Studio3Music Blog

Posts Tagged ‘brain’

Jan
18

Life After Kindermusik

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, Music and the brain

That’s right. I said it. Is it even possible? How will we survive? Will my children’s brains still grow and thrive? I wondered this when my son started kindergarten and stated that he was done with Kindermusik. He still had one more year to complete the entire series. What about Miss Allison? What about me? Did my five year old take any of OUR feelings into account? I was heartbroken but it was clear he was ready to move on and if I wanted his love for music to continue to flow I really had to respect his wishes.

What I learned about a month after school started was that he just needed to use his musical brain in other ways. He was practicing shapes and patterns one night at the kitchen table for homework when I glanced over and saw something amazing. He was making music with math. (Only a trained Kindermusik mom would notice this.)

His repetitive patterns with numbers sounded musical when I read them aloud. It was more than just the typical 1-2-1-2-1-2. It had rhythm. I sent it to Miss Allison, our local Kindermusik scientific music specialist. She also saw the beat and just for fun sent back the numbers in musical alphabet.

My kindergartener, without knowing, was continuing to make music. His brain still retained his Kindermusik knowledge. I played the mathematical notes on the recorder with the joy of one discovering the cure for the common cold. He just snubbed his nose at me before dumping a pile of Legos on the floor. I smiled. There IS life after Kindermusik.

My kindergartener is not physically going to Kindermusik classes any more but after five years it was time for his brain to move on. His brain was remembering and using what he learned for more than just silly dances and colorful shakers.

My anxiety decreased as I held his little brother’s hand to his first session of Imagine That. The baby was now off to learn music in his own space, with his own friends. Practicing his own independence. Kissing time was a quick peck on the cheek as he ran by sideways. On the way out the door I looked back . Those baby snuggle days were over, but watching the singing and silly dancing happening at that moment without me was not the end.

Kindermusik was not just for the kids. It’s been music for all of us. We will still make up songs and dance silly in our own ways at home. When classes are over at the end of the day, the music goes on. At bedtime my boys, 6 and 4 years old, still wait for mama to give snuggles and sing “Hush Little Baby and Ally Bally.” Life after Kindermusik? Absolutely!

-posted by Kindermusik mama Heidi Forrester, whose children now want to learn the electric guitar and the bassoon.

Tags: brain, guest post, kindermusik, learning

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Jan
6

When it comes to your child’s education, why music matters.

Posted in Child Development, Education, Music and the brain

I’m a Suzuki momma. I have a flute playing 7^th grader. And my 6 year old uses a glockenspiel in her Kindermusik Young Child class. To me, music is as important to children’s development as eating your vegetables. And your fish. And getting enough vitamin D. Oh, and washing your hair when you are a pre-adolescent and don’t take a shower voluntarily anymore.

In fact, as I write this, I am sitting here doing my best to force motivate my violin player through his practice. It’s not always easy. He’d rather be playing Xbox, or tug-a-war with his dog, or making up stories with his Halo Megabloks – anything but practicing. (Except, well, taking a shower and washing his hair, of course.)

But I know something he doesn’t. Finnish researchers (Did you know my maiden name was Koivisto? Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I like these scientists so much) have just developed a new method that shows the wide neural networks (including motor, emotions and creativity) that become activated all over the brain as music is listened to. Now scientists have an even better way to understand how music affects us.

Just like eating your vegetables and fish and getting enough vitamin D have a profound impact on my children’s physical health and development, regular music lessons/classes from an early age increases my children’s ability to learn. That’s a scientific fact, not just my opinion.

Here are a few examples of how scientists and researches believe music helps the brain:

Studies have shown that music lessons/classes assist the brain to process sounds more efficiently. This means that when your child is trying to stay focused on reading a history text in a noisy classroom, he or she will have an easier time concentrating than a non lesson taker.
Fast forward to a grown up job in one of those tiny cubicles. Multi-tasking and concentrating in a busy, loud office is an essential skill, one your violin player is much more likely to have.
One researcher has found that the silence between two musical notes triggers the brain cells and neurons, which are responsible for the development of sharp memory.
Other studies demonstrate that children who undergo musical training have a better verbal recall than those who have none. The amount of information that can be recalled increases the longer their period of musical training.
Learning a second language is mandatory for high school graduation. Musicians are much better than non musicians at discerning the subtleties in pitch in foreign languages. This is especially helpful for tonal languages, like Mandarin.
Coordination and concentration are also improved when a child takes instrument lessons. Think about what a flute player does all at the same time – moves both hands, reads music, listens to the players around him, watches the conductor – that’s a lot to coordinate!
We know that music stimulates the areas of the brain that are responsible for planning and analyzing, thereby improving your organizational skills and making you more capable of handling math, reasoning and other cognitive tasks.
And I think most importantly, when a child masters a piece of music or a difficult technique, it provides a sense of accomplishment, and gives a boost in confidence that spills over into all areas of life and produces a desire to tackle more challenges.

I want my children to grow up and have a good work ethic, an eagerness to try new things, the ability to reason and think, and the confidence that they can successfully navigate life. The music they participate in now will help them accomplish just that.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is going to make salmon burgers tomorrow night for dinner. After she wrestles her violin-playing 9 year old into the shower in the morning.

Tags: brain, kindermusik, language development, learning, listening, Miss Analiisa, music, physical development

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Dec
25

Listening to the Music Inside

Posted in Music and the brain

As a little girl, my first musical memory was singing “I’m a Little Teapot” for my family. A lot. I either sang it really well, or was just incredibly cute doing it- I prefer to think I was both.

Can’t you just hear that song in your head right now? I also remember sitting next to our stereo speaker, asking my dad over and over to replay “The Chipmunk Song” (Christmas Don’t Be Late). Now, if you were a kid in America in 1958, (see picture of my older brother and me), the previous sentence should immediately trigger your memory to play that silly melody.

What song does this snowy picture immediately remind you of? Yes, “Frosty the Snowman!” Did you brain “play” it for you when you thought of it?

This silent, “inner hearing”, or audiation, is the ability to “hear” music when no musical sound is present. When you audiate, you have internalized and are “thinking” music. For example, have you ever found yourself with a song “going through your head?” You’re audiating! Being able to hear music in this way is an important part of musical literacy, just as being able to think thoughts without speaking them aloud is an important in language and thought development.

Dr. Edwin Gordon defined audiation as “the hearing and comprehending of sound that is not physically present.” According to Gordon, “audiation is to music as thinking is to language.” Just as children babble before speaking and thinking in language, they also progress through steps in music before they fluently speak and think in music.

Tips for parents: This is a fun game to play with in the car, in the kitchen, or while cuddling on a lazy Saturday morning when the children pile in bed with you. Start singing a favorite song, and then stop before you sing the last note of a phrase or the end of the song. Wait and see if your child sings it for you. If he does, he is successfully “thinking music,” or hearing it in his head. – Theresa Case

What I think is really cool, (being a music geek), is all the ways we can use this “inner hearing” in our everyday lives. When someone asks you, “what is the 10^th letter of the alphabet?” your mind automatically plays the ABC song to help you find the letter “J.” When faced with a word we do not recognize, we “sound out” the syllables in our heads to try to figure it out. (Like the word, “audiation”)! We use familiar melodies to help children with everyday tasks when we sing, “toys away, toys away,” or “this is the way we brush our teeth.”

In Kindermusik classes, we practice “hearing the music inside” in many different ways: Asking children what a bear or a train sounds like before playing the sound clip for them, leaving out successive words in “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” or the letters B-I-N-G-O in you-know-what song. We take familiar melodies and change the words to suit the situation, as in “Got a Rock in my Pocket.” We then use this song as a humming activity. Humming is another way of “hearing the music inside,” as we usually think of the words of a song while making humming the notes. We expose children to many types of music to provide them with a broad and varied musical vocabulary on which to build their future musical experiences.

And remember, when we share all these musical experiences together in class, whether playing drums to “African Noel,” dancing to “The Sugar Plum Fairy,” or rocking to Greensleeves, we are sharing all of our collected memories and feelings about that music with all the other children and grownups in class. We all bring to each activity our own life experiences and are allowed to share in the joy of the moment with others, in addition to creating new ones for our children.

One more picture for you, so I’ll know what classic song is playing as your part of “listening to the music inside.”

-posted by Miss Judy, who constantly gets music “stuck” inside of her head, and loves it!

Tags: brain, kindermusik, learning, listening, Miss Judy, music

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Dec
14

The Wonder Weeks – or How I discovered the magical leaps forward, that made the fussy times a little easier to bear.

Posted in Child Development, parenting

This blog is a continuation of my story I started yesterday.

The special thing about this book is that it has excerpts from real moms who documented how they were feeling week by week as their baby was growing. They would also document what their babies were doing as the weeks were going by as well. Again, for me, this was reassurance to know that each baby has different temperaments and is going to grow differently.

Miles at 5 weeks.

Here’s an example: I remember when Miles hit the 5 week mark. He was very fussy and it was very hard to get him to sleep. He would put up the greatest fight to go down and sometime he never made it down. He just cried the whole time until his next feeding.

This is when I picked up The Wonder Weeks and started reading as fast as I could! Well, wouldn’t you know, 5 weeks is when babies have their first fussy time, which leads into a ‘magical leap forward’.

After we made it through the 5^th week, both my husband and I realized that Miles was actually responding to music and he was starting to notice and play with his hands! He had started showing off his new skills that he was processing through during his fussy time. What a pleasure to be able to watch and participate in his learning. We were able to enjoy this because we knew what to expect.

Another thing that has been helpful about The Wonder Weeks, is that there is a graph in the beginning of the book that charts out predicted fussy times. I’m a visual person, so this is very nice. I can quickly flip to this chart and see where Miles fits age-wise and see if he is in a sunny period (his personality is shining through) or a stormy period (more fussy than normal).

Here is one last example: Miles has been really cranky lately. I’ve stopped telling people how many weeks he is because I just can’t keep track. So, when people ask how old he is I’ll say 3 ½ months instead of weeks. But because he has been so cranky lately, I decided to count the weeks and check the chart in this book. Sure enough, Miles is in a stormy period and things are changing.

Miles has been very testy when it comes to sleeping. He has been having a really hard time going down and we can’t figure it out. He also doesn’t like my husband putting him down. He will cry and cry and cry with Casey, but then I’ll take him and he’ll quiet right down. This process has been really rough for both Casey and I because Casey feels rejected and I feel like I don’t get a break.

Miles at 17 weeks.

After counting how many weeks old Miles is, 17 weeks, he falls smack in the middle of a fussy time. I should’ve known! So, I just opened the book to refresh my memory about some of the changes that are going to be happening to Miles and about every description in the book is exactly what Miles is going through. Trouble sleeping, being cranky, shyness of strangers, entertaining him while he is awake; all of these things are written in this book and documented by the Moms who participated in journaling what their child was doing during this time. Talk about not feeling alone!

I am so grateful for this book, The Wonder Weeks. It has helped me a lot with being patient with my baby and myself. It will be a go-to book for me as Miles grows and gets older.

-posted by Miss Anna, who will be recommending this book to every Mom that she knows, and thinks that if you get the chance, you should check it out.

Tags: babies, books, brain, Miss Anna, parenting, physical development

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Dec
5

Making a Mess

Posted in Child Development, Education, Things to do

I really like the dance we do this time of year called Fum, Fum, Fum! The babies in class love all the sensory input – watching the swishing scarves, moving through the dance, and hearing the music. The more your little one has opportunity to experience activities through all senses, the stronger and more permanent learning will be.

In Spring and Summer, the outside world is chock full of colors, smells, tastes, sounds, and things to touch. By this time of year, socks and shoes are back on, mittens cover little fingers, and hats muffle noises.

Did you know that together, hands and feet have over 40,000 touch receptors? Pull off those socks and mittens and take advantage of those 40,000 learning possibilities! Here are some ideas:

Note: All of these work equally well for hands or feet. A tablecloth/oilcloth on the floor or bathtub work well for the feet activities, and a highchair tray or wax paper on a table is a perfect place to contain the mess made by experimenting little hands. Be sure to talk about what your little one is “feeling” (slippery, soft, rough, smooth, scratchy, bumpy).

Squirt shaving cream or whipped cream onto feet, or in little mounds on a high chair tray for exploration.
Put dried beans or breakfast cereal in a box or plastic tub. Place packing peanuts or crumpled paper in the other box. Let your little one stomp and jump and kick away. (With your help, a non-walker can do this, too.)
Make a box of ribbon and fabric scraps of various textures (satin, grosgrain, fleece, burlap, vinyl) for exploration.
Take those ribbons and scraps of fabric, add some cotton balls, and put them on floor for your little one to crawl or walk across.
Cook noodles, oatmeal, rice or jello. Name the different textures as you play with them.
Mix cornstarch and water until you get a goop about the consistency of glue. Add food coloring if you wish. This is a non-toxic mixture, so no worries if a little bit gets eaten.

This is not the time to try and contain the mess! Frequently, the messier the experience, the more is learned. Think about it – the more touch receptors (and other senses) that are involved, the stronger and more permanent the learning will be.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose favourite sensory activity involves sand between her toes.