. Will they then face the music?

Discuss in our Forums

Let music lead Rudd’s revolution - On Line Opinion - 22/2/2008

 

See what other readers are saying about this article!

 

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1 post so far.

 

* Comments

 

1 comment

*

Of course we need music in our class rooms. As we know most of us have trouble carrying a tune in a bucket, but, the opportunity to sing in a group, learn new songs, or types of music is something that should be available to all children.

 

I went to public schools in the US. From grade 4 every child was offered the opportunity to play a musical instrument in either the band or orchestra. We had two full time instrumental teachers. Those that chose to participate were given school instruments and of course there were always a zillion kids wanting to play flute or drums and nobody wanted to play oboe or French horn.

The 2 instrumental teachers worked with the kids giving all group lessons and twice weekly band and orchestra rehearsals.

Once we were in grade 8 through 12 we had daily band or orchestra rehearsals and only occasional sectional sessions as required.

 

At the high school level most kids had their own instruments but there were school instruments available for those that could not buy their own or in the case of large instruments such as drums/tuba/string base, it was not practical to carry to school every day.

 

Our band played at all high school football games including half time performances and pep rallies. Our orchestra was there for high school graduation ceremonies. And of course there always scheduled concerts for the school chorus, band and orchestra. We also marched in local parades (this I hated most).

 

However, these musical experiences were the best times of my childhood education. The musical skills I developed have stayed with me for my lifetime. 50 years on I continue to participate in chamber music. I have met some very interesting and fantastic people through my musical endeavors.

 

I think the Australian school children are missing out on a fantastic lifetime opportunity by not having the ability to learn to play musical instruments as a course of their schooling.

Posted by Bruce, Saturday, 23 February 2008 4:34:57 PM

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks for everyone's help

I have a one page handout- i think- is almost ready.

but today I got this in the email. I frequently ignore it but today. .

Classical Music Program Lifts Children Out of Poverty,good,news,good news,positive,positive-news,good news media, inspiring stories,green news,health news,family news,heroes,pets,celebrities,Inspirational Story, Good News, Inspirational Message, Dail

 

I wonder if the video (Tocur Y Luchar) can be got and if it has subtitles?.

[freeztar]

I wonder if the video (Tocur Y Luchar) can be got and if it has subtitles?.

 

Amazon.com: Tocar y Luchar (To Play and To Fight): Alberto Arvelo,Igor Lanz,Nestor L. Lopez-Duran: Movies & TV http://www.amazon.com/Tocar-y-Luchar-Play-Fight/dp/B000UHAGNO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1209653198&sr=8-1

 

It has English subtitles.

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks friend,

it is all starting to come together I emailed the MENC: The National Association for Music Education

 

They suggested these links

Why Music Education, gives you facts and figures of the benefits of music education.

Why Music Education? 2007

 

Executive Harris Poll, shows that many of these "hard nosed businessmen" did in fact recieve music education as children which they attribute to their success.

http://www.menc.org/documents/legislative/HarrisPollOmnibusResults.pdf

 

This document will give you step by step instructions on how to plan advocacy events.

http://www.menc.org/documents/legislative/planning_music_ed_ad_web.pdf association

and I have now found these

El Sistema: Changing Lives Through Music, Bob Simon On Venezuela's Groundbreaking Musical Education Program - CBS News

 

Tocar Y Luchar - A Documentary by Alberto Arvelo

 

It looks like just what I will need if talking to groups such as Rotary.

BUT

Tocar y Luchar (To Play and To Fight)

DVD ~ Alberto Arvelo

Avg customer review: 5.0 out of 5 stars 8 (8)

Currently unavailable

This item is no longer available.

Can anyone help?

Nudge nudge, wink wink.

[freeztar]

There's one copy available here, but I'm not sure if they ship international.

Amazon.com: Used and New: Tocar y Luchar (To Play and To Fight)

[Michaelangelica]

Stephen Crabbe is a teacher, writer, musician and practising member of the Anglican Church. He has had many years of active involvement in community and political issues.

Stephen Crabbe was the author of the above post (4). He got very little comment on The Forum where he posted it.

I have discovered a couple of his older posts that are interesting too

EG

Giving boys a voice

By Stephen Crabbe - posted Friday, 29 April 2005

Our culture discourages males in particular from singing. Women in general will sing at a party more readily than the men. Mothers will sing with their children far more often than fathers do. In most community choirs it is extremely difficult to recruit enough tenors and basses. The taboo against male singing is apparent even among primary school children.

 

Once, hoping to inspire some primary-school kids with no experience of excellent singing by unchanged voices, I played a CD recording of one of my former boy-treble choristers. I presented the performance without revealing anything about the singer, and they seemed impressed. But when I mentioned the singer’s name, many boys snickered. “You mean that’s a boy?” they sneered. “He sounds like a girl!”

 

Like other singing teachers I’ve encountered this reaction often. Many, perhaps most, boys are afraid of sounding like girls, even if they secretly love to sing. They may therefore sing half-heartedly at best, or only in an artificially low pitch which is unhealthy for the vocal cords. Quite a few refuse to sing at all.

 

Many of those boys who do sing well and with enjoyment in childhood stop completely when they come to the difficult age of the voice-change. While girls may find a small vocal change in adolescence it is not anything like the challenge facing boys.

 

A healthier, happier and more meaningful Australia would be the result if we were to set about growing a singing culture.

Giving boys a voice - On Line Opinion - 29/4/2005

 

There is abundant evidence that individuals tend to prefer one perceptual modality or another, and that this needs serious consideration in educational planning.

Visual types prefer pictures, the written word, and the teacher’s demonstrations; aural types would rather listen to a lecture, discuss with a group or even talk themselves; tactile and other types would choose other activities. Despite the findings of researchers, sensory preference is still much ignored in most education programs.

 

Teachers in the staffroom shrug wearily over the poor listening skills of their students. The crammed daily timetable gives little hope of inserting regular sequential lessons in effective use of voice and ear.

Yet even children whose preferred sensory modality is auditory would benefit from giving oral language the same status as written language throughout their schooling. The long-standing neglect of good musical education should also be corrected.

And in the wider community we should be promoting discussion circles, public speaking and debating, community music concerts. Perhaps people should be encouraged to talk to themselves aloud – and respond.

I’m sure that for some it would be far more effective than trying to sort out their ideas by scribbling on paper in silence.

An emphasis on hearing skills would give our children a better education - On Line Opinion - 3/3/2004

 

Giving our culture a new voice - how singing makes life a bit nicer

Giving our culture a new voice - how singing makes life a bit nicer - On Line Opinion - 22/1/2004

[Michaelangelica]

Stephen Crabbe is a teacher, writer, musician and practising member of the Anglican Church. He has had many years of active involvement in community and political issues.

Stephen Crabbe was the author of the above post (4). He got very little comment on The Forum where he posted it.

I have discovered a couple of his older posts that are interesting too

EG

Giving boys a voice

By Stephen Crabbe - posted Friday, 29 April 2005

Our culture discourages males in particular from singing. Women in general will sing at a party more readily than the men. Mothers will sing with their children far more often than fathers do. In most community choirs it is extremely difficult to recruit enough tenors and basses. The taboo against male singing is apparent even among primary school children.

 

Once, hoping to inspire some primary-school kids with no experience of excellent singing by unchanged voices, I played a CD recording of one of my former boy-treble choristers. I presented the performance without revealing anything about the singer, and they seemed impressed. But when I mentioned the singer’s name, many boys snickered. “You mean that’s a boy?” they sneered. “He sounds like a girl!”

 

Like other singing teachers I’ve encountered this reaction often. Many, perhaps most, boys are afraid of sounding like girls, even if they secretly love to sing. They may therefore sing half-heartedly at best, or only in an artificially low pitch which is unhealthy for the vocal cords. Quite a few refuse to sing at all.

 

Many of those boys who do sing well and with enjoyment in childhood stop completely when they come to the difficult age of the voice-change. While girls may find a small vocal change in adolescence it is not anything like the challenge facing boys.

 

A healthier, happier and more meaningful Australia would be the result if we were to set about growing a singing culture.

Giving boys a voice - On Line Opinion - 29/4/2005

 

There is abundant evidence that individuals tend to prefer one perceptual modality or another, and that this needs serious consideration in educational planning.

Visual types prefer pictures, the written word, and the teacher’s demonstrations; aural types would rather listen to a lecture, discuss with a group or even talk themselves; tactile and other types would choose other activities. Despite the findings of researchers, sensory preference is still much ignored in most education programs.

 

Teachers in the staffroom shrug wearily over the poor listening skills of their students. The crammed daily timetable gives little hope of inserting regular sequential lessons in effective use of voice and ear.

Yet even children whose preferred sensory modality is auditory would benefit from giving oral language the same status as written language throughout their schooling. The long-standing neglect of good musical education should also be corrected.

And in the wider community we should be promoting discussion circles, public speaking and debating, community music concerts. Perhaps people should be encouraged to talk to themselves aloud – and respond.

I’m sure that for some it would be far more effective than trying to sort out their ideas by scribbling on paper in silence.

An emphasis on hearing skills would give our children a better education - On Line Opinion - 3/3/2004

 

Giving our culture a new voice - how singing makes life a bit nicer

Giving our culture a new voice - how singing makes life a bit nicer - On Line Opinion - 22/1/2004

 

Another link with some interesting stories about kids.

Music in Schools, Changing Lives

[Michaelangelica]

Discovery

Fine-Tuned Brains

 

New research shows how musical training enhances an individual's ability to recognize emotion in sound

Now, for the first time, her research provides biological evidence that musical training enhances an individual's ability to recognize emotion in sound.

 

Kraus received a two-year, National Science Foundation research grant that funded pioneering work in neurobiology. Specifically, the purpose of the study is to examine how music training influences sensory processes that are necessary for successful communication and learning.

. . .

Kraus' work reveals that brain changes involved in playing a musical instrument enhance one's ability to detect subtle emotional cues in conversation.

. . .

The study found that the more years of musical training and the earlier the age in which the musical studies began, the more enhanced their nervous systems were to process emotion in sound. Historically, it has been thought that the auditory brainstem is fixed, that information flows through without changing any of the circuits. Kraus' research shows that it is not only trainable, but more malleable than previously thought.

. . .

Use with autism and language disorder therapy

 

The acoustic sounds that musicians skillfully process are the very same ones that children with autism and dyslexia have difficulty translating.

 

Since Kraus' research has shown that musical training can change the auditory system and enhance verbal skills, it would not be a stretch to say that children with language processing disorders and impaired emotional perception could benefit from playing an instrument.

 

"There are parts of the brain that are specialized for music and other parts that are specialized for speech, but the brainstem is a common pathway for both signals. Since our work indicates a common pathway for music, language and emotional sounds, training in music could conceivably help children with language disorders," Kraus said.

. . .

it is really practicing that makes the difference. Musical training not only teaches you to play an instrument, it refines how your brain processes sound.

 

"Engaging in high-level cognitive processes like music enhances your sensory system," said Kraus. "We hope to see increased resources for music education in schools."

nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) Discoveries - Fine-Tuned Brains - US National Science Foundation (NSF)

[Michaelangelica]

Discovery

Fine-Tuned Brains

 

New research shows how musical training enhances an individual's ability to recognize emotion in sound

Now, for the first time, her research provides biological evidence that musical training enhances an individual's ability to recognize emotion in sound.

Kraus received a two-year, National Science Foundation research grant that funded pioneering work in neurobiology. Specifically, the purpose of the study is to examine how music training influences sensory processes that are necessary for successful communication and learning.

. . .

Kraus' work reveals that brain changes involved in playing a musical instrument enhance one's ability to detect subtle emotional cues in conversation.

. . .

The study found that the more years of musical training and the earlier the age in which the musical studies began, the more enhanced their nervous systems were to process emotion in sound.

Historically, it has been thought that the auditory brainstem is fixed, that information flows through without changing any of the circuits. Kraus' research shows that it is not only trainable, but more malleable than previously thought.

. . .

Use with autism and language disorder therapy

 

The acoustic sounds that musicians skilfully process are the very same ones that children with autism and dyslexia have difficulty translating.

 

Since Kraus' research has shown that musical training can change the auditory system and enhance verbal skills, it would not be a stretch to say that children with language processing disorders and impaired emotional perception could benefit from playing an instrument.

 

"There are parts of the brain that are specialised for music and other parts that are specialized for speech, but the brain-stem is a common pathway for both signals. Since our work indicates a common pathway for music, language and emotional sounds, training in music could conceivably help children with language disorders," Kraus said.

. . .

it is really practicing that makes the difference. Musical training not only teaches you to play an instrument, it refines how your brain processes sound.

 

"Engaging in high-level cognitive processes like music enhances your sensory system," said Kraus. "We hope to see increased resources for music education in schools."

nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) Discoveries - Fine-Tuned Brains - US National Science Foundation (NSF)

Musicians show enhanced and economic responses intricately connected with processing sound and the communication of emotional states.

 

Credit: Kraus Auditory Neuroscience Lab, Northwestern University

[clapstyx]

I thought that level of question was resolved thousands of years ago and became part of general common sensibility.

 

By being conscious of the full spectrum of concepts of harmony you can link multiples together and the mind past its boundary limit using that methodology by compounding harmony to produce a finer sequence of recipricals. Sort of like elements in the field of chemistry united with the concept of a chain reaction which causes sequential realisations of a higher standing order relative to the perfection (or perfect pitch level) of the compound. If a society cant think in terms of harmony then its potentiality for creating it diminishes over time. Think of it this way lets say you and I aware of a concept of harmony that is harmonicall true in three different ways and you add a 4th dimension to that this raises the potentiality of the compound and takes my thinking to another level so then allowing me the capability to think with higher mind and understand the dimensionality and scale of your thinking..so then (if I have the capacity) I can add an extra concept that is harmony of itself and has a connection of due deference to the pre existing concepts of harmony and their arrangement..like dropping a new species into a symbiotic equation..it cant reach the full universalisation of consciousness until it has multiple harmonic connections in place at a symbiotic level and then it becomes (theoretically) more aware over time until it shares the same totality of consciousness as every other thing that pre existed in a state of total symbiotic harmony. I dont believe its possible to reach a state of full symbiotic level consciousness without first understanding the base concept of compound harmony and to do that its neccessary to understand various different kinds of harmony to create the follow on potentiality of understanding. Then, as I understand it anyway, there is the challenge to give greater harmonic potentiality to the "universe" as sort of the souls payback to take all other consciousness to a higher level and hold equivalency by being equal to or greater than the mass balance in terms of the full consciousness of every dimensionality of harmony and the extra compound permutations that become possible by adding one extra harmonic level concept and the fact that consciousness goes one extra level greater when you do and that causes a permutational sequence....perhaps.

 

Thats probably too advanced for a school administrator..so just cut it off where you think it starts to get too extreme relative to their mindscale and pursued standard of ultimate virtue. :)

 

Proper harmony finishes on a higher positive and/ or truth. Thats reason enough.

[Michaelangelica]

I think my proposed local music development fund should be pitched at social scientists, social change agents such as social and welfare workers, doctors, youth workers, teachers, and psychologists. Clubs such as Rotary, Smith family and other charities aimed at promoting social equity. The Labor Party was built on the principle of social equity.

I think those previously or presently involved in the arts & music on the coast have too much baggage are too busy or do not see the broader picture. The broader picture being music education has the power to literally change minds and societies in positive, powerful and meaningful ways

http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert//0809-musicandthebrain.html

The Library of Congress » Performing Arts

Concerts from the Library of Congress, 2008-2009

home » music and the brain

2008-2009 schedule | tickets | map/seating chart | film series | folklife concerts | news

MUSIC and the BRAIN

 

Music and the Brain View and subscribe to Podcasts for this series

 

Presented by the Library's Music Division and the Science, Technology and Business Division, through the generous support of the Dana Foundation. Project Chair, Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, Psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry, Mood Disorders Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

 

“In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain.”

-- GEORGE SZELL

 

October 2008 opens a thought-provoking two-year cycle of lectures and special presentations at the Library of Congress that highlights an explosion of new research on music and the brain. Kay Redfield Jamison convenes scientists and scholars, composers, performers, theorists, physicians, psychologists, and other experts, under the auspices of the Library’s Music Division and Science, Technology and Business Division. All events in the series are free and open to the public. No tickets are required, but seating is limited, and early arrival is advised.

 

Ten compelling programs in the 2008-9 season feature a diverse lineup of speakers, including neuroscientsts Daniel J. Levitin, Antonio Damasio, Aniruddh D. Patel, and Steven Brown. Science, music and medicine converge in talks exploring a range of topics–the role of music and human evolution, and the universality of music across cultures; how the human brain is designed to perceive, understand, and like music; how the perception of music and the response to it is deeply rooted in human biology; how music conveys meaning and emotion; depression and creativity; and music, the brain, and behavior.

 

"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast"–and myriad other powers as well. Music may heal our minds and hearts, enhance learning and build mental acuity, annoy or frighten us.

 

Music can make us weep, and one scientist proposes that it provides great pleasure as it does so. Today, investigators in a variety of fields including neuroscience, anthropology, and psychology are coming closer to identifying and quantifying how music works on the brain, affects our consciousness, behavior and culture, entertains us, enriches our emotional lives, and communicates in ways we can never quite verbalize.

 

Music and the Brain takes a look at the rapidly expanding field of "neuromusic," new research at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and music. What went on in Charlie Parker’s medial prefrontal cortex as he started soloing on Ornithology? When you coo to your baby, are you stimulating a part of her brain that’s hard-wired for music? Can music bring down governments, or chase away criminals? With fascinating explorations into music’s relationship to human evolution, language and communication, social behavior, culture and education, these are intriguing offerings, slated for webcasts, podcasts and a radio hour.

 

For a complete webcast, check the Library of Congress website two weeks after each Music and the Brain event.

Re the Music and the Brain series, this is all updated material since the brochure was prepared.

 

All events are open to the public. No tickets required.

Pre-Concert Presentations

 

6:15 pm (Whittall Pavilion), concert follows at 8:00pm

 

Collage of images: Pre-Concert LecturersOctober 17 “Homo Musicus: How Music Began” Ellen Dissanayake, University of Washington, author of Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (2000)

View Webcast of Full Lecture

 

The universally-observed interaction between mothers and infants, commonly and even dismissively called "baby talk," is composed of proto-aesthetic, temporally-organized elements that Ellen Dissanayake suggests are the origin of human music. Because infants are born ready to engage in these encounters and to prefer their visual, vocal, and gestural components to any other sight or sound, one could claim that humans are innately prepared to be musical.

 

October 24 “The Brain on Jazz—Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Improvisation” Charles J. Limb, School of Medicine and Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University

Listen to Podcast with Charles Limb

 

Many scientists have examined music cognition--how the brain permits music to be perceived and learned--but few have studied brain activity while music is being spontaneously created, or improvised. Dr. Limb’s recent research with jazz pianists reveals increased brain activity during improvisation in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality. In addition, broad areas of the lateral prefrontal cortex, thought to be linked to self-censoring, were turned off, or deactivated. "Without this type of creativity, humans wouldn’t have advanced as a species," Limb says. "It’s an integral part of who we are."

 

October 30 “Dangerous Music” Jessica Krash, George Washington University and Norman Middleton, Library of Congress Music Division

Listen to Podcast with Jessca Krash

 

Artistic anathemas, musical mayhem, and cultural conundrums such as "the devil's music"- Middleton and Krash explore the psychological and social issues associated with the human tendency toward censorship of musical expression, as well as what has been described as "suicide-by-music" and crimes that have been connected to musical genres.

 

November 7 “The Music of Language and the Language of Music” Aniruddh D. Patel, author of Music, Language and the Brain (2007) and senior fellow, Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, California

Listen to Podcast with Aniruddh Patel

View Webcast of Full Lecture

 

In our everyday lives language and instrumental music are obviously different things. Dr. Patel, Esther J. Burnham Fellow at the Neurosciences Institute and author of "Music, Language, and the Brain" discusses some of the hidden connections between language and instrumental music that are being uncovered by empirical scientific studies.

 

*** CANCELLED (Dec. 5) *** to be rescheduled in 2009

December 5 “Why Do Listeners Enjoy Music That Makes Them Weep?”

David Huron, author of Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation (2006) and head, Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory, Ohio State University

 

Tearing of the eyes, nasal congestion, a constriction in your throat, and erratic breathing -- your doctor would conclude that you are suffering from a severe allergic reaction. But in special circumstances, music can evoke precisely these symptoms. Music-induced weeping represents one of the most powerful and potentially sublime experiences available to human listeners. How does music evoke feelings akin to sadness or grief? And why do people willingly listen to music that may make them cry? Modern neuroscience provides helpful insights into music-induced weeping, how sounds can evoke sadness or grief, and why such sounds might lead to "a good cry."

 

March 5 “From Mode to Emotion in Musical Communication”

Steven Brown, Director, NeuroArts Lab, McMaster University

 

Music employs a number of mechanisms for conveying emotion. Some of them are shared with other modes of expression (speech, gesture) while others are specific to music. The most unique way that music communicates emotion is through the use of contrastive scale types. While Westerners are familiar with the major/minor distinction, the use of contrastive scale types in world musics is universal.

 

Looking at the expression of emotion in both Western and non-Western musics, Brown invokes the theory of Clore and Ortony, who posit three categories of emotions 1) "outcome" emotions related to the outcomes of goal-directed actions (e.g., happiness, sadness); 2) "aesthetic" emotions related to the appraisal of the quality of objects (e.g., like, dislike); and 3) "moral" emotions related to an assessment of the agency of individuals’ actions (e.g., praise, scorn). While representational art-forms like theater or dance can represent all three categories, music is probably most adept at expressing "outcome" emotions, such those that sit along the happy/sad spectrum.

 

March 13 “Halt or I'll Play Vivaldi! Classical Music as Crime Stopper”

Jacqueline Helfgott, Seattle University, author of Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice (2008), and Norman Middleton, Library of Congress Music Division

 

Helfgott and Middleton examine the use of classical music by law enforcement and other cultural institutions as social control, to quell and prevent crime. Their conversation touches on how classical music is viewed in contemporary culture, how it can be a tool for discouraging criminal activity and anti-social behavior, as well as its history as a mind-altering experience.

March 27 “The Mind of the Artist”

Michael Kubovy and Judith Shatin, University of Virginia

 

Debate has long raged about whether and how music expresses meaning beyond its sounding notes. Kubovy and Shatin discuss evidence that music does indeed have a semantic element, and offer examples of how composers embody extra-musical elements in their compositions. Kubovy is a cognitive psychologist who studies visual and auditory perception, and Shatin is a composer who explores similar issues in her music.

 

LECTURE AND BOOKSIGNING

 

Image: Daniel LevitinTuesday, November 18, 2008 at 7:00 pm (Coolidge Auditorium)

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

Listen to Podcast with Daniel Levitan

View Webcast of Full Lecture

 

Daniel Levitin, author of This is Your Brain on Music, will talk about his new book, The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. He will then sign copies of his book, which will be available for sale.

 

Director of McGill University’s Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise, and best-selling author of "This is Your Brain on Music," Dr. Levitin blends cutting-edge scientific findings with his own sometimes hilarious experiences as a former record producer and still-active musician. Earning advance raves from reviewers like Sting and Sir George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, his new book takes readers on a journey of the world through six types of songs-friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge; religion/ritual, and love.

 

SYMPOSIUM

 

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm – Whittall Pavilion

 

Collage of images from Depression and Creativity SymposiumDEPRESSION AND CREATIVITY

Presented in conjunction with “Mendelssohn on the Mall,” a special celebration marking the bicentennial anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn, who died after a severe depression following the death of his sister Fanny, also a musician and an extraordinarily gifted composer.

 

Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, convenes a discussion of the effects of depression on creativity. She is joined by three distinguished colleagues in the fields of neurology and neuropsychiatry: Antonio Damasio, Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology, and Psychology and co-founder and director of the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California; Terence Ketter, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Chief, Bipolar Disorders Clinic, Stanford University; and Peter Whybrow, Director, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California at Los Angeles.

 

“Music and the Brain” is presented by the Music Division and the Science, Technology and Business Division, Library of Congress,in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center; and with the generous support of the Dana Foundation.

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The Library of Congress » Performing Arts

February 12, 2009

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http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert//0809-musicandthebrain.html

[Michaelangelica]

Tocar y Luchar (To Play and To Fight)

DVD ~ Alberto Arvelo

Avg customer review: 5.0 out of 5 stars 8 (8)

Currently unavailable

This item is no longer available.

 

.

I managed to get a copy of this inspiring DVD from Amazon (via a benevolent friend)

Anyone know if the programme still goes? or had any personal experiences with it?

 

This looks promising coming up on Oz TV

SOWETO STRINGS: TWO YEARS IN THE LIFE OF A CLASSICAL MUSIC PROJECT

 

A dedicated and gifted British music teacher helps youngsters in the black South African township of Soweto move from the abject poverty, crime and despair of their environment to hope and joy at her unusual centre for classical music excellence.

 

Sunday 31 May 2009 8.30pm

ABC2 Rating: (G)

Duration: 90 mins

 

More: EnhanceTV*::*Educational*TV...

[Michaelangelica]

This looks like a good reason why music education is important

Singing to soothe drought blues

 

By Chrissy Arthur

 

Posted 9 hours 56 minutes ago

 

 

Efforts are underway to get more rural men singing in community-based choirs, especially in drought-affected regions.

 

Workshops have been held in Barcaldine and Longreach in central-west Queensland this week - as part of a federally-funded program.

 

Colin Slater from Sing Australia says getting people singing can provide an enjoyable distraction to hard times.

 

"It's not easy to get men involved in singing, but when they do become involved in it they become our best advocates," he said.

 

"We've got about 1,200 men in Sing Australia and I'd say a-third of them would be farmers.

 

"They won't just drive from up the street - they'll drive up to 90 kilometres to come to a singing night because they find the fun in it and it's a real mateship thing."

 

Tags: community-and-society, lifestyle-and-leisure, clubs-and-associations, longreach-4730

Singing to soothe drought blues - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Michaelangelica]

Thanks to everyone who has helped. It has made ahuge diffence to my approach.

My music project is just about to see the light of day.

 

In the meantime I though I would post here any useful information I have found so that other music advocates can use it.

Performing Arts

 

THE DEVIL'S MUSIC

 

When the new sound of jazz first spread across America in the early twentieth-century, it left delight and controversy in its wake. The more popular it became, the more the liberating and sensuous music was criticised by everyone and everything from carmaker Henry Ford to publications like the Ladies Home Journal and The New York Times. Yet jazz survived. The Devil's Music examines the evolution of jazz from a radically new and socially unacceptable musical genre to its current status as a great American art form.

 

Saturday 4 July 2009 3.30pm

SBS ONE Rating: (PG, WS, Rpt)

Duration: 60 mins

 

More: EnhanceTV*::*Educational*TV...

 

VIETNAM SYMPHONY

 

In 1965, as the Vietnam War intensified and Hanoi faced the threat of massive U.S. bombing, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music were forced to flee the city for the relative safety of a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers, they built an entire campus underground, creating a maze of hidden tunnels, connecting an auditorium and classrooms. Here, as the war raged around them, they lived, studied and played music for five years. (STUDY GUIDE AVAILABLE)

 

Sunday 5 July 2009 11.00am

SBS ONE Rating: (PG, WS, Rpt)

Duration: 60 mins

 

More: EnhanceTV*::*Educational*TV...

 

Study Guide: EnhanceTV*::*Study*Guides...

 

Foreign Correspondent: Venezuela/USA - Bravo! Encore!

Foreign Correspondent: Venezuela/USA - Bravo! Encore!

In a Venezuelan slum a young girl practices on her clarinet and dreams a big musical dream. On a stage in New York City an 80 year old clarinetist takes his final bow to rapturous applause. The two are worlds apart but joined by the profound, elevating forces of music.

 

This week Foreign Correspondent takes off on an inspirational adventure in music to discover how it's lifting children out of squalor and danger in Latin America and how - in North America - it's lifted audiences to their feet time and time again to applaud a musician who's played with the New York Philharmonic for 60 years.

 

In Caracas, Venezuela where the streets thump with hip hop, Latin rhythms and violent crime, Eric Campbell introduces us to a remarkable project that's brought more than a million kids into the world of classical music. The National Youth Orchestra System is designed to steer kids away from a life of drugs and crime.

 

Genesis da Silva is 13, dedicated to her clarinet, practices five hours a day and dreams of one day playing in the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. Despite her family's poverty, El Sistema allows her to dare to dream of a classical career.

 

The happiness, enjoyment and hope that practice in music brings to the suburbs and poor neighbourhoods undoubtedly it also creates a tremendous barrier against drugs, against violence, and vice, and all that undervalues the existence and that makes it miserable.

Jose Antonio Abreu - project founder.

 

On assignment Campbell saw first-hand how dangerous life is when he was caught up in a shooting and held at gun-point by police.

 

"The beauty of music is a daily antidote for the ugliness around them," Campbell says.

EnhanceTV*::*Educational*TV...

http://www.menc.org/information/advocate/facts.html

FROM

Patriotic Music May Close Minds, Children's Music May Open Them

Patriotic Music May Close Minds, Children's Music May Open Them

Music Thought To Enhance Intelligence, Mental Health And Immune System

Music Thought To Enhance Intelligence, Mental Health And Immune System

Music Reduces Stress In Heart Disease Patients

Music Reduces Stress In Heart Disease Patients

Jog To The Beat: Music Increases Exercise Endurance By 15%

Jog To The Beat: Music Increases Exercise Endurance By 15%

Guitarists' Brains Swing Together (Mar. 18, 2009) — When musicians play along together it isn't just their instruments that are in time -- their brain waves are too.

Guitarists' Brains Swing Together

Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School

Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School

Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills

Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills

It goes on-- lots of research at this site:-

EG

Time Invested In Practicing Pays Off For Young Musicians, Research Shows (Nov. 5, 2008) — A new study has found that children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training -- not only in tests of auditory discrimination and ... > read more

First Evidence That Musical Training Affects Brain Development In Young Children (Sep. 20, 2006) — Researchers have found the first evidence that young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year compared to children who do not ... > read more

Music Training Linked To Enhanced Verbal Skills (Sep. 27, 2007) — Music training, with its pervasive effects on the nervous system's ability to process sight and sound, may be more important for enhancing verbal communication skills than learning phonics, according ... > read more

Are Smart People Drawn To The Arts Or Does Arts Training Make People Smarter? (Mar. 6, 2008) — Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven leading universities across the United States. One of the eight ... > read more

 

If this is not relevant (?) it is very interesting

Paleolithic Bone Flute Discovered: Earliest Musical Tradition Documented In Southwestern Germany

These finds demonstrate the presence of a well-established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonized Europe, more than 35,000 calendar years ago

Paleolithic Bone Flute Discovered: Earliest Musical Tradition Documented In Southwestern Germany

 

Something seems to be happening in Australia

http://www.musicincommunities.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=185