• Research
• Papers
• Inspiration
• Blog
• Links & Contact

From "Chamber Tots in the Community" A Research Report
Dr Susan Young | Dr Victoria Rowe University of Exeter

"To have evidence of positive impact and the wider benefits of music is highly attractive to arts and music organisations because it may offer the muscle of convincing arguments for advocacy and promotion. For arts organisations operating relatively independently and dependent on short-term funding grants, to have evidence of positive effectiveness of their work is clearly advantageous. But this too is a short-term option. To reinforce music’s non-music benefits perpetuates a situation in which music is devalued. The alternative is to take on the more difficult task of arguing consistently for music’s equal status as a discipline with benefits that are undoubtedly to be gained but in ‘softer’ areas of humanitarian, emotional, creative and aesthetic ideals; ideals which carry less clout in the current political/education climate.
What complicates the picture further is that there is a plethora of studies that have explored aspects of music’s effect on non-musical aspects and arrived at convincing findings. It can be difficult to resist the pull of what seem to be easy-win arguments to support more music for more children. Many have been carried out in carefully controlled conditions and with rigorous attention to procedure but unfortunately, many have also been carried out with less than rigorous procedures. Indeed, many do demonstrate improved skills in performing non-musical tasks as a consequence of certain forms of musical training and experience. Collating, picking through and sorting out the grain from the chaff in these studies is a long-winded, painstaking and skilful process. Fortunately much of this has been done by scholars such as Schellenberg (2004, 2006) who has written some clear-headed and highly valuable overviews of existing research. This review leans heavily on his analyses.
In sorting wheat from chaff, the first task is to find studies that have focussed on young children. By far the majority of studies involve adults and older children and findings cannot be automatically assumed to transfer to younger children. Indeed, this applies to the original Mozart study, carried out with adults, which has fuelled some of the erroneous and exaggerated claims for music’s extra-musical benefits, named the ‘Mozart Effect’ (Rauscher, 2002). It is now widely accepted that the so-called Mozart effect was due to a temporary higher state of alertness and concentration as a result of listening to music [in contrast to white noise as the control group participants listened to] rather than any direct effect of the music. [...]
In conclusion, there are some very small findings from reliable studies that might relate to preschool children that suggest that certain forms of musical activity can result in wider, cognitive gains. The cognitive gains were assessable after consistent programmes of regular input, usually around a year, in which musical skills were a prominent component. The CT Programme, like many similar, is of shorter duration. It focuses on communal song-singing, participatory musical experiences involving live chamber music performances and creative music-making and although children’s formal musical skills are likely to
increase, this is not the primary focus. Moreover, and most importantly, the intrinsic benefits of music tend to be overlooked – the ‘softer’ gains mentioned earlier of humanitarian, aesthetic, imaginative and emotional qualities – that are arguably central to a quality education that seeks to educate well-rounded, independently and creatively minded individuals."

**********************************************************************************

At the heart of every life form there is rhythm.
Movement, flow, change, renewal
and repetition are based in rhythm.
Only in rhythm we can experience time.
Without vibration, without oscillation,
There is stasis, there is nothing.
Stability and solidity are illusions.
Everything oscillates and vibrates.
From the bridge of steel and concrete to the
energy shells around an atom.
We recognise and experience
our world through rhythms
even colours oscillate at different frequencies.
Everything vibrates, everything
“speaks” a universe of sound.

Dame Evelyn Glennie

 

 

Sir Ken Robinson http://sirkenrobinson.com