Let Them Play… An Instrument

Music has been long used as a powerful force. A carefully chosen musical background can make us feel more relaxed, full of energy, happy, or more powerful. Music is part of everyone’s lives: it tells us how we should feel at movies or when a game is starting. But did you ever wonder about the impact of musical training on a child’s developing brain?

Music and brain development

Learning music is comparable to learning a new language – a language that helps you to communicate not with words, but with notes and melody. However, the principles of information storage and skill building remain the same. It is known that children who pick up a new language by the time they are seven are often able to speak it perfectly. They can be as fluent as in their first language and speak without a discernable accent. They benefit from the plasticity of the young brain, the most amazing stage in our brain development. Most of our brain development takes place before we turn seven years old. The basis of our personality, our behaviour patterns and survival strategies are already in place by that age. Our mental development is conditioned by the life and learning experiences we had before we turned seven.

In modern societies, this is a most unfortunate paradox, because formal schooling doesn’t take advantage of this incommensurable capacity for information storage and new skill building. Of course there will be brain development after that age too, but when it comes to the most important structures, they are all done by the time we enter formal education.

Neuroscientists are discovering many ways that musical training improves the functioning and connectivity of different brain regions. Musical training increases brain volume and strengthens communication between brain areas. Playing an instrument changes how the brain interprets and integrates a wide range of sensory information, especially for those who start before age seven.

Listening to and making music is not only an auditory experience but also a multisensory and motor experience. Making music over a long period of time can change brain function and brain structure.

Learning about music and – even better – studying an instrument have a tremendous impact on the way our children develop attention to detail, attention spans, coordination, memory and ear finesse.

30 minutes a day

Music education is often regarded as an exhausting training with children spending hours and hours going through the same piece – a boring and challenging activity that requires parental pressure and comes with no real rewards for the children. In reality, children should study no more than 30 minutes a day before they are nine years old and rarely more than that after that age. Sometimes, though, they might pick up their instruments and play tunes that they have heard on TV or in a children’s movie and remain engaged for hours! This is when study becomes play.

For the parents who still dread the practice time issue, I present a simple formula: a day has 24 hours, so 30 minutes means that only about two percent of your child’s time is needed to create an amazing ability.

Finding a teacher

There are many study methods when it comes to musical training. Finding a good teacher with good training and experience with kids, who is warm, calm and relates well to your child is often the biggest challenge for any parent.

Do not stop at the first teacher you find or who was assigned to you. If your child is not happy and doesn’t enjoy the classes, or if you are not happy and you feel that the classes could be better, search for someone else.

Teaching, especially when it comes to music, is not only about knowledge, but is also about being empathic, understanding the needs and the limitations of your student, and creating a positive relationship that might last a lifetime.

Some musicians are wonderful performers with great mastery of their instruments but are very poor teachers. Do not be impressed by a CV/resumé or by the way the teacher plays the instrument. Instead, see how the teacher interacts with your child, relates to your child and responds to your child’s needs. Does he or she have realistic expectations from your child? Does your child enjoy the lessons? Does your child feel encouraged and supported?

Music education in Switzerland

For those of us in Switzerland, the amazing variety of resources available for music lovers and music students will make it easier to have a successful music education from the youngest age to PhD level. Since 2012, music education is a constitutional right in Switzerland. It was adopted through the popular vote of September 23, 2012, and has been in force since that same day, by the Federal Decree of March 15, 2012 and Federal Council Decree of January 29, 2013.

So if you are a music lover, you have come to the right place! Switzerland abounds with amazing musicians and instrument teachers, music ensembles, bands and even orchestras for the youngest musicians to join.

Following are some of the main music education providers in Switzerland.

• Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich (MKZ) is the biggest musical institution in Switzerland, with 100 Schools, 500 teachers and more than 14,000 students. MKZ offers music education from the beginning level to PhD level for most instruments and music genres. MKZ is strongly supported by the city of Zurich, most instructional fees are 50% covered by the city, and children can participate for free in a variety of musical projects such as chamber ensembles, children’s orchestras, music camps, and workshops.
• Conservatoire de Musique de Genève was founded in 1835 and had Franz Liszt as one of its piano teachers. Today the Conservatoire has 150 teachers who cover most musical areas and more than 2500 students between the ages of four and 25.
• Musik Akademie Basel is the biggest musical education provider in Basel area. It was founded more than 140 years ago and teaches most instruments and musical styles.
• Musikschule Luzern:  In an era when schooling was reserved for the privileged, music was one of the main subjects here, and most pupils played an instrument very well. Excelling in music was as important as excelling in languages or mathematics.

Understanding music opens a door to a world that is otherwise closed to us, a world which, although it is there for anyone to access, cannot be “read” by all. It is reserved for the fortunate ones whose parents by their own convictions or by circumstance offered them the chance to learn how to play an instrument.

By Raluca Babota

Raluca is a psychologist and the mother of two daughters. She lived in Romania, Japan and the U.K. before relocating with her family to Zurich in 2012. To find out more about her work, visit her webpage: www.psychology.babota.com.

Illustration by Laura Munteanu

Laura has studied Journalism and Advertising, and has been working as a journalist and an illustrator. She has been illustrating for magazines, websites, charity and different campaigns. She lives in Zurich with her husband and her 5 -year- old daughter.

References and Further Reading:

Loui, P., Zamm, A., Schlaug, G. “Enhanced Functional Networks in Absolute Pitch.” Neuroimage 2012. [PDF]

Wan, CY, Schlaug G. (2012). “Brain plasticity induced by musical training.” In The Psychology of Music. London. Academic Press.

Schlaug G, Forgeard M, Zhu L, Norton A, Norton A, Winner E. “Training-induced Neuroplasticity in Young Children.” Ann NY Acad Sci 2009. [PDF]

Hyde KL, Lerch J, Norton A, Forgeard M, Winnder E, Evans AC, Schlaug G. “The Effects of Musical Training on Structural Brain Development.” Ann NY Acad Sci 2009. [PDF]