How Does the Brain Learn

Through Music?
Kansas State University
Music Symposium
2008
Laurie J. Curtis

Music can move us to the heights or depths

of emotion. It can persuade us to buy
something, or remind us of our first date. It
can lift us out of depression when nothing
else can. It can get us dancing to its beat.
But the power of music goes much, much
further. Indeed, music occupies more
areas of our brain than language does--humans are a musical species.
Oliver Sacks

Purpose for todays presentationIdentify factors that link music to cognitive

learning
Explore some of the ways music can
enhance the brains response to content
Describe ways the music educator can
facilitate learning through increased
engagement in learning opportunities

Center on Education Policy

Revised December 2007:
Choices, Changes, and Challenges
Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB
Era
349 school districts:
Since 2002 62% districts reported that
they have increased time for English
Language Arts and Math

CEP
44% of districts reported cutting time from
one or more other subjects or activitiesdecreases averaging 145 minutes per
week (nearly 30 minutes a day)
These increases/ decreases were more
prevalent in districts with schools identified
for improvement.

Recommendations from the Center

on Education Policy
Stagger testing requirements to include tests in other academic
subjects
Encourage states to give adequate emphasis to art and music**

Require states to arrange for an independent review at least once

every three years for high quality standards and rigor

Provide federal funds for research to determine the best ways to

incorporate the teaching of reading and math into social studies and
science.

Item #2 **
States should review their curriculum
guidelines to ensure that they encourage
adequate attention to and time for art and
music, and should consider including
measures of knowledge and skills in art
and music among the multiple measures
used for NCLB accountability.

What do you know about cognitive

science?
Spaced rehearsal are more conducive to
learning.
You learn something new by connecting to
something you already know.
Movement, emotion, memory activate different
parts of the brain.
Brain plasticity means the brain is dynamicchanging based on experience.

Cognitive science?
The brain needs hydration and sleep to function
adequately.
Emotional response will increase memory of an
event.
Stress which continues over time can change
the brains ability to function efficiently.
Musical training affects the organization and
anatomical structure of the brain.

Multiple cognitive pathways leading

to learning
Memory

Repeated Rehearsal

Embedded Academic Content

Visual Input

Embedded Academic Content

Motoric/ Kinesthetic Input

Embedded Academic Content

Auditory Input/ Linguistic Input

Multiple cognitive pathways leading

to learning
Memory

Repeated Rehearsal

Emotional
Response

Embedded Academic Content

Visual Input

Embedded Academic Content

Motoric/ Kinesthetic Input

Embedded Academic Content

Auditory Input/ Linguistic Input

Memory- how are memories stored

and accessed?
Putting information to music is valuable for those
of all ages (automatic memory).
Using dramatic music as background while
reading or discussing material can make
information more meaningful (emotional
memory).
Associating music with a special event will make
the event memorable (episodic memory).

Do you think being musical is a gift?

Why or why not?
(Research by Stefan Koelch)

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and

the Brain, by Oliver Sacks
Tales and casestudies involving the
power of music in the
lives of humans.
Musicophilia is a given
in human nature and
is developed or
shaped by our culture
and the situations of
our lives.

Amusia
Sensory deficits/ Gifts
Williams syndrome- extraordinarily
responsive to music/ extreme low IQ
Alzeimers
Dementia
Parkinsons Disease
Musical Hallucinations

The use of musical imageryWhen listening to familiar music with

gaps fMRI scans indicate that the
auditory cortex is activated---whether or
not the songs had lyrics or not.
Deliberate, conscious, voluntary mental
imagery involved not only the auditory and
motor cortex, but regions of the frontal
cortex involved in choosing and planning.

Butdid you know that

Imagining music can activate the auditory
cortex and motor cortex almost as strongly
as listening to itand conversely
imagining the action of playing music
stimulates the auditory cortex.
(musicians stating that they feel they can
hear their instruments during mental
practice.)

Brain Waves
(M. Sprenger)
Music affects the brain by releasing endorphins
and affecting the electricity in the brainmeasured in waves (measured by an EEG).
The speed, regularity, and patterns can
determine what type of learning is taking place.
These waves are the speed at which the
neurons are firing.

Delta
Theta
Alpha
Beta

Delta Waves
Sleep- 1-3 cycles per second
No conscious learning taking place
Brain disposes of useless information
New memories are rehearsed (practice
during sleep???)

Theta Waves
Occurs usually twice during each night- 47 cycles per second
Very relaxed- not on a conscious level- except
through meditation or relaxation therapy
Very receptive to memory making at this state

Alpha Waves
Relaxed alertness- 8-12 cycles per second
Facilitates learning and heightens memory
(Baroque Music with 40 60 beats per minuteAdagio)
This music tends to slow down respiration,
heart rate, and reduces stress.

Beta Waves
run, see, go, do waves 12 40 cycles
per second
Needed for new learning and new memory
Used when talking and problem solving
Full attentiveness
Time in this state is very limited- we must use
it wisely!

To remember
Your brain utilzes several types of waves- but
one will be dominant at a specific time.
There must be a delicate balanced for clear
thinking and learning to occur.
Music can affect a students level of arousal and
teachers can use types of music to elicit a
desired state of enhanced learning.

Linking of Cambournes Conditions

of Learning to Music/ Brain
Research
Immersion
Demonstration
Engagement
Expectation & Responsibility
Employment
Approximation & Response

Immersion
An enriched learning environment - both
physically and academically- increases the
weight of cells, branching dendrites and
increasing synaptic responses in the brain.
Student differences in learning styles are
to be considered when designing
environment and making curricular
decisions.

To immerse the students in content

the music educator can
Allow for multiple opportunities to study various
styles of music which are appropriate to a childs
world. Reach for rigor!

Lullabies
Patriotic music
Ballads
Pop-culture/ jingles/ media music

This can also occur through the labeling of items in

the room, literature shared, colors, textures,
props, multi-media presentation.

Demonstration
Children need to have opportunities to
observe skillful modeling of the targeted
task.
The brain changes as a result of experiences.
New dendrites are formed to hook new
information to prior experience.
Remember yesterday when we

The music educator can use

demonstration to
Model a musical style, sing/play with
expression to provide a target for the
student. Provide written and auditory
modeling for students.
Additionally- make sure your students can
hear and see your love for the piece of
music being explored.

Engagement
Children need to be active participants in the
music classroom.
Utilize the idea of brain plasticity and recognize
that the brain is in a constant state of change in
response to experience. Each brain is uniqueassembly-line learning violates a critical
discovery about the human brain.
How about a review?

Password
Team #1
Adagio
Largo
Timbre
Waltz
Time signature
Treble cleft
Quarter note
soprano

Password
Team #2
Pitch
Vibrato
Ballad
Key signature
Whole note
Oboe
alto
Accelerando

To keep students engaged the

music educator can
Provide opportunities for students to sing,
play, talk, reflect, write, work in small
groups, see connections between what is
occurring in the music classroom and the
rest of their school experience.

Expectation and Responsibility

The teacher must hold high expectations for all
students achievement of excellence in order to
develop their interest and aspiration to succeed.

Responsibility can be shared between student

and teacher through the making of choices and
levels of engagement.

The music educator can

Establish a safe and trusting environment with
clear goals and expectations permit success.
Teachers presence and support is critical.
The brains emotional center is tied to the ability to
learn. Emotions, learning, and memory are
linked. Positive emotions drive attention and
memory (Wolfe & Brandt, 1998).

Employment- Meaningful Use

Multiple areas of the brain are activated
simultaneously when students apply singing,
playing, reading, auditory input.
Musical training leads to better verbal memory as
adults (Chan, 1998)
Musical training leads to an enlarged corpus collosum

(Pantev et al. 1998)

The music educator can

Make sure students have a chance to take
ownership as they perform their work for
authentic audiences.
How can the students integrate what they
have learned in a meaningful way- design
the program, write the selection notes,
share in discussion of order of
selections

Michael Bitz (USA Today- 2008)

$250,000 fellowship (Mind Trust
Fellowship) for children to write songs,
create digital tracks, design cover art and
market their own CDs.
There is just something about music that
helps kids connect to themselves and the
world at large. Im trying to capitalize on
that in some way.

Hmmm.
Songs are typically cognitive commentaries on
dangers and opportunities.
? Why did it take George Frederick Handle five
minutes to say Hallelujah, for the Lord God
Omnipotent reigneth?
By extending the vowel sounds and repeating
words and phrases, songs slow down the
expression of the basic message to attach the
emotional power of melody, harmony, rhythm, and
volume.

Approximation and Response:

The brain is designed to perceive and generate
patterns
Music has an innate neurological base because
all scaled forms of music are based on octaves,
intervals, and harmonics. People vary in the
hemisphere of the brain that activates in the
processing of music- this appears to be related
to the level of musical experience of the listener.

The music educator can

Celebrate increased skill and performance
level and allow children to track or
monitor their own improvement. Provide
evidence and allow children to reflect on
growth of skill and ability. This leads to
increased motivation through repeated
rehearsal.

to follow a discipline of smooth, controlled,

voluntary, cross-lateral movement,
involving both hands- and possibly feetwhile simultaneously tracking the notes on
a page so as to anticipate the sounds to
come is a great all-around workout for the
brain.
Smith, 2005

Music has an uncanny manner of activating

neurons for purposes of relaxing muscle
tension, changing pulse, and producing
long-range memories which are directly
related to the number of neurons activated
in the experiences (Weinberger, 1998)

Music offers educators a means of

energizing or relaxing students, conveying
content information, priming certain types
of cognitive performance, and enhancing
phonological awareness. (Smith, 2005)