Researchers at the University of California Irvine studied the power of music to train us for higher thinking. Dr. Frances Rauscher observed two separate groups of preschoolers. Group one took piano lessons and sang daily in a chorus. Group two did neither. After a period of eight months the musical three year olds in group one were expert puzzle masters scoring eighty percent higher than their playmates in spatial-intelligence.
Dr. Rauscher reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. Dr. Rauscher's study showed that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ. Preschoolers without the lessons improves only by 6%.
It also has been shown that high school music students have higher grade point averages than non-music students in the same school. At Mission Viejo High School in Southern California in 1981, the overall grade point average of music students was 3.59 and for non-music students the overall grade point average was 2.91. This same study also found that 16% of the music students had a 4.0 overall grade point average and only 5% of the non-music students had a 4.0 overall grade point average.
Dr. Jean Houston of the Foundation for Mind Research believes that the brains of children not exposed to music and arts education are actually being damaged because these non-verbal modalities help them with skills such as reading, writing, and math.
All these researches have clearly showed that skills learned through the discipline of music transfer to study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills useful in every part of the curriculum and lead to success in school. In addition, by giving the precious gift of music to your child, the beauty and joy of music will enrich the quality of yourchild life for years to come!
Best age to start music lesson
Regardless of your age or gender, you are sure to find enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment in music. From the perspective of physical and mental development, children between four and five years old benefit the most from music training. Coursework in music appreciation and music performance is invaluable to a child’s development in physical dexterity, communication skills, and cognitive skills. Proper music training during this stage will give long-lasting benefits to a child’s development.
Children over six years old and adults certainly could also benefit from music training, since they are able to learn faster, and appreciate the beauty of music more easily.
We have designed our music curriculum specifically around the characteristics of different age groups, so that everyone can reap the most benefits from it.
Benefits of group lesson
When children learn a language, it is only natural for them to follow the steps of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In other words, children learn to understand what he/she hears first, from there he/she then learns to speak, then to read, and finally to write down what she/he thinks. Our music curriculum follows similar steps by first helping children to be able to sing what they hear (listening-speaking), perform music from scores (reading), and then gradually advance to creating music (writing). By working on these activities in a group, children also learn useful skills in communication and cooperation with others.
This is in contrast with other institutions/programs' music curriculum that stress only the ability to perform music by ear, memorization, or reading the score alone. Even though this makes it possible to show seemingly impressive results quickly, unfortunately the narrow scope of such curriculum will severely limit a child’s ability to develop to his/her full potential.
Parental Participation Parental participation in a preschooler’s group music lesson is very important because young children typically do not learn well from relatively-brief weekly lessons. By helping a child review and practice what has been taught, a parent can improve a child’s learning experience considerably. In addition, learning alongside your child is a precious experience, and it is a memory that both you and your child will treasure for a lifetime.
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How is New Song Studio different
Other institutions/programs typically stress the ability to play-by-ear (or by memorization), so students can quickly advance through musical works and appear to progress quickly, and throw in musicianship, music theory, music appreciation, and composition only in the face of impending tryouts or adjudication processes (such as NYSSMA or ABRSM). Children coming out of such curriculum typically lack the solid foundation upon which his/her future advancement can be built; as well as the true understanding of the intricate intellectual and artistic details within the works which he/she performs.
New Song Studio, intending to fully develop a child’s potential, encourages its faculty members to strive to nurture every child into a well-rounded musician by guiding every child through different aspects of music-making which are level-appropriate. To ensure such goal is met, New Song Studio holds annual student progress evaluations as well as periodic faculty conferences where our faculty members come together to discuss shortcomings and new ideas in teaching.We have also designed Music Group Class specifically for young beginners. Overwhelming majority of the graduates from our Music Group Class have gone on to pursue advancement in other instruments and have been LOVING IT!
Group lesson VS. individual instruction We recommend that young children take group lessons for at least six months before adding 30 minute weekly individual lessons. This is because group lesson gives a child the opportunity to explore his/her interest and capability before he/she settles on a specific musical instrument. Even though group lesson usually does not show results that appear to be fast advancement as individual instruction may, the foundation that it lays is essential and will have lasting benefits.
