Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

Music can be used in a variety of ways. Calming the soul, feeling energized before a big game or setting the mood for a special occasion are only a few ways that music can be used in different settings. Even though millions of people listen to music on a daily basis, they may not understand the deeper aspects of music and how they are actually being affected by it. Today, we see that out of all the subjects in education, science and math are favoured amongst the rest since they are often portrayed as being beneficial in ones life. Unfortunately, people do not know the effects that music can induce and that it is a significant part of peoples everyday lives. As such, music should be seen of and thought of as a highly valued subject in the field of education because it promotes and helps certain elements that are beneficial to a person. Music is unique in that it offers the following utilitarian benefits: the promotion of creativity and expression, how music can be used to relieve stress and how it can be used as a stimulant to increase cognitive functions. By presenting and analysing these three elements, one will be able to discover that music is indeed an important aspect in education and is required to develop a balanced, wellrounded human being. Stress is often found in students who are a part of a school system. The cause of this burden can range from personal issues in the household, relationship problems or the amount of homework in one day. Additionally, the amount of stress that can increase depending on the situation can be detrimental to ones mental and physical health (Hadany, Beker, Eshel, & Feldman, 2006). As a result, stress should be dealt with immediately to prevent these problems from arising. Music plays a huge role in relieving stress as it is often seen relaxing the individuals mind (Labb, Schmidt, Babin, & Pharr, 2007). Specifically, [l]istening to classical and self-selected relaxing music after exposure to a stressor should result in significant reductions in anxiety, anger, and sympathetic nervous system arousal, and increased relaxation

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

(Labb, Schmidt, Babin, & Pharr, 2007, p. 163). Looking at this quote, one can see that music can be used as an alternative method of stress relief as it is healthy and does not negatively affect the body. Especially in todays society, where adolescents both in high school and postsecondary schools are seen abusing alcohol or drugs as a way to escape from the weight that school is bringing onto their shoulders, music can be used as a healthy alternative. When one relates stress to the education system today, students are seen as having excessive amounts due to poor work habits, pressure from parents or school. For this reason, students begin to [suffer] mental health problems (Robotham, 2008, p. 736) and experience negative emotions that may lead to dropping out or fatality. Commonly, out of the three levels of education (elementary, high school and post-secondary), students undergoing the transition from home to university (Robotham, 2008, p. 736) are mostly found experiencing high levels of stress which lead to the aforementioned problems. Music is unique in being able to reduce stress as it affects the listeners emotions at the time of hearing the music. Often, people are found having lower levels of anxiety and stress if they listen to a particular type of music. Looking at a study guided by Labb, Schmidt and Babin (2007), the three researchers were interested in what kind of music helped the listener to feel less anxious. After sampling 56 college students, they found out that when listening to classical or self-selected music, the listeners experienced decreases in state of anxiety (Labb, Schmidt, Babin, & Pharr, 2007, p. 166). On the contrary, when the listeners heard heavy metal they did not experience a decrease in state anxiety (Labb, Schmidt, Babin, & Pharr, 2007, p. 166). Looking at the graph below, one can see a significant change in stress levels when heavy metal or classical music was heard.

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

(Labb, Schmidt, Babin, & Pharr, 2007)

A similar study conducted by North, Hargreaves and ONeill (2000), sampled 2465 adolescents and determined the rate of involvement they had in music, the importance of music and why they might listen to it. In all of the cases, the choice, to relieve tension/stress, was always found as being the middle ground between the others. This means that of all choices, relieving tension or stress were not necessarily popular or unpopular; instead, it fell in between. Below, the two charts illustrate the reasoning behind why students listen or play music. Looking at Fig. 1, the chart shows it is indeed true that listening to music to relieve tension/stress is chosen on average, supporting the idea that music is used as an approach to stress relief. Additionally, listening to music to get through difficult times was highly popular and can be seen as being directly linked to stress. Similar to Fig. 1, Fig. 2 illustrates why students play music instead of listening to it. Consequently, the results are the same in terms of the in order in which they are rated. In relating these statistics to the value of music education, one can see music is invaluable since many people today use it as a way to cope with high levels of stress or anxiety.

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

Fig. 1 (North, Hargreaves, & ONeill, 2000)

Fig. 2 (North, Hargreaves, & ONeill, 2000)

Not only does music help with stress, but it also promotes creativity in an individual, allowing for abstract thinking or expressiveness in writing to occur. In todays curriculum, one can see that knowing the theories and being able to apply them when necessary is highly emphasized. No longer is creativity seen as being a key component in an individuals work, but knowing the knowledge behind the subject being studied is highly valued over creativity. The arts in general can be seen as outlets to allow for expressive qualities to be shown and for individuals to express what they cannot with words. Music, being considered as one of the main arts, is an essential tool for creativity and is commonly used as a way of showing expression. As more and more research is being done on the effects of creativity and expression on children through music, researchers are finding that,

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

[i]t is now recognized that a childs development can be helped through stimulation of his need for expression; through his need for and experimentation with tools of expression; and through improvement of his power of application. In this way creative activity contributes toward his development as a person and discourages misapplication of energy to wrong aims. A highly gifted child, as a result of creative expression, ultimately may add something of value to the art of his period. The less highly gifted will at least become a more responsible and effective individual. Even the below-average child can find a creative interest at his own level, an interest into which he can sink his repetitious personality and feel himself accept to his world. In his search for creative outlets any childwhatever his giftslooks further and further into himself and finds there powers of which he may have been unaware. In the process he becomes a better balanced and integrated personality. (Canfield, 1961) Analyzing the quote above, one can understand that the development of a child is not only done through logical thinking, but instead, expression can assist in the development as well. By allowing for individuals to experience music while in school, they are getting away from the scientific and mathematical side of education and drifting into a different part of education which calls for the individual to tap into their own expressiveness, creativeness and imaginativeness. Doing so will give a chance for the person to develop as a human being and allow for higher levels of thinking. Moreover, having music in education provides opportunities for students to explore and listen to an overabundance of music as they are most likely provided the resources to do so. Looking at a study done by E. Glenn Schellenberg, he discovered that by playing Mozart, Albioni, or familiar childrens songs drawing times were longer, and the drawings were judged to be more creative. (Schellenberg, 2005) This further supports the idea that something as simple as listening to a piece of music, can enhance a childs cognitive functions and give them a greater sense of creativeness and expressiveness. The effects of music can be seen through all levels of intelligence. Although they are affected differently, they share a common theme, and that is attaining the ability to be creative. Ultimately, this results in the child having a well-rounded personality. Referring back Fig. 1 and 2, one is able to notice that being creative and imaginative was at or near the very top of the chart. This means that students in general

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

choose to play or listen to music in order to let their creativity or imagination be expressed musically. The ability to be creative or imaginative is developed through the brain. Music is often used to enhance the cognitive abilities of a human brain as it stimulates multiple areas while a person is listening to it. To begin discussing about the cognitive effects on the brain while listening to music, one must briefly understand the Mozart effect and the reasons why researchers believe that listening to Mozart will enhance cognitive functions. In brief, [t]he Mozart Effect is the term used to label the temporary enhancement of spatial reasoning abilities immediately after listening to a piece of music by Mozart (Ivanov & Geake, 2003, p. 405). Looking at the definition, one can see by listening to Mozart for a brief period of time, there will be enhanced levels of cognitive abilities which will result in better evaluations. Moreover, listening to music enhances the organization of cortical firing patterns necessary for temporalspatial performance (Ivanov & Geake, 2003, p. 406). This suggests that when listening to Mozart, the neurons within the brain are more stimulated and active which cause for an increase in performance. With the theory of the Mozart effect, music in education can be seen as something positive since most schools tend to listen or play classical works, some of which include Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. Besides the Mozart effect, there are other theories as to why listening or playing music results in an increase in cognitive development. Firstly, music is seen as something abstract and at times can be extremely completed to play or understand. In order to achieve such high levels of playing and comprehension, one must be able to process all the musical elements in order to be aware of what is actually being played. For this purpose, ones cognitive ability will steadily

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

increase as they begin to do these kinds of musical analysis more often. According to Schellenberg, Music promotes intellectual development because of its inherently abstract nature. For example, a tune is defined solely by relational information. A listener can identify a particular tune (e.g., Yankee Doodle) when it is played fast or slow, at a high or a low pitch level tunes are abstractions listeners representations must generalize even farther to patterns that have similar but not identical relational information (Schellenberg, 2005, p. 320). Schellenberg is correct in saying that tunes are abstractions. A piece of music comes in many lengths, styles and forms, because of this, there is a plethora of music out there which one has to be able to identify when needed. Being able to recognize changes or variations on a theme in a piece can help to generally develop the brain as one is required to recall the original theme and apply it when asked to point out the changes. This can be employed in an educational setting as being able to think abstractly is a necessary skill in problem solving or creative thinking. Overall, in the words of Schellenberg, [l]earning to think abstractly and recognize musical similarities across contexts could facilitate intellectual development more generally (Schellenberg, 2005, p. 320). In conclusion, music should be highly valued in the field of education as it can be used to help or develop a student in many ways. Music can be used as a way for one to cope with stress that is caused through personal issues or school. By listening or playing music as a source of relief, levels of stress will drop and allow for the student to think rationally, giving room for clear thoughts and avoiding irrational behaviour. In addition to helping with stress relief, music can be seen as a motivator for creative and imaginative thinking. By having music in education, one is able to creatively interpret music differently as they listen or play. Likewise, listening to music allows for the process of imagination to happen as a person imagines a picture or a scene

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

in which the music imitates the movements being done. Moreover, in relation to creativity, music can be seen as a tool for increasing the cognitive functions of ones mind. Music gives one a chance to deeply and abstractly as a piece of music is played. This is because as one is listening to a piece, a variety of musical elements are being played at different rhythms and pitches, causing for the brain to work quickly and efficiently in order to process all the information that is being given to the listener. As a result, this temporarily increases the capacity within the brain so that the listener will be able to function at a slightly higher level than most people who did not listen to the piece. All in all, music is beneficial to education as it provides students a way of coping with problems or opportunities for growth. Without music in education, stress levels amongst the student body may rise and higher levels of imaginative and creative thinking will be minimal.

Ricky Chung

Music Ed A Musically Educated Stimulation

December 3rd, 2012

Works Cited Canfield, S. T. (1961). Creativity in music education. 48(2), 51. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3389680.pdf Hanady, L., Beker, T., Eshel, I., & Feldman, M. W. (2006). Why is stress so deadly? an evolutionary perspective. 273(1588), 881-885. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3384 Ivanov, V. K., & Geake, J. G. (2003). The Mozart Effect and Primary School Children. 31(4), 405-413. doi: 10.1177/03057356030314005 Labb, E., Schmidt, N., Babin, J., & Pharr, M. (2007). Coping With Stress: The Effectiveness of Different Types of Music. doi: 10.1007/s10484-007-9043-9 North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., & O'Neill, S. A. (2000). The Importance of Music to Adolescents. 265-267. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/000709900158083/pdf Robotham, D. (2008). Stress among higher education students: Towards a research agenda. 56, 736. doi: 10.1007/sl0734-008-9137-l Schellenberg, E. G. (2005). Music and Cognitive Abilities. 14(6), 318. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20183055.pdf?acceptTC=true