TO CULTIVATE THE INTELLECT

It seems that intelligence can be cultivated, just as patience. Especially with the help of music. Various studies and researches demonstrate that music benefits the brain more than many other activities, particularly if approached since childhood. You can either receive a basic music education or master a musical instrument, but it’s important for everyone to get to know music at some point.

Studying music since childhood influences brain flexibility and enhances its development. Young music students won’t necessarily become great musicians, but they will be smarter in more than one way: their logic, language and school marks will improve as well as their social skills and psychological well-being. Playing an instrument involves not only the sense of hearing, but motor coordination too, as well as its integration with visual and auditory stimuli; working with other kids leads to a better understanding of other people’s pace and needs.

Glenn Schellenberg, psychologist at Toronto University, published a research involving 144 children aged six on Psychological Science. They were parted in three groups which were involved in three different kind of activities, respectively music lessons (piano and voice), a theatre course and no creative activity at all. They took an intelligence test both before and after the research period, and the results showed that the IQ of the children that received music lessons had increased more than other children’s. Other experiments of this kind have led to the same conclusions: pupils who attend schools where music is regularly taught have better average marks and less behavioural issues.

Studies demonstrate that the best results are achieved when starting before the age of nine, but they suggest all the same that is never too late to learn how to play an instrument. Instead, the length of the training period seems to be crucial: ten years is the estimated basic time. However, the benefits of music are not strictly related to prolonged activity: they won’t get lost or forgotten with time, but last in the long run, opposing and reducing the effects of cognitive decline or preventing it altogether. Elderly people can only benefit from keeping playing music.

It seems, then, that music can be more than a simple hobby or even profession. Unfortunately, a thorough music education is often granted to talented children only, forgetting that we don’t all have to become orchestra conductors to benefit from it.