IT'S ALL MUSIC TO ME

Since ancient times and approximately 250.000 years ago people realized that sound affects their everyday life. Sound indeed has many faces because it alters the mood. For example a sudden and unpleasant sound like that of a car horn may cause alertness, frustration or even anger. On the contrary nature's sounds like "WWB" are mostly pleasant and feel secure.
WWB stands for Wind Water and of course Birds..
A usual line in many fairy tales goes like "When the sun was shining and the birds were singing.. " and it states of course security, calmness and tranquillity.

BUT MUSIC IS NOT JUST PLAIN SOUND AND IT IS CERTAINLY PLURALISTIC

"Music is sound, organized in some way in passing time " , Richard Gill.

I may attempt to make you visualize and understand the impact of music in our lives

Moreover Music is the most powerful sound and the easiest to associate with because it can affect human beings in many different ways.

Music affects us :

1. Physiologically
2. Psychologically
3. Behaviourally

Before analyzing all the benefits and perks of Music, I may ask you to trust your gut...

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE POWER OF MUSIC IS ?

"The power of music is that music is more beautiful if it is played for someone rather than yourself" ,Umi Garrett.

It's all about the emotional reaction..

Music standing at the top of the food-chain of the arts is the best way to touch people's souls. Each musician interprets his emotions while playing and that's why the very same piece may sound different when executed by various performers.

BUT WHY MUSIC ?!?

Music may enhance performance to multi-step problems in everyday life, that means it empowers us and also heals us..

When meds are no longer helping..

On this picture we witness the painkiller effects of music, this happens in reality in the surgery rooms when the anaesthesia is partial. Greeks are the predecessors of Music therapy and below are the cases in which music aids people with health issues!

Music boosts rest and rejuvenation.
Music boosts creativity and imagination.
Music may affect your heart rate, brain waves and breathing.

Children with learning disorders

Music helps patients fight the Alzheimer's disease, because it strengthens memory.
Music helps kids with dyslexia to organize, motivate and facilitate in group projects.
Music helps the moving functions of people with Parkinson's disease.
Music jump starts the speech of children with autism.

Yeah okay, but someone could say that music can be BORING too, like classical music !!!!

To make matters short .. Do not offend what you don’t understand..

Before getting the wrong idea and assuming wrong facts let me explain it to you. It's not just a matter of taste.
Classical music for example is not boring, but it is certainly too much to handle and follow and that's why your brain gets overwhelmed too quickly. So don't worry, I am certain that there is some kind of music that soothes you or uplifts you in a positive way, even if it is not classical music.

Maybe when we see something bad or awful or horrible in life, maybe we are just viewing it in the wrong octave" , Viktor Wooten.

Music also consists of phrases and silences just like common language and repetition in a song occurs in order to make clear the main melody or the refrain of the piece!

It's even a more universal language than English

It is also some kind of language, which we learn from the very first moments of our lives.
Even before birth we are musical, because the infant shares the beat from the pulse of it's mother's heart.

WHAT IF EVERY CHILD HAD ACCESS TO MUSIC EDUCATION FROM BIRTH ?



Apart from all the other benefits, kids can develop the sense of team spirit..

It's through singing (lullabies e.t.c) that the child before schools gets more familiar with music. Even the alphabet song makes it easier for every single child to learn the alphabet.It evokes, suggests, implies and opens up the brain of a kid in a miraculous way.
It's proven that kids that do music got better math and reading scores than others but it's not only that !
Music education has extreme benefits that may take our generation to the next level, because it introduces the child to an overall new special world of thinking.

SO WHAT DO YOU GAIN BY LEARNING MUSIC ?!?

It expands horizons of the brain and the overall human potential, especially in children under 7 years old. It is estimated that boosts the IQ of such children by 7,5 points, a percentage that is huge..! Someone might also say that musicians have bigger brains and that is intersected both by FMRIs and statistics ..
In addition surveys have shown that fireworks occur in the brain of a musician's brain while performing.

More of the brain is involved in perception and response to music than to language or anything else" ,Ardon Shorr

Pay attention to the corpus collosum

This happens because music helps the "corpus collosum", that part of the brain that transfers data from the left to the right side and vice versa.. Children with learning disorders have a weak "corpus collosum", so now it is very clear how music therapy is connected with children that have dyslexia and autism.So music education means better education and better education means better society.

But music can be beneficial for adults too..

Studying & practicing music in a regular basis makes it easier to:

Process sounds
Absorb information
Strengthen memory
Multitasking
Learning Languages

Studying & practicing music makes you gain :

Self discipline, control, management and awareness.
Resistance to frustration.
Emotional intelligence because it works as an emotional translator.

That's an illustration of the fireworks in a musician's brain

All these self-centred perks also develop the individual's self-esteem and it all comes from within exploration.
Unfortunately the world worships extroverts and not introverts. It should be the other way around.
We should look inside ourselves, into our inner self and seek interiority through music.

"Without music, life would be a mistake", Friedrich Nietzsche.

WHAT IF IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT POLITICS AND FOOTBALL ?!?

!>>>We should encourage our children not to give up on music because
it promotes productivity, health and overall well-being.<<<<!/b>

THE END

SOURCES from TEDx Talks :

Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us
Music and the Brain: Jessica Grahn at TEDxWesternU
Emotional Intelligence and Music | Maria Iturriaga | TEDxBerkleeValencia
How to translate the feeling into sound | Claudio | TEDxPerth
How Music Can Heal Our Brain and Heart | Kathleen M. Howland | TEDxBerkleeValencia
The healing power of music: Robin Spielberg at TEDxLancaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47-90fPyQa8
The power of music | Umi Garrett | TEDxOrangeCoast
Music and the inner self | James Rhodes | TEDxMadrid
Unlocking music with neuroscience | Ardon Shorr | TEDxCMU 2012
Does Music Change a Child's Brain? | John Iversen | TEDxSanDiego
Music as a Language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolaIsland
TEDxSydney - Richard Gill - The Value of Music Education
Emotional responses to music | Hauke Egermann | TEDxGhent