Music, the Long-Term Help

      We've all experienced the irritatingly complicated and misunderstood conversations held in noisy restaurants and crowded bars at one point or another. The auditory barrage is too much for many people's perception. However, according to research at the Rotman Research Institute, it has been shown that those who have had musical instruction, whether ceasing at an early age or still an ongoing practice, have a greater ability to distinguish tone and timbre and thus pick out voices in the din of a crowded room. An article by Dr. Perri Klass, "Early Music Lessons Have Long Time Benefits," explains the lifelong benefits of learning music at an early age. Had Gary Marcus, author of Guitar Zero, known of these benefits sooner, he might have not waited until middle age to pursue a musical career.

Joyce Hesselberth

           Skills in language and music are acquired expeditiously in young children and are perfected through consistent practice. Marcus explains in his novel that Asian children are able to distinguish the letters r and l of the English alphabet more readily than their adult counterparts. The reason children are able to grasp linguistic or musical ability much more readily than a grownup is due to the neural connections within the brain. When young, many neural synapses and interactions are just beginning to grow and connect with the influence of the activities of the child. As he or she learns a new task, such as playing a major scale on the piano, the brain makes neural connections coordinating with the task. In adults, the neural wiring is already set and must be rewired when dealing with a new skill, a process that takes much longer.

          Dr. Klass is well aware of a child's ability to quickly learn a musical skill, but he also explains that early acquired musical skills not only affect the child then, but have lasting effects for most of the child's life! (He makes sure to note that this is not to be misconstrued for the "Mozart effect." Listening to classical music will not improve your cognitive ability or your cell biology test score. Sorry pre-med kids). Klass also cites the important relationship between memory and language skills and playing a musical instrument. Marcus also explored the close ties between language and music, though acknowledged that it is difficult to discern which came first, the song or the sentence. In the brain, both music and speech utilized the same areas of the brain. Therefore, it can be no surprise that practice of a musical instrument or musical training will strengthen a person’s linguistic skills.

         Gary Marcus reiterates that it takes a combination of talent and practice and an overall desire to become proficient in music. Similarly, Dr. Klass explains that in order to achieve the long lasting benefits from musical studies, a person must have a desire to learn and give full attention to the instrument they are playing. A parent cannot simply force their child to play the trumpet and expect them to have a profound knack for foreign language and literary skill. This goes for all you future over-bearing, controlling parents! Let your child develop a pure interest.

       What I found most interesting in the whole of the article was the finding that a musician's hearing ability decreases at the same rate as a person without any musical experience. However, a person who has had musical training can pick out tones and discern pitches that the untrained person can't. The reason behind this is that hearing a sound deals with the ear's ability to detect it; the ability to pick out pitch differences in sound waves deals with the brain!

        There is no end to the exploration of music and its effects on the brain. Nor is there a finite list of benefits music provides us. Music’s complex connections with language and memory can be explained multiple ways. It all depends on how a scientist wishes to explore the connections.
    

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Sources:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/early-music-lessons-have-longtime-benefits/

http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/documents/KrausChandrasekeran_NRN10.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21910546
Marcus, Gary F. Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning. New York:    Penguin, 2012. Print.