1.3: Music and Human Development, Learning, and Wellness

Due to the information that we have gained from the field of neuroscience, the use of music therapy has exploded in the past decades. Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a licensed music therapist. And because music is processed all over the brain, music therapy can be utilized to rehabilitate patients suffering from a broad host of disorders, ranging from traumatic brain injury to cerebral palsy, from learning disabilities to Parkinson’s Disease. It can be used to regain voluntary movement or return speech skills when they have been lost because of a blood clot or stroke. And the remarkable thing is how genuinely effective these interventions are.

The Field of Music Therapy

It is important to talk about what music therapy is, and what it is not. Although all people can participate in music, and music teachers spend time creating music and working with students, board certified music therapists are the only individuals who participate in an allied health profession that is research-based, and that, in the words of the American Music Therapy Association, “actively applies supportive science to the creative, emotional, and energizing experiences of music for health treatment and educational goals.” Music therapy is applied in either an educational or clinical context, and music therapists must hold a music degree(s) and a degree in music therapy. The degree involves clinical internship and certification by the board of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). Licensing involves many hours of training in order to understand which musical activities to apply in a given context, and it may be used to improve individuals’ functioning, health, or wellbeing.

So why does music therapy work? Because it is a stimulus that activates every major region of the brain simultaneously. Because music processing occurs globally in the brain, it develops more comprehensive and stronger neurologic processes. According to Sharon Graham, founder and director of the Tampa Bay Institute for Music Therapy, “Music is used as a stimulus when one encounters trauma, disease or disorder, and is the most powerful non-pharmacological tool we have to address any deficits that arise.”

Figure 1.3.1 : Here, a music therapist works with a patient who is recovering from traumatic brain injury. Source: Military Health System Attribution: Caitlin Russell License: Public Domain

What is music therapy used for? The possibilities are almost limitless! It may be used for physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, because when we hear rhythmic information, the motor cortex in our brains is activated: It is for this reason that you are compelled to move on the beat when you hear a peppy song. Have you ever noticed how people unconsciously coordinate themselves in time when music is played? Pay attention when music is playing outdoors— nearly everyone will begin to walk at the same tempo as the music. The funny thing is that they don’t even realize they are doing it! The activation of the motor cortex can be utilized by music therapists to increase motor function and voluntary movement in people with Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis and in physically injured veterans.

Music therapy may be used to facilitate improvement of mood and reduction of depression. This works for multiple reasons, not the least of which is that music is enjoyable. However, it also works because we have an immediate physiological response to the music we enjoy. Engaging with liked music causes the release of serotonin and dopamineneurotransmitters in the brain, which leads to feelings of happiness and well-being. It also releases norepinephrine, which can result in a sense of alertness and euphoria. The act of singing, in particular, releases endorphins—the “feel good” chemicals in the brain. Choral singing (singing in a group with others) has been shown to cause the release of oxytocin, which enhances feelings of trust and bonding and results in reduction of depression and loneliness. One study recently indicated that choral singers have lower levels of cortisol, indicating lower stress, while multiple studies have indicated that singing relieves anxiety and contributes to quality of life. And the best part is, you don’t have to be a good singer to reap the rewards: A 2005 study indicated that group singing “can produce satisfying and therapeutic sensations even when the sound produced by the vocal instrument is of

Figure 1.3.2 : This music therapist is visiting Renown Children’s Hospital in Reno, Nevada. Source: Wikimedia Commons Attribution: Dara Crockett License: CC BY-SA 4.0. mediocre quality.”

Studies have indicated that music can be used to reduce insomnia and to reduce the perception of pain, and it can be used as part of a rehabilitation protocol after injury or surgery. One study from the General Hospital of Salzburg found patients recovering from back surgery had higher rates of healing and less pain when exposed to music. Music therapy can be used with older adults to lessen the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease and it can be used to restore speech when aphasia (loss of ability to speak) occurs as a result of injury or stroke. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords used music therapy to regain speech after surviving a gunshot wound to her brain. Interestingly, music can also be used to reduce the symptoms of asthma, can be used in premature infants to improve sleep patterns and to increase weight gain, and can be used to help people with Down’s Syndrome or Autism when speech is limited. In fact, it seems that there is little that music therapy cannot be utilized to improve. So what should we take away from all of this? That music is awesome, of course, and that everyone should engage with music actively throughout the course of their lives.

Why do (and should) humans make music?

If music can help rewire a brain that has been damaged or is limited in some way, it can also be used to create new brain growth and increase processing efficiency in all students. This is why there is a strong correlation (relationship) between studying music and higher grades in other subject areas. In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act replaced No Child Left Behind, and for the first time codified music as part of a core, well-rounded academic experience with which all children should be provided. The current academic environment focuses on and prizes primarily STEM subjects, but we have learned that it is actually the A in STEAM (Arts) that provides training ground for the things employers say they prize more than subject-matter knowledge: creativity, initiative, and the ability to generate new solutions to problems not previously encountered. No child should go through school without access to these subjects.

Figure 1.3.3 : Studying music can lead to higher achievement in other areas. Source: Wikimedia Commons Attribution: F. Rodricks License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Humans have engaged in music for as long as we have written history. Even before humans had the ability to write down the music they were creating and performing, they produced written descriptions documenting the fact that they valued music. The Biblical authors wrote about people engaging in music by playing instruments, dancing, and singing. Clearly, music was a part of those ancient cultures. We don’t know what that music sounded like, because they didn’t have a system to write it down, but we know they were doing it.

We also know that humans have been “musicking” since long before written history, as evidenced by prehistoric bone flutes found in various parts of the world. The existence of these instruments suggests that music may actually have preceded formalized spoken language as we understand it, and certainly preceded writing. To put this in perspective, humans were creating and playing instruments when wooly mammoths and saber tooth tigers roamed the earth. And to make that fact even more intriguing, when researchers blew through those flutes, they heard the pentatonic scale still in use in elementary school music today. Why would those early humans have created music, when the primary objectives were to eat, not die from the elements, and not be eaten? We can’t answer this question definitively, but one theory is that they were imitating the sounds they heard in nature. Another is that humans utilized music to coordinate themselves in time together (think: one, two, three pull!). Yet another is that music simply feels good and touches something spiritual in humans. We will likely never know. All we can say for certain is that music is one of the things that separates us from every other animal on the planet, including our closest relatives, and that it was part of human experience before modern humans existed.

One final consideration is that it appears as though music and language acquisition skills are innately learned by humans. No one sits down with children and attempts to formally teach them to produce language or music. They simply learn those things by listening to and imitating the sounds being used in their environment. All humans in all cultures the world over uniformly amass both language and music skills simply by being immersed in an environment in which those systems are being used. And this tells us that our brains are hardwired for success with those two systems. Even if we didn’t have fMRI scans to show us that, we can deduce it from the informal experiences of babies. Studies have even shown that newborn infants who have had no experience in the world whatsoever recognize and respond to essential musical elements. These elements, which will be described and discussed in the next section, include tonic and dominant (I and V in the scale—the two most important chords) and meter (the way beats are grouped and divided). How is it that babies’ brains are able to do this with no training? It’s hardwired!

Music and Innate Aptitude

We have all seen that some people seem naturally to have more musical ability than others. Some children seem born singing beautifully, while others struggle to develop musical skills. We tend to look at children who sing early and well, and think, “Oh, she’s so talented.” But that perception can be a little misleading, and here’s why.

Researchers have indicated that there are two primary things that contribute to musical ability. One of them is aptitude, which is defined as the ease and speed with which your brain processes certain kinds of information. Aptitude is innate. You’re born with it. It is woven into the development of the grey matter in your brain as you are developing in your mother’s womb. Strangely, research indicates that aptitude is developmental until somewhere around age eight or nine. In other words, the ease and speed with which your brain is able to process certain types of information is formative until you reach age nine, at which time it stabilizes. From that point forward, you will be reliant on whatever aptitude you developed during your earliest years. This doesn’t mean you can’t learn to do new things or develop new skills. We can all learn to do things within whatever aptitude we possess. It just means that the ease and speed with which we work doesn’t fundamentally change beyond that point.

Figure 1.3.4 : Everyone has an aptitude for music, even though some people have a greater aptitude than others. Source: Wikimedia Commons Attribution: User “Sungmin Yun” License: CC BY-SA 2.0

Interestingly, the same is true of aptitude for language, which makes sense, because the two systems are so intrinsically similar. Research has indicated that the same developmental window (birth to age nine) exists for language aptitude. For both of these, early exposure, and early development, are critical for the rest of the life of a human being. How do we know language aptitude stabilizes at that age? Obviously, it would be horribly unethical to lock children up for the first nine years of their lives and expose them to little or no language to see what would happen. We can’t do that. We do, however, have multiple stories of severe neglect that shine some light on what happens when children don’t develop language aptitude while they are young.

In one particularly famous case, a young girl was born to an abusive father who kept her chained to a potty chair or in a crib, and rarely let anyone speak to her or interact with her. Because there was no interactivity with the sound system, this child did not learn to speak. When she was rescued, around age 12, she was immediately taken into custody, and teams of researchers attempted to teach her to speak. She learned the use of some nouns and verbs and was able to communicate simple things, but she never learned the complex grammar that all children innately learn simply by hearing language spoken around them and having people interact with them using language. In fact, researchers estimate that all she could achieve was the basic communicative ability of Koko the gorilla (who had limited ability to form compound or complex thoughts, and did so with sign language). Why was this? Because a child’s aptitude for certain kinds of processing is developmental, and is developed, during the first years of life. Once that developmental window closes, the child is working with established aptitude.

In another famous case, a child was kept contained in a room with a television on all day. The child was hearing language spoken regularly, but by abstract people on the television. In other words, no one was interacting with the child while using language. Interactivity is critical—just hearing language isn’t enough. That child did not learn to speak just by listening. In the same way, music aptitude is not developed simply by listening. Children must hear others around them singing and see them moving rhythmically, and others must interact with them as they do these things.

In addition to aptitude, the thing that most determines a person’s skill is achievement. This is what an individual does with the aptitude they have. Do they learn to sing and play an instrument? Do they learn to read and write? Do they regularly engage in creating music? If the answer is yes, then chances are, their achievement (or skill) will be relatively high. Does high innate aptitude automatically mean a person will have high achievement? No. There exists only a correlation between the two variables—not a causative relationship. A child may be born with lower aptitude but work her entire life and emerge as a person with relatively high skill after years of training. By the same token, a child may be born with relatively high aptitude but never engage with it or use it. That child is likely to have much lower achievement than the one who worked at it. Interestingly, the same seems to be true of language.

And in both cases, there is no such thing as a person with no aptitude. I’ve frequently heard people say: “Oh, I can’t sing.” My usual response is: “Yes, you can. Everyone can.” Usually when people make statements like that, what they actually mean is: “I don’t sing well.” But our society has robbed so many people of their birthright by fooling us into thinking that music is something only the most talented and skilled should do while everyone else watches, and, as a result, these people believe their aptitude is so low that they just shouldn’t do it. Knowing what we do about music and the brain, and about the benefits of engaging in music over the course of a lifetime, this is a pretty tragic thing! If I told you that simply singing, reading music, playing an instrument, or writing music over the course of a lifetime could decrease the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s when you are older, would you change your mind about whether or not you should pursue it? (I hope so!) All humans have aptitude for music and for language. This aptitude is generally distributed along a bell curve. There are people with higher aptitude and people with lower aptitude. But none of us have no aptitude, because it is a matter of our brain structure.

In fact, they had to search the world over to find only ten or so people to participate in a study in amusia (a condition in which the brain simply doesn’t organize musical sounds into meaningful patterns). In people with amusia, the brain takes in sound, but it is disorganized and the individual can’t perceive the structure. In other words, they don’t hear music, they hear noise. While a normal individual might hear a beautiful symphony, an individual with amusia might perceive the sounds of New York City on a busy day. Obviously, both people hear the same thing, but one person’s brain organizes the sound meaningfully into melody, harmony, phrases, meter, and other elements, while the other’s brain doesn’t organize it at all. What a terrible thing! Can you imagine not being able to listen to and enjoy music? Not being able to play a song back in your mind? Not being able to tap on a beat because your brain doesn’t perceive the organization of meter and rhythm? Imagine how colorless life would be! Fundamentally, what I am telling you is this: Of course you can sing and learn to play an instrument, and learn to read or write music. Do you know how I know? Because you can listen to and enjoy music. Your brain is organizing the sound, which means you have the fundamental capacity to engage with it.

Music and Human Flourishing

So what does all of this together tell us? Music is important to the human species and always has been. Though you may remember a poem or a story, the way you remember words differs from the way you remember music. This difference is why music, like literature, belongs in the curriculum. Because information can be entrained quickly and permanently when connected to it, music is a profound educational tool. It is something that engages all areas of the brain at once, and no other activity does that.

Figure 1.3.5 : It’s never too late to get involved in music! Source: Flickr Attribution: Garry Knight License: CC BY 2.0

Music can be used to train and grow the brain and build connections between areas, or to rehabilitate and heal individuals. It assists in the formation of longterm memories and in the retrieval of stored information, increases processing efficiency in other modes of cognition, and assists the brain in coordinating normally unrelated brain regions. It is for these reasons that music is one of life’s most miraculous phenomena. It has probably been with us for the totality of our existence as a species. And despite the fact that there are a limited number of pitches and rhythmic patterns, people throughout history, in every corner of the globe and every culture ever recorded, have engaged in the creation and performance of music that is unique to them. It truly is part of our human birthright and deserves to again take its place as a critical curricular offering in all of our schools.

And you know what else? Even if you didn’t learn to read music, sing, or play an instrument while you were in school, it’s not too late! Researchers tell us that you can begin at literally any point in life and still see benefits. It truly isn’t about how well you do it—it is that you regularly do it over time. So go join an ensemble or find some private lessons!