“Music Research”

— continued from page three

concerns not only the view of school administrators and school hoards but of children and parents alike. If they view music as the province of a select special few, born with musical talent, then they may he less likely to give it a try, or give up more easily if practice doesn’t produce great sounds.

Research in several areas shows that the capacity to appreciate and play music is part of human nature. The findings come from the fields of biology and infant develop men 1.

Relevant biological information focuses on human evolution. There is good reason to believe that our primate ancestors used musical forms of vocalization to determine mating habits, females selecting males who announced their location by vocalization. That is, the particular quality of musical vocalizations was not the critical issue but whether the female could locate the male by hearing him. Females were more likely to mate with “singing” males [see “Why Do We Have Music”. MRN. Winter 1999. VI. (1)1.

Findings from infant development are more extensive and more direct. They include the facts that the infants have very clear and surprisingly sophisticated abilities to process music and to understand musical building blocks. This starts prenatally, during the last trimester [“Lessons of the Music Womb,” MRN, Winter 1999, VI, (1)) and is manifest in many ways during the early months of life. For ex ample. infants can distinguish between two notes as well as adults can. are sensitive to rhythm, follow the contour of melodies, know the difference between consonant and dissonant harmonies, can mentally segment streams of music into meaningful “chunks” and exhibit musical babbling, which develops systematically and becomes more precise with age [The Musical Infant”: Studies Show Infants are Musical”, MRN, Spring 1994. 1(1): “The Earliest Music Lessons”, MRN, Spring 1995, II (l)~ “Sing, Sing, Sing!”, MRN, Fall 19%. 111(2). “The Musical Infant and The Roots of Consonance.” MRN. Spring 1997. IV (1)]. Moreover, adults know this instinctively and, taking advantage of infant musical competencies. communicate with them in a musical manner, often called “motherese” “The Earliest Music Lessons,” MRN. Spring 1995, 11(1)1.

As I have suggested in other venues, music seems to be at a disadvantage in part because it seems to he too much fun, too enjoyable to have deep educational value! Let me make it clear that the rationale for music and arts education does not depend upon its role in human nature. But as more is discovered about the origins of music and its manifestations in the human neonate, the rationale for music simply becomes overpowering. For example, pre-school music would capitalize on a natural proclivity, rather than letting enthusiasm for music tend to die away. Certainly music in K-12 is called for.

Virtually none of the findings summarized here were known twenty years ago and most of the findings are from the last decade. In short, from a starting point of al- most no knowledge about infants and music over the entire history of music research, a new view of human nature has emerged within the last decade. I should emphasize that the findings were not predicted and have been very surprising. Even now, they are not part of textbooks on music.

This research shows not only that music is a human endowment but that music research can make major advances in a relatively short time. But that time period is still a matter of years for discovery and more years for full dissemination and acceptance. Thus, while a foundational set of discoveries has been made about music and human nature, a generation may be required for the findings to change Society’s views of music, unless the public, government and educational.

Does music have benefits for other cognitive processes?

There is a great deal of interest in the effects of music on non-musical activities, particularly cognitive processes such as attention, learning, memory, reasoning and problem solving. We have already alluded to questions about music and intelligence (see above, “About Music Research”). In the minds of many people who are not music educators, a strict but erroneous line is drawn between “music” and “cognitive processes.” But music listening and music-making is cognitive in all respects. Consider reading a score and playing an instrument. This requires correct perception of the score, abstracting the meaning of the black blobs and lines on the score, paying great attention, learning and remembering all aspects of the musical demands, planning incredibly complex and intricate gross and fine muscle movements, producing the right motor activity, listening to the results and repeating this process. What’s not cognitive? The extra involvement of the emotional regions of’ the brain? So music making necessarily involves most cognitive and also emotional brain systems. It might he unique in this regard. So our question in this section is not whether music benefits “cognitive processes,” because music making is itself a constellation of cognitive processes. hut whether it benefits “other” cognitive processes.

At this juncture we need to make a distinction between “passive” and “active” involvement in music. Passive refers to simply listening to music, including background music, Active can involve several activities. Formal music appreciation is also listening, but listening in an educated way. Learning to read notation and composing music are also active ways to engage in music [“Sight-Reading Music: A Unique Window on the Mind,” MRN, Winter 1998, V (1)1. Learning to play an instrument is of course a very active type of involvement. So when we consider effects of music on other cognitive processes, we need to keep in mind what type of musical activity is involved.