The benefits of music
Music occurs in all cultures and can have amazing benefits beyond the expression of emotions, which are aimed at learning language, improving memory, focusing attention, coordinating movements and development. Scientific research has shown that if the brain of a musician is compared to that of an average person, many physical differences will be observed. These differences do not tell us that the brains of musicians are superior to those of other people, simply that music can and does cause changes in several areas of the brain.
Music has been recognized from time to time by many scientific and research disciplines for its multiple healing properties. It can contribute to the management of pain and stress, as well as it can have a positive effect on brain functions and learning, physical activity and movement coordination, productivity and creativity, relaxation and sleep, improving mood and reducing negative emotions. All these beneficial properties of music do not only apply to adults, but also apply to children.
Music and children
All children understand the language of music instinctively and have a natural and innate love of music. From a very young age we observe children swaying to its rhythm and trying to tune in to its sounds. They move little hands, little feet and look happy when they hear their favorite sounds! They especially love songs that have rhythm and energy, and very easily such songs can instantly change their mood. Dancing, clapping and singing entertain and bring enjoyment to children.
But music does not only give energy. Soft music can soothe a crying child, and lullabies can relax and accompany a child at bedtime. Recent scientific research has shown that exposure to music stimulates the overall intelligence and emotional development of children. Music interacts with the mind and body, helping children mentally, emotionally, socially, as well as in their physical development.
By listening to music at the right intervals and at the right times, its effect can prove miraculous. In situations of pressure or intense stress, the right music can release anxiety and pain, can be especially beneficial at bedtime or creative playtime, and can help the child relax.
Music in the literature is considered "magical", because it can and does simultaneously reach multiple levels of neurostimulation of the children's brain. Music literacy helps focus attention and improves the ability to interact with the social population. Another study showed that children who had difficulty with timing also had difficulty focusing their attention during other activities. But as the children's musical ability improved, so did their attention. In addition, timing ability has been found to be associated with children's performance on cognitive tests.
Children who receive music education from an early age are proven to do better in school. Music helps children to acquire rhythm, movement and to acquire the perception of space and time. Research again shows that primary school children who learn to play a musical instrument benefit especially in the overall development of speech and movement, language and mathematical understanding.
Summarizing,
1. Music stimulates the brain and specifically brain areas related to learning, mathematics, emotional intelligence and causes pleasant changes in them. For this reason, in comparisons made between the brains of musicians and non-musicians, differences are shown in the above brain regions.
2. Music improves memory and attention focus. Through singing, choreography or playing a melody, the child is given the opportunity to practice his memory and also to cultivate the ability to focus attention on a specific goal.
3. Contact with music strengthens and cultivates creativity, a skill particularly useful for human life in a more general context. By activating the imagination and improvisation, music strengthens the child to understand that every problem has more than one solution and every question more than one answer, thus eliminating the process of limiting to a unique solution or answer. Furthermore, it has been found that contact with music enhances the communication of the right and left cerebral hemispheres thus facilitating the combination of new information in many and original ways.
4. Through music-motor activities, the child's mobility is cultivated. Through organized - planned activities, spontaneous music-motor play or musical instrument lessons, the child's spatial-temporal perception, body control, balance, sense of orientation, coordination of movements can be cultivated.
5. Through music, consciously or unconsciously, the child's linguistic, mathematical and physical abilities are cultivated. The child comes into contact with the semiotics of music, reading and "writing" it, with rhythms, scales, specific patterns, times, pauses, fractions as well as with natural phenomena such as the vibrations of strings that produce sounds.
6. Music cultivates in the child skills of active listening to a sound, a rhythm, a melody, and by extension a speaker, a friend, a parent, the teacher who delivers a lesson in the classroom, etc.
7. Contact with music contributes to the good mental health of the child. Through music, the child has the ability to recognize, understand, express his feelings and in this way to relax, give an outlet to his anxiety, manage the pain. Contact with music has been proven to improve mood, combat negative emotions, relax a child and help them not have sleep problems, lead to self-awareness and self-improvement. If contact with music is combined with dance or painting it can also have therapeutic effects.
8. Music has always accompanied man in important moments. It is a "global language" that unites people all over the world. From this perspective, music cultivates a child's sociability, promotes cooperation and requires patience and perseverance, two skills that are cultivated through contact with music and learning an instrument.
9. Through the achievement of specific goals set in a music lesson, through making an effort for the child to reach the desired result as well as through the possibility of self-expression provided by contact with music, self-confidence and the will to achievement of the child's goals.
10. Contact with music and with a musical instrument requires consistency, discipline and responsibility in order to achieve the goals he has set, so he follows these principles in the rest of his life.