Last summer, I took my niece shopping at an urban clothing store in New York City. While she shopped, I couldn’t help but notice the music blaring on the store’s speaker system—it left my ears ringing and my nerves shot. I could only take it for about a half hour before I just had to leave the store.
Famed singer-songwriter John Lennon founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the popular music scene like no other before, or since.
John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England. He met Paul McCartney in 1957 and invited McCartney to join his music group. They eventually formed the most successful songwriting partnership in musical history. Lennon left the Beatles in 1969 and later released albums with his wife, Yoko Ono, among others. On December 8, 1980, he was killed by a crazed fan named Mark David Chapman. Read Entire Biography: http://www.biography.com/people/john-lennon-9379045#synopsis Counting, rhythm, scales, intervals, patterns, symbols, harmonies, time signatures, overtones, tone, pitch. The notations of composers and sounds made by musicians are connected to mathematics. The next time you hear or play classical, rock, folk, religious, ceremonial, jazz, opera, pop, or contemporary types of music, think of what mathematics and music have in common and how mathematics is used to create the music you enjoy.
Read Entire Article: http://www.ams.org/samplings/math-and-music If you're one of the millions of runners who listen to music while you work out, you've probably wondered about the long-term effects on your hearing. As a new article in the British medical journal The Lancet reminds, your health can suffer in other ways from chronic exposure to excessive noise.
As Mathias Basner, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues write about excessive noise, "Chronic exposure can cause an imbalance in an organism’s homoeostasis, which affects metabolism and the cardiovascular system, with increases in established cardiovascular disease risk factors such as blood pressure, blood lipid concentrations, blood viscosity, and blood glucose concentrations. These changes increase the risk of hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and are related to severe events, such as myocardial infarction and stroke." If you're one of the millions of runners who listen to music while you work out, you've probably wondered about the long-term effects on your hearing. As a new article in the British medical journal The Lancet reminds, your health can suffer in other ways from chronic exposure to excessive noise. As Mathias Basner, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues write about excessive noise, "Chronic exposure can cause an imbalance in an organism’s homoeostasis, which affects metabolism and the cardiovascular system, with increases in established cardiovascular disease risk factors such as blood pressure, blood lipid concentrations, blood viscosity, and blood glucose concentrations. These changes increase the risk of hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and are related to severe events, such as myocardial infarction and stroke." So, ready to turn the iPod down yet? What Basner calls "social noise" includes personal music players, which research has consistently shown people listen to at volumes in excess of what's safe. One rule of thumb is that if others can hear your music, it's too loud. Of course, it's hard to know if that's the case. It's often recommended that, for safety's sake, on-the-run music be kept at low enough of a volume that you can hear what's going on around you. The newLancet article suggests your long-term health might also benefit. Read Article: http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/how-loud-music-affects-your-health Many people think about learning the alphabet, counting and recognizing shapes when envisioning early childhood education. While those are all very important for children to learn, music and dance can be helpful as well. Incorporating music and movement into early childhood education can help young children with development, social interaction and language growth.
Early Childhood Early childhood education, for children 8 years of age and younger, is the beginning of a student's academic experience. This is an important time of learning and brain development for children in preparation for the rest of their education. Playing music and moving to a beat provides stimulating experiences for young children and fosters learning at home or in the classroom. Parents and early childhood teachers can incorporate music and movement into daily routines. Brain Development According to the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association, 85 percent of brain development occurs by the time a child reaches 3 years. As children grow, they need to learn specific activities that are important for development. For example, very young children begin to scoot and crawl for movement and while these activities are part of eventually learning to walk, they are also essential for brain development. Additionally, patterned activities at home or in the preschool classroom, such as clapping to music or jumping in time to a beat stimulate brain function and help the brain to organize thoughts and behaviors. Language Language has its own tempo; speaking a language fluently involves regular pauses, stops and starts in appropriate places. For example, most people do not speak in a constant, running diatribe of words; rather they insert pauses between phrases, they use accents and they increase or decrease the overall speed of speech. Music has a tempo and teaching young children songs that have rhythms and beats or learning to march in time to a tune can help students to learn the rhythm of speaking and improve their communication skills. Types Several different types of music and movement activities can be incorporated into early childhood education. Teaching songs, such as the “ABCs” or “If You’re Happy and You Know It” while clapping or tapping along can teach rhythm and cadence while learning new words. Songs that involve action and hand gestures that follow the music teach children not only the meaning of some new words, but also to move and sing at the same time. Other types of activities for use in the classroom could be dancing with streamers or scarves, playing small musical instruments, singing songs in rounds, singing while cleaning up, marching to the beat or imitating animals. Not only can this be beneficial academically, it also keeps children moving, which is good for their little bodies. Read Entire Article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/527778-importance-of-music-movement-in-the-education-of-young-children/ I would like to introduce you to 4 very important friends of mine. Melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre. These 4 friends are the basic elements that make up my favorite subject - music. They are also friends to musicians, composers, educators and singers.
Although each of these elements have a specific job and play a different role, each one is necessary in the formation and texture of music. But only one element can survive all by itself and that is rythym. Allow me to explain my claim. Melody, harmony and timbre have no beginning and no end without rythym. But rythym can stand alone as "the beat" directs the human heart as well as the human feet, mind and hands. Therefore, the study and understanding of rythym is crucial to the instrumentalist. I say, it is the "heart beat" of music itself. It is as important to music as the human heart is to life itself. But after listening to nothing but raw rythym long enough, a little something more is needed to hold our interest. Melody, Though Art Beautiful...Allow the word "melody" to melt in your mouth. Soften the "d" sound and do it again. Place your tongue a little further back against the hard palate, behind the teeth. This time, linger on the "m" consonant as though you are humming. Do this several times until the entire word "floats". The very word, melody, is a beautiful word. Melody, moves up and down, sometimes repeating in pitch variation. I like to think of melody as the dressing on the rythym. Melody's function is to release emotion and support lyrics when necessary. Melody is derived from scales and modes. The children and off spring of melody are pitch, duration, dynamics and timbre. Melody will often invite a few friends along to join in the fun of making music. Hello Harmony...Harmony is related to a variety of pitches. These pitches usually occur together, at the same time, adding a whole different sound to the melody. When listening to music, we either hear one melody note at a time, or we hear 2 or more notes sounded simultaneously (harmony). The most significant harmony is a chord. A chord consists of 2 or more musical sounds played together. In choir music, the 4-note chord is used most of the time. The terms bass, tenor, alto and soprano determine which of these 4 notes a person will sing. The Mormom Tabernacle Choir is one of the most famous Choirs in the world for singing beautiful, resounding chords. I have attended a live concert and I can tell you, it is an experience never to be duplicated. Timbre - Say What? The quality of musical sound is determined by tone color or timbre, (pronounced tam-bor). Another meaning of timbre is identifying the difference between tones played on a guitar and those same tones played on a piano, or different instrument. A variety of words are used to describe timbre. To help you get the idea, here is a simple list of words commonly used to describe either timbre or tone quality. There are more words of course, but let's begin with these. Brassy Clear Breathy Rounded Reedy Harsh Mellow Warm Flat Bright Dark Rich Resonant Light Heavy Piercing Read Entire Article: http://hubpages.com/entertainment/The-4-Elements-of-Music Welcome to our sand box.
For months now, the NPR Ed Team has been playing with what we like to call "long listen" ideas — worthy stories that we can't tell in three or four minutes. Some ideas don't hold up. The ones that do make it here, including this little adventure to a one-room schoolhouse in the Colombian Andes and this strange tale of two men, separated by an ocean and united by a stolen laptop. For this week's long listen, I sat down with my Ed Team co-conspirator, Anya Kamenetz, to talk about one of my favorite subjects: brains. Specifically, how children learn to read and what can be done to help struggling readers. It turns out, two of my all-time favorite literacy stories (at least from the past two years) began with the work of one researcher: Northwestern University neurobiologist Nina Kraus. First, Kraus found that kids who took music lessons for two years didn't just get better at playing the trombone or violin; playing music also helped their brains process language. Consonants and vowels became clearer, allowing the brain to make sense of them more quickly. This heat map speaks volumes: Improving Your Ear For Music, And SpeechLearning to play an instrument appears to strengthen the brain's ability to capture the depth and richness of speech sounds. To be clear, simply playing Mozart for your kids will not have the same effect. It's still a fine idea. A little Mozart never hurt anyone, but Kraus found that the benefit comes from playing the harpsichord, not listening to it. The Harmony Project study pairs nicely with this story that popped up last summer. This time, Kraus and her team developed an auditory test that can be given to children before they're old enough to read but that can predict, with remarkable accuracy, future literacy trouble. The test is a feast for the ears which my crack producer, Sami Yenigun, recreated for the radio when the story first aired on Morning Edition. As you'll hear, the basic idea of the test is to measure how faithfully children can hear and catalog speech sounds. Kraus says that a child who has trouble processing language at 3 years old will likely struggle to read later on and that a simple, early-warning test could be a powerful tool to help children before they fall behind in school. Now that you're done reading, let the listening begin! Read Entire Article: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/07/22/486452431/from-mozart-to-mr-rogers-literacy-music-and-the-brain The neurological studies of music on the brain seem to indicate that we're hardwired to interpret and react emotionally to a piece of music. Indeed, this process starts very early on. One study found that babies as young as five months old reacted to happy songs, while by nine months they recognized and were affected by sad songs [source: LiveScience]. Physiological states brought on by music only intensify as we grow. Happy music, usually featuring a fast tempo and written in a major key, can cause a person to breathe faster, a physical sign of happiness [source: Leutwyler]. Similarly, sad music, which tends to be in the minor keys and very slow, causes a slowing of the pulse and a rise in blood pressure. That seems to indicate that only happy music is beneficial, but those that know the value of a good cry or a cathartic release may find that sad or angry music can bring about happiness indirectly.
Knowing that music has this impact on the body may eventually influence treatment and care for a wealth of patients. For example, music has been found to boost the immune systems of patients after surgeries, lower stress in pregnant women and decrease the blood pressure and heart rate in cardiac patients, thus reducing complications from cardiac surgery [sources: Lloyd, Wiley-Blackwell]. Researchers at Cal State University found that hospitalized children were happier during music therapy, in which they could experiment with maracas and bells while a leader played the guitar, than during play therapy, when their options were toys and puzzles [source: Hendon and Bohon]. Music therapy has also proven to be more effective than other types of therapies in patients suffering from depression, and it's been shown to lower levels of anxiety and loneliness in the elderly [sources: Parker-Pope, Berger]. Read Article: http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/music-and-happiness2.htm Eric Clapton once described him as the best guitar player alive. In fact, it's been through the support of his many famous and respected admirers that blues master Buddy Guy has come to the attention of rock audiences, from touring with the Rolling Stones in 1970 to soliciting guest appearances from Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Mark Knopfler for Damn Right, I've Got The Blues, the Grammy-winning 1991 album that both reestablished his stature in the music community and marked his greatest commercial success to date.
Guy began playing his instrument as a teenager, inspired by such Southern blues greats as Lightnin' Slim and Guitar Slim. The young guitarist left Baton Rouge in 1957 to test his chops in Chicago, the urban capital of the electric blues. Guy was on the verge of starving when a merciful stranger led him to the 708 Club and persuaded that evening's performer, Otis Rush, to allow him to sit in. Guy's impromptu performance earned him a steady gig at the club, and he was soon playing regularly at other local venues. His fierce, visceral style caught the ear of venerable composer/bassist Willie Dixon, who helped Guy land a contract with the noted blues label Chess Records. Though Guy was originally signed by Leonard Chess as a singer, he became a house guitarist for the company, playing on records by such legendary artists as Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf in addition to making radiant recordings on his own. (Waters was an early Guy supporter, having caught his show at the 708 Club). Since Guy's arrangement with Chess prevented him from getting credit for his work with artists on other labels, he eventually switched to Vanguard. Some of his most memorable work on Vanguard was done in collaboration with the great harmonica player Junior Wells [see entry], who Guy first met in a Chicago club and with whom he maintained a close association until Wells' death of cancer in early 1998. (The duo's last concert, recorded in 1993, was released as Last Time Around —Live at Legends). Some of Guy's most acclaimed solo albums have been recorded live, including the Alligator release Stone Crazy!, one of his personal favorites, which captures a 1978 performance in France. Although many of Guy's fans insist that he is best appreciated in concert, his recordings through the '90s have proved critical and popular favorites. Among them are three star-studded Grammy-winning albums: 1991's Damn Right, I've Got the Blues, 1993's Feels Like Rain (featuring Bonnie Raitt, Paul Rodgers, John Mayall, and Travis Tritt), and 1994's Slippin' In (with the Double Trouble rhythm section, pianist Johnnie Johnson, and guitarist David Grissom). Heavy Love (1998) features Jonny Lang and Steve Cropper. In 1993 Guy received Billboard's Century Award. He tours constantly, appearing at blues clubs and festivals around the world. Guy owns a Chicago club called Buddy Guy's Legends, where he can be found both performing and enjoying the playing of other acts when he's in town. Read Article: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/buddy-guy/biography The beep of ventilators and infusion pumps, the hiss of oxygen, the whir of carts and the murmur of voices as physicians and nurses make rounds — these are the typical noises a premature infant hears spending the first days of life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). While the sounds of such life-saving equipment are tough to mute, a new study suggests that some sounds, such as lullabies, may soothe pre-term babies and their parents, and even improve the infants' sleeping and eating patterns, while decreasing parents' stress (Pediatrics, 2013).
Researchers at Beth Israel Medical Center's Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine conducted the study, which included 272 premature babies 32 weeks gestation or older in 11 mid-Atlantic NICUs. They examined the effects of three types of music: a lullaby selected and sung by the baby's parents; an "ocean disc," a round instrument, invented by the Remo drum company, that mimics the sounds of the womb; and a gato box, a drum-like instrument used to simulate two-tone heartbeat rhythms. The two instruments were played live by certified music therapists, who matched their music to the babies' breathing and heart rhythms. The researchers found that the gato box, the Remo ocean disc and singing all slowed a baby's heart rate, although singing was the most effective. Singing also increased the amount of time babies stayed quietly alert, and sucking behavior improved most with the gato box, while the ocean disc enhanced sleep. The music therapy also lowered the parents' stress, says Joanne Loewy, the study's lead author, director of the Armstrong center and co-editor of the journal Music and Medicine. "There's just something about music — particularly live music — that excites and activates the body," says Loewy, whose work is part of a growing movement of music therapists and psychologists who are investigating the use of music in medicine to help patients dealing with pain, depression and possibly even Alzheimer's disease. "Music very much has a way of enhancing quality of life and can, in addition, promote recovery." Music to treat pain and reduce stressWhile music has long been recognized as an effective form of therapy to provide an outlet for emotions, the notion of using song, sound frequencies and rhythm to treat physical ailments is a relatively new domain, says psychologist Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, who studies the neuroscience of music at McGill University in Montreal. A wealth of new studies is touting the benefits of music on mental and physical health. For example, in a meta-analysis of 400 studies, Levitin and his postgraduate research fellow, Mona Lisa Chanda, PhD, found that music improves the body's immune system function and reduces stress. Listening to music was also found to be more effective than prescription drugs in reducing anxiety before surgery (Trends in Cognitive Sciences, April, 2013). "We've found compelling evidence that musical interventions can play a health-care role in settings ranging from operating rooms to family clinics," says Levitin, author of the book "This is Your Brain on Music" (Plume/Penguin, 2007). The analysis also points to just how music influences health. The researchers found that listening to and playing music increase the body's production of the antibody immunoglobulin A and natural killer cells — the cells that attack invading viruses and boost the immune system's effectiveness. Music also reduces levels of the stress hormone cortisol. "This is one reason why music is associated with relaxation," Levitin says. One recent study on the link between music and stress found that music can help soothe pediatric emergency room patients (JAMA Pediatrics, July, 2013). In the trial with 42 children ages 3 to 11, University of Alberta researchers found that patients who listened to relaxing music while getting an IV inserted reported significantly less pain, and some demonstrated significantly less distress, compared with patients who did not listen to music. In addition, in the music-listening group, more than two-thirds of the health-care providers reported that the IVs were very easy to administer — compared with 38 percent of providers treating the group that did not listen to music. "There is growing scientific evidence showing that the brain responds to music in very specific ways," says Lisa Hartling, PhD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta and lead author of the study. "Playing music for kids during painful medical procedures is a simple intervention that can make a big difference." Music can help adult patients, too. Researchers at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Singapore found that patients in palliative care who took part in live music therapy sessions reported relief from persistent pain (Progress in Palliative Care, July, 2013). Music therapists worked closely with the patients to individually tailor the intervention, and patients took part in singing, instrument playing, lyric discussion and even song writing as they worked toward accepting an illness or weighed end-of-life issues. "Active music engagement allowed the patients to reconnect with the healthy parts of themselves, even in the face of a debilitating condition or disease-related suffering," says music therapist Melanie Kwan, co-author of the study and president of the Association for Music Therapy, Singapore. "When their acute pain symptoms were relieved, patients were finally able to rest." The healing power of vibrationAt its core, music is sound, and sound is rooted in vibration. Led by Lee Bartel, PhD, a music professor at the University of Toronto, several researchers are exploring whether sound vibrations absorbed through the body can help ease the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, fibromyalgia and depression. Known as vibroacoustic therapy, the intervention involves using low frequency sound — similar to a low rumble — to produce vibrations that are applied directly to the body. During vibroacoustic therapy, the patient lies on a mat or bed or sits in a chair embedded with speakers that transmit vibrations at specific computer-generated frequencies that can be heard and felt, says Bartel. He likens the process to sitting on a subwoofer. In 2009, researchers led by Lauren K. King of the Sun Life Financial Movement Disorders Research and Rehabilitation Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Waterloo, Ontario, found that short-term use of vibroacoustic therapy with Parkinson's disease patients led to improvements in symptoms, including less rigidity and better walking speed with bigger steps and reduced tremors (NeuroRehabilitation, December, 2009). In that study, the scientists exposed 40 Parkinson's disease patients to low-frequency 30-hertz vibration for one minute, followed by a one-minute break. They then alternated the two for a total of 10 minutes. The researchers are now planning a long-term study of the use of vibroacoustic therapy with Parkinson's patients, as part of a new partnership with the University of Toronto's Music and Health Research Collaboratory, which brings together scientists from around the world who are studying music's effect on health. The group is also examining something called thalmocortical dysrhythmia — a disorientation of rhythmic brain activity involving the thalamus and the outer cortex that appears to play a role in several medical conditions including Parkinson's, fibromyalgia and possibly even Alzheimer's disease, says Bartel, who directs the collaboratory. "Since the rhythmic pulses of music can drive and stabilize this disorientation, we believe that low-frequency sound might help with these conditions," Bartel says. He is leading a study using vibroacoustic therapy with patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. The hope is that using the therapy to restore normal communication among brain regions may allow for greater memory retrieval, he says. "We've already seen glimmers of hope in a case study with a patient who had just been diagnosed with the disorder," Bartel says. "After stimulating her with 40-hertz sound for 30 minutes three times a week for four weeks, she could recall the names of her grandchildren more easily, and her husband reported good improvement in her condition." The goal of all of this work is to develop "dosable" and "prescribable" music therapy and music as medicine protocols that serve specific neurologic functions and attend to deficits that may result from many of these neurologically based conditions. Rather than viewing music only as a cultural phenomenon, Bartel says, the art should be seen as a vibratory stimulus that has cognitive and memory dimensions. "Only when we look at it in this way do we start to see the interface to how the brain and body work together." Read Article: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/11/music.aspx |
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