| The Mozart Effect: What is it about?A few | | | | than did other youngsters who received no |
| years ago there was quite a bit in the | | | | musical training. That means the music |
| newspaper and popular magazines about "The | | | | students had elevated spatial temporal |
| Mozart Effect." Many people believed that | | | | reasoning--the ability to think abstractly |
| simply listening to the music of Mozart would | | | | and to visualize physical forms and their |
| raise their I.Q. and marketers went to work | | | | possible variations, the higher-level |
| churning out CD's of Mozart's music for | | | | cognition critical to mathematics and |
| nearly every conceivable daytime and | | | | engineering.Music students continue to |
| night-time task. As a professional musician | | | | outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT, |
| and a musicologist, I had a little problem | | | | according to the 1999 "Profiles of SAT and |
| with that idea then and I still do. However, | | | | Achievement Test Takers" from The College |
| after talking with my friend Don Campbell, | | | | Board. Students with coursework in music |
| author of "The Mozart Effect" I believe that | | | | study/appreciation scored 61 points higher on |
| he did not try in any way to mislead the | | | | the verbal portion of the test and 42 points |
| public into thinking that it does. His | | | | higher on the math portion than students with |
| definition of "the Mozart Effect" is simply | | | | no coursework or experience in the arts. |
| the use of any music at all for any healing | | | | Students in music performance scored 53 |
| purpose at all. That's a pretty widely | | | | points higher on the verbal portion and 39 |
| encompassing concept. Because I did believe | | | | points higher on the math portion than |
| in this I submitted two stories from my own | | | | students with no arts participation.Mean SAT |
| music medicine practice which he did | | | | Scores for Students with Coursework or |
| subsequently incorporate into the book. | | | | Experience in Music - 1999Music: Study or |
| Still, confusion exists and I thought it | | | | Appreciation |
| might be helpful to elucidate a little bit on | | | | |
| some of the original research.It is said that | | | | Verbal: 538 |
| Albert Einstein was a mediocre student until | | | | |
| he began playing the violin. "Before that, he | | | | Math: 534Music Performance |
| had a hard time expressing what he knew," | | | | |
| says Hazel Cheilek, orchestra director at | | | | Verbal: 530 |
| Fairfax County's Thomas Jefferson High School | | | | |
| for Science and Technology, a magnet school | | | | Math: 531No Coursework or Experience |
| where more than a third of the students also | | | | |
| play or sing in musical ensembles. "Einstein | | | | Verbal: 477 |
| said he got some of his greatest inspirations | | | | |
| while playing violin. It liberated his brain | | | | Math: 492All of this to say "you be the |
| so that he could imagine." In the early | | | | judge" but listening to Mozart certainly |
| 1700s, England's King George I also felt he | | | | won't hurt you. My point always is that |
| would make better decisions if he listened to | | | | making music is preferable to passive |
| good music. Reportedly, Handel responded by | | | | listening and that listening to live music is |
| composing his Water Music suites to be played | | | | always preferable to listening to recorded |
| while the king floated the Thames on his | | | | music. Mozart will not, repeat WILL NOT raise |
| royal barge. Even Plato in ancient Greece | | | | your I.Q. but it might help you organize your |
| believed studying music created a sense of | | | | thoughts better before taking a standardized |
| order and harmony necessary for intelligent | | | | test. Dr. Alfred Tomatis, with whom Don |
| thought. Can music really make us think | | | | Campbell and I have both studied and who has |
| better?In 1993, researchers at the University | | | | researched the healing benefits of Mozart's |
| of California at Irvine discovered the | | | | music, recommends the Five Violin Concerti |
| so-called "Mozart Effect" - that college | | | | above all of Mozart's other music for healing |
| students who listened to ten minutes of | | | | properties. Please feel free to write me with |
| Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major | | | | any questions you might have about Mozart or |
| K448 before taking an IQ test scored nine | | | | anything else related to music and |
| points higher than when they had sat in | | | | healing.Helping people to use music for |
| silence or listened to relaxation tapes. | | | | Healing and Wellness, Dr. Alice Cash stresses |
| Other studies have indicated that people | | | | the use of music for health, learning, |
| retain information better if they hear | | | | motivation, relaxation, energy building, or |
| classical or baroque music while studying.The | | | | well-being. She is known internationally for |
| most profound effects take place in young | | | | her work with music and pregnancy, surgery, |
| children, while their brains literally are | | | | addictions, and Alzheimer's disease. A |
| growing. This year, the same researchers at | | | | concert pianist, musicologist, and |
| Irvine's Center for Neurobiology of Learning | | | | psychotherapist, she has traveled around the |
| and Memory found that preschoolers who had | | | | world teaching, entertaining and bringing |
| received eight months of music lessons scored | | | | hope to thousands of people with various |
| 80 percent higher on object-assembly tasks | | | | conditions.Dr. |