How does music benefit your child? Does music make a difference in the school or medical environment? What are some simple ways that you can add music to every day life?

While the “Mozart Effect” has been debunked by the majority of current research, impressive mounting evidence positively indicates that music, and specifically musical training, has positive effects on almost all areas of child development:

• A Brown University Study in 2006 indicated that music lessons in young children using the Suzuki method increases literacy and memory, as well as enhancing mathematical skills[1]. The Suzuki method, developed in Japan, teaches children as young as two or three how to play Western instruments using only their ears. By comparison, in the West children generally learn how to play instruments by reading music. Find out more from the International Suzuki Association.
• Music gives children freedom in self-expression and imagination and helps children socialize. Groups of children often use music as part of their dramatic play and interaction[2].
• Researchers from the University of Hong Kong discovered school age students learning classical music instruments showed a marked increase in verbal memory[3].
• Music and rhythm games accompanied by movement increase balance and agility. These same games improve a child’s concept of rhythm and the beat.[2]
• Vocal and piano lessons in childhood have been linked to increased long term intellectual ability, possibly because of the memorization and concentration needed[4].
• Music increases a child’s ability to understand the nuances of language[5].
  (See previous Music & Life article “The Secret Language Connection” for more information)

Now that you understand how music helps children develop in a variety of ways, here are a few practical ways to add music to your home or classroom:

1. Add music to every day activities

Click to read the rest…

This month, Tokyo-based company Theta Music launched a new website with a range of online ear training games, sure to be of interest to Easy Ear Training readers. I got a sneak preview of the site and caught up with Steve Myers, one of the founders of Theta music, to ask him a bit about what they’re working on.

Site Overview

First, let’s take a quick look at Theta Music Trainer. The site provides ten (Flash-based) ear training games in four categories:

• Melody – Games based on sequential notes
  (tunes, intervals, etc.)
• Harmony – Games based on simultaneous notes
  (chords, chord sequences, etc.)
• Rhythm – Games based on timing
  (note lengths, rhythm notation, etc.)
• Sound – Games based on sound
  (instruments, mixing, timbre, etc.)

The games are quite easy to get to grips with and cover a good range of difficulties, from beginner level through to very challenging aural exercises! You can try the first few levels of each game for free right now to get a feel for how the games work, and what they teach.

After you’ve played a few games, you can look at your Training and Progress reports which clearly show how you’re getting on with the different training areas (and each game individually).

The later levels of each game are available to subscribers, for a very reasonable monthly fee. You also have the option to sign up for a training course, which then structures which levels you play when, and helps you track your progress better.

Here’s a short video showing a few of the games in action:
Click to read the rest…

Our interval training app for iPhone, RelativePitch recently got a great review in the iPhone App Directory:

(click to enlarge)

The iPhone App Directory is published regularly by Imagine Publishing in the United Kingdom.

Here’s what they had to say about the app:

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and haven’t tried RelativePitch yet, it’s a great way to do interval ear training at any time that suits. It’s a top ear training download in the App Store and is consistently rated 4 or 5 stars by users. There’s also a free app called RelativePitchLite which gets you started and teaches half the intervals of the octave.

If you have any questions (about RelativePitch or interval training in general), come ask in our ear training forums and we’ll be happy to help!