This document summarizes a presentation given by Dr. Susannah Richards on using music in the classroom. The presentation covered topics such as:
- Research linking music and cognition, including the impact of musical training on brain development and nonmusical skills
- Strategies for incorporating music into the classroom, including the use of rhythm, pitch, and music activities to support language literacy
- Research on the effects of background music on learning, with some studies finding it can enhance engagement and cognition while others found it can decrease focus
- Specific music strategies and activities were provided as examples, such as rhythm games, homemade instruments, pairing music with stories and poems, and suggestions for calming background music
1. Unraveling the
Mystery of Music
and Cognition
Answers, Strategies, and Tools
to Effectively Use Music in the
Classroom
Dr. Susannah Richards
Dallastown Area School District In-Service
February 12, 2015
2. Unraveling the Mystery of Music and Cognition
• Introduction: Why Children STILL Struggle to Learn: Poverty in America
• Amazing Discoveries Link Music and the Brain
• Can Formal Musical Training Yield Long-Term Nonmusical Results?
• Music Strategies in the Classroom
• How Effective is the Use of Background Music in the Classroom?
• Conclusion/Discussion
3. Why Children STILL Struggle to Learn: Poverty in America
Jensen, E. (2013). Engaging students with poverty in mind: Practical strategies for raising
achievement. Virginia: ASCD.
Sleep? Nutrition? Reading? Absent? Parents?
Poor
Learning
4. The Seven Engagement Factors
Jensen, E. (2013). Engaging students with poverty in mind:
Practical strategies for raising achievement. Virginia: ASCD.
5. The Use of Music to Engage Low-Income Students
Yun, Y. B., & Kim, J. E. (2013). The effects of the Orff approach on self-expression, self-efficacy,
and social skills of children in low-income families in South Korea. Child Welfare, 92(4), 123-158.
Results demonstrated a positive correlation between the Orff treatment sessions and the
subject’s improved relationship with friends and ability to more adequately explain thoughts.
The control sample did not demonstrate significant improvement in the same skills.
6. Music and the Brain: The Mozart Effect
http://sunsalvario.it/nel-quartiere/mozart-nacht-und-tag-2011/
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. (1993). Music and spatial task
performance. Nature, 365, 611.
• College students listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D.
• Observed a short-lived increase in spatial intelligence, but validity of study in
question because comparison conditions were problematic.
• The results created post-study furor!
• Formation of new questions:
• Is it possible that music primes certain regions of the brain or overlaps in
the processing of information, but is not utilized with a traditional
approach to education?
• Is it possible to achieve positive transfer effects between cognitive
domains?
• What would happen if researchers explored the instructional use of
music, instead of the passive use of music?
7. Brain Basics: Music and Cognition
A popular overgeneralization of brain function is the misconception that the left
hemisphere is strictly analytical and right hemisphere is firmly artistic…
Levitin, D. J. (2006). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. NY: Plume.
http://www.learn.ppdictionary.com/brain_development.htm
8. Current Brain Hemisphere Delineations
Levitin, D. J. (2006). This is your brain on music:
The science of a human obsession. NY: Plume.
• Right Hemisphere:
• Determine the shape of a phrase (not the intervals)
• Distinguish tones that are close in pitch
• Left Hemisphere:
• Identify the title of a song
• Name a performer
• Identify an instrument
• Recognize a musical interval
• Bilateral:
• Discuss music
• Listen to music
• Perform music http://critical-thinking-implementing-mmusicmusic.wikispaces.com/
• Compose music
9. Cortical Auditory Response Variability
Strait, D. L. & Kraus, N. (2011). Can you hear me now? Musical training shapes functional brain networks for selective auditory attention and
hearing speech in noise. Frontiers in Psychology, 2(113), 1-10.
Results determined that musicians demonstrate strengthened brain networks for selective auditory attention; but nonmusicians
demonstrated decreased prefrontal response variability with auditory attention. The researchers surmised that musical training may assist in
the prevention and remediation of learners who demonstrate impairment in language-related skills.
10. Musical Ability Versus Music Lessons
• Musical Ability
• Douglas, S., & Willatts, P. (1994). The relationship between musical ability and
literacy skills. Journal of Research in Reading, 17(2), 99-107.
• Gromko, J. E. & Poorman, A. S. (1998). Developmental trends and relationships in
children’s aural perception and symbol use. Journal Research in Music Education 46,
16-23.
• Lamb, S., & Gregory, A. (1993). The relationship between music and reading in
beginning readers. Educational Psychology, 13(1), 19-28.
• Music Lessons
• Schellenberg, E. G. (2003). Music lessons and IQ. Paper presented at the biennial
meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa. FL.
• Schellenberg, E. G. (2003). Does exposure to music have beneficial side effects? In I.
Peretz & R. Zatorre (Eds.), The cognitive neuroscience of music, (pp. 430-448). New
York: Oxford University Press.
11. Neurological Studies and Cognitive Implications
• The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (2008). (Asbury & Rich, Eds.) Learning, arts, and
the brain. NY: Dana Press.
• Habib, M., & Besson, M. (2009). What do music training and musical experience teach us about brain
plasticity? Music Perception, 26(3), 279-286.
• Ho, Y-C., Cheung, M-C., & Chan, A. S. (2003). Music training improves verbal but not visual memory:
Cross-sectional and longitudinal exploration in children. Neuropsychology, 17(3), 439-450.
• Levitin, D. J., & Tirovolas, A. K. (2009). Current advances in the cognitive neuroscience of music.
Cognitive Neuroscience of Music, 211-231.
• Moreno, S., Marques, C., Santos, A., Santos, M., Castro, S., & Besson, M. (2009). Musical training
influences linguistic abilities in 8-year-old children: More evidence for brain plasticity. Cerebral
Cortex, 19(3), 712-723.
• Ratey, J. (2002). A user’s guide to the brain: Perception, attention and the four theaters of the brain.
NY: Vintage Books.
• Schlaug, G., Jӓncke, L., Huang, Y., Staiger, J. D., & Steinmetz, H. (1995). Increased corpus callosum size
in musicians. Neuropsychologia, 33(8), 1047-1055.
• Wong, P. C. M., Skoe, E., Russo, N. M., Dees, T., & Kraus, N. (2007). Musical experience shapes human
brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch patterns. Nature Neuroscience 10(4), 420-422.
12. Music Remediation for Learning Impairments
• Gromko, J. E. (2005). The effect of music instruction on phonemic awareness
in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53(3), 199-209.
• Kraus, N., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2010). Music training for the development of
auditory skills. Nat. Rev. Neuroscience, 11, 599-605.
• Overy, K. (2000). Dyslexia, temporal processing and music: The potential of
music as an early learning aid for dyslexic children. Psychology of Music, 28,
218-229.
• Patel, A. D. (2011). Why would musical training benefit the neural encoding of
speech? The OPERA hypothesis. Frontiers in Psychology, 2(142), 1-13.
13. Music Strategies for the Classroom
• Why use rhythm activities in the classroom?
• What rhythmic activities promote engagement?
• What are the foundational principles for pitch activities in the
classroom?
• What pitch activities promote engagement?
• How can I include music with language literacy activities?
• Does background music enhance or decrease student learning?
14. Rhythm Strategies in the Classroom
“Rhythm testing is not language-based—the same test can be administered to pre-readers of any language
background” (p. 766).
Moritz, C., Yampolsky, S., Papadelis, G., Thomson, J., & Wolf, M. (2013). Links between early rhythm skills, musical
training, and phonological awareness. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26(5), 739-769.
Echo clap 4-beat rhythm patterns (q n Q )
1. q q q q
2. q q n q
3. q n q q
4. n n q q
5. n n n q
6. n n n n
7. n q n q
8. n q q q
9. q n n q
10. q Q q Q
11. q q q Q
12. q n q Q
Choksy, L. (1999). The Kodaly method I: Comprehensive music education (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
15. More Rhythm Strategies…
• Perform the beat simultaneously with sung or spoken text.
• Clap (or speak, using “ta” and “ti-ti”) the rhythm of a song.
• Notate syllables of names. Examples:
John q Lindsay n
Jeremy t Elizabeth y
• Incorporate movement: walk (q), tiptoe (n), gallop (o).
• Integrate children’s games, riddles, and chants.
• Employ body percussion.
• Perform or move to an ostinato (repeated pattern) during a song or poem.
• Return to seats at a particular tempo – set by the teacher – using imagery:
Walk as if you are on the moon…
Walk as if you are flying a kite…
March as if you are in a marching band…
Walk as if you are carrying heavy rocks
Tiptoe as if you are touching hot sand…
17. Pitch Strategies in the Classroom
• Most young children sing in a range of 5-6 notes (not below C or above C’).
• Encourage singers to use a proper tone and dynamic level (relaxed – not forced – singing )
• Use arm motions to distinguish pitch levels.
• Communicate through song, using a descending minor third.
• Rely on folk music and nursery songs.
• Many children’s games and chants are based on three or four pitches. Examples:
Three: “Rain, Rain,” “Fuzzy Wuzzy,” “Rain, Rain,” “A Tisket, A Tasket”
Four: “Teddy Bear,” “Ring Around the Rosie,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=44329&picture=teclado-de-piano-notas-musicais&jazyk=PT
19. Music and Language Literacy Ideas
• Add instruments (sound effects) to stories and poems. Examples:
• Sand blocks for train stories
• Dowel rod or rhythm sticks for a clock
• Create new lyrics to a familiar song.
• Create homemade instruments:
• Coconut shells - horse
• Suspended spoons of different sizes – chimes http://bugaboominimrme.blogspot.com/2011/07/everyone-loves-parade.html
• Various containers partly filled with paper clips, sand, rice, or pebbles - maracas
• Variety of containers - drum
• https://www.pinterest.com/maestroclassics/homemade-musical-instruments/
• http://www.buzzfeed.com/verymuchso/12-sweet-diy-instruments-for-cash-strapped-
musicians#.apOdeqBwyr
20. Music, Poetry, and Prosody
“Noise” by 4th grade class from Harlem:
Noise, noise everywhere
What to do! It’s always there.
Bang! Pow! Zoom! Crunch!
Buzz! Crack! Crack! Munch!
In the air, on the ground,
Noise, noise all around.
Dogs barking, cars parking,
Planes flying, babies crying.
Sh…sh…time for sleep
Not a single little peep.
Oh no-through the door-
Comes a noisy, awful snore.
Tick-tock-stop the clock,
Stop the yelling on my block.
Close the windows, shut them tight. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jakefowler/6830911592/
Cotton in ear…nighty night.
21. Music, Poetry, and Sound Effects
“If Things Grew Down” – Robert Hoeft
If things grew down (descending slide whistle) instead of up (ascending slide whistle)
A dog (low pitched bark – ruff, ruff!) would grow into a pup (high pitched bark)
A cat (low meow) would grow into a kitten (high mew)
Your sweater would grow into a mitten.
A cow (low moo) would grow into a calf (high moo).
And a whole would grow into a half.
Big (crash cymbals) would grow into something small (finger cymbals).
And small (finger cymbals) would grow into nothing at all (silence).
22. Music and Stories
• Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes – Eric Litwin, ill. By James Dean
• Mousekin’s Thanksgiving – Edna Miller
• Birdsongs – Betsy Franco and Steve Jenkins
• Iktomi and the Boulder – Paul Goble
• Three Snow Bears – Jan Brett
• The Mitten – Jan Brett
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
• The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin
23. Background Music Research
• Petruzzellis, L., Chebat, J.-C., & Palumbo, A. (2014). Hey dee-jay let’s play that song and keep me shopping
all day long: The effect of famous background music on consumer shopping behavior. Journal of Marketing
Development and Competitiveness, 8(2), 38-49.
• Ding, C. G., & Lin, C.-H. (May—June 2012). How does background music tempo work for online shopping?
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 11(3), 299-307.
• Lai, C.-J., Chang, K.-M., & Lin, Y.-C. (2012). Emotional and cognitive response to placement method of
background music in shopping website. Scientific Research and Essays, 7(46), 3953-3960.
• Lamont, A.M. (2001). Infants’ preferences for familiar and unfamiliar music: A socio-cultural study. Paper
read at Society for Music perception and Cognition, August 9, 2001, at Kingston, Ont.
• Patston, L. L. M., & Tippett, L. J. (2011). The effect of background music on cognitive performance in
musicians and nonmusicians. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 29(2), 173-183.
• Kӓmpfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2011). The impact of background music on adult listeners: A
meta-analysis. Psychology of Music, 39(4), 424-448.
24. Background Music for Brainstorming Activities
https://sharepoint.dallastown.net/elementary/specials/Music/Forms/All%20Docs.aspx
William Tell Overture: Rossini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIbYCOiETx0
Symphony No. 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 60, Allegro ma non troppo: Beethoven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBpGIjmEVBA
Piano Sonata in A Major, K. 331, Allegretto: Mozart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWCx2dUXTVA
Flight of the Bumblebee: Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin performance of Rimsky-Korsakov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLZGr3CIAMA
Lorca: Nova Menco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgjUaDi47YM&list=RDVgjUaDi47YM
Simple Melody – Fourth Movement: Benjamin Britten
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRCx7rvPUFs
25. Background Music to Promote Calm
https://sharepoint.dallastown.net/elementary/specials/Music/Forms/All%20Docs.aspx
Air – J.S. Bach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMkmQlfOJDk
Watermark – Enya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO5tb20qQnA
Weightless – Marconi Union
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKsEqFgKhoA
Blue in Green – Miles Davis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPL7BExSQU
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Morning – Grieg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCEzh3MwILY
Mysterious Island – Mickey Hart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R5L79JkwZs
26. References
Choksy, L. (1999). The Kodaly method I: Comprehensive music education (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition (2008). (Asbury & Rich, Eds.) Learning, arts, and the brain. NY: Dana Press.
Developmental trends and relationships in children’s aural perception and symbol use. Journal Research in Music Education 46, 16-23.
Ding, C. G., & Lin, C.-H. (May—June 2012). How does background music tempo work for online shopping? Electronic Commerce Research and
Applications, 11(3), 299-307.
Douglas, S., & Willatts, P. (1994). The relationship between musical ability and literacy skills. Journal of Research in Reading, 17(2), 99-107.
Gromko, J. E. (2005). The effect of music instruction on phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education,
53(3), 199-209.
Gromko, J. E. & Poorman, A. S. (1998). Developmental trends and relationships in children’s aural perception and symbol use. Journal Research
in Music Education 46, 16-23.
Habib, M., & Besson, M. (2009). What do music training and musical experience teach us about brain plasticity? Music Perception, 26(3), 279-
286.
Ho, Y-C., Cheung, M-C., & Chan, A. S. (2003). Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: Cross-sectional and longitudinal
exploration in children. Neuropsychology, 17(3), 439-450.
27. Jensen, E. (2013). Engaging students with poverty in mind: Practical strategies for raising achievement. Virginia: ASCD.
Kӓmpfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2011). The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Music,
39(4), 424-448.
Kraus, N., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2010). Music training for the development of auditory skills. Nat. Rev. Neuroscience, 11, 599-605.
Lai, C.-J., Chang, K.-M., & Lin, Y.-C. (2012). Emotional and cognitive response to placement method of background music in shopping website.
Scientific Research and Essays, 7(46), 3953-3960.
Lamb, S., & Gregory, A. (1993). The relationship between music and reading in beginning readers. Educational Psychology, 13(1), 19-28.
Lamont, A.M. (2001). Infants’ preferences for familiar and unfamiliar music: A socio-cultural study. Paper read at Society for Music perception
and Cognition, August 9, 2001, at Kingston, Ont.
Levitin, D. J. (2006). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. NY: Plume.
Levitin, D. J., & Tirovolas, A. K. (2009). Current advances in the cognitive neuroscience of music. Cognitive Neuroscience of Music, 211-231.
Moreno, S., Marques, C., Santos, A., Santos, M., Castro, S., & Besson, M. (2009). Musical training influences linguistic abilities in 8-year-old
children: More evidence for brain plasticity. Cerebral Cortex, 19(3), 712-723.
Moritz, C., Yampolsky, S., Papadelis, G., Thomson, J., & Wolf, M. (2013). Links between early rhythm skills, musical training, and phonological
awareness. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26(5), 739-769.
Overy, K. (2000). Dyslexia, temporal processing and music: The potential of music as an early learning aid for dyslexic children. Psychology of
Music, 28, 218-229.
Patel, A. D. (2011). Why would musical training benefit the neural encoding of speech? The OPERA hypothesis. Frontiers in Psychology,
2(142), 1-13.
28. Patston, L. L. M., & Tippett, L. J. (2011). The effect of background music on cognitive performance in musicians and nonmusicians. Music
Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 29(2), 173-183.
Petruzzellis, L., Chebat, J.-C., & Palumbo, A. (2014). Hey dee-jay let’s play that song and keep me shopping all day long: The effect of famous
background music on consumer shopping behavior. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 8(2), 38-49.
Ratey, J. (2002). A user’s guide to the brain: Perception, attention and the four theaters of the brain. NY: Vintage Books.
Rauscher, F. H., Shaw, G. L., & Ky, K. N. (1993). Music and spatial task performance. Nature, 365, 611.
Schlaug, G., Jӓncke, L., Huang, Y., Staiger, J. D., & Steinmetz, H. (1995). Increased corpus callosum size in musicians. Neuropsychologia, 33(8),
1047-1055.
Shellenberg, E. G. (2003). Music lessons and IQ. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development,
Tampa. FL.
Shellenberg, E. G. (2003). Does exposure to music have beneficial side effects? In I. Peretz & R. Zatorre (Eds.), The cognitive neuroscience of
music, (pp. 430-448). New York: Oxford University Press.
Strait, D. L. & Kraus, N. (2011). Can you hear me now? Musical training shapes functional brain networks for selective auditory attention and
hearing speech in noise. Frontiers in Psychology, 2(113), 1-10.
Wong, P. C. M., Skoe, E., Russo, N. M., Dees, T., & Kraus, N. (2007). Musical experience shapes human brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch
patterns. Nature Neuroscience 10(4), 420-422.
Yun, Y. B., & Kim, J. E. (2013). The effects of the Orff approach on self-expression, self-efficacy, and social skills of children in low-income
families in South Korea. Child Welfare, 92(4), 123-158.
