Lauren Bell

Professor
English 1201
2.3.19
Works Cited

My essay will attempt to answer whether music classes should be as important as the

basic core classes. I want to understand how music affects the brain and the difficulty of playing

an instrument. How music changes and affects the brain will show the true difficulty of music

education and will show reasoning as to why schools should treat music as they would regular

classes.

Ashford University Staff. "How Does Music Affect Your Brain?" Ashford University. 7 June
2017. 03 Feb. 2019
<https://www.ashford.edu/online-degrees/student-lifestyle/how-does-music-affect-your-b
rain>.

When listening to music, the brain releases dopamine and the brain can anticipate peaks

of familiar music and gives a dopamine rush to the brain. Along with making one feel good,

music is also proven to be good for health. Research shows that music is associated with

immunity-boosting antibodies that protect against bacteria, it also has been proven to help with

the treatment of conditions ranging from depression to Parkinson's disease. Music also plays a

key role in brain development, like how learning an instrument is believed to increase grey

matter and aids learning, memory, and auditory processing. Along with all of these benefits,

music also helps with stress management and other mental wellness issues depending on the

genre.

This article, written by the staff at Ashford University, shows that music is more than just

beneficial in using the brain. Not only does music help out mentally, but it also helps out

physically. Music is beneficial in moods and helping prevent and cure certain mental conditions,
as well as boosting immune antibodies. Students would be feeling happier, less stressed, and be

able to get sick less often, giving them a better education experience.

Blakeslee, Sandra. "The Mystery of Music: How It Works In the Brain." The New York Times
16 May 1995.

Music interacts with language, using pitch, similar to the way the pitch is a detector of

which word has been spoken. As language flourished, so did music and instruments. Language

was used to promote logic, while music promoted social cohesion and helped with rituals.

Language and music are both found to be used on both sides of the brain. The brain decodes

music and has become accustomed to patterns due to exposure in various traditions. After a test

on 3-year-olds, those who took piano lessons weekly did better on tests of spatial and temporal

reasoning, which connects to mathematics and engineering, which might explain why physicists

and mathematicians are often times gifted musicians.

Written in 1995, this article connects the mental success of musicians and gives insight

into how music and language are connected. Those who practice instruments are more likely to

do better in math and subjects similar, like engineering and physics, thus showing why schools

who want their students to perform better academically should place more priority on the arts.

Gersema, Emily. "Children's Brains Develop Faster With Music Training." USC News. 23 June
2016. 03 Feb. 2019
<https://news.usc.edu/102681/childrens-brains-develop-faster-with-music-training/>.

Music instruction accelerates the brain development in young children and aids in

processing sound, language development, reading skills, and speech perception. As children

develop, the amplitude of a specific auditory pathway decrease, but those who learn an
instrument at a young age indicated a faster rate of maturation based on the brain's auditory

pathway.

This article, written in 2016, shows just how important music is in the development of

children’s brains and their maturity levels. Elementary schools do not take music classes as

seriously as core classes, but for students to reach their full potential academically, students

should be taught an instrument at an early age.

How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain. Dir. Anita Collins. TED Talk. July 2014. 3
Feb.
2019
<https://www.ted.com/talks/anita_collins_how_playing_an_instrument_benefits_your_br
ain?language=en>.

Music is a precise art and takes a ton of brain power to even go through a simple song.

By monitoring musicians playing instruments on PET scanners and taking fMRIs, the brain

activity of musicians is able to be viewed. While participants are doing math problems or

reading, scientists are able to see the area where the brain is working, but when listening to

music, the researchers saw multiple areas lighting up at once.

Playing instruments is a different story, listening to music interacts with the brain but it

does not compare to playing an instrument. Practicing an instrument engages almost every area

of the brain at the same time. The disciplined and structured practice of instruments strengthens

the brain's functions and allows musicians to apply their strengths to other activities. Playing

music requires fine motor skills and combines linguistic and mathematical precision. Making

music involved understanding an emotional message throughout the piece, stimulating cognitive

and emotional aspects at the same time. Neurologists have explored the idea that musicians were

already smart to begin with, but a study with random participants showed the same levels of
cognitive function at the start, but those who were musicians showed more enhancement in

multiple areas.

This TEDtalk was given by Anita Collins in July 2014 and will be used to show the

cognitive benefits of playing an instrument, thus proving the idea that schools should take the

arts more seriously.

Jausovec, Norbert et al. “The influence of Mozart’s music on brain activity in the process of
learning.” Clinical Neurophysiology 117 (2006): 2703-2714.

Levitin, Daniel J. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York,
NY: Dutton, 2006.

Ratovohery, Stéphie, et al. “Is Music a Memory Booster in Normal Aging? The Influence of
Emotion.” Memory, vol. 26, no. 10, Nov. 2018, pp. 1344–1354. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1080/09658211.2018.1475571.

Rose, Dawn, et al. “Learning a Musical Instrument Can Benefit a Child with Special Educational
Needs.” Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, vol. 28, no. 2, June 2018, pp.
71–81. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1037/pmu0000209.

Rose, F.Clifford. Neurology of Music. [Electronic Resource]. London : Imperial College Press ;
Singapore, [2010], 2010. EBSCOhost,
sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d
b=cat01128a&AN=scc.b1539145&site=eds-live.

The Musical Brain. Dir. Christina Pochmursky. Perf. Michael Buble, Leslie Feist, and Wyclef
Jean. PBS. 2009. 3 Feb. 2019 <http://pbsinternational.org/programs/musical-brain-the/>.