Why Study Music?

Music and the Heart – the Poetic Heart

“After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

There is no society or culture, past or present that has not had its own music.  Music is an elemental need. Music is so closely intertwined with our lives that it would be difficult to imagine our lives without it. We celebrate birthdays and weddings with music; we mourn with music. We entertain ourselves with music, and use music to help us through times of pain and uncertainty.  All of us have favorite types of music, and, if we do not play them ourselves, or even if we do, we spend a significant amount of time listening to them.

“Melody is the golden thread running through the maze of time by which the ear is guided and the heart reached.”

Perhaps one of the best things we can do for our children is to provide them with a music education.  Many schools no longer do it. Popular media only play the music which is, well, popular.  There is nothing wrong with that – music is popular for a reason – but there is much more to music than what we hear every day. The great masters of Western (or European) music have much to say to all of us. Proof of this can be seen in that China is now the largest growing market for classical music.

In “To Be Moved by Music”, Dr. Suzuki recognized that this music is universal:

“Every time we listen to and are moved by a great composer’s work we feel that our worth as individual human beings is heightened.  Even if we are not moved upon first listening, gradually we find ourselves drawn towards the spirit of the music.  This is because the more we are exposed to music, the more the high sensitivity of the great human beings [who composed it] accumulates within our senses.  The more times we listen to the music, the greater the composer’s being becomes within our hearts."

“I have heard people say that music is difficult to understand.  It is impossible for someone who has never really heard music to understand it.  After one listens to the same piece fifty times, or a hundred times, then the ability to listen is developed, and one begins to feel moved…."

“Only those who develop the sense of music within themselves are able to feel music with their senses.  There is no other way to develop this sense but to listen to music well."

“When you are heightened to the level of being moved by Bach, then you will realize that you have become one who can also be moved by Beethoven."

“It is because music is a universal language.”

 

Music and the Brain – the Physical Brain

Connections between brain cells are called synapses.  Recent brain research demonstrates that these connections grow stronger with use and become weaker if they are not used.

Brain scans taken during musical performances show that virtually the entire cerebral cortex (central processing area of the brain) is active while musicians are performing.  Almost every system of the brain is at work simultaneously during a music performance, and brain cells are rapidly sending messages.  The “workout” that the brain experiences during a musical performance strengthens the connections between brain cells, allowing the brain to function more efficiently.

Many systems of the human brain rely on the exchange of information across these synapses.    The stronger the synapses, the faster information can be exchanged between brain cells, and the better the following systems can operate:

  • The sensory and perceptual systems: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.
  • The cognitive system: symbolic, linguistic, and reading.
  • Body movements: fine and gross muscle action and coordination.
  • Feedback and evaluation of actions.
  • The motivational and hedonic (pleasure) system.
  • Memory and recall of facts learned.                                                             

Music making offers extensive exercise for brain cells and their synapses in all these systems.  In fact, it would be difficult to find another activity that engages so many of them.  Synapses between brain cells strengthen with use just as muscles do, and there is good reason to believe that music making increases the brain’s capacity by improving these synapses.

From “The Music in Our Minds” by Norman M. Weinberger, Educational Leadership,  
           Vol. 56, No. 3:  November 1998