MUSIC The KEY of LEARNING

Everyone enjoys music, whether by listening to it, singing, or playing an instrument. But despite this almost universal interest, many schools are having to do away with their music education programs. This is a mistake, with schools losing not only an enjoyable subject, but a subject that can enrich students’ lives and education.

• Read on to learn why music education is so important, and how it offers benefits even beyond itself.

1. Musical training helps develop language and reasoning: Students who have early musical training will develop the areas of the brain related to language and reasoning. The left side of the brain is better developed with music, and songs can help imprint information on young minds.

2. A mastery of memorization: Even when performing with sheet music, student musicians are constantly using their memory to perform. The skill of memorization can serve students well in education and beyond.

3. Students learn to improve their work: Learning music promotes craftsmanship, and students learn to want to create good work instead of mediocre work. This desire can be applied to all subjects of study.

4. Increased coordination: Students who practice with musical instruments can improve their hand-eye coordination. Just like playing sports, children can develop motor skills when playing music.

5. A sense of achievement: Learning to play pieces of music on a new instrument can be a challenging, but achievable goal. Students who master even the smallest goal in music will be able to feel proud of their achievement.

6. Kids stay engaged in school: An enjoyable subject like music can keep kids interested and engaged in school. Student musicians are likely to stay in school to achieve in other subjects.

7. Success in society: Music is the fabric of our society, and music can shape abilities and character. Students in band or orchestra are less likely to abuse substances over their lifetime. Musical education can greatly contribute to children’s intellectual development as well.

8. Emotional development: Students of music can be more emotionally developed, with empathy towards other cultures They also tend to have higher self esteem and are better at coping with anxiety.

9. Students learn pattern recognition: Children can develop their math and pattern-recognition skills with the help of musical education. Playing music offers repetition in a fun format.

10. Better SAT scores: Students who have experience with music performance or appreciation score higher on the SAT. One report indicates 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on math for students in music appreciation courses.

11. Fine-tuned auditory skills: Musicians can better detect meaningful, information-bearing elements in sounds, like the emotional meaning in a baby’s cry. Students who practice music can have better auditory attention, and pick out predictable patterns from surrounding noise.

12. Music builds imagination and intellectual curiosity: Introducing music in the early childhood years can help foster a positive attitude toward learning and curiosity. Artistic education develops the whole brain and develops a child’s imagination.

13. Music can be relaxing: Students can fight stress by learning to play music. Soothing music is especially helpful in helping kids relax.

14. Musical instruments can teach discipline: Kids who learn to play an instrument can learn a valuable lesson in discipline. They will have to set time aside to practice and rise to the challenge of learning with discipline to master playing their instrument.

15. Preparation for the creative economy: Investing in creative education can prepare students for the 21st century workforce. The new economy has created more artistic careers, and these jobs may grow faster than others in the future.

16. Development in creative thinking: Kids who study the arts can learn to think creatively. This kind of education can help them solve problems by thinking outside the box and realizing that there may be more than one right answer.

17. Music can develop spatial intelligence: Students who study music can improve the development of spatial intelligence, which allows them to perceive the world accurately and form mental pictures. Spatial intelligence is helpful for advanced mathematics and more.

18. Kids can learn teamwork: Many musical education programs require teamwork as part of a band or orchestra. In these groups, students will learn how to work together and build camaraderie.

19. Responsible risk-taking: Performing a musical piece can bring fear and anxiety. Doing so teaches kids how to take risks and deal with fear, which will help them become successful and reach their potential.

20. Better self-confidence: With encouragement from teachers and parents, students playing a musical instrument can build pride and confidence. Musical education is also likely to develop better communication for students.

Using music in the classroom

Whether you listen to music in the car while driving; while doing your shopping; during your gym workout; or on television at home, you cannot escape the fact that it forms part of your daily life. Songs have become an essential part of our language experience, and if used in conjunction with language, they can be quite powerful. A number of studies have shown that music can help enhance academic performance; aid in problem-solving and decision-making; and also reduce emotional and physical stress

Music is therefore an amazing tool for teaching languages, especially to children. Good songs will remain with a learner long after a lesson is over, and tend to be picked up very easily during lessons. By getting your learners to sing along to catchy tunes, they will be able to pick up vocabulary, grammatical structures, and the rhythm of the language more easily than trying to read it or study it from a course book.

Have you thought about using music to create a warmer and more inviting atmosphere in your classroom? Entering a classroom for the first time can be intimidating and daunting for people of any age, therefore, why not use music as an icebreaker. Music is highly pleasurable and sustains most people’s attention.

Music can be used to:

• Maintain students’ attention and concentration
• Encourage interaction and facilitate positive relationships within the classroom
• Create appropriate emotional connections to the information being taught, enabling triggers for recall
• Motivate and inspire students
• Raise students’ energy levels

The more relaxed the students feel, the more receptive they will be to learning. Learners are also exposed to authentic examples of the second language through music. Often students associate the study of language with exams, frustration and corrections; therefore, using music can alleviate all these associations.

Considerations for selecting appropriate music for your learners

• There are many types of songs which can be used in a classroom, ranging from nursery rhymes to contemporary pop. Choose songs that are popular and that your students will relate to. It is also important to choose songs that are easily comprehensible. Make sure you find appropriate music for the age and competence level of your learners.
• Choose songs that are uplifting and that elicit positive emotions.
• Songs should have a cultural component so that you can apply them easily. They should act as a complement to your course material.
• There are, however, some disadvantages to using music in the classroom which include the following:
• Some teachers do not take music seriously and are not able to execute lessons appropriately.
• Music can disturb other learners in adjacent classrooms.
• Teachers can lose control of learners very easily.
• The vocabulary may not be suitable.
• Expressions may be different to the rules of grammar and this can be misleading, resulting in mistakes.
• Teachers do not know how to develop material successfully.
• A teacher may not enjoy singing or teaching with music.

MUSIC AN AMAZING TOOL

• I just think actually Teach Through Music’s an amazing thing… we’re really lucky to have it.”

“There may be no more powerful method of learning than through music, and no more important lessons for children than those that focus on character and social and emotional skills,” according to clinical psychologist and author Don MacMannis, Ph.D.

Music is a valuable teaching tool. It makes complex concepts more accessible and enjoyable. It facilitates language learning. Upbeat or uplifting music also may enhance cognitive abilities.

Music appears to light up various regions of the brain related to language, hearing and motor control, MacMannis said. When listening to songs we tend to compare new images with past memories, which involves the association cortex, he said. “And elements of musical surprise activate the cerebellum.”

Music also is highly pleasurable and sustains our attention. This is especially interesting because music has no biological value and shares no similarities with other pleasurable stimuli.

“Pleasurable experiences with songs involve brain circuitry associated with pleasure, reward, and emotion, such as the ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex,” MacMannis said.

Music is a great way to engage your kids in powerful lessons, such as teaching them social and emotional skills. As a recent meta-analysis found, these skills help boost academic performance; improve problem-solving and decision-making; and reduce conduct problems and emotional distress.

One of our very first exposures to music in the classroom is learning our “ABCs.”

For years, teachers have been putting lessons to music to help their students retain and remember key information. I have been teaching third grade for 10 years, and during that time, I’ve incorporated music every day in both my lessons and classroom routines. Here are seven easy ways that you can incorporate music and technology into your classroom to help make your lessons become more engaging and meaningful.

1. Use Theme Songs for Transitions

Train students to move quickly and efficiently to your meeting area, or through stations, using popular theme songs. I particularly like the theme from “Mission Impossible” or “The Magnificent 7.” My students know that when that music is played, they are to bring their white boards and come quietly to the carpet. If they don’t then I will “self-destruct in 10 seconds!

2. Use Music in the Classroom as a Timer 

Play the “Jeopardy” theme song while students are solving the problem of the day. Students learn to work quickly and have their solution ready to share in one minute. To make it more fun, ask them to answer in the form of a question!

3. Teach Multiplication Facts

I recorded myself singing multiplication facts set to familiar songs like Jingle Bells and made them available on my class website. More fun than flashcards, students can practice at home and sing along. I also will sometimes use videos. This is our favorite song for the nines. I promise you it will get stuck in your head and you will be cursing my name at 2 am!

4. Hook Students on New Content with Tunes 

I often use music to help teach new math content, especially more difficult concepts like quadrilaterals and fractions. One of our favorites is Number Rock on YouTube. They have a great selection on every unit topic, including the months of the year calendar song

5. Take 5: Use Music for Brain Breaks

Students often need brain breaks to dance, sing, and get their wiggles out! Taking a five-minute break can help them regain and retain focus, especially when they are completing independent work. I use Go Noodle for my classroom brain breaks. It’s free and there are multiple ways to shake, wiggle, dance, and sing! They also have many fan favorites from popular movies like “Frozen,” “Minions,” and “The Lego Movie.”

6. Use Calm Music During Writing Time 

During our independent writing block, I play a variety of soft music in the background. Students know that when the music is on, they are thinking, brainstorming, and writing. This is also my opportunity to selfishly indulge in my favorite artists, particularly Norah Jones and Diana Krall! Throw in some George Winston and Jim Brickman and my day starts with “Ahhhhh……

7. Teach Poetry? Use Flocking

A method of interpretative dance, flocking is a higher-level thinking “follow the leader” activity that teaches students to interpret poetry or song through movement. As they listen to a song, students take turns creating movements which illustrate the song’s meaning, either musically or lyrically. I know it sounds funky, but it is very powerful, and with concrete small chunk instruction, even my thirdr graders could do it!

Music in the classroom … use it! You will be Walking on Sunshine and your students will love it!

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 Lesson Ideas:

• Fill in the blank spaces
• For example, if your grammar point is on adjectives, you could blank out all the adjectives in a song, and ask students to fill in the words as they hear them.
• Scrambled lyrics
• Cut up all the lyrics of a song and separate them by line or phrase. Divide the class into teams or pairs and get them to order the lyrics as they listen to the song.
• Identify the verb/s
• Write down the verbs that you are wanting to focus on. Whenever the students hear the verb in a particular tense, they need to do something, like put up their hands or jump up and down.
• Musical chairs
• This game can be played as an opener or icebreaker. Choose a song that has a theme relevant to the topic you want to focus on.
• Sing along
• Get students to sing the song after you have taught the lesson. Let them sing it using the words, and then practise singing the song from memory.