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Archive for the ‘Music and the brain’ Category

Nov
25

Searching for the predictable patterns in a topsy-turvy world.

Posted in Child Development, Life with Kids, Music and the brain

Natalie is my 6 (and 11/12ths she insists on adding) year old first grader. This being my third time around teaching 1st grade, I’ve come to the solid conclusion that early learning centers around patterns, and that children who are unable to understand patterns  aren’t going to advance very far in reading, writing, or math, not to mention music.

photo credit: monteregina via photopin cc

That makes sense, because we know that the job of your child’s brain from birth to 7 is to organize all the sensory input it receives. At about the age of 7, brains are ready and eager to learn (If their brains have been able to properly learn to process the sensory information. If not – these are the kids we consider on the “sensory scale”).

So it’s no surprise in the early elementary years that most learning is based on patterns. Patterns of number combinations, patterns to pencil strokes in handwriting, patterns to learning adverbs, patterns to sounding out letter combinations.

But before they are Kindergartners and First Graders, babies and small children alike enjoy patterned activities.  Their brains actually crave them.
Simple games that are predictable and have an element of anticipation, as well as stop and go songs help your child remember, recognize, and anticipate specific patterns in sounds, words, and songs. These first steps of pattern recognition will lead toward understanding more difficult patterns in areas such as math, literacy, and music.

photo credit: cobalt123 via photopin cc

We’ve collected some of our favorite stop and go or highly predictable songs, with download links for the ones you might not know or haven’t had in Kindermusik class yet. I probably don’t have to tell your children what to do with them. They listen for the “stop” and stop, and learn to anticipate the “go”, whether dancing, swishing scarves, or playing instruments. (Weekend craft project – homemade shakers and drums!)

Listen, Listen
I am a Clown
Riding in the Buggy
Shake Your Eggs
Move and Freeze
Bells are Ringing (find some thing to make noise with – keys, spoons, hands – and make up new words. Pause each time after “listen to them jingling/tapping/clapping” before you jingle, tap, or clap)
Walk and Stop
In the City
Aiken Drum (when you sing this, put a “freeze” after every time you sing “moon”)
Stop on a Dot
Giddy up Horsey
B-I-N-G-O

Games like Red Light, Green Light and all sorts of Knock-Knock jokes are great, too.

If you have older children, then clapping games like Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar, and A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea are all about patterns, as is the classic string game Cat’s Cradle.

photo credit: Nemodus photos via photopin cc

So, this rainy Seattle Thanksgiving weekend, when the tryptophan-laden turkey has the grownups sleepy, but has had no effect on the children, load your iPod with stop and go music, shut the door, and let them have at it. They’ll have no idea they are getting a brain workout, while you are getting a nap.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who prefers stop and collapse music at the end of a busy Thanksgiving Day.

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Sep
29

Back in the (school) saddle again.

Posted in Life with Kids, Music and the brain

I’m back in school. Middle school, that is. But without the acne breakouts and the angst of unrequited love. I’m going with my oldest son. Isn’t that what every 8th grade boy secretly desires? His mom coming to school with him?

Actually, he doesn’t mind. One of the benefits of home schooling is that generally, kids are just as comfortable around their peers as they are around grownups. I’m so proud of the way he can approach grownups (even strangers!) and just start conversations, when many other 13 ½ year olds would recoil at the mere thought. Like any wise grownup, however, I have to know when to back off. Did I mention he invited a girl over for dinner tonight? His first “She’s just my friend, Mom”. Backing off now…

Nathan and friends. He’s in blue. Said girl is somewhere in here, too. ; )

About school, though…I’m taking my second year of Latin at our home school co-op. I started auditing the class (yay, no tests!) last October, as Nathan was having a bit of trouble (standard middle-school boy protocol) organizing himself, and I wanted to know what was happening in class so I could help him.

Oh what fun! Seriously, Latin is fun. (Especially when there are no tests.) Unfortunately, with everything else I do (don’t make me list it – I’ll probably collapse from exhaustion), I don’t have much (really, any) free time. So this past summer I made a very serious attempt to get my noun declensions, verb conjugations, principle parts memorized.

I was horrified to discover that they don’t stick in my brain very well. When I was in high school and college, I was a good student. I even graduated with honors. I didn’t have to study that hard. Things I put into my head just stayed there without a lot of coaxing or threatening. Now I feel like I’ve got Swiss cheese inside my skull instead of grey matter.

I was concerned enough to speak to my doctor about it at my last appointment. He just looked at me and said, “But Analiisa, you’re 43.” Of course, he mentioned that I do carry around a lot more information and responsibilities now than when I was just a student, but I got stuck on the now-that-I’m-43-my-brain’s-not-working-as-well-as-23 idea.

But then on the way home, I got to thinking about my other home school co-op class – band. And how I picked up my Euphonium after 20 years (now that was a useful degree!) and played like it had been just 20 days. And how earlier this year I was instructing the beginning trombones on how to put their instruments together and make a sound and find positions and I remembered the whole process without any effort.

All that stuff I had put in my brain when I was young and used a lot when I was young has stayed there, and came back to me when I needed it. Which goes along with everything I’ve ever told you about why early introduction to music is important.

Because after about age 8, the neural pathways that aren’t used much begin to be pruned away. I’ve been exposed to music from the womb. And although knowing Latin at 16 would have been helpful on my SAT’s, when I get old and gray(er), I want music to be the thing I forget last. It brings me such deep, abiding joy. Latin won’t really matter anymore. Neither will calculus. Or chemistry.

My adorable niece and I, whom I try to gift with as much music as possible!

So I ask you, what are you gifting your children with now? It’ll be the thing they can return to for pleasure and comfort when they are 43 and 83. Choose wisely.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is off to prepare the menu hand-picked by Nathan: Fresh-caught Alaskan Halibut, Autumn Harvest salad, artisan bread with Dubliner cheese, and homemade brownie sundaes. He has such good taste! (In girls and food.)

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Jul
16

Do Bats Dance?

Posted in Child Development, Education, Music and the brain

My husband Karl was gone all last week, which meant that I had drop off and pick up duty for Rob’s rehearsals. (He’s making his debut in Aladdin Jr. this week!) Rather than fight traffic without a carpool buddy (my remaining children were at camp with Karl), I opted to sit in the air conditioned, quiet library in a comfy chair with public wi-fi for 3 hours and wait for him. Otherwise known as heaven to this busy, never-alone momma.

I spent some time researching and reading about a dancing bird, a sizzling tidbit of data I had squirreled away for such a peaceful moment. It actually was pretty fascinating. The article was from a science journal, after all, so there had to be a bit of boring stuff. But I’ll skip all that and only share the interesting parts.

There was a 2009 study done by Patel (he’s from the Neurosciences Institute of San Diego), Iverson, Bregman and Schultz, inspired by a YouTube video of a dancing sulfer-crested cockatoo named Snowball. (You can him perform at the World Science Fair below.) Apparently, this was the first time scientists had noticed a species other than humans who had BPS – beat perception and synchronization.

BPS means that you have the ability to perceive the beat in music and move your body to that beat. I admit, not everyone does it well. But every human can do it, every culture does it, though I actually heard something about “beat deafness” a while ago. That bit of data is also squirreled away for a looksee later, too.

The scientists, being the thorough researchers that they are, poured over thousands of YouTube videos looking for other examples of animals that had BPS. Surprisingly (or maybe not), they found only a couple of other species of birds and one Asian elephant.

They did some further hands-on research with Snowball, and found he could also adapt to changes in tempo. His BPS and adaption to tempo change percentage of accuracy was around 60% – approximately the same as young children.

Trying to find commonalities between the birds and the Asian elephant and the non beat-deaf humans, the scientists found that we all have a rare trait in common – complex vocal learning. This simply means that we learn to produce complex sounds by imitation. Think about it, that’s how babies learn to speak – by mimicking the sounds of other people.

There is just a small group of animals that have complex vocal learning – parrots, songbirds, hummingbirds, dolphins, seals, elephants, some bats and some whales. The researchers wondered if those animals would have BPS, too. (Imagine the funding required to find out if whales can dance!)

Now to me, here’s the really interesting part. BPS requires auditory (hearing) motor (moving) to integrate in the nervous system, and vocal learning helps create this interface.

Not only that, the circuits in the brain that deal with vocal learning overlap with those that involve BPS. The ability to keep a steady beat with our bodies and vocal learning are connected.

The researchers went on to note that young children are better at synchronizing to a steady beat in a social versus non-social context.

Now, I’m not qualified by a series of letters after my last name to draw any amazing conclusions from this research. And personally, I’m not titillated by the thoughts of piping Sousa into a dark cave and standing knee deep in guano, trying to see with my flashlight if the bats will move in time to Stars and Stripes Forever, but the info from this study is a no-brainer to me.

Why? It’s exactly what do we do in Kindermusik class. Those neuroscientists should check us out.Vocal play (another way to say complex vocal learning), steady beat work in a social context. Moving to music while we sing, speak, talk, and play. It’s what we do. And learning has never been so much fun. The long term benefits? Great athletes, musicians, scientists, actors, thinkers, creators and problem solvers develop the beginnings of wings to soar in a Kindermusik classroom. Baby sulfer-crested cockatoos should be so lucky.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is off to try and convince her 10 year old actor to hold still while she gets his stage makeup mascara on without jabbing him in the eye with it.

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May
4

Alzheimer’s and The Power of Music

Posted in Music and the brain

My mom has Alzheimer’s. I can no longer communicate with her. But every time I visit her dementia unit in Ohio, I sing to her.

Growing up, I remember mom singing all the time. In church, in the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, at home on our piano, going about her everyday life. And singing me to sleep every night. She was the reason I became a musician.

So, when I am with her now, I sing, I play ukulele, I lead music time in the recreation room, and we listen to old musicals and Handel’s Messiah, one of her favorites. And mom sings back. She hums all day. Her sentences begin rationally, turn to randomness, and end up as song.

The part of her brain (the left side) where language lives has been damaged, but mom still reacts, responds to and participates when there is music.

I am not an expert in Alzheimer’s research, but I know what I have experienced with my mother. On my last visit, a nurse’s aide was leading the dementia patients in a sing along of old favorites. One of the most lucid comments my mother made during this visit was, “She can’t carry a tune,” referring to the aide. And she said this three times!

I asked the aide if she had another song sheet so I could follow along, and she happily turned over the song-leading to me. (Just try to keep a Kindermusik teacher from singing!) The group joined me happily in song, most of them remembering every word of their old favorite tunes.

Afterwards, I asked mom if I was on pitch, to which she said, “most of the time.” Well, she always was a perfectionist! For the rest of the day, I heard her singing, “Take me Out to the Ballgame.” Those were some of my happiest moments in an otherwise difficult time.

-posted by Miss Judy, who says, “My mother’s name is Annabelle, and she has always had a beautiful voice.”

Here is an article from someone who is an expert, and the author of several wonderful books about the brain, and an amazing video of a man who is revitalized with music.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, Professor of Neurology & Psychiatry, Columbia University

Where I work at a hospital and at a number of old age homes, there are a lot of people who have Alzheimer’s or other dementias of one sort or another. Some of them are confused, some are agitated, some are lethargic, some have almost lost language. But all of them, without exception, respond to music. This is especially true of old songs and songs they once knew. Read more…

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Apr
30

More Music, Please!

Posted in Family, Music and the brain, Things to do

Asparagus may get a yucky face, but what if you offer extra servings of music? “More Please!” they shout. Good music just makes life better all-around.  It is glue for early childhood memories, and developing brains thrive on it. Have you considered upping the minimum daily requirement of music in your children’s diet?

“The Itsy Bitsy Spider” song is one of my earliest favorites. Remember the giddy pride the first time your fingers cooperated to make the spider climb forefinger to thumb, up, up, up? I also remember standing in a circle on the multi-colored oval braided rug in our Sunday school room as we sang and played “The Farmer in the Dell.” What songs bring back your childhood scenes? Tub songs? Bedtime songs? Car trip songs?  Consider adding those or a few new ones to your child’s daily routine.  You’ll be providing happy memories that will stick with them for life.

Even more important than placing tunes in their musical scrapbook, daily music will help your kids’ brains develop. But if you come to Kindermusik, you already knew that!  Kindermusik is based on the science of how music positively influences brain growth.  More sensory stimulation equals more neural connections, which is how intelligence develops. To get the most out of your Kindermusik investment, do your musical homework with your kids.  It’s fun that pays back.

Delight, pleasure, fun, joy….music adds all these to life. When we travelled, my parents sang their generation of pop songs. We enthusiastically learned them and sang along. (My mischievous father taught us his Navy drinking songs, too!)  What silly fun, all the more memorable for its benign naughtiness and how quickly  music made the miles whizz by.

When doing chores, “whistle while you work” turned drudgery to fun.  In my teen years, cleaning up the kitchen was my nightly job. I put on my favorite music (turned up loud, of course), which made the task fun. Named “Music-To-Do-Dishes-By,” the practice became a memorable part our family tradition. How has music sprinkled happiness into chapters of your life?  Consider passing those pleasures on to your children.

Quite simply, music makes life better. It creates happy memories and it’s good for us! Why not be more intentional about your child’s musical intake? Add more music into the nooks and crannies of your life. Sing, hum, whistle. Expose your kids to concerts in the park, classic CD’s–like Disney musicals, Tom Chapin, Farmer Jason, Putnamayo, and your own favorite playlist.  The possibilities are endless.

Cook up some music at home, too. As a child, an old ice cream tub held my cymbals, a triangle, tambourine, bongo drums, maracas and recorder flute, which made for endless musical creativity. Buy a keyboard, or a piano, or guitar so they can experiment. Musical fun helps create a happy family life.

 Make your house a place where your children can easily dish up all the music they want.

-posted by Donna Detweiler who is glad that through the library, radio, and community events, incorporating good music into her children’s lives can be very affordable!

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