Monday, January 31, 2000
Measuring the 'Mozart Effect' on children
Don Campbell is sure that hearing quality music can improve a child's overall development
BY CINDY KRANZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Depending on the study du jour, listening to Mozart may or may not make children more intelligent. However, Don Campbell is sure of this: It can't hurt.
“The Mozart Effect, as defined in my work, is the use of music to enhance quality of life in a variety of ways, including health, wellness, education, creativity and emotional expression,” says Mr. Campbell, an internationally known musician, educator and author of The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit (Avon; $24).
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IF YOU GO
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• What: “Improving Your Child's Mind with Music,” a lecture and light supper for parents with Don Campbell.
• When: 5:30-7 p.m. Friday .
• Where: Corbett Tower, Music Hall, Over-the-Rhine.
• Miscellaneous: The lecture topic includes how music can be used in the daily lives of children, how children process and react to music, and choosing appropriate music for children.
Following supper, Mr. Campbell will host Classical Conversations in Music Hall Auditorium at 7 p.m. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concert at 8 p.m. features music of Mozart and Mahler.
• Cost: $15 for the lecture, supper and concert.
• Reservations: 381-3300. Deadline: Wednesday.
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“The ear's key role in the development of movement, balance, language and pre-verbal communication between parents and children is well established in literally hundreds of studies.”
Research designed to prove or disprove music's short-term effect on intelligence continues to bring valuable public attention to music's broader role in our lives, he says. “But it does not reveal the integrating neurological responses that music elicits.”
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has invited Mr. Campbell to present workshops for parents, educators and the general public this weekend. His goal is to bring quality music into every home.
Mr. Campbell, who studied conducting for one year in the late 1960s at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, trained as a classical musician with Nadia Boulanger in France.
He shared these thoughts on the Mozart Effect and the importance of music.
Question: Define the Mozart Effect.
Answer: “The Mozart Effect is an inclusive term that defines how quality music can be used to improve our health, our intelligence, our emotions and our creative abilities. It uses research in Mozart's music that begins in 1957 with a French ear, nose and throat specialist, Dr. Alfred Tomatis, who researched the importance of organized sound and how auditory stimulation is essential for the development of speech, balance, emotional expression and creativity.
“The Mozart Effect is not limited to Mozart's music. It is about awakening that young child genius in all of us.”
Q: Even though you say the Mozart Effect is not limited to Mozart, there's still a particular emphasis on Mozart's music. Why Mozart?”
A: “His music is extremely clear, well-organized, not overly complex, not overly emotional, nor overly dramatic. There's something very stable about Mozart's music.”
Q: There's been much talk about a 1993 study that showed college students temporarily gained up to nine IQ points after listening to a Mozart piano sonata. It seems like there are some misconceptions about that study.
A: “Under certain listening conditions, the Mozart Effect improves concentration, focus and perception ... There have been many studies that show music really does improve mind-body connection. In my newest book The Mozart Effect for Children, which will be released this summer, I will give 30 to 40 examples of studies that show the importance of organized auditory stimulation. I'm trying to get this out of "Play music. Get smart.' The media have taken those studies totally out of perspective.
Listening to music does improve concentration. It can relax or even bring stress to the body if the music is too loud ... Classical music has shown wonderful results in calming kids down, not entertaining them. We are over stimulating our children ... The Mozart Effect is about how to settle down a family. Be aware if there's too much sound in a home. It creates tension for everybody.”
Q: How do we really know that music can improve the mind and body?
A: Research that started in the mid-1800s and has now become extremely sophisticated shows the use of music can alter blood pressure, heart rate, skin temperature, muscle tension and brain waves within two or three minutes. In my book, The Mozart Effect, there are 30 to 40 references to how music is used in hospitals, pre-surgery, post-surgery, that quickens the whole healing process.
Q: What about the studies that challenge previous research and popular belief about the effect of music on intelligence?
A: “I find these studies so limited as they do not look at mind, emotion, body connection. It's like they are looking at one neighborhood. That's like doing a study on Mount Adams and saying all of Cincinnati is just like that. That is the magic of music.
“Music affects multiple systems in the brain and body simultaneously. That is what those studies did not attend to ... The good thing was the public was left with the idea that this is important. I don't get a sense from people that it was disproven. That's science's role to go on and ask other kinds of questions. We're always debating ourselves.”
Q: So what would you say to a parent of a newborn who asks, “Will listening to music make my child more intelligent?”
A: “Yes, but if it is in the right context. Pay attention to the room where the child sleeps and how much noise is in the house. Listening to music will never substitute for time spent singing and playing with your child. Music is a perfect complementary bridge because in music you have language development. You learn ABC's to "Twinkle Twinkle.'
“That's Mozart. The movement of body comes through rhythmic development. Music holds the nutrition for mind-body development. Mozart is like a great power bar, equally balanced and good for you. But nobody wants to listen to Mozart all day long. It's about a balance of sound.”
Q: At what age do you suggest parents have their children start learning a musical instrument?
A: “There are three absolutely important programs — and they take place in Cincinnati — that start with the young child in preschool — Music Together, Musikgarten and Kindermusik. These three organizations, I believe, offer the most important music lessons in a youngster's life because (they) bring language, movement, joy and expression to the surface between parent and child.
“It gives parent and child a phenomenal vocabulary for everyday activities, such as riding in a car, going to bed and changing diapers. Suzuki is a wonderful program for awakening the ear of children. When children have music early and gravitate toward an instrument, hopefully, schools will see music not as a frill but a developmental essential in early childhood.”
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