For Parents and Teachers

Here are links to interesting articles or videos which relate to music education - or they could just be interesting and worth checking out: 

Interesting quote by Leonard Bernstein 

“I propose that the reading and understanding of music be taught to our children from the very beginning of their school life; that they learn to participate with enthusiasm in the study of music from kindergarten through high school. No child is tone deaf; every child has the natural ability and desire to assimilate musical ideas and comprehend their combinations into musical forms. Every child can be taught to read music as he or she is taught to read words; and there is no reason why both kinds of reading cannot be taught simultaneously.

...Children must receive musical instruction as naturally as food, and with as much pleasure as they derive from a baseball game. And this must happen from the beginning of their school lives.”

Leonard Bernstein, New York City, 1977
Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Select Education regarding a bill calling for a White House Conference on the Arts

[Photograph: Paul de Hueck, 1973]

 29 March 2016 

Not about music - but my other subject area, languages.  Here's some very good reasons why learning another language is important.

23 March 2106
Here's an interesting article about how keeping the beat in music helps develop and support language and reading skills.


7 March 2016 
Here's a follow-up article written in response  to Tim Carson's interview (see below).

And another one by a senior lecturer in music at Canterbury University, saying why he thinks music education is vital in primary schools. 


28 February 2016:
 Listen to this interview on Radio New Zealand National programme on 29 February 2016 with Menza (Music Education in New Zealand Aotearoa) chairperson Tim Carson and Lisa Rodgers, head of early learning and student achievement for the Ministry of Education. 

"When you are exposed to a quality music programme, all the other outcomes improve." 

Music teachers say primary school music is in crisis with meagre funding from the Education Ministry and too little effort made by Colleges of Education. Music Educators New Zealand Aotearoa which represents teachers up and down the country say they've had no support from the Ministry or resources since the roles of specialist music advisors were cut 7 years ago. They say teacher trainees get just three hours over three years at Colleges of Education on how to teach music in the classroom.
 

JamStudio.com
 "The online music factory"
This is a link to a song-creating tool which could be a lot of fun and allows users to create music in a range of styles, using a range of instruments. 

15 October 2015: 
Follow this link for a New Zealand-produced PDF outlining how studying  music (privately or at school) can benefit future study courses in any area of learning. It also gives information on learning music in general and answers many  FAQs, and outlines some of the  most commonly learnt instruments.


29 September 2015 

This is an interesting article about how music can help relieve chronic pain.  

18 September 2015

15 September 2015 

The incredible effect that music and singing have on the brain
This article talks about how music can be used to reduce the need for  pre-op, during operations, and post-op  pain relief. 

 8 July 2015
 Music lessons may boost poor kids' brain power, study suggests. 
An article on a parents' website saying that research shows that children from poorer areas who learnt music were more likely to keep out of trouble and more likely to succeed academically. The article explains how learning music can benefit the development of parts of the  brain that are also used for learning and processing language. 

How learning music can benefit kids' brains
This is a CNN news item about research which shows that the benefits of learning music as a child last into adulthood - even if the person hasn't practised for years.  

9 June 2015
How music can be good for your health.
 This is an article from the New Zealand Herald (via the Daily Mail) explaining how listening to music can have benefits from lowering blood pressure to reducing pain felt after major surgery. 

1 June 2015
 What music should my child listen to? An interesting article from a reputable parenting website.  The answer is fairly obvious, but this article gives lots of examples and ideas. Comments have been added by readers of the article, so you can check out others' opinions and further ideas.

30 April 2015
A very interesting article in the New Zealand Herald, 30 April 2015 about the importance of learning another language in New Zealand schools - and some of the challenges facing those who teach other languages in our schools. There are also many interesting comments - for, against, and interesting. 

 A short video explaining how listening to music helps benefit the brain, and how playing a musical instrument is the equivalent of a total body workout for the brain.

From the NZ Curriculum document: Music - Sound Arts

This is an interesting interview with an Australian music educator who is expressing concerns about the lack of music education in Australian schools. He gives several examples of why music is so important. No doubt the situation is similar in  New Zealand. 


This is a short documentary from 60 Minutes about an extraordinarily talented piano player who is  blind man and was born with severe disabilities. He is able to play anything he hears on the piano in any style or key.  

This is a much longer video (20 minutes),  but I promise you once you start watching, you will  watch it until the end. It is a presentation to a conference group (I think they might be teachers) by Benjamin Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic  Orchestra and Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.  In this video he demonstrates how anyone can enjoy and understand classical music.

This is another documentary (and possibly a subtle plug for iPods ... ) about how staff in an old folks' home used  dementia patients' favourite  music as part of their therapy.