Music + Education + Technology = Super Smart Kids?

When I was seven years old, I learned how to play the accordion.  Yes, it's true.  I played the squeeze box.  And, even though I was really good at playing, I hated to practice.  I hated it so much, I started to stick my fingers in the vent holes to mess with the insides so my accordion would "break," which prevented me from playing it while my mom sent it out to be fixed.

Oh darn.  No practice for a week!

As an adult, I really regret damaging my accordion and fighting with my mom over practicing partly because I am musically inclined and I lost all that I learned (losing the ability to sight read and play more advanced arrangements), but mostly because I lost the ability to engage the parts of my brain that were not normally used in my creative, right-brained world.  I was right on the cusp of transitioning to a new, bigger and badder accordion and it never happened.  All because I was too stubborn to want to practice and too irritated with the whole process.  If I had been taught to see the value of playing an instrument and how it engages our brains, perhaps I would have stuck with the bellows.  Most importantly, if I had been taught in a more engaging way, perhaps with technology instead of an old crusty teacher who didn't teach me anything of value, I could have possibly grasped difficult concepts in my education more easily, especially anything resembling math.

Fast forward to last summer and our daughter started asking to learn how to play the cello.  She's been drawn to music since she was very small, plunking the keys on our keyboard, sitting on her dad's lap to pluck a few classical guitar strings, and singing songs.  She started her first cello lessons right around the time I stumbled upon a video about how playing an instrument can benefit your brain.  Being an EdTech graduate student, most of the videos I've been watching lately have focused on technology.  But, the video entitled, "HOW PLAYING AN INSTRUMENT BENEFITS YOUR BRAIN" called out to my musical sensibilities, literally shouting out to me that playing a musical instrument can make my brain stronger, and... there's a sweet little cartoon of a guy with a cello (I'll be honest - the cello guy sold me).  The video also got the gears in my head thinking:  how can music integrate with technology in an engaging way for a typical, modern classroom?  

Before delving into how to combine much-needed music with technology, I want to discuss Anita Collins' TedEd animated video.  In order to see how brains worked, science-type folks scanned the brains of people doing normal tasks such as reading or doing math problems (I can't imagine what my brain would look like trying to solve a word problem!) and noticed that corresponding areas of the brain lit up with the different tasks.  When people listened to music, the scientists noticed the brain firing off what looked like little fireworks!  The brain picks apart the music, noticing cool stuff like melody and rhythm, then puts it back together in a "unified musical experience."  This takes place in mere seconds and those "fireworks" going off in our brain is what causes our foot to tap along to our favorite songs (or performing the most epic drum solo ever while sitting in traffic on the 405).  How cool is that?  

But, the big A-HA! moment was when these same science-y people studied the brains of those who played music:  instead of fireworks going off, the brain was having a dang party!  While listening to music engages the brain in interesting activities, playing music engages the brain in a way that's equivalent to a full-body workout.   

The most important point from this video that became the A-HA! moment for me was that playing a musical instrument has been shown to "strengthen and engage almost every area of the brain at once.  Disciplined, structured practice in playing music strengthens those brain functions, allowing us to apply that strength to other activities."  Not only do brain functions strengthen, but playing an instrument seems to allow musicians to solve problems effectively and creatively (they're using both sides of their brains!  At once!) in school as well as social settings.  Memory and executive function also increases.  I often wonder if I had continued playing the accordion or another musical instrument in school, my abilities in subjects I struggled in would have increased.  I think it's worth connecting the dots of music and education, and more recently technology to how important music is and can be in education.

Music has been taught for forever with sheets of music on stands, rows and rows of chairs arranged facing the band director, and a lot of the time, music education doesn't even exist inside a school.  However, more and more studies have shown that music has a positive effect on learning.  For example, according to Katherine Petersen at The Inspired Classroom, music helps students remember and memorize learning material.  Need to learn the 50 states and their capitals?  Watch The Animaniacs'  "Wakko's America Song." It's one of many examples of students using music to learn material.  It makes sense, too, that music helps people remember things.  According to Dr. Emily Mason at the University of Louisville, our brains can store the equivalent of "2.5 petabytes of memory."  The number is relative, though.  Music is rhythmic, lyrical, and emotional, which our brains crave, and because of muscle memory, if we hear a song enough times, it will stick in our heads.  Music has even been at the forefront of studies done on Alzheimer's and Dementia patients, looking at how music provides a gateway to memories for those suffering.  Because music and its effect on the human brain has been studied so extensively, it makes sense that the natural progression would be to incorporate it into education.

This leads me to my final point.  According to Meghan Bogardus Cortez at EdTech Magazine, technology apps can help teachers teaching in different subjects to more easily weave music into their classes.  One excellent example was a high school English teacher who had her students use their school's one-to-one Chromebooks to liven up the poetry unit they were studying by turning the poems they had written into songs.  Using technology and apps as a way to incorporate music into a core subject is a powerful way for students to not only develop their technology skills, but to also strengthen their knowledge of the core subject and their brains.  

Learning how to play a musical instrument is so very important for young people, especially when brains are still developing cognitively.  Finding ways to creatively incorporate music by way of new technology helps make learning fun and engaging, with ample opportunities for enrichment.  I'm looking forward to watching my kid learn how to play the carpet violin and in the process, exercise her brain.  I think I'm going to exercise my brain by teaching myself how to play the flute I received for Christmas two years ago.  Better late than never!  

I've also contemplated buying an accordion, for old time's sake.  ;)

Sources:

Collins, A. (n.d.). How playing an instrument benefits your brain. Ted Ed.  Retrieved from:  https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins#watch

Cortez, M. B. (2019, June 5). Tech in the Music Classroom Creates Efficiencies, Improves Accessibility. Retrieved from: https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/08/tech-music-classroom-creates-efficiencies-improves-accessibility

How to Engage Students Utilizing Music Education Tools & Technology. (2020, January 16). Retrieved from: https://musiceducation.arts.ufl.edu/resources/how-to-engage-students-through-music-education/

Peterson, E. (2015, September 16). Music and Learning: Why Teachers Should Consider Music in the Classroom. Retrieved from: https://theinspiredclassroom.com/2015/09/music-and-learning/

Spielberg, S. (1993) The Animaniacs: Wakko's America Song.  Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvJ9SN8THE

Stevens, A. (2018, January 25). How Many Songs Can Our Brains Actually Remember? Retrieved from: https://wfpl.org/how-many-songs-can-our-brains-actually-hold/