Is music the key to academic gains?

BBC NEWS | Education | Is music the key to academic gains?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/...

Studies have been carried out in this field in Canada, where - in one case - researchers found musically trained children (aged four to six) performed better in memory tests than those who had no instrument lessons over the course of the year-long programme.

There is no doubt that I’ve always been smarter than my peers in singapore from childhood through to the present.  I was always the ‘leader’ from elementary school onwards; generated more ideas and solutions in the face of any situation; and spent what might be deemed to be an inordinate amount of time reflecting and considering the novel even as a child – as far as I can remember, from the age of 4 (yes, I can remember some of the events from that age, locations and how I felt about things at that point in time).  No, I’m not preoccupied with its self-esteem benefits to myself.  Rather, I’ve always been interested to know how this might have occurred so that i might pass on the Method to those around myself in singapore. 

Of the various factors that contributed to my intellectual and perspectival development, one of them is musical exposure. 

From childhood, my elder brother used to play a whole array of music such as rock&roll, opera, meditation music, classical music, jazz, disco, sentimental, etc.  (I was also professionally trained as a soloist(soprano) in the school choir in elementary school).  I later picked up the blues harp, violin, didgeridoo and sought exposure to other types of music and culture.(I can also listen to a tune and play it by ear on an instrument)  This had almost immediate and observable effect on the way I thought on other seemingly unrelated matters.  Once I realised that the principles acquired in one field could be transported to others and enhance one's perspectival vibrancy in them, I began to do this intentionally by seeking out new types of music, food, philosophies, religions, etc, etc, etc.  Then i would sit back and do what i usually do and see myself making further inroads that i previously had not - i.e. in cooking, art, writing, philosophy, work, etc, etc.  Delicious to be in control of the factors impacting on one's development.

As far as music goes, my exposure to my brother's music, specifically, taught me that there were different ways of appreciating music, and generically, it enhanced my propensity to appreciate reality itself in a multitude of ways, or at least keeping my mind open to the novel instead of discounting it like most singaporeans do (especially the Chinese) at present (I have, however, helped quite a few Chinese, and others, to transcend this perspectival disability by instruction or lessons). 

Exposure to various types of music, in part, strengthened what I would call my metaphysical base which has always served to defend my intellectual and aesthetic sense against pressures to conform and be part of a culturally uniform tapestry by any variant of monoculturalism.  Thus, overtime, with the growth of monoculturalism(90s onward) in singapore, I became a pariah who was frequently asked by people, 'are you a singaporean?'.  I've always taken this as a compliment.  But this had untoward consequences on my social life, employment opportunities, etc, etc.  But, it doesn't matter.  Being true to one's potentials has always been far more important to myself than acceptance by an increasingly faceless mass. 

I suppose the role of music, amongst others, is more critical at ages where one would not be able to comprehend philosophical discourse.  That is, when one is young.  Music, art, exposure to difference – whether it is to muslims wearing their headdress in schools or different types of music, cultures, foods, etc - are some of the simple means by which one might be able to prepare the young mind to be open and capable of thinking out of the box at a later stage as one does not need to be able to understand it to be influenced by its generic qualities.  It helps to unstop all of ones’ senses and prepares the mind to look at things from other angles.  Thus, when one is exposed to education, problems, etc, one would be well-positioned to appreciate it from other angles, and absorb more of the essence of any subject even though this might not always translate into ‘straight As’.  I have tested myself in novel situation and found my solution-generation to be quicker and more multi-dimensional than those whom were more experienced than myself - i.e. identified problems and generated more solutions in significant areas in my 2nd month in the civil service(in the past) than my superiors and those whom were more experienced whom together could not find a solution to; advise friends in their work even though i've never been engaged in their particular professions; produce professional perspectives(in philosophy, photography, art, music, etc,) comparable to the experienced after a month or two exposure.  No, no, this is not a boast.  That is a waste of time.  I've always been interested in the Method and what might have aided a person like myself brought up within disadvantageous circumstances to transcend his lot in life and become atypically singaporean.  Basically, i've always said, if i can do it, anyone else can.

As I've always said to my Chinese friends in efforts to aid their advancement in their work, life, etc, ‘A sponge in a puddle absorbs far more in an instant than a boulder in the ocean in a decade.’  To some degree, the experience related above helps in turning the rock into a sponge.

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