For the last few years, there has been a movement in education away from traditional subjects to a more interdisciplinary approach. The basic idea is to apply more than one discipline simultaneously. There is no doubt that cross-curricular approaches to education can be very effective when properly applied.
When our local school district moved this direction with communication arts, my first thought was to find a way to incorporate reading and writing into my daily routine without interrupting my normal educational process of rehearsing music. Halting this process to read a book or write a narrative seemed like a waste of our valuable rehearsal time. My discomfort toward this issue led me to this epiphany: I AM a reading teacher already and no changes are necessary.
As I thought about what it means to read a book or write a five-part essay, I suddenly realized that I already teach these skills to my music classes. I realized that the fundamentals of reading and performing music are identical to reading and writing printed text. The cognitive dissonance that I was feeling about this mandate suddenly turned to relief and reassurance.
The more I think about this issue, the more I realize how much of a communication arts teacher I really am. Learning to form a musical phrase from individual notes is the same as reading a sentence. Memorizing note names and then producing them through the instrument utilizes the same cognitive processes as reading aloud. Performing and rehearsing emotion, tone, timbre, articulation, pace, meter, and dynamics is precisely what I already teach through music. The hesitation I felt about having this burden handed to me was lifted with these sudden realizations.
This must be similar to what Oedipus felt when he realized that he killed his father and married his mother. In Greek tragedy, this is referred to as peripeteia, or sudden realization. Of course, peripeteia only comes after anagnorisis. Anagnorisis means sudden discovery, or moving from ignorance to knowledge. What I have to say next may move you from ignorance to knowledge when it comes to music education.
I would like to try to make the argument that reading music is fundamentally superior to reading text for enhancing overall cognitive ability. Further, reading music is the best basic starting point for a child 's first steps toward reading ability.
At first, this may seem like a ridiculous proposition. You may even be insulted by the very thought that I can make such a claim. Take a closer look and you may find a few surprises.
Rationale
The fundamental processes of performing music are tied directly to the same areas of the brain that are required for information processing and retention. Like reading, performing music taps into all of the same cognitive areas of the brain. If you can agree on this fact, then consider how these cognitive areas of the brain can be easily enhanced through music.
Rehearsing music, just like reading a book, has the ability to link certain spiritual, emotional and physical elements together. Reading music and reading text both channel various emotions into physical manifestations in the body and can permanently alter the way the brain receives and processes information. Regardless of how you examine the two, both reading music and reading text are very similar in nature. As you may find out, the similarities are not nearly as important as the differences.
When an individual reads a passage in a book, the mind is required to consider the meaning of what is being read. For retention to take place, the reader must decode, comprehend and retain what the eye transfers to the brain. The brain uses a complex set of neurological, cognitive and physical processes to accomplish this task. If everything goes well, we derive meaning and develop new memories and patterns of thinking from what is read. Aside from reading aloud, auditory processes are not used.
When an individual reads music however, the mind is required to do a few additional tasks. There are three main advantages that music has over reading. I will attempt to describe these advantages individually.
Argument
First, the brain is required to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds and an infinite amount of visual stimuli. The ability to distinguish between the two is constantly rehearsed and reinforced through repetition. As this rehearsal takes place, the brain is continuously asked to improve its performance through mental mediation (letting go of thought). This added task is known as rapid auditory processing and is required for the understanding of language. Young children are especially challenged in auditory processing and mental mediation. Early music training has been shown to drastically improve this skill set.
Secondly, the brain is required to translate auditory and visual stimuli into kinesthetic activity. Although movement in music is similar to pairing reading and writing skills together, music provides a reciprocal reward for the brain that combines all three processes together. The rehearsal of auditory, visual and kinesthetic processes combine to enhance the brains overall ability to translate data into meaningful information. Performing music is superior to reading and writing text in its ability to repeatedly reward the brain for good behavior.
The final area that deserves to be examined is with visual field articulation. This is the brains ability to focus on one item of information within a pattern or field of reference. Processing rhythmic information in notation is yet another feature of reading music and naturally enhances this area of cognitive ability. Visual field articulation is closely related to rapid auditory processing and is an indicator of overall reading ability. Music is a natural and fun way to rehearse these skills.
If these three differences were not enough, new research indicates that musicians are better able to chunk information together and retain long-term memories. This theory is tied to the way the brain uses harmonic frequency to bind and chunk information. A musician's brain is attuned to harmonic frequency in a deeper way, and therefore better able to chunk information together into meaningful relationships. For more on this idea, reference the book, How the Gifted Brain Learns by David A. Sousa.
Back to Oedipus
Throughout the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, many metaphors for vision and eyesight are used to illustrate knowledge and insight. It is my hope that you now see music reading differently than you did before. If I have failed to convince you of my main argument, you will at least have a deeper appreciation for the impact music can have on reading ability. I will leave you with a quote from the Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical Quotations, 1991, p. 45:
Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form - Plato
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