By: Emma Morrison
Does Mozart really make your baby smart? People like Albert Einstein began playing musical instruments at a very young age. Could music really stimulate intelligence or create a genius?
According to a 2015 study by Joyanta Sarkar and Utpal Biswas at Rabindra Bharati University, young children who have been involved with music in any form have a boost in their cognitive abilities. Learning rhythm, pitch, movement, and memorizing sheet music contributes to a child’s developing brain. The brain has over 100 billion neurons. Music helps fortify and improve the neurotransmitters, axons and dendrites in the brain. Music helps us create and make new connections in the brain helping us understand new data at a faster rate.
Rhythm can help a child develop math skills before they learn long division or simple addition and subtraction. When counting bars of music children learn to add quarter notes or half notes. If they learn to count with a metronome it helps them add and subtract subconsciously. When you teach a child to read sheet music their ability to understand words and letters increases. Singing can also help increase a child’s linguistic skills.
Another very important part of music is pitch. Complex music like Mozart always has a very complex and constantly changing pitch dynamic. When a child learns the structure of these songs they are able to understand the natural structures in sound and pick out patterns in everyday life. They also learn to naturally listen and problem solve.
Music takes three learning styles (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) and connects them together. In music you listen to the patterns and understand the motor skills that go along with it. In doing this, a child develops their hand and eye coordination as well as balance.
Children develop much needed social and emotional skills when involved with music groups. It creates a sense of community and belonging for a child. It can also help with associating emotion with something positive and productive.
Photo courtesy of Leverett Piano’s
