Mozart Effect Helps School Everywhere

By: Shelby Purvis

Researches have shown that teenagers and kids listening to Mozart have better grades in school. Also other types of music that are slow and soft makes you calm,relaxed, and helps working when doing homework. This effect listening to Mozart is called the ‘‘Mozart Effect.’’

‘‘Through music we learn about ourselves, our culture and that of other,  science and math, creativity, jobs, the environment, celebration and emotions,’’ Brigid Finucane, an Early Childhood Music Instructor at the Merit School of Music in Chicago, said. She has seen the positive effects of music for children.

Many tests of the Mozart Effect has occurred at McMaster University, they compared the people who had musical instruction and the non-musical people. The ones with musical instruction got higher IQ, abilities of literacy, and mathematics.

Scott Cross, a manager for Kindermusik, says ‘‘Kindermusik toddlers as music is used to help them understand concepts like high and low, fast and slow, and start and stop. Reading music notes from left to right reinforces their learning words from left to right in a book. Counting out music (1,2,3,4) and keeping a steady beat reinforces the role of numbers and helps a child better understand their first math concepts.’’

The Mozart Effect was tested in 1993 at the University of California, by physicist Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher. Shaw and Rauscher found out that undergraduates listened  ten minutes of Mozart improved their intelligence.

‘‘The claims that Cambell makes for music are of an almost rococo flamboyance . . . . His evidence is usually anecdotal, and even this he misinterprets. Some things he gets is completely wrong. If Mozart’s music were able to improve health, why was Mozart so frequently sick? If listening to Mozart’s music increases intelligence and encourages spirituality, why aren’t the world’s smartest and most spiritual people Mozart specialists’’? These statements and questions are from Michael Lindon, head of the Division of Music Theory and Composition at Middle Tennessee State University, one out of other people who disagrees with the Mozart Effect. With more research scientist will find out if the Mozart Effect really affects people’s intelligence.

Category: Music