Studies have been done for some
time now on basic intelligence as it relates to playing a musical instrument. While
once it was said that smart kids are in the band or orchestra, for some time
now neurologists have been finding that the kids are smart because they
are in the band or orchestra.
Recently
a series of comprehensive skills tests were run on 5,154 fifth-graders in all
of Albuquerque’s 75 elementary schools...and guess what? In every single test
area, kids who were learning to play an instrument and were participating in
the school band or orchestra received higher marks than their classmates. Not
only that, but the longer the school children had been in instrumental programs,
the higher they scored!
My
wife and I just returned from a 15-day tour of Japan. We were most impressed
that Japan probably has the highest degree of technology in the world today, a
country of 115 million people, and smaller than the state of Montana. In Japan,
every school child is required to play a musical instrument between the 4th
and the 9th grades in school. How do they get such high technology? By
cutting the music programs or by requiring instrumental music? I am also told
that Japanese students consistently score higher on the Musical Aptitude
Profile by Edwin Gordon (although the test is obviously oriented toward
Americans.)
The
theory of bi-lateralism of the brain has been thought by many to be the reason
for increased intelligence in the artistic child. This states that the brain is
divided into two halves: the analytical brain and the subjective-artistic
brain. When both
halves of the brain are not fed
equally, the brain does not develop as a whole, thereby not developing as well
in total intelligence.
I
recently heard Dr. Frank Wilson, a well-know neurologist, speak at a meeting of
the American Music Conference in New York City. His feeling that increased
intelligence is helped by a child playing a musical instrument is based on the fact
that approximately 80-90 percent of the brain’s motor control capabilities is
devoted to the hands, mouth, and throat. He feels that by developing highly
refined control in those areas, a child is stimulating almost the entire brain,
thereby increasing its total capabilities.
Wendell
Harrison
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