Songs are a part of everyone’s life. You listen to them on the radio, they make your favorite movies more dramatic and billions of music CDs have been sold in the past year.
I believe music should be a fundamental part of a child’s education. E. Glenn Schellenberg from the University of Toronto, researched and wrote a paper on how “Music Lessons Enhance IQ.”
After experimenting with 144 children, he concluded that the children who took voice and keyboard lessons significantly improved their IQ scores over those who did not.
Schellenberg quotes Huttenlocker (2002): “Music lessons involve long periods of focused attention, daily practice, reading musical notation, memorization of extended musical passages, learning about a variety of musical structures (e.g., intervals, scales, chords, chord progressions), and progressive mastery of technical (i.e., fine-motor) skills and the conventions governing the expression of emotions in performance.
“This combination of experiences could have a positive impact on cognition, particularly during the childhood years when brain development is highly plastic and sensitive to environmental influence.”
There are many opportunities in our area to experience music – from local school performances to professional orchestras and theaters.
They can enjoy Symphony of the Mountains; Paramount Center for the Arts, including its summer concert series, Tunes at Noon; Barter Theatre; and the choirs of the Mountain Empire Children’s Choral Academy.
This holiday season, be sure to make every effort you can to support these wonderful musical programs.
Rachel Grunstra
Bristol, Va.
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