More validation for music parents

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Not that we really need any, do we?

 

DW just forwarded this from work:  Is Music the Key to Success?

 

I like this article because its focus is on collaboration and creativity, rather than the tired old "Mozart Effect" or math-music sort of rehash that usually makes the news.

 

A good read.

[Kim in Appalachia]

Nice article.  Thanks for sharing. 

[The Way of My People]

Thanks! There are days I really need to be reminded it's worth it.

[Spy Car]

Well, we are perusing piano with a very serious (Julliard trained) teacher and enjoying the "exposure" to cello in the school orchestra. Music is something my wife and I love, and highly value music education for our child.

 

But I was looking down the playlist of the records I've spun in last week, and realized ComdalIsa Rice and Alan Greensham were not the only sorts of "musician examples" I could come up with.

 

I also had:

 

Bird, Bud, Fats, Billie, Art (Blakey), Art (Pepper), Sonny (Rollins), Sonny (Clark), Sonny (Slitt), Miles, Monk, Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Philly Joe Jones, Grant Green, Charlie Hayden, Bill Evans, Ray Charles, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed, Nico, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithful, Sid Viscious, Debbie Harry, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, and Jerry Garcia.

 

So it wouldn't be hard to write the article: Is music the key to heroin use?

 

I don't need to be convinced music education is a positive, but cherry-picking a few successful people who had musical training as "proof" of "causation" is an unconvincing sort of journalism to me. Even when it plays to my hopes.

 

Bill

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

I don't need to be convinced music education is a positive, but cherry-picking a few successful people who had musical training as "proof" of "causation" is an unconvincing sort of journalism to me. Even when it plays to my hopes.

 

 

 

I would refer you to the article paragraph that says:

 

Will your school music program turn your kid into a Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft (guitar)? Or a Woody Allen (clarinet)? Probably not. These are singular achievers. But the way these and other visionaries I spoke to process music is intriguing. As is the way many of them apply music’s lessons of focus and discipline into new ways of thinking and communicating — even problem solving.

[Spy Car]

I would refer you to the article paragraph that says:

 

Will your school music program turn your kid into a Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft (guitar)? Or a Woody Allen (clarinet)? Probably not. These are singular achievers. But the way these and other visionaries I spoke to process music is intriguing. As is the way many of them apply music’s lessons of focus and discipline into new ways of thinking and communicating — even problem solving.

I saw that. So if these individuals are "singular achievers" what's the point of the article?

 

I'm just playing Devil's Advocte here, but what if you found a list of successful people whose parents drove VW Bugs when they were growing up, and put in the disclaimer (deep in an article) that being driven in a VW doesn't mean you will automatically be successful. How would that be useful?

 

I hope that music instruction pays off in ancillary ways. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But this article is unpersuasive to my ears. It feels like a reporter grasping at straws to create a "story," rather than being quality journalism.

 

Know what I mean?

 

Bill

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Know what I mean?

 

 

No, but I'll let it go at that.

[daijobu]

I saw that. So if these individuals are "singular achievers" what's the point of the article?

 

I'm just playing Devil's Advocte here, but what if you found a list of successful people whose parents drove VW Bugs when they were growing up, and put in the disclaimer (deep in an article) that being driven in a VW doesn't mean you will automatically be successful. How would that be useful?

 

I hope that music instruction pays off in ancillary ways. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But this article is unpersuasive to my ears. It feels like a reporter grasping at straws to create a "story," rather than being quality journalism.

 

Know what I mean?

 

Bill

 

I do.  When I read this article, I felt like what was really going is there was widespread exposure to the arts in the 60s and 70s that many people now in their 40s-60s are musician hobbyists.  Sadly, I don't think the subsequent generations benefit from this exposure to music, primarily in their schools.  

 

But I don't think this shows that musicianship implies success in other areas.  Though there might be a correlation between possessing the patience and tenacity to practice and achieve in music with similar skills  in other areas of life.  

[mathnerd]

Though I am a very strong proponent of early introduction of music education into a child's life (as early as preschool for formal learning and much before that for informal learning), I find this article a little weak on facts. It is true that music training does teach discipline and focus. But the author does not show us how music training is related to "creative problem solving". There is too much conjecture and assumption about music's role in the success of the people mentioned in this article. If all of these people had gone on to early martial arts training in their lives, they would still have focus and discipline.

 

The author is doing a disservice to music education by writing about things that are not supported by facts. How can a person sitting in a cramped practice room all alone practicing a solo piece repeatedly for hours learn about collaboration and creativity? I see discipline and focus in this act, but no creativity or collaboration. Though I concede working in orchestras and ensembles are good for learning collaboration.

 

What I am saying is that all the qualities attributed to successful people in this article could have been gained from other things like yoga, meditation, martial arts, team sports like basketball or just working in an office with creative people around them.

 

What the author could have done is to talk about the recent studies that have come out on Einstein's brain that pointed to his larger than normal Corpus Callosum (the thing that bridges the right and left sides of the brain) and an enhanced right frontal lobe as being reasons for his genius. And this is all being attributed to him being a gifted violinist who started out learning it very early in life (I believe it was when he was 6 years old). Now, that would have been more interesting for me to read.