Learning an Instrument Shapes the Mind

Studies from USC, Frontiers in Neuroscience, the Save The Music Foundation, Harvard, and the Arts Education Partnership all highlight how music training improves memory, attention, and executive function. These very skills help students thrive in every subject. Research also indicates that music enhances math skills, particularly in areas such as fractions, patterns, and spatial reasoning. Beyond academics, music has been shown to help alleviate symptoms of Alzheimer’s and support cognitive health as we age. A well-rounded education needs the arts. Music isn’t just extra. It’s foundational. Music does not just teach notes and rhythms. It teaches focus, resilience, and wonder. 🎶🎷✨🎨🎹🎼🖼️🎵🖌️🐾

📚 Selected Research References:

Harvard Graduate School of Education — How Arts Education Improves Learning
Frontiers in Psychology — The Impact of Music Training on Executive Functions
Save The Music Foundation — The Benefits of Music Education
Arts Education Partnership — Music Matters: How Music Education Supports Learning Across Subjects
USC Brain and Creativity Institute — Neuroscience Links Between Music Training and Brain Development
Alzheimer’s Association & Northwestern Medicine — Studies on music’s role in enhancing memory and reducing Alzheimer’s symptoms

#SupportMusicEd #MusicMatters #SaveTheMusic #WholeChildLearning #ArtsInEducation #CognitiveGrowth #Cognitive Development #STEMtoSTEAM #EducationWithHeart #KeepTheArtsAlive #EducationForAll #ArtsInSchools #MusicAndMath

Für Elise – Adult Beginner Level Version

This is a video of myself playing a beginner version of Für Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). It is a live unedited performance. I recorded myself several times with my cell phone and a Focusrite Scarlett and chose my favorite performance. I chose the colors orange and white for the falling notes because my shelter adopted former stray cat, Ezra Ronnie, is orange and white and Für Elise is a fiery and dramatic and recognizable song kind of like the colors orange and white.

The collage that I made for this video has photos of three cats. One cat looks similar to Ezra. Another cat looks similar to my first cat, Tabby, who passed away years ago. She was a wonderful cat. This song was a bit of a challenge. Also, I learned it around August 2023 and am just posting it here rather late in March 2024. Measures 45 to 56 were probably the hardest part of the song to learn. Maybe in the future I will try something like the Soundbrenner Pulse or a regular metronome to help with the rhythm. I did not use any metronome device and was just feeling the rhythm. The metronome is almost distracting to me so something like the Soundbrenner Pulse would probably work better for me. For some people the traditional metronome is preferred and works well for them.

Minuet in G Minor – Rookie Hard

This is the beginner version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Minuet in G minor from the Playground Sessions app. I learned this song as part of a non-credit adult beginner piano class and figured out how to film this at home. To film this I used a tripod and my cell phone and a Focusrite Scarlett for the MIDI file. The collage was made with canva.com and I used fiverr.com for editing the video and adding the falling notes. This is only a two-minute video, but it took hours and hours to put this together. It took hours for me to learn the song and then record the MIDI file etc.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was jailed by a duke that employed him. While in jail he wrote 46 pieces. (1) Bach left a director of music position at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthenat due to the anti-musical sentiments of Princess Fredericka Henrietta of Anhalt-Bernburg whom Prince Leopold married in 1722. Prince Leopold was under pressure to support Prussia. Bach began working as a Cantor (music director) at Leipzig in 1722. Earlier in 1720 Bach’s wife Maria Barbara died leaving him with 4 children, and Bach remarried in 1721 to Anna Magdalena (nee) Wülken, who was a talented soprano singer. (2) Surprisingly, Bach did not write this song. Dresden Organist Christian Petzold (1677 – 1733) wrote this in a keyboard music guest notebook (meaning instruments such as the harpsichord as the piano was not invented yet) that Bach gave to Anna Magdalena Bach in 1725. Bach put gold trimmings and her name on the clavier büchlein (which means little book in German). Composer friends of Bach would visit and write pieces in the notebook. They were used to help the Bach children learn keyboard music. (3)

Sources

(1) Alfred’s Piano 101 Notespeller Book 1 (Copyright 2019 by Alfred Music, P.O. Box 10003 Van Nuys, CA 91410-0003 alfred.com. Printed in USA. ISBN-10: 1-4706-4269-7 ISBN-13: 978-1-4706-4269-3, Gayle Kowalchyk/E. L. Lancaster)

(3) Magdalena Baczewska teaches Minuet in G from Bach’s Notebook for Anna Magdalena https://www.tonebase.co/piano  tonebase Piano YouTube Channel video published June 25, 2023, accessed August 18, 2023 https://youtu.be/5sQhT7a7IUY

• Magdalena Baczewska teaches Minuet in…