Music Feature Story

“Classical music supports the development of small children”
is widespread assumption for parents, which caused a huge discussion in the recent years.

Everything began in 1993 when a research paper by Rauscher and Shaw of the University of California, Irvine was published, which reported that people improved their IQ-tests after listening to classical music by Mozart. They gave research participants one of three standard tests of abstract spatial reasoning after they had experienced each of three listening conditions: a sonata by Mozart, repetitive relaxation music, and silence. They found a temporary enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning, as measured by the Stanford-Binet IQ test.
Shaw and Rauscher claim that their work has been misrepresented. “What we have shown is that there are patterns of neurons that fire in sequences, and that there appear to be pre-existing sites in the brain that respond to specific frequencies. This is not quite the same as showing that listening to Mozart increases intelligence in children,” Rauscher wrote in 1999.
However, many people draw a conclusion that Mozart’s music would make children more intelligent. This much contested assumption had a huge effect on the following years.
In 1998 Zell Miller, governor of Georgia, announced that his proposed state budget would include $105,000 a year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music.
In Florida government officials even passed a law which said that kindergartens should play classical music for one hour every day.

In an interview with professor for music pedagogy Wilfried Gruhn, published on philognosie.net, he states a general fact about music.
“Active participation of music assists social competence,” he says.
Because of the excitement of the “Mozart Effect” in the 90’s, a lot of other research followed on this topic.
Another experiment made by Bellarmine College agrees with the claim. To make sure the Mozart effect was consistent, The Department of Psychology at Bellarmine College tested the spatial reasoning of the participants in a study by having them complete pencil-and-paper mazes of varying complexity. Of the 22 volunteers, the average student completed 2.68 mazes in 8 minutes after listening to Mozart's music. After listening to different types of music, the average student only completed 2.2 mazes, and after being in silence, the average student completed 1.73 mazes.
According to data from the University of Texas, students who received an arts education, including music received higher SAT scores. These data also say that music can benefit cognitive abilities, particular spatial abilities, higher reasoning and motor skills and achievements in language and math.
The University of Illinois Medical Center did an experiment on 29 epileptic patients. After listening to the piece for up to 300 seconds, 23 of the 29 patients experienced significant decreases in epileptic activity, even from patients in comas.
However, some researchers argue that classical music does not have any effect on students’ skills.
According to an article on Alphagalileo.org publishes in 10 May 2010, University of Vienna researchers Jakob Pietschnig, Martin Voracek and Anton K. Formann present quite definite results on the "Mozart effect" in the US journal Intelligence. These new findings suggest no evidence for specific cognitive enhancements by mere listening to Mozart's music. 40 independent studies and 3000 participants included their survey.
"I recommend listening to Mozart to everyone, but it will not meet expectations of boosting cognitive abilities", says Jakob Pietschnig.
It followed a lot of other research, whose results varied and the discussion whether “Mozart Effect” really, only in parts, or does not exist, will probably continue for a long time. But a thing you can state for sure is that music is one of the most important thing in our daily life.
The “Mozart Effect” however, has been ranked as number six in the book "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology" by Emory University psychologist Scott E. Lilienfeld

Short review

Harmonic tones, soft melodies and positive lyrics; that are the characteristics of Jack Johnsons music.


His new, fifth album "To The Sea", released in 2010,reflects the fundamentals, his music is based on. Again Johnson expresses his relaxed, carefree attitude in his songs, strongly influenced by his childhood as surfer.
Listening to his songs creates a mood in the listener, that the world seems to be a better place.

Although the acoustic guitar is one of the major instrumentals, it steps into the background. On this album, Jack Johnson's band can be heard oftener as usual and steps in the foreground.
The Hawaiian vocalist Paul Fuga is a guest artist on Johnson's album. Johnson and Fuga recorded a remake of the song "Better Together" of his first album. Fuga is also involved in the song "Turn you love".