I recently watched a cute video of babies dancing to music. It was adorable, and I laughed, but I began to wonder about why these babies were dancing. Why did the music make them move? How did they so quickly pick up on the beats and rhythms? How primal and instinctual is our connection to music as humans?
Part of why we, as Rock 2 the Core, write educational music is because of the visible engagement that we have seen in our classrooms through teaching with educational music. I have seen students who struggle to pay attention during most lessons, pep up and sing along when multiplication facts are being taught with a song instead of a worksheet. More and more, I am curious about what happens in our brains and our culture that makes this so.
I’ve begun to research how our brains process and respond to music and have found some interesting facts:
Music uses almost every part of our brain!
Music can be defined as organized sound made of these elements: pitch, timbre, key, harmony, loudness (or amplitude), rhythm, meter, and tempo. Processing these elements involves almost every region of the brain and nearly every neural subsystem.
Music effects our mood!
Although this may seem obvious because of personal experiences, music can make us feel happy, calm, excited…it can even effect how much we enjoy our work place or the gym. Music can actually change our brain. At a scientific level, music triggers neurotransmitters that create dopamine and serotonin which can have a powerful influence over mood states.
Music is ancient!
Since music can be found in every culture on earth and through out the time of human existence, there may be evidence that music began before humans dispersed from an ancestral population in Africa over 50,000 years ago, evolving to become a fundamental and universal part of human life.
Wow! As I learn more about the fascinating power of music, I will continue to share, and hopefully make deeper connections to why music can be such a powerful force in education.