The human brain processes sound by involving several brain systems that respond in microseconds. Not only is the ability to process sound important to survival, it is also a critical part of understanding spoken language. When making music, we have to distinguish between notes, follow rhythm patterns, and differentiate the sounds made by different instruments. This is similar to the way we distinguish between letters, follow rhythm patterns in speech, and differentiate the voices of those around us. As such, it has been found that music education benefits the brain by improving language development, which has a profound effect on academic ability. Read on to find out how.
Hearing Amid Noise
In most environments, there will be multiple sounds going on at the same time. This is also the case for ensemble performances in which multiple musical instruments are played at the same time. Learning how to filter out certain sounds to focus on the instrument you want to hear is a skill developed in music education that is relevant in our everyday life. For example, a student in a classroom environment may be distracted by multiple sources of noise, such as the sound of another student sharpening a pencil, other students playing outside the classroom, and birds chirping in the distance. It is crucial for the student to filter out these unimportant sounds and focus on the teacher’s voice to understand what is being taught.
Attention and Memory
The ability to react to auditory information quickly and recall auditory information easily contributes to our learning process and conversational skills. It would be very frustrating to converse with someone if one is unable to catch what is being said and have trouble recalling what was spoken before earlier in the conversation. In a classroom context, students who are trained in reacting to auditory information and recalling auditory information have a bigger advantage in their learning process. Without such skills, a student who is still concentrating on the first sentence of what the teacher is saying would miss the next few sentences, thus affecting their learning ability.
Neural Speech-Sound Processing
Being able to analyze the sounds of speech is important in language development. To speak and read well, one has to first distinguish between phoneme sounds, understand how each word is pronounced, reproduce the sounds, and use the information to read. Music education trains the brain to focus on differences in sounds and accurately process the precise characteristics of each sound.
If you are looking to enroll your child into an award-winning music education program, look no further than Mind Muzic. We have a wide variety of lessons covering different subjects to further develop your child’s brain and make learning fun for them. Contact us today to let us know how we can meet your children’s learning needs with music education.