"Music makes clever"

By Professor Asmus J. Hintz, director of the YAMAHA Academy OF Music Hamburg
Hamburg, 22 June 2000

Music makes clever. Neurologists, musicians and music paedagogues knew it for a long time. Hardly someone so far said it publicly so clearly. Why? Because everything that one expresses publicly must be well founded. Things are considered to be well founded when they are scientifically examined and documented, but this wasn't the case so far.

Therefore the retention. Meanwhile scientifically secured insights are available which prove that children who concern themselves with music, particularly with playing a music instrument, are clearly more intelligent than children who did not have this chance.

Thus: Music makes clever!

"Clever"? In Berlin, Germany, there was made a long-term study at primary schools with so-called music-stressed classes during a period of six years. Within this study the development of the school efficiency of the music-stressed pupils and normal-stressed pupils was examined and compared with each other. In the music-stressed schools each pupil had to commit itself to learn in addition to the curriculum music lessons for the duration of six years a music instrument.

The study was accomplished in Berlin Wedding, a district with explosive social structure and high portion of foreign fellow citizens, under the direction of Professor Hans Günther Bastian (University of Paderborn). Due to the high portion of foreign children of the district one can exlude that predominantly privileged children would have participated and would thus have prevailed particularly favorable conditions. The pupils came predominantly from worker families. The results are clear:

• Already after four years the music-stressed pupils exhibited a superior efficiency compared to normal-stressed pupils.
• Much more children than usual - and particularly in contrary to the comparison classes - could be recommended with durable success to the university.
• Clearly better abilities in logically mathematical thinking of the music-stressed pupils.
• The cognitive efficiency was clearly higher.
• The social behavior ot the music-stressed children proved to be clearly more harmoniously despite the difficult social situation in the district and the families.

In summary Bastian determines:

• All children are musical.
• The musical promotion of the children should begin as early as possible.
• Early intensive occupation with music can promote comprehensive potentials of intelligence.
• There is a clear connection between the instrument play and the cognitive development, an important aspect of intelligence.
• Intensive occupation with music and active making music promote personality characteristics and behaviors such as perseverance, steadiness, reliability, concentration, trust, self experience, critical distance from the own play.

(Hans Günther Bastian: “Partial results a first trial balance to a long-term study at citizen of Berlin primary schools”).

 

Music lessons cause long-term improvement of the spatial-temporal imaginative power to preschool children.

In the USA one investigated which effect music lessons do have on preschool children on their spatial-temporal imaginative power. Spatial-temporal imaginative power contains maintaining and transformation of mental pictures in absence of a physical model. This power is needed for higher brain functions such as chess, mathematics and technology.

The neurologists Leng and Shaw assumed that hearing music exerts influence on this special achievement of the brain. Thus tests with college students after hearing a Mozart Sonate (KV 448) pointed out that they mastered tasks that require spatial-temporal imaginative power significantly better than before. This test already proved a connection between music and spatial-temporal imaginative power.

 

25% more achievement in mathematics through playing keyboard**

** With playing keyboard not only the electronic keyboard is meant, but the whole of all key instruments. keyboard is used here as generic term of the key instruments.

In order to archieve clear results, in Los Angeles starting from 1994 during a period of two years a study with classes was accomplished in three different preschools: 78 children (42 boys and 36 girls). All children were of normal intelligence. The age of the probands at the beginning of the study started from 0 months to 3 years, up to 4 years, 9 months. Three children were left-handed. None of the children had received music or computer lessons before. The participation of the parents was minimal.

The study was accomplished in four different groups of actions:

1. Group of keyboards: keyboard private lessons and singing group lessons.
2. Singing: this group participated in the same singing activities as the group of keyboards.
3. Computer: this group received computer private lessons, which corresponded to keyboard lessons in length and number.
4. Control group: no special lessons.

The children were divided according to the coincidence principle into the groups. The results after two years:

• The instrument play, in particular the play of a key instrument, causes a clear long-term improvement of the spatial-temporal imaginative power, a component of the ability of abstract thinking, importantly for the understanding of mathematical and technical connections.
• Playing a key instrument promotes the intellect, the sensual cognition, the spatial imaginative power and the coordination ability.
• The children of the group of keyboards showed better achievements in the subject mathematics of around 25% as children of the groups of comparisons.
• The intelligence quotient of the children changes due to the influence of the environment.

 

Which conclusion does one have to draw from these realizations? “Unfortunately we must always lose so much time in order to examine what would be self-evident. Although the proofs become ever more frequent, there is not a good music lesson yet in all schools of all countries. Determined one can state that without music no social harmony and no positive relationship with nature can be created”.
(Yehudi Menuhin)

There it applies that making music makes the children more intelligent and improves the school achievements of children, who play a music instrument. Those children are socially more harmoniously integrated than children, who do not make music. So there is only one consequence: All children must receive the chance to improve their quality of life by making music. This ideal situation could hardly be carried out. However, in the family and in the direct surrounding field one can take influence to provide a solid music education.

Like that the educational programs of the Yamaha Music School are particularly suitable to make children intelligent: the key instrument, whose play so positively affects the development of intelligence, is used here in the musical elementary drawing starting from the fourth age consistently in the sense of a learning tool. And that not only after the results of the studies initially specified became public, but since 1954, for more than forty years. The lessons of the musical elementary education of the Yamaha music school develops measurably and concretely the musical abilities of the children like those of musical hearing, the play technology, creativity and the musical expression. The instructors of this range are very qualified musicians with university graduation who specialized by intensive advanced training in informing these programs.

The "musicalisazion" of the children, the members of our society most important in the future, should have a high value.

“Making music children are socially more harmoniously integrated than children that do not make music.”

With the words of Hans Henze (one of the most important german composers of the post-war period):
“Somebody who makes music, does not take a gun in the hand!”

In each case applies: making music does not only make intelligent, but also means a lot of fun!