Music and Musical Ability

Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence

Exposure to music and active participation in music making can enrich a child's life both immediately and over the long term, fostering creativity and self-expression, transmitting cultural values, and contributing to physical, intellectual, and social development. After years of cutbacks, school districts throughout the country are restoring programs in music and the other arts. In 1980 only two states mandated instruction in the arts as a requirement for graduation; now 28 do. Research has shown that listening to music has beneficial short- and long-term effects on abstract reasoning ability. The most publicized study is the one associated with the so-called "Mozart effect," in which college students who had listened to a Mozart piano sonata scored eight points higher than a control group on portions of an IQ test. In other research, the cognitive skills of preschool and elementary school-age children have shown improvement in response to music instruction. The renewed interest in integrating music into the school curriculum has also been influenced by the work of psychologist Howard Gardner, who, in his groundbreaking study Frames of Mind, challenged the limitations of traditional concepts of intelligence, listing musical ability as one of seven basic types of intelligence that need to be nurtured and exercised.

Development of musical aptitude

A child's involvement with music begins even before birth. Studies have shown that the behavior of newborns changes when they are exposed to melodies sung or played to them during the third trimester of pregnancy . Newborns are sensitive to both the pitch and volume of sounds, and they even react differently to different styles of music. In the first months of life, infants already have an impressive ability to discriminate among different pitches, and by the age of three months a baby can repeat specific pitches with a high degree of accuracy. An infant's sense of pitch also plays a role in speech development by making adult speech patterns more readily understandable, beginning with the exaggerated pitches and rhythms of baby talk, or "motherese or parentese " and extending to the pitch characteristics of ordinary adult speech, such as the tendency for voices to rise at the end of a question. An appreciation and understanding of the musical structures that predominate in one's own culture also begin in infancy. Six-month-olds can discriminate tonal relationships in a wide variety of musical scales, including those used in cultures vastly different from their own. By the age of one year, however, this openness has begun to disappear as infants' musical expectations become shaped by the acoustic intervals that characterize the music of their own culture.

Infants make their first rudimentary attempts at singing as early as eight months of age with musical babbling and show the ability to repeat distinct pitch patterns by 12 months. Coordination of movement and rhythm develops by the age of 18 months, as does the ability to repeat specific melodic intervals (as opposed to single pitches). When actual singing does begin, usually between the second and third years, words are learned first, followed by rhythm, and then pitch. By the age of five, a child has acquired a repertoire of songs. Kindergartners can typically recognize musical phrases and understand the concepts of tempo (whether music is fast and slow) and dynamics (loud and soft). Seven-year-olds can identify pitch differences as small as a quarter tone. A sensitivity to the concept of tonality (what key a piece is in) develops between the ages of five and eight, together with the ability to recognize harmonic changes, and is manifested in the ability to differentiate major from minor keys, recognize when a melody has been transposed into a different key, or identify an incomplete cadence (one that fails to resolve to the tonic, or "home tone").

A special musical talent that is now thought to be influenced by both heredity and environment is perfect pitch, the ability to recognize the exact pitch of any sound and, in return, to accurately produce any pitch without being given a starting pitch as a reference point. (Someone who can sing a given pitch with the aid of such a reference point--also a special and valuable skill--is said to have relative pitch.) Although many trained musicians do not have perfect pitch, musical training does foster the development of this talent, which is much more prevalent among trained musicians than among the general population. Recent studies have found that perfect pitch tends to run in families. Researchers plan on studying the DNA of some of these families in hopes of isolating the specific gene that carries this gift.

Fostering music appreciation

One of the best ways for parents to foster an appreciation for music in their children is to provide a positive role model by demonstrating a love for it themselves, exposing their children to recorded music and concerts and, when they are very young, singing to and with them at home.

Infancy

Babies who are exposed to music at home are often able to sing even before they start talking. From the beginning, parents can enhance the bonding process by singing to their infants. Young infants the world over prefer lullabies and other quiet songs with a narrow range of pitches and simple, repetitive melodic patterns. By the middle of the first year, livelier songs can be added, including interactive songs such as "Old McDonald," in which the baby can participate by making sounds or rhythmic movements. Favorite songs often include those with lyrics about animals, including animal noises, and parts of the body, which can be touched in rhythm to the song. Singing can calm infants, provide an accompaniment to familiar routines, and reinforce mastery of new words. Infants can also benefit from exposure to recorded music, musical mobiles, and musical toys, such as stuffed animals that play a song. Between the ages of six and nine months, they can begin playing with musical toys activated by turning knobs or other types of manipulation.

Toddlerhood

Toddlers love imitating sounds and moving to music. Parents should not be alarmed if a toddler cannot sing in tune or keep a beat accurately, as these are abilities that often develop later. Musical development can be enhanced by listening to a variety of music, especially lively music, which toddlers especially enjoy, and playing musical games that involve both song and movement. Toddlers can also use simple rhythm instruments, such as beating on drums or makeshift percussion instruments, shaking maracas (real or homemade), and jangling bells. Toddlers can be sung to (and with) at many times throughout the day, even when riding in the car.

Preschool

Preschoolers can play vocal pitch-matching games and begin learning to recognize the sounds of different musical instruments and associating them with their pictures. If there is a piano in the household, they can begin experimenting with it. Games that involve clapping and moving to music, and also "freezing" when the music stops, are popular at this age. Awareness of musical form also develops as children become able to master songs in which verses alternate with a chorus. Preschoolers can also begin learning simple anecdotes about specific composers and pieces.