Making Music Together Increases Kids’ Empathy

Music education produces myriad benefits, strengthening kids’ abilities inreading, math, and verbal intelligence. New British research suggests it may also teach something less tangible, but arguably just as important:

The ability to empathize.

In a year-long program focused on group music-making, 8- to 11-year old children became markedly more compassionate, according to a just-published study from the University of Cambridge. The finding suggests kids who make music together aren’t just having fun: they’re absorbing a key component of emotional intelligence.

The research team, led by Tal-Chen Rabinowitchof the university’s Centre for Music and Science, studied 52 girls and boys. The kids, chosen from four British schools, were randomly assigned to either a music group, or one of two control groups.

The kids in the music group joined weekly hour-long sessions where they played specially designed musical games. Some of the games encouraged the young musicians to get “as rhythmically coordinated as possible,” while others promoted the idea of “shared intentionality” — say, by having kids compose music together.

In the simplest game, “Mirror-Match,” each child repeated a short musical phrase after it was played by a peer. This kind of imitation is believed to “promote the sharing of mental states” — a dynamic found in a 2010 study of 4-year-olds.

Children in the first control group also met for one hour each week, and played games designed to cultivate empathy through imitation and shared intentions, but their activities involved words and stories rather than music. The kids in the second control group didn’t take part in any special activities.

Read the article here

Why Americans Don’t Like Jazz

Thia artcle has been around online for awhile, but I believe it is quite relevant and helps explain the current marginalization of musical art forms we are experiencing at the moment.

by Dyske Suematsu  •  September 17, 2003

The current market share of Jazz in America is mere 3 percent. That includes all the great ones like John Coltrane and the terrible ones like Kenny G (OK, this is just my own opinion). There are many organizations and individuals like Wynton Marsalis who are tirelessly trying to revive the genre, but it does not seem to be working. Why is this? Is there some sort of bad chemistry between the American culture and Jazz? As ironic as it may be, I happen to believe so.

One day, I was talking to my wife about the TV commercial for eBay where a chubby lady sings and dances to an appropriated version of “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. The lyrics were entirely re-written, and “my way” was transformed into “eBay”. I told her that they did a good job in adapting the original song. Then she said: “Ah, that’s why I like it so much!” She actually did not realize that it was adapted from Sinatra’s song.

My wife and I have always known how differently we listen to music. I tend to entirely ignore lyrics, while she tends to entirely ignore music. We are the two opposite ends of the spectrum in this sense, and it appears that my wife’s side is more common. Many of my friends think that I have a peculiar, or plain bad, taste for music. Whenever I say I like this song or that song, they look at me like I am crazy. Then they go on to explain why it is bad, and I realize that they are referring to the lyrics, not to the music. I then pay attention to the lyrics for the first time, and realize that they are right. The opposite happens often too where many of my friends love a particular song, and I can’t understand what’s good about it until I pay attention to the lyrics.

The eBay example is an extreme case where my wife could not recognize the original once the lyrics were swapped. To her, if you change the lyrics, it is an entirely different song. It is the other way around for me; in most cases, I would not notice any change in the lyrics. The eBay song was an exception; I only noticed it because it is a famous song used for a TV commercial.

Read the article here DYSKE Cultural Critique

Introducing iSCORE

iSCORE is a web-based learning portfolio that has been tailored to meet the needs of music teachers and their students. Generously supported by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage, iSCORE is provided without charge to qualified users, and is a major step forward in the development of online teaching tools. iSCORE is the result of over a decade of research on the use of web-based tools to support learning. In developing iSCORE, musicians and students, aged 8 to 58, offered advice and helped field test the implementation of this tool in music studios and other community music making contexts. Studio teachers, all of whom prepare their students for RCM exams, also contributed to the design and testing of iSCORE. The tool supports music-making with a wide range of features. On the home page, students can create their own profiles and goals. Using the embedded recorder, students can record and save their music-making – repertoire they are studying or compositions they are creating. An annotation feature allows users to make comments directly on video or audio materials, and iSCORE also makes it easy to link to websites, upload documents, and create work directly in the portfolio. There are also links to composition and sequencing tools to encourage creative work. Interactive boxes allow for personalized plans, reflections, and feedback from teachers.

Royal Conservatory of Music iSCORE program

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra

This is an hour long program written by and featuring UK comedian Bill Bailey that’s perhaps best described as what if the cast of Monty Python wrote The Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra? "

Bill Bailey joins forces with Anne Dudley and the BBC Concert Orchestra for an evening of his music and comedy. Using both contemporary and classical references, Bill Bailey explains, in his unique and hilarious way, the nuances of how the orchestra works and the lesser-known influences of various classical composers. Also included are some of his own original works, rearranged and performed by himself and the orchestra under the guidance of musical maestro Anne Dudley." - BBC