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MythBuster Countdown #6: Mozart Makes Your Kid a GENIUS

By on June 24, 2010 in Kids, Mythbusters

Just after I began the MythBuster Countdown series, a colleague of mine Kimberly Sena Moore published this post in Psychology Today: The Mozart Effect Doesn’t Work… Talk about perfect timing! Now I don’t have to work so hard to prove my point. Check out her post for some really great info!

We’ve known for years that the Mozart Effect is based upon a study that was replicated and refuted several times. In fact, one of the original researchers Rauscher insisted in a subsequent article that the researchers made no claim that music increases IQ. But the media blew it out of proportion, and then came the ever-popular Mozart Effect.

Fortunately, the Mozart Effect brought the topic of music and intelligence into the public eye. Unfortunately, the solution was based upon passively slapping down a mesmerizing CD of Mozart’s music for your kid. What’s missing? Cause/effect relationships and human interaction.

Can you use classical music to support your child’s development? Yes. Here are some tips:

  1. Play Haydn’s Surprise Symphony (No. 94), and do a big PEEK-A-BOO at each surprise. For toddlers, march around in a line and stop suddenly at each surprise note.
  2. Do baby bounces at each four-beat response phrase in Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz. Do bigger bounces as the volume increases (crescendo). For toddlers, jump on the four-beat responses.
  3. Make up your own exciting interpretive dance to Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8. This piece lends itself to creative movement.
  4. Listen to Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, and identify each instrument as it coincides with the animals. If you have either professional or toy instruments, then play them along with the music. Otherwise, pretend to play the flutes, violins, pianos, etc. as the music goes on. Do the same for Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 and Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
  5. Listen to any opera and play a game. Assign different actions to different parts of the opera. For instance, every time a lady sings a solo, you can run around with your hands in the air. When the gentleman sings, you can eat grapes. Then when the chorus sings, you can spin around. Try this with Puccini’s La Boheme or Madame Butterfly.
  6. Play Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite #1 every morning to wake up. Your little one will associate this piece with waking up, and you can use the piece in a cause/effect relationship.
  7. Use Debussy’s Prelude l’apres-midi d’un faune for the “good night song.” Another cause/effect relationship. The more consistent you are, the more effective the relationship.

Have fun and keep me posted on how you interact with your little one!

Check out the other music therapy Mythbusters:

#9 Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, Right?
#8 Making Music is Just for Kids and Professionals
#7 Drumming is for Hippies Only

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MythBuster Countdown #7: Drumming is for Hippies Only

By on June 8, 2010 in Drumming, Mythbusters, Z

Is drumming for hippies? Yes. Is drumming for non-hippies? Yes.

First of all, I want to point out that (executives in many cases of) the following Fortune 500 companies have used drumming for team building: Qualcomm, Sprint, PepsiCo, IBM, Nike, AT&T, Honeywell International, Motorola, and more.

Second of all, I have a story. After getting to know my parents, you would never assume that they would ever drum. Not to mention, you might imagine the friendly wager between my sister and me when they flew from Georgia to visit me for the first time in California last Thanksgiving. My sister swore I would never get them to drum…

Background on my parents: My loving parents are about as non-hippie as you can get. They are devout Anglicans, a denomination of Christianity that does not allow women to be ordained and uses the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. (Other worship service characteristics include non-charismatic ritual, bowing heads, genuflecting, kneeling, quietly praying, and intellectual sermons.)

My parents are also passionate Republicans. When I was growing up, my parents told me what a tumultuous time the Vietnam Era was because of the increased drug-use, long hair, and as my Dad puts it “the powerful, nihilistic sub-culture which existed then predominantly on campuses and has continued to invade many of our other non-profit institutions.” (He was describing hippies.) My Dad would never be caught dead wearing bluejeans, and he suggests to anyone who wears his/her hat backwards, “It would be far more effective and efficient if you wore a billboard that said ‘World, do not take me seriously.’” My Mom has marched at least twice on Washington. Once against the ERA, and once against Obama’s healthcare reform. They also often attend local Tea Party events. Pretty hardcore, eh?

Back to non-hippies and drumming~ After breakfast the morning they were here last November, I caught a lull in the visit. I went for some drums, put them in their hands, and voila. Following a quick and slightly awkward moment, I belted out “ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS…” and we were off, drumming away. That’s all it took. We sang some patriotic tunes. My Dad played my high school’s signature football drum call, over and over. I couldn’t pull my Dad away. And guess what. He told me that when he was a kid, he had always wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll drummer! I had no idea that my accountant, statistician of a Dad ever wanted to be a drummer!

No wonder he couldn’t get enough drumming. He even sat through a photo shoot with the drums.

As a side note, perhaps my opinions and values are not the same as my parents, but I certainly am proud of them for practicing their beliefs, upholding their values, and being my one and only, authentic Mom and Dad.

Check out the other music therapy Mythbusters:

#9 Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, Right?
#8 Making Music is Just for Kids and Professionals
#6 Mozart Makes your Kid a GENIUS

Special thanks to federico stevanin for the image above.

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MythBuster Countdown #8: Making Music is Just for Kids and Professionals.

By on May 28, 2010 in Music & Wellness, Mythbusters

This post is included in a series of MythBusters about making music. A previous MythBuster post is MythBuster Countdown #9: Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, Right?

When I was a kid, one of the most poignant comments I remember hearing grown-ups say was “My biggest life regret was quitting music lessons.” The biggest regret in ALL of life pertains to music? Wow. That is powerful! I’ve found that many people feel this way. My thought response to this now is “Maybe you quit lessons, but no one ever quits making music.” We’re biologically programmed to make music, and we see evidence of this from birth to end of life.

A few years ago, I decided to stop short of getting my masters in piano at USC. I transitioned from classical piano performance to music therapy at FSU. Just a couple years later, some people asked, “Do you have regrets about giving up piano?” It was such a weird question because my state of mind was never one of “giving up” piano! How is it possible to “give up” something that is such a part of your core?

But I think I understand why people may see it that way. Perhaps if you don’t make it to the “big time,” if you’re not in a band, or if you don’t become a professor or a teacher of your instrument, maybe then it seems like you’ve given up. Actually there is a “Modern Rhythmaculture” (thanks to many including Arthur Hull) fostered by music therapists, drum circle facilitators, and music educators now. The philosophy is that people are musical beings, and music is in our DNA. We’re making music in our breathing, walking, and talking. Making music is equally as available to YOU or the average Joe as it is to a professional musician or a kid.

I recently had a barbecue at my house. I didn’t plan on making music, but someone picked up a guitar. Then people rushed inside to grab all my drums and drum along to the music. It all happened spontaneously. There were 3 formally trained musicians present and probably 25 people making music. 25 people making music who were not formally trained!

If you’re ever wishing you hadn’t stopped taking music lessons, then I recommend converting all the regretful energy into “sing, dance, and drum by yourself or with friends” energy. It’s really just that easy. All it takes is a hand to clap, a finger to snap, a toe to tap, or a voice to rap. Here are a few more ways to get started.

If music can be compared to happiness, here’s a great story. Once upon a time, an anxious, stressed woman went to a temple to see a wise man. She wanted peace in her life, and just couldn’t feel it, she couldn’t find it, she couldn’t make it happen. The wise man said “You want peace, then have it.” She replied, “But there is too much anxiety and sadness in the way.” The wise man said, “What is holding you back from having peace besides yourself?”

I heard another wise man say that if you look for happiness, then you will surely fail! Happiness is already here and now.

Have a comment? Throw it down! I’d love to hear from you.

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MythBuster Countdown #9: Music Therapy is Therapy for Musicians, right?

By on May 18, 2010 in For Music Therapists, Music & Wellness, Mythbusters

Welcome to the countdown! 9 misconceptions about making music and music therapy will be unveiled in the next few weeks. My list is based upon my personal interactions with clients, friends, colleagues, and the general public throughout the years. If you’d like to contribute to the list, please comment below or contact me at Kat@SoundHealthMusic.com.

I like these posts because when I receive an inquiry about music therapy, I can usually answer the inquiry with a link to one simple, pre-written blog post. Please feel free to share links to these posts as answers when you run across inquiries regarding making music and/or music therapy.

Music therapy is therapy for formally trained musicians, right?

No and yes. Actually, no musical experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy. Most of my clients have no formal music training, but some do. In fact, it’s safe to assume that the majority of music therapy clients around the world have no formal music training. According to the Sourcebook by the American Music Therapy Association, the largest single category population served by music therapists is mental health. Mental health is followed by developmentally disabled, elderly & Alzheimer’s, medical/surgical, and neurological disorders.

Naturally, there are formally trained musicians in these categories. When I see patients and clients who are formally trained, they benefit from treatment, but not necessarily more so than others. For example, once I treated an Alzheimer’s patient in a hospital. The staff said “Good luck – She’s non-verbal.” I assessed the patient, then started singing a song that was popular when the patient was in her early twenties. (Research shows that Alzheimer’s patients are more likely to be familiar with music that was popular between the ages of 18 and 26.) Much to the staff’s surprise, the patient sang all the words to all the verses. The family witnessed the patient coming to life through song, and the family claimed that the patient was not a formally trained musician!

Remember: No musical talent or experience is necessary to benefit from music therapy.

Then, is music therapy ever therapy for formally trained musicians?

Yes! Music therapists often treat musicians. Some music therapists specialize in enhancing wellness and overcoming performance-related disorders. One such company is Performance Wellness, Inc. based out of New York, NY. The director Dr. Louise Montello (a licensed psychoanalyst and music therapist) has been treating professional musicians since the early 1990s. According to the website, Performance Wellness, Inc. is dedicated to meeting the mind-body health needs of performers and professionals from all walks of life.

A second example is one of my professional testaments. I treated a woman with Alzheimer’s who had played piano her entire life, but at the time of the session, she claimed that she couldn’t play anymore. With some gentle encouragement, she sat at the piano bench with me. I invited her to play anything. She kept repeating the same interval of a 2nd up, then down the keyboard. I improvised to provide a rhythmic and harmonic framework and support system for her improvisation. We performed for her family. Afterwards, she was smiling and laughing, and her family was in shock. It had been so long since they had seen her connect as coherently as we all had in that moment of her performance.

Read more about music therapy. Stay tuned for MythBuster Countdown #8 next week!

Please feel share any comments, thoughts, or insights below.

Special thanks for Salvatore Vuono for the image above.

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