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How Does Music Influence people at each age level?
Group 2
Dan Craig
Carter Dodeci
Rosemary Eberly
Kelly Wannemaker
EDP 101C
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Humans have a long-standing relationship with music. From earlier ancestral tribes
beating on drums to civilized societies creating complex melodies to soothe the ears, music has
always been an integral part of human life. We use music to lubricate social situations, ease our
minds, and exercise. Music is used as a tool to learn and remember. Students often use made up
songs to remember scientific and mathematical formulas or listen to classical music while
studying. Hearing a song on the radio from our past, through a spark of vivid memories, takes us
back to that time we first heard it. Parents use lullabies to develop a relationship with their child
and help ease them into sleep. Music plays a large role in the development of our mind and lives,
which is why it is imperative to understand this life-long affair.
The past twenty years have shown a rise in studies conducted on the affects of exposing
the child to music while in the womb. However, the practice of engaging with the child while
still in the womb through music has been a long standing tradition of the Chinese since ancient
times. The mothers would walk by streams, talk and sing to their children. While they couldn’t
scientifically prove that this had an effect on the child’s development, thousands of year’s later
science corroborated their theory. According to Dr. Alexandra Lambert of Keele University,
“The auditory system of the fetus is fully functional about twenty weeks after conception.”
(Levitin, 2006, pp 223)
Most babies are exposed to music before they take their first breath. Considering music
can be a collaboration of many different sounds, mothers introduce music to their child in the
womb without necessarily knowing it. The sounds of the mother’s heartbeat, intestinal activity
and breathing are the first music the fetus hears (Abrams). An experiment conducted by Lambert
found that babies are able to remember sounds a year after they were heard in the womb.
However, babies will not remember music played to them prior to the third trimester as the inner
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ear is not fully functioning until that time. In the study, the babies weren’t identifying specific
genres of music, but the rhythm and pace of it. The babies showed preference to the music they
were exposed to in the womb over other music to which they were not predisposed (Babies
Remember Womb Music). The study shed light on why babies identify their mother’s voice, as
they often hear their mother speaking during their time in the womb.
Babies may be able to remember music and sounds heard in the womb, but Lambert does
not agree that prenatal exposure to music increases a baby’s intelligence. “The Mozart Effect”
hypothesizes that playing classical music to a child prenatally will have a positive effect on their
intelligence. The theory is gaining much credence by modern day mothers despite various
scientific studies’ inability to prove the theory correct (Babies Remember Womb Music). “The
Mozart Effect” is named after a classical artist, but its popularity has created a niche for
companies in the modern marketplace. The Lullabelly, a belt that straps around an expectant
mother’s stomach which holds speakers and an MP3 player, is one of many products taking
advantage of the need for mothers to keep their child one step ahead. Even if that step ahead is
before the baby can actually walk (Becoming Mothers).
Music may not raise a baby’s intelligence levels; however, it may help lower a baby’s
stress levels. A mother made a routine of listening to Ella Fitzgerald at the same time everyday
while pregnant. When her baby was born, she played the same music during times the baby was
irritated and it helped to calm her down (Babies Remember Womb Music). There are proven
positive effects music has on a child’s prenatal development as well as the role it has in helping
transition the baby into the world. So while all theories may not hold true, they haven’t been
shown to hurt.
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As babies grow into toddlers, music has shown to have positive effects on this stage as
well. Research has been found that playing Mozart music to premature babies seems to help
them gain weight faster and become stronger. At Tel Aviv Medical Center in Israel doctors
played either 30 minutes of music by Mozart, or no music, to 20 pre-term babies once a day for
two consecutive days. After listening to the music, the babies were calmer than the ones that
didn’t listen to the music. Since the babies who listened to Mozart were calmer they expended
less energy. This is very important in premature babies because when energy expenditure is
decreased, the babies don’t need as many calories to grow, so they can gain weight and thrive
more quickly (Moskowitz, 2010).
Music can also have a positive effect on the development of the brain. Babies are born
with billions of brain cells. During the first years of life, those brain cells form connection with
other brain cells. Over time, kids use these connections regularly and they become stronger.
When babies or small children are exposed to music early on they develop strong music-related
connections. These music pathways can actually affect the way people think. For example
listening to classical music can improve the spatial reasoning of children helping them sharpen
their mind. Classical music, such as works composed by Bach Beethoven, or Mozart has a more
complex musical structure. Babies as young as 3 months old can pick out the structure and even
recognize classical music they have heard before. Researchers think that the complexity of the
structure in classical music helps the brain solve spatial reasoning more quickly (Bales, 2009).
One of the newest forms of introducing music to our toddlers is baby Einstein. These
types of videos are meant to help children develop faster. However, according to a Time
Magazine article, this may not be the case. A research team at the University of Washington
found that few vocabulary words and slower language skills were learned by child watchers of
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the popular videos. Studies have shown that babies learn faster and better from a native speaker
of a language when they are interacting with that speaker instead of watching the same speaker
talk on a video screen. This would suggest that hearing music from real instruments and real
voices will have a better affect on children than from videotapes such as Baby Einstein (Park,
2007).
Music in a natural part of life for toddlers. They tap their feet to the rhythm of nursery
rhymes and may even sing to their stuffed animals. However, the introduction of music at an
early age does more than entertain, it can kick start learning. The connections toddlers make
through listening to music can help them later on in school subjects such as reading and math.
But one of the biggest impacts comes from kids actively participating in musical activities. Fine
motor skills can be improved through dancing and using instruments. Vocal and speech
development can improve through singing. Listening skills and concentration improve with
listening to different music (Lyness, 2009).
Overall the benefits exposing babies and toddlers to music are excellent. Not only can
music sooth babies and calm them down, but music makes important connections in the brain.
These connections are important in the development of the brain and will help kids later in life.
Listening to music, as a baby or toddler will definitely jumpstart the development of certain
skills that will be used throughout life.
Music plays a crucial role in the development of young children and adolescents. It is
almost instinctual to tap our feet or bob our heads when we hear a particular beat or rhythm that
we like. Levitin says in his novel, “We listen to music that has a pulse, something you can tap
your foot to, or at least tap the foot in your mind to” (165). The concept of music and rhythm is
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not a new one either. Societies from the start of man had developed their own forms of music
from the huts of the Eskimos to the villages of South Africa; music is everywhere. What is
interesting is that these early listeners did not have the ability to record their music and pass it
down from generation to generation, yet societies from all over the world seemed to have one
thing in common—music. This showed scientists that music was not a learned process, but an
intrinsic one that we were born with.
The effects of music on the brain start out at a very young age. The part of our brain that
controls our ability to differentiate between music and noise is the cerebellum, which
interestingly enough, happens to be the oldest part of our brain. When asked to listen to a piece
of music compared to random noise, the activity of the cerebellum greatly increased while
listening to music. Seeing the effects of music on the brain, scientists turned to the effects of
music on development, and how listening to music could improve memory. Many students
struggle with learning disabilities and doctors have come to an impasse in terms of diagnostic
results. They had not yet found a way to truly “cure” this problem and improve a child’s ability
to retain information until they experimented with music. Studies have shown that classical and
baroque music with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, stimulate the right and left sides of the
brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of
information. The information being studied activates the left-brain while the music activates the
right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as
playing an instrument or singing, cause more efficient information-retention.
World renowned scientists like Dr. George Lozanov used music as a means to improve
students ability to memorize words. He developed a method of teaching foreign languages in a
fraction of the normal learning time. He was able to take an entire semesters worth of
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vocabulary, and teach it to students in one day. What proved his work a success was the fact that
the students’ retention rate was at 92%. He accomplished this by using the same methods that
Daniel Levitin observed, that is, using certain classical pieces from the baroque period which had
a beat of around 60 beats per minute. Lozanov has shown that foreign languages can be learned
with 85-100% efficiency in only thirty days by using various baroque pieces of music.
Amazingly, his students were still able to recall the information with 99% accuracy, even after
not reviewing for four years.
We see the effects of music all around us. Although genres are constantly changing from
generation to generation, the effects of their rhythm have remained unchanged. Scientists have
proved that developmental changes in learning and behavior are greatly influenced by the music
around us. Classical music evokes the learning process, while popular music has created a social
network among teenagers generation after generation. Its influence not only makes us who we
are, but can help shape us into the person we want to be.
Music has a different effect on every age level; elderly have a completely separate
attachment to it. Being at an older age has an effect on what music they choose to listen to; it is
uncommon to hear the elderly listening to hard rock and Hip Hop. Music has more of a healing
effect on the elderly through things such as hospice and music therapy. It can help them with
their sleeping and recovery from things such as amnesia and dementia. Music is used in a clinical
way as well as a therapeutic and personal benefit.
Finding a way to relax can be hard when you have a lot going on. Many people turn to
music to help de stress their life, including elderly people. Finding calming music such as
instrumentals and a lighter genre such as classical or religious is common in helping to relax. But
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music is not specifically related to relaxation through a certain genre or type of music, it can be
whatever you connect with. Many elderly people are suggested to relax for such things as high
blood pressure and anxiety. If using music is a way to help relax them, than it is a prescription
free solution. Finding your own way to use music towards achieving relaxation can involve
listening to it in your home or a place you feel comfortable in. Elderly people are often in their
homes due to the fact that they are retired so listening to music is a beneficial way of helping to
relax the home even more.
Through reaching relaxation it can help reduce stress and anxiety of the everyday
problems, which keep you from sleeping at night. Sleeping becomes more difficult as people age
and often requires the elderly to take sleeping pills in order to get a good nights rest. If music can
help them sleep at night than it is a beneficial suggestion. Many elderly people are suggested to
do so at Nursing homes in order to reduce the usage of sleeping pills. A study done proved that
elderly people who listen to music before sleeping improves their sleeping by more than a third.
The results showed that both respiratory rates and heart rates lowered allowing for a better time
getting to bed (TAKASHI, M.T. (2007)). Sleep disorders can lead to a great deal of increased
issues such as depression and fatigue. Using music can help to prevent these from taking place as
well as help to cure them if they already exist in elderly people.
In the same terms of finding cures for the elderly, music therapy has shown some great
effects. Sickness such as dementia can be positively affected through the use of music. The
results from tests show that blood pressure decreases as well as changes in the cortisol levels of
the ill. Music therapy is used for relaxation as well for elderly who are forced to lie in bed. Tests
using music therapy showed pain-relaxing in addition to other improvements (Asano, M.A.
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(2007)). Music therapy is something, which shows positive effects on the elderly and does so in a
way without having to pump them with drugs.
As the elderly progress through life, some have to attend hospice towards the end of their
time. Not only using music as a therapeutic tool during sicknesses but through care and comfort
towards the end of life is helpful (Hilliard, R.E.H. (2005)). It can help bring about spirituality
through religious music, lighten their mood, help them through physical discomfort, and reduce
anxiety they are experiencing (Asano, M.A. (2007)). Music can help to improve the patient’s
quality of life for the time they have left. Music itself is something people enjoy listening to on
their own time, so playing it while you are unable to do anything else helps as a coping
mechanism.
Music throughout the life span has different effects on each age level. We chose major
milestone ages such as prenatal, infancy, adolescence, and the elderly. Music is a subject, which
is so vast and has so many options for all personality types and age groups as well. Music has a
different meaning to each age group whether it is through brain stimulation while still inside the
mother or therapy for the ill elderly. Music in adolescence gives them something to relate to and
help through a difficult transition through puberty while infants use music to create happiness
and even to help them learn words and new languages. Something as simple as a little rhythm or
the strum of a guitar according to Levitin can be characterized as music (Davis, S. F. &
Palladino, J. J. (2007). Next to vision, the sense of hearing is our most important link to the
environment, which is why music seems like such a necessity to many people (Levitin, D. J.
(2006)). The ability to hear different tones or pitches is something our ears are programmed to
perceive (Levitin, D. J. (2006)). Music can have such a great effect on a person’s mood and life
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in general. “Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the
heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”
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References
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