From evidence gathered in the above studies, it is clear that if children are actively engaged in learning music, there will be quantifiable changes in areas of the brain used when playing music such as the auditory and motor cortices. These changes are sustained into adulthood as seen in adult musicians who have continued to use the skills they learned as a child and benefit from the increase in size and connectivity of regions critical for playing music. It should also be noted that in all these studies, the age at which music instruction commenced was prior to 9 years of age – this is thought to be the age where neural plasticity significantly decreases, but the maintenance of skills could be equally important for seeing lasting effects
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The subjects were 67 nine year olds attending school in Montréal, QC whose household income was below $40,000. There were 50 children in the control group. Both groups have similar family structure, parental employment, and income. To test this, each participant received 3 years of 30 minute piano lessons, an acoustic piano, and normal classroom instruction. Both the control group and experimental group had no difference in cognitive ability at the beginning of the experiment. The Developing Cognitive Abilities Test (DCAT), Musical Aptitude Profile, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Canadian Achievement Test 2 (CAT2), and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories tests were administered. These were used to test cognitive abilities, musical abilities, motor proficiency, self-esteem, and academic …show more content…
It was found that these effects were independent of gender, family structure, and income. They suggest that the reason for this was a lack of dedication to learning piano – according to the weekly progress reports provided by the piano teacher, by the end of year 3, there was a decrease in attendance, practice time, and active learning. To further understand these results, a study could involve the typical demographic of students taking lessons (mentioned above). As a teacher who is interested in how music is affecting students, these results may not be generalizable to the average piano student since it was mentioned that the participants are those who would not normally be taking
The subjects were 67 nine year olds attending school in Montréal, QC whose household income was below $40,000. There were 50 children in the control group. Both groups have similar family structure, parental employment, and income. To test this, each participant received 3 years of 30 minute piano lessons, an acoustic piano, and normal classroom instruction. Both the control group and experimental group had no difference in cognitive ability at the beginning of the experiment. The Developing Cognitive Abilities Test (DCAT), Musical Aptitude Profile, Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Canadian Achievement Test 2 (CAT2), and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories tests were administered. These were used to test cognitive abilities, musical abilities, motor proficiency, self-esteem, and academic …show more content…
It was found that these effects were independent of gender, family structure, and income. They suggest that the reason for this was a lack of dedication to learning piano – according to the weekly progress reports provided by the piano teacher, by the end of year 3, there was a decrease in attendance, practice time, and active learning. To further understand these results, a study could involve the typical demographic of students taking lessons (mentioned above). As a teacher who is interested in how music is affecting students, these results may not be generalizable to the average piano student since it was mentioned that the participants are those who would not normally be taking