Why Does Music Aid in Memorization?
January 8, 2014 By Leave a Comment
If grade school has taught us anything, it’s that turning a list of items into a song is a great way to remember things. That same basic process works just as well in adulthood, and The Wall Street Journal explains why.
As you’d probably expect, music helps us memorize items using rhythm and alliteration. The Wall Street Journal explains:
The words to a holiday song bubble up to the surface of the brain, even decades since last hearing the tune. Yet recalling a bank-account password can put the mind in a twist. Neuroscientists have long debated the brain mechanisms related to memory, but they agree on one thing: Information set to music is among the easiest to remember. One expert, Henry L. Roediger III, professor of psychology at the Memory Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, explains how songs easily stick in the mind.
Music is a powerful mnemonic device, but the song’s structure is what allows a person to recall the information it holds—not necessarily the catchy tune itself. The added melody encourages repetition and thus memorization, which is perhaps why patients with advanced Alzheimer’s dementia have been known to sing along to a familiar song.
Here’s a link to the entire article.
The State Of Social Media 2013
December 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment
What a wild year it’s been. You could say that 2013 was the year of social media and you’d be correct. What was once a novelty for people bored and surfing on the ‘net has risen to be an industry in and of itself that companies large and small have embraced around the world as a powerful cornerstone of their marketing initiatives.
In case you got lost in the details of 2013, we’ve laid out all the notable moments of the year, month by month, in this handy infographic.
What was the most notable social media moment in your life in 2013? Let me know in the comments.
The Acoustic Guitar
December 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Created in the 1500s, the guitar is one of the most prominent instruments in history.
Portable MIDI Keyboards: 37 Keys, Lightning Connector
December 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
IK Multimedia on Tuesday introduced two new keyboards for musicians on the go: the iRig Key Pro and iRig Keys with Lightning connector. They’re available for $149.99 and $129.99 respectively.
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Both keyboards sport 37 keys and the same feature set: pitch bend and mod wheels, an assignable data knob, lighted buttons for program and octave up/down, four programmable “Sets” keys to store custom setups, and an expansion pack to connect a sustain or expression pedal. They’re both bus-powered, requiring no external power source, and both are Core MIDI compatible, requiring no additional drivers to work.
Read the entire article here.
Why music? The many benefits of a musical education [infographic]
October 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Where Did Music Come From [video]
October 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment
10 astonishing ways music affects your brain
October 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
There’s a reason Bach was sent on the Voyager mission out of our solar system––music is one of (if not the) greatest creations of humankind. Modern psychology explains some of the effects music has on your brain. Here are some:
Singing together brings us together
Since music is often a social activity, making it together can help bring us together.
A study of almost one thousand Finnish pupils who took part in extended music classes, found they reported higher satisfaction at school in almost every area, even those not related to the music classes themselves (Eerola & Eerola, 2013)
Explaining the results, the lead researcher Päivi-Sisko Eerola, said:
“Singing in a choir and ensemble performance are popular activities at extended music classes. Other studies have established that people find it very satisfying to synchronize with one another. That increases affiliation within the group and may even make people like each other more than before.”
And
Babies are born to dance!
Infants as young as five-months-old respond rhythmically to music and seem to find it more interesting than speech.
In a study by Zentner and Eerola (2010), the babies spontaneously danced to all different types of music, and those that were most in time also smiled the most.
Maybe music really is in our genes!
See the full article at PsyBlog.
Here’s another great article you should read: https://www.musicinstrumentscenter.com/best-benefit-of-music
