Healing Music Ezine
Of all the music played during the Olympics, what stands out in your mind?
Do you remember some of the music that people skated and ice danced to? One of
the things that really bothered me was that when they were playing a beautiful
piece of music, like Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, they rarely
identified the music. Then there were some
really nice popular pieces that I wanted to know the name of, but alas the
name wasn't announced and I could not find it online anywhere! Very
frustrating. Nevertheless, I thought it was quite interesting to see what the
skaters chose to skate to in the Olympics. I was so happy the the Japanese
girl who won the gold, skated to a beautiful violin concerto.
I also enjoyed hearing the nine-year-old girl sing the Italian national anthem
at the very beginning and again at the end. There were also several fantastic
performances that first night with Italian musicians performing famous
symphonic and operatic excerpts. I never get tired of hearing Andrea Bocelli
and he's singing again at the final concert and processional of athletes and
the Torino chorus singers in their beautiful costumes.
Now the games are ending and I'm watching the closing ceremony and wondering
what Vancouver will bring us, musically, in four years. I believe that the
music chosen by the athletes that use it has a powerful effect on their
ultimate success. I'd love to hear YOUR opinion on this. What do you think?
Hope you enjoyed the Olympics!
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You probably know that April is an
important month in the U.S. for students of all kinds top take standardized
tests. Students from elementary school on up through graduate school,
law school, medical school and more are sweating bullets over whether or not
they will get the required score to attend that school or university of their
choice. Not only admission, but scholarships and grants hinge on whether
or not the student attains a certain score. Now many exams that were
supposedly "objective" multiple choice tests now have a very subjective essay
component. Testing is a whole science in itself and at this point in
history it is very far from perfect. However, as important as these test
scores are, parents and students alike want to do everything possible to
prepare and win a top score.
Of course my angle is music and how
it might help the test-taker to do her best. The documentation is there
folks. High school juniors and seniors who listened to the Mozart Sonata
in D Major for Two Pianos, K. 448 did better on the SAT by 8 or 9 percentage
points than their peers who listened to either no music, or their favorite pop
music. Why? Apparently the music of Mozart is highly structured
and somehow enables the brain to get itself organized, as least for the time
the student is taking the test. In the research at UC Irvine the
students listed to the above-mentioned Mozart piece for just 10 minutes before
going in to take the test, but the results were significant.
If you want to know more
about all the Mozart research that has been done, I highly recommend the site
http://parenting-baby.com/Parenting-Baby-Music-Research/Music-Research.html
. You can get the CD of this particular Mozart Sonata at:
http://www.amazon.com/.
Use the above link for the specific recording that I recommend. Enjoy
this beautiful music and also let me know what you think! I've set up a
blog just for this purpose. You can find it at
http://healingmusicenterprises.blogspot.com/
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Alice
Alice H. Cash, Ph.D., LCSW
www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com
www.DrCashPrefers.com
