Music classes in childhood may lead to changes in the brain_美文

Music classes in childhood may lead to changes in the brain

The research at Northwestern University shows that playing a musical instrument is good for your brain. And although our ears may not work as well as we age, the brain remembers how to “lock onto” the important sounds. And that helps us to hear better.

“Musicians become quite good a being able to pull out the part of the sound that they are interested in listening to. For example, the sound of their own instrument.”

And there is something else good about playing music…if I could only remember…

Oh, yes! Our brains get better at remembering things. When we play a piano, for instance, we force our brains to remember the note we just played. If your brain could talk, it might ask itself, is that the right sound? Or is it this one? Should I play the notes like this? Or this? Does this sound better with a major chord…a happier sound? Or a minor chord, a sadder sound?

Ms. Kraus says when we play a musical instrument we are exercising and making important electrical connections, or pathways, in our brains. This might even help our brains when we are trying to learn another language, or a new subject in school. So, if learning to play a simple song is good, is it better to try to learn to play something much more complex, like Bach or Chopin, for example? Professor Kraus says she has yet to test that proposal, but …

“We know that pushing ourselves, physically or intellectually, is very good for the development of the nervous system. Certainly the more challenging the task and the more engaging the task, the stronger the connections are likely to be.”