by admin | Mar 26, 2019 | Blogroll
Cell phones, tablets, and other screens have become a natural part of our lifestyles. But with the increased use of electronic devices, we are seeing decreased motor skill capacity¹ in our children. However, motor skills are still essential to everyday life, and music lessons can help promote healthy motor skill development.
Which Motor Skills are Developed
Learning an instrument, like the guitar or the piano, can help children establish both fine and gross motor skills. Both instruments encourage strength in the smaller muscle groups. Both also teach students to be coordinated and timely in their movements. Additionally, piano lessons and guitar lessons can help students develop ambidexterity. This is not to say your student will suddenly become ambidextrous. Simply, they will get better at productively using both hands at the same time for the detailed task of playing.
How Motor Skills are Developed
Students get a diverse, well-rounded motor skill set when they play multiple instruments. For example, piano lessons develop gross motor skills by encouraging students to sit straight and strengthen their cores. Guitar lessons encourage fine motor skills with the fun picking and fretwork that students learn. Also, the rhythmic part of music lessons is especially good for motor skill development. Timing is essential to most movements we make, and rhythm is a wonderful instructor for these motor skills. (If you’re looking for more information on various musical instruments or disciplines to develop your child’s specific motor skill needs, Understood² has a great chart.)
Supporting Your Student: Playing an instrument like the guitar requires both strength AND precision of movement to get the right notes. Nothing but practice will help your students nail the precision. However, there ARE inexpensive finger strengthening tools available. These help students develop their smaller hand muscles when they’re biding their time in the car or a waiting room.
Are you interested in enrolling your child in guitar or piano lessons at one of our Olathe, KS locations? Click here to find out more about summer class offerings and enrollment.
Sources:
¹https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-14/ipad-generations-fingers-not-ready-to-write/9143880
²https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/movement-coordination-issues/musical-instruments-and-the-motor-skills-they-require
by admin | Mar 22, 2019 | Blogroll
We’ve talked about how enrolling your student in music lessons can aid in language development and with overall academic success. But the benefits don’t stop with the classroom. They extend to many other aspects of life! In particular, studying music can help instill the following three key life skills in students.
1. Responsibility
Students enrolled in piano or voice lessons have ample opportunity to practice responsible behaviors. Primarily, students must learn to diligently practice – doing their vocal exercises or scales or songs as assigned. Also, in terms of attending the lessons themselves, it’s especially important for students to demonstrate timeliness and respect toward their instructors. There’s a lot of information to cover in one music lesson. Being on time and listening well goes a long way!
2. Discipline
Perhaps one of the more notable ways that voice lessons teach discipline is this: any music lessons require students to discipline their own attention. They have to focus on the musical task at hand and be attentive to what they’re trying to master. Additionally, musical disciplines teach delayed gratification. It takes a long time to achieve proficiency, but it’s so rewarding when students can sing or play how they want! This is a sharp, healthy contrast to time spent on devices or screens – voice or piano lessons can be extra beneficial to today’s children for this reason.
3. Confidence
Finally, music lessons help instill a sense of confidence in students! Working hard to get a song down or excel at a vocal performance, celebrating progress mark after progress mark – that’s incredibly rewarding for a student. Similarly, when a student braves their own nerves to perform at recitals it adds even more to their confidence. They did it! Not only can they progress musically, but they can also perform in front of other people. This can be a huge confidence builder, even for shyer students.
Supporting Your Student: We’re learning that music lessons don’t just teach kids how to play piano or sing well – they’re actually teaching valuable life skills. Remember that lessons are accomplishing multiple objectives and encourage your student when they grow tired. A little encouragement can do so much for a worn-out spirit!
Are you interested in enrolling your child in music lessons at either our south Olathe, KS or our Cedar Creek location? Click here to learn more about current class offerings and enrollment.
by admin | Mar 19, 2019 | Blogroll
Earlier in this blog series, we talked about how music helps develop students’ language abilities¹. We learned how SAT scores and GPA scores are consistently higher for students who take guitar lessons or piano lessons. In this article, we want to explore the specific ways that music lessons nurture these and other academic abilities.
Pattern Recognition
Studying music develops what psychologists call “neurophysiological distinction”. Essentially, music students are better able to distinguish between different sounds, developing excellent pattern recognition skills. Additionally, students learn to read music bar by bar – which means they learn to think in terms of division and fractions. This is why those in piano or guitar lessons develop excellent math skills!
Recall Abilities
Music lessons require memorization and practice for students to succeed. They also often culminate in a recital, where the student displays what they’ve learned. This all works toward developing excellent recall abilities – a skill that serves students well during, say, college exams or any situation where people are required to “think on their feet”.
General Cognition
Though it takes years of guitar or piano lessons to develop proficiency, studies have shown that it only takes a few weeks of music lessons for there to be a measurable increase in students’ IQs²! This may be due in part to how many different functions the brain is required to exercise when making music. NAFME points out that a musician must identify and decode symbols to read music. Then, she must translate those to movement (requiring memory recall of previous music lessons and precise motor skill usage). Finally, the student must confirm her translation via visual and auditory feedback³. No wonder we see such amazing neurological development in music students!
Supporting Your Student: Although there are a lot of exciting extra-curricular activities available to students, one powerful way to support your own student is to commit to music lessons long-term. The longer you invest in your child this way, the more academic advantage they can receive!
Learn more about Greenleaf’s current private music lessons here and contact us for any enrollment questions you may have.
Sources:
¹https://nafme.org/advocacy/what-to-know/music-education-and-academic-achievement/
²https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00711.x
³https://nafme.org/why-music-education-actually-matters/
by admin | Mar 14, 2019 | Blogroll
When people talk about how musical training – especially piano lessons – help with academics, they usually link music with improved math skills. However, music has a big impact on language development. This happens even as early as the third trimester of pregnancy!
Early Childhood
Research shows that “…spoken language is introduced to the child as a vocal performance, and children attend to its musical features first.”¹ Music and speech share a lot of features – intonation, beat, pitch, rhythm, and even melody. Early childhood music and dance classes, like creative movement classes, build on these musical features to aid in learning processes. As infants and young children are exposed to intentional musical sounds, the building blocks for language are set into place.
Elementary School
One 2018 study was conducted on a group of elementary-age children who were taking piano lessons. Interestingly, they found that “as kids’ ears become trained to distinguish between different pitches and tones at the piano… they also seem to get better at parsing subtle differences between spoken words.”² This ability to distinguish differences in spoken words is crucial for developing strong language skills. Children who study music – whether it’s piano, guitar, or voice lessons – consistently tend toward higher reading and writing scores in elementary school and beyond.
High School + College
These reading and writing scores even stay elevated all the way up to college preparation years. On average, students who study music score 31 points higher in both reading and writing on the SAT. ³ So, for that child of yours who wants to play just like her favorite singer-songwriter, it might be well worth enrolling her in those piano or guitar lessons. Statistically, it pays off in both musical proficiency and in all kinds of language benefits!
Supporting Your Student: If you have an early language learner, consider incorporating music time to foster language skills. Engage your kids with activities like clapping and singing along; this helps emphasize rhythm and pitch.
If you have older children, consider enrolling them in a class at Greenleaf! We offer private music lessons for ages 4 and up and Creative Movement classes (which combine music and movement) begin at age 3. Learn more here.
Sources:
¹https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3439120/
²http://time.com/5322121/music-lessons-language-learning/
³https://nafme.org/advocacy/what-to-know/music-education-and-academic-achievement/
by admin | Mar 12, 2019 | Blogroll, Music
Music lessons require a good deal of focused attention, consistent practice and significant patience. If a student follows through with these requirements, it profits students for the rest of their lives.
Faster Processing
Researchers from The Journal of Neuroscience conducted a study with 44 adults to see how they processed sounds. The results? “Participants who had four to 14 years of musical training had faster responses to speech sounds than participants without training”, even though it had been decades since many of them had played! ¹ By investing a few years in music lessons, parents can gift their children with stronger neural processing skills. These skills will benefit them across almost every area of their lives.
Stronger Academics
One noteworthy area where these processing skills help music students is in their academic scores. Studies² show some astonishing results from students who participated in music training. These range from higher SAT scores in math, reading, and writing to increases in IQ scores. However, it isn’t enough for children to simply attend music lessons. Research shows that it’s the students actively participating in classes who receive the full intellectual benefit of music lessons.
Better Self-Discipline
Anyone who has achieved proficiency from piano lessons would agree that the discipline requires — well, just that: discipline. Students who prepare diligently for lessons, arrive on time, and make an effort to focus are the students who experience success in their training. But if children have learned to discipline themselves in one area, it’s that much easier to be self-disciplined in other essential aspects of daily life.
Supporting Your Student: Helping your child attain the full benefits of self-discipline, enhanced neural processing and stronger academic performance can be easier when you know where to begin. Try finding out what encourages your child to practice. What are they driven by? Use this to help them succeed.
Are you interested in enrolling your child in music lessons at one of our Olathe, KS locations? Click here to find out more about current class offerings and enrollment.
¹https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/science/long-term-benefits-of-music-lessons.html
²https://nafme.org/advocacy/what-to-know/music-education-and-academic-achievement/
by admin | Mar 10, 2019 | Blogroll, Dance, Music, Theatre
School is finally out for the summer, and your child is so excited! But… now what? There are roughly two and a half months of free time; deciding how best to spend it can be tricky. As it turns out, fine arts summer camps can offer a fantastic alternative to summer boredom and idleness for your child.
Dance Lessons
During the lull of summertime, studies¹show that students often make poor health choices, like non-nutritious eating habits and inactivity. Enrolling in a dance camp over the summer deliberately counteracts these unhealthy habits. Additionally, it offers a dynamic and fun way to spend free time instead! Dance students often experience gains in flexibility, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness. Also, for students who normally dance during the school year, enrolling in a summer dance camp can prepare them to come back stronger and with improved technique in the fall.
Drama Lessons
Spending part of the summer in drama camps gives children an incredible creative outlet while building practical presentation skills they’ll use all their life. Creativity consistently tops the list of soft skills that employers desire. There’s hardly a more immersive way for students to flex these inventive muscles than when they’re acting out a scene or honing their improvisational skills. Additionally, the collaborative aspect of a drama camp lends itself to creating communities. Students often come away from drama lessons having made treasured new friends.
Music Lessons
For the musically inclined student, summer camps offer a wonderful opportunity to leap ahead in their proficiency. They don’t have the mental load of school on their minds during the summer, and they have extra time to devote to practice. Moreover, music lessons are tied to success in both reading and math outcomes in school – both of which often suffer²over summer.
Whether it’s private piano lessons, drama workshops, or a four-day ballet camp, fine arts summer camps are an excellent way to spend the summer! Learn more about Greenleaf’s summer offerings here.
Sources:
¹https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52eec360e4b0c81c80749630/t/590fae1be58c62a5ff7043af/1494199835890/AoW+1617_34+%28summer+learning+loss%29.pdf
²http://www.readingrockets.org/article/summer-loss
