More brain on the brain

This I found as I was poking around on Daniel Pink's website.

Why Study Music?

I have a son who is in a very "Left Brain" environment! Ben's a sophomore at Michigan Tech studying mechanical engineering. He does keep his right brain involved! He plays his viola with the Keweenaw Symphony.

• A 2000 Georgia Tech study indicates that a student who participates in at least one college elective music course is 4.5 times more likely to stay in college than the general student population.
  – Dr. Denise C. Gardner, Effects of Music Courses on Retention, Georgia Tech, 2000
  
• The part of the brain responsible for planning, foresight, and coordination is substantially larger for instrumental musicians than for the general public.
  – “Music On the Mind,” Newsweek, July 24, 2000
  
• A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reports that music training - specifically piano instruction - is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science.
  – Dr. Frances Rauscher and Dr. Gordon Shaw, Neurological Research, University of California at Irvine, February, 1997
  
• Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medial school applicants. He found that sixty- six percent (66%) of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. Forty-four percent (44%) of biochemistry majors were admitted.
  – “The Case for Music in the Schools,” Phi Delta Kappan, 1994
  
• College students majoring in music achieve scores higher than students of all other majors on college reading exams.
  – Carl Hartman, “Arts May Improve Students’ Grades,” The Associated Press, October, 1999
  
• Music students demonstrate less test anxiety and performance anxiety than students who do not study music.
  – “College-Age Musicians Emotionally Healthier than Non-Musician Counterparts,” Houston Chronicle, 1998
  
• On the 1999 SAT, music students continued to outperform their non-arts peers, scoring 61 points higher on the verbal portion and 42 points higher on the math portion of the exam.
  – Steven M. Demorest and Steven J. Morrison, “Does Music Make You Smarter?,” Music Educators Journal, September, 2000
  
• Researchers at the University of Muenster in Germany have discovered that music lessons in childhood actually enlarge parts of the brain. An area used to analyze the pitch of a musical note is enlarged 25% in musicians compared to people who have never played an instrument. The earlier the musicians were when they started musical training, the bigger this area of the brain appears to be.
  – Pantev et al., Nature, April 23, 1998
  
• Research shows when a child listens to classical music the right hemisphere of the brain is activated, but when a child studies a musical instrument both left and right hemispheres of the brain “light up.” Significantly, the areas that become activated are the same areas that are involved in analytical and mathematical thinking.
  – Dee Dickinson, “Music and the Mind,” New Horizons for Learning, 1993
  
• The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania School District analyzed its 1997 dropout rate in terms of students’ musical experience. Students with no ensemble performance experience had a dropout rate of 7.4 percent. Students with one to two years of ensemble experience had a dropout rate of 1 percent, and those with three or more years of performance experience had a dropout rate of 0.0 percent.
  – Eleanor Chute, “Music and Art Lessons Do More Than Complement Three R’s,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 13, 1998

These quotes I found here at UAH's Music auditions webpage. It's this article: Why Study Music? by Dr. Don Bowyer and the whole page is fun to read.

A whole new education.....

Yesterday I attended a talk given by author Daniel Pink titled "A Whole New Education" which was based on his book, "A Whole New Mind".

1. The left brain is very important but the right brain is the new #1 of equals.
2.The continuted left brained dominance of education is the legislature's fault. (not the students, not the parents, not the teachers, not the principals, not the superintendants...)

I'm wrestling with the lack of momentum of his ideas. He book was published in 2005 and here we are listening to him say the SAME things. There was nothing new. This is 2008 and things are moving so fast in this day and age! Everything is moving so fast except...education.

What is the institution of education to do, exactly? We must still maintain an excellence in left brained knowing. The SAT's and flow charts continue to be important--we'd sink with the right brain that lets go of the left brain. So do we expect the school day to get longer? Add art and music to the 4 year requirements of highschoolers who already are having to be at school for classes before "first hour"?

Here's MY theory: trust students to develop left brains in a right brain environment.

A friend of mine who is taking violin Suzuki style with her daughter (that means mom gets to learn right along side--actually playing violins with her daughter). She described a leap of (FAITH) brain activity that she experienced. The teacher gave them a new piece to work on and with much concentration of violin position, finger placement, bow placement and direction, listening for intonation, etc. she started to master the music. Later mom picked up her violin again and it seemed that she had gone backwards in the mastery but the execution was feeling different....with less focus on each separate detail. After a couple more repetitions she knew the understanding of everything it takes to play the music had shifted and she could play with out "thinking". She has given the execution over to muscle memory. This is where I believe the music can now live in the right hemisphere.

Last week I was eavesdropping on my daughter, Claire, while she was teaching a violin lesson. Her student was a junior high school student and they were working on musicality and tone. Claire was using words like weight, speed, and division. Sounds like a physics lesson or geometry maybe. There were angles, perpendicular and parallel lines, but no numbers, formulas, or symbols. They were working on bow technique and when they added it up the right answer was obvious...beauty.

How do we assess that? ......there you go again, dipping back into believing the left brain is the end all.

Musically yours,
Yvette
PS if, in paragraph that begins: MY theory, the word "trust" sends you into a nosedive then we need to sit down and talk. Invite me for coffee!

Happy Birthday J.S.Bach

Toccata e Fuga BWV 565-Karl Richter
My most advanced class of Kindermusik Young Child is studying about the largest of the instruments: The ORGAN. Here's a video clip of on in action playing a very famous piece of music for organ by J.S. Bach. (Who's birthday was 3/21) I hope you enjoy watching these fast fingers on the many keyboards! Watch closely and they will show you how he plays the very low notes with his feet! When this one is done please go to the very next post for a different listening experience.

Toccata and Fugue in D minor

Happy Birthday J.S.Bach

Toccata e Fuga BWV 565-Karl Richter

My Kindermusik Young Child Level 4 class has been listening to the largest of the instruments: the ORGAN. Here is a video clip of an amazingly huge organ. When you watch you can see them pull out the "stops" (the nobs that change the timbre of the organ) and you can even see the organist play a huge keyboard with his feet!

After listening and watching, go to the next posting here below and listen again for a very different experience of Bach's music.

Happy Birthday to J.S.Bach

Toccata e Fuga BWV 565-Karl Richter

My top level Kindermusik students have been listening to music played on the largest of all the instruments....the ORGAN. Since to day is Bach's birthday I thought I would direct everyone to listen to the music of this mathematical genius! You may or may not be a fan of church organ music but if you would allow yourself a moment of musical immersion try this experiment. After listening to this video clip continue down and listen to the one on the next post and leave a comment to me on how the experiences differ. I'm very curious to know.

(Happy Easter Season you all.)

Happy Birthday to J.S.Bach

Toccata e Fuga BWV 565-Karl Richter

My top level Kindermusik students have been listening to music played on the largest of all the instruments....the ORGAN. Since to day is Bach's birthday I thought I would direct everyone to listen to the music of this mathematical genius! You may or may not be a fan of church organ music but if you would allow yourself a moment of musical immersion try this experiment. After listening to this video clip continue down and listen to the one on the next post and leave a comment to me on how the experiences differ. I'm very curious to know.

(Happy Easter Season you all.)

JS Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor

This is the one for the visual learners. It will help direct you to a purposeful listening experience where you may be more likely to notice the organ's different timbers, layering of sounds, short and long sounds, thin and thick textures (many melodies together or just one melody line). The experience may also help you to appreciate Bach's amazing genius in creating music that is so complex and mathematical and yet an eternal work of art.

I hope you enjoy it. As Anne listened I heard her say "wow" a couple of times and even chuckle!

Peace,
Yvette

Happy Birthday to J.S.Bach

Toccata e Fuga BWV 565-Karl Richter

My top level Kindermusik students have been listening to music played on the largest of all the instruments....the ORGAN. Since to day is Bach's birthday I thought I would direct everyone to listen to the music of this mathematical genius! You may or may not be a fan of church organ music but if you would allow yourself a moment of musical immersion try this experiment. After listening to this video clip continue down and listen to the one on the next post and leave a comment to me on how the experiences differ. I'm very curious to know.

(Happy Easter Season you all.)

Happy Birthday JS BACH

Bach-Toccata e Fuga BWV 565-Karl Richter

My most advanced class of Kindermusik Young Child is studying about the largest of the instruments: The ORGAN. Here's a video clip of on in action playing a very famous piece of music for organ by J.S. Bach. (I'm still celebrating his birthday: 3/21/1685) I hope you enjoy watching these fast fingers on the many keyboards! Watch closely and they will show you how he plays the very low notes with his feet! Can you see the "fipples" on the pipes?

When this one is done please go to the very next post for a different listening experience.

What did you hear?

You may or may not be a fan of church organ music but do a little experiment with me. Listen to the same music as above but this time watch this interesting visual display. It will illuminate aspects of Bach's mathematical genius that you might have missed in the first video. I think you will be amazed to notice how the many layers of melodies work together, different timbers of the organ, staccato and legato, and patterns that tie it all together.

Toccata and Fugue

As Anne watched and listened I heard her say "Oooooooo!" a couple times and even chuckle a couple times.

Peace,
Oh, and have a merry, white Easter!
Yvette

Oh, Well You Walk and you walk and you walk and you STOP!

Check out the inhibitory control of these people! How fun!

Practicing inhibitory control is a big part of a toddler's job description....and they love it. The more joyful opportunities a child has to playfully practice this the more body control they will develop. Stopping on a dime from jumping or running is very challenging. I think my little students in my Kindermusik Our Time classes are showing real growth in this area!

Yvette

Family Concert Sunday March 16th--come early!

Holland Symphony Orchestra Presents

Family Concert - Musical Stories

Sunday, March 16, 2008 3:00pm

Zeeland East High School

2008 Norbert Mueller Concerto Competition Winner - Audrey Rink

Holland Area Youth Orchestra

Visual Artist - Cynthia Hagedorn

All Students through college: FREE*Adults $17, Seniors $14

Pre-concert Children's Activities: 2:00 to 2:45

(Petting Zoo, Conductor's Station, Musical Game, Nametags, Art Project)

This year's Family Concert begins with the story of "Peter and the Wolf" narrated by Gary Matthews.

The 2008 Norbert Mueller Concerto Winner, Audrey Rink, soprano, will follow singing "Ave Maria".

The Holland Symphony"s high school youth orchestra will perform with Holland Symphony members to continue the story-telling by playing "Rumanian Dances".

The pictures taken by local Holland photographers from the Sentinel Spots the Symphony project will be shown above the orchestras playing "Pictures at an Exhibition". While the orchestras are playing, Visual Artist, Cynthia Hagedorn, will paint to the music on stage finishing as the concert ends.

Come and bring your whole family to enjoy this special afternoon!*There is an error on the online ticket order form: note that students are FREE and not $5 as indicated on the form. Please request tickets for all students so we do not oversell the available seats. Thank you.

Sign Language Class in the NEWS!

Kindermusik Sign and Sing class (for children 6 months to 3)begins this Thursday March 13 at 3pm.

Did you happen to see Monday's Holland Sentinel? The front page had an article about how sign language helps with language development and building vocabulary.

Thanks to the families who came to the "demo class"!

Better Minds Through Music

If you are bringing your child to Kindermusik maybe you are doing it because it's a fun thing to do together....or even with your friend and her little one. Maybe you are wanting your child to take piano lessons or violin lessons in a couple years so you know Kindermusik will help with musical requirements of keeping a steady beat, having a good ear, and actually reading music. And some of you are discovering more benefits, like this new research from the DANA Foundation that states musical study positively affects a child's cognitive development....and can affect even the babies.

It's an investment that's so worth it.

But hey, we knew that!
Come on in, you're in the right place. New families can join anytime.

Thanks Jim for the tip.

Here you go! More great yodeling!

Have fun listening and playing with your voice.

Yodel till the cows come home!

Yodeling is a "Swiss thing"!!
and this link is a reposting of the 11 year old who was a fantastic yodeler!
And if you want online LESSONS!!! Here you go!