Music & Your Brain

Welcome to our first monthly installment of the Allegro Music Highlight!  Each month we will explore articles, tips and take the opportunity to spotlight music students and faculty.  This month we explore why music is important to your child’s mind. I’ll be paraphrasing an article titled “This is How Music Can Change Your Brain” written by Melissa Locker in 2014’s publication of TIME Magazine. For the full article click here to follow a link.

Learning and listening to music benefits your mind and your child’s mind in numerous ways. It is most poignantly helpful to the development of young minds (most notably to the evolution of sounds associated with speech). More importantly though, the active participation in music is crucial to optimize these developments. To back up this claim Northwestern’s Harmony Project proved the importance of musical participation by showing 93% of those high school students involved in their study going on to college (significant because these students live in areas that have a 50% or more drop-out rate). Part of their study also found that not only did the exposure to music matter, but the active participation led to significant differences to the aptitude for reading and speech. How can you help your child engage? Well, neuroscientist Nina Kraus suggests parents paying attention to the music their children listen to, ask questions about that music, find good teachers to aid your child’s journey with music, and support any learning with regards to instruments your children are interested in.

Music education has so many positive benefits!  Here's to growing your mind and your musical skill.  Thanks for being a part of the music department at Allegro. 
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-Mr. Zac

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