There is a 3 year old lying down in bed. The lights are off. It is a cold winter night and the wind blows the trees swiftly through the crisp evening air. The house is silent. Quietness creeps from room to room as if to overcome all aspects of life. The child slowly turns over, exposing one ear to the sounds of music coming from the small C.D player on the nightstand in the corner of the room. J.S Bach’s Toccata in D Minor is playing on repeat.
This is a sight that can be all too familiar in some households across the globe. While the song and artist may vary, many believe in the positive effects that music can have on a person’s intelligence and ability to learn.
Nico Osorio, a senior at Sierra High School, knows all too well the effects of music on a person’s academics. Aside from the everyday struggles of being a high school student, Osorio also spends his days playing, composing, and studying in the hopes to major in music in college.
While a music extraordinaire, Osorio also knows how to tussle the academic sides of life, being a B+ A- average student with a 3.75 GPA.
Osorio has enveloped his life in the aspect of music, being part of the schools marching band, concert band, jazz band, and the drum line. Osorio first developed his interest in music when he was in fourth grade, as he sat and watched a live band concert for the first time that was being conducted by his older brother’s middle school band.
“It was the first time I ever saw a live concert band,” Osorio says. “That’s when my love of music started.”
Dr. George Lazanov, a renowned Bulgarian psychologist did a study to design a way to teach foreign languages in a fraction of the normal or “average” learning time. Lazanov used the common concept that listening to a musical rhythm with 60 beats or more a minute activates the left and right side of the brain, allowing for faster learning and memorizing of vocabulary.
Lazanov concluded that the method he used allowed for students to learn and memorize up to 1,000 phrases and words in one day, about half of a semester of a language class. Along with this conclusion, the average retention rate of his students was increased by nearly 92 percent. Lazanov is not the only person to conduct a study to the musical effects on learning speed and memory.
The University of North Texas also did a study on 20 postgraduates to see if music had an effect on memory. There were two pretests and one posttest. All 20 students scored around the same average results on both of the pretests; however, the 10 students who were listening to Handel’s Water Music while in lectures memorized nearly 78 percent more vocabulary words in a week when the posttest was given.
While studies show that music can and does affect ones learning abilities, many believe in the factor to start at a younger age. The sooner a child becomes interested in music, the better.
Osorio would not recommend a student entering high school to try and begin his musical career at that point in time. Practicing and learning your instrument down to a pinpoint is something that requires a time frame that most high school students cannot afford to expand. Osorio believes that starting younger is the better route to take. It gives you the chance to grow with the music, not just learn it.
Osorio can definitely be labeled in the group of “smart”. Music has played a huge role in his life as far as a passion as well with school. Grades don’t come easy in high schools these days, especially when trying to balance the schedule of extracurricular activities with the hardship and commitment of Advanced Placement (AP) college course classes.
“When you have the creativity of music, in a way it motivates you to be more academically successful as well,” Osorio said.
It is obvious to many that music has positive influences on learning and memory. However, music is not something that should be abused only for academic purposes, or to make someone “smarter”. Music is a love that grows from within. Music, to most, is a way of life.
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