Influence Of Music On People's Health & Intellect
Music is everywhere. From radios in the morning, in buses, in shopping malls, grocery stores and even in the chirps of the birds, we are inundated with music. As said by the Chinese philosopher Confucius, "Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without." Music provides entertainment and distraction from problems and serves as a way to relieve tension and boredom. Music provides the opportunity for aesthetic experiences. An aesthetic knowledge can be described as a deep perceptual understanding in which the senses, the emotions and cognition are combined to make meaning through the experiences of creating, making and interpreting aesthetic forms.
Behaviour is defined as the way one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others or is something that a person does that can be observed, measured, and repeated. It is often a response to a particular situation or stimulus. Children are considered to have an emotional or behavioral disorder when their behavior falls outside the norm such as: being inattentive, withdrawn, aggressive, nonconforming, disorganized, immature, or unable to get along with others (Bos, Schuam, & Vaughn, 2000).
Many of these behaviors could be caused by numerous reasons ranging from family and social stressors to hormonal misbalances. Behaviour cannot be addressed separately from learning and wellbeing. Music has an effect on heart rate, blood pressure and cardiovascular system that has been reported in 1918 by Hyde and Scalapino. They reported that minor tones increased heart rate and lowered blood pressure, whereas “stirring” music increased both blood pressure and heart rate.
According to T. Mikushina, "Music is a flow of energy. It directs our emotions, reason and mood. Music acts on the body in two different ways: by direct influence of sound on the cells and organs and by indirect influence on emotions, which in turn affects many processes in the human body relating to behaviour. When music is taught in the classroom, it helps children to acquire useful skills for listening and concentration, provokes their patience and perseverance, which are important for the future and coping with life's problems.
From the view of neuroscience, music making has much to deal our understanding of the brain and the way its various systems can interact to produce benefits for mental health and social welfare, both by integrating our thinking and emotions and helping us unite with others. Music provides a powerful tool to enhance learning because of its prevalent effects on the brain and its ability to prompt experience-dependent neuroplasticity. By connecting the many and varied benefits of music making, it can create an enhanced environment to rouse the fundamental capacity of the brain to adapt to the constantly changing environment, thereby promoting our individual and social development.
According to University of Vermont psychiatry professor James Hudziak, similar to a weightlifter who gains muscle with resistance training, playing a musical instrument similarly “trains” the brain, ultimately making critical areas of the brain affecting emotional outlook, anxiety control, and more thicker.Popular activities used to increase expression of feelings and to build self-esteem are: music and relaxation, guided imagery, role playing, rhythm instruments, song writing, musical improvisation, music listening, and group musical collaboration (Clendon-Wallen, 1991).
Robb (1996) says that music therapy interventions with adolescents will teach active coping skills, decrease feelings of learned helplessness, and promote self-expression. Wells and Stevens (1984) found music to be helpful in stimulating nonverbal self-expression for young adolescents in group situations. Music contributes to students’ creativity when composing, arranging, improvising tasks which require the individual or group to imagine, plan, organise, experiment with and develop sound. Hence allocating students working in pairs or groups is highly essential for them to work collaboratively, thereby respecting their ideas and enhancing their decision making skills by taking the appropriate pitch ,tone or rhythm or any creative writing so as to make a good piece of work which could be either musical sounds, song writing.
Music education has a lot to offer this world. This practice has been ongoing for many years and its purpose and effects might have been taken for granted. Music education develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on “doing,” as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create.
Music is one of those "tools" that strongly influence children and all of us - brain structures, emotions, soul, actions and understanding. It is a "slow medium" with long and sustainable impact.
