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

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It’s important to find time for ear training – regular practice is essential to develop and maintain your skills. Setting aside time for focused training is vital, but there are a lot of other ways to keep your training progressing…

Whatever area of ear training you’re focused on, you’ll find there are recommended exercises and training techniques for you to concentrate on and repeat, in order to develop new hearing skills. In this kind of concentrated practice, you’re often going through a process of:

1. Familiarisation and training
2. Testing yourself
3. Checking your answers, to reinforce correct instincts and squash the bad ones.

This type of training is key at the beginning, as you need a strong basis to work from when approaching a new area. For example, if you want to train audio EQ, it’s important to start by learning the standard frequency bands and getting a sense of their sounds. Likewise, somebody just starting off with interval training should spend some time learning the names of the intervals, memorising their order, and getting to know their characteristic sounds.

(Click here for more about ear training and how we learn)

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Welcome back to the continuation of the frequency training series. For the next 5 articles, we will expand, break down and analyze this topic in much greater detail. For those who are just now joining us, let me say just one thing:

Stop! Do NOT read any further!

As a matter of fact, go back and first read the introduction overview to frequency training. You’ll need the background information! Trust me, it’s not filler, and will save you much unneeded frustration! Go on…we’ll wait.

From this point on I’ll assume we are all caught up. (The beauty being, you can always go back and re-read and review….remember, no one is chasing you here. Work slowly, at your own pace. I’ll probably repeat that at some point in this series, so I ask your forgiveness and understanding ahead of time!)

Last time we left off with an overview of the nature of sound, and more specifically, the way it is measured (frequency, measured in Hertz, or Hz). Along with this, were some “must know” basic frequencies with exercises for recognizing and identifying them.

Reference frequencies

Briefly now, let’s take one tiny step back. (I think now is good time to revisit this.)
I always have, and still do recommend that you find whatever reference frequencies you are comfortable using as the anchor to your training….BUT…. Click to read the rest…