Sign
up for music lessons. Several studies suggest that there are
distinct differences in math ability between musically trained students
and musically naive ones. Children also tend to score higher in math in
cultures where the study of music and the arts is addressed more seriously.
Turn music
into a counting game. Formal music training includes a number
of things that force a child to think in a mathematical way. For instance,
music written in four-fourths time has one whole note in each measure.
To play correctly, the student has to understand that one whole note equals
two half notes, four quarter notes, eight eighth notes or a combination
of these.
Explore the
technicalities of the sounds of music. Musical notes themselves
have a mathematical basis, being produced by vibrations at specific frequencies.
Middle C is the sound we hear when something vibrates 256 times a second.
Double that frequency to 512 and you have C above middle C, a note exactly
one octave higher
.
Know the
proof is out there. Some argue that children who study music
at an early age are just more intelligent, and that's the reason they
do better in math. In an investigation now under way at Children's Hospital
in Cincinnati, however, we are using functional magnetic resonance imaging
to look at the differences in brain function between musically trained
subjects and musically naive subjects. After we complete our study, we
may be able to prove objectively how early music study changes brain function.
Schmithorst, not one to brag about his accomplishments,
won his first piano competition at age 7, performed with the Cincinnati
Symphony at 11 and became UC's second youngest degree earner with dual
bachelor's degrees in piano performance and physics by age 17. Today,
the father of six is a research associate at Cincinnati Children's Hospital,
where he investigates child development and disease diagnostics and has
authored image processing software for functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Link:
See Children's Hospital Web site for a brief biography and photo of Schmithorst, plus Web links to his research work.
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