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Effects Of Music

Bill Cosby said "Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes." Music is an essential part of life. It shows, as Bill Cosby said, "passion" It can inspire one to dance, sing, laugh, scream, and cry. Music is a motivational device and can move one to work harder and longer. Music can give a fresh jolt of energy. It can make you feel relieved, kind, and change your mood altogether. Oxford's Dictionary defines music as the art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Music has been said to have benefits of health, mood, learning, and behavior, but it has also been found to have negative effects in the same ways. All throughout history music has always been thought to have effects on the body. Which types of music are better for mood, health (both physical and mental), learning, behavior? Is classical music really better for the body than that of rock and roll?

Music has many psychological aspects, it has been said to increase learning. Psychologists did a study with six year old children who took weekly musical lessons, such as piano or singing. These children who did take weekly music lessons had an average IQ increase of seven points. Other six year old kids who had no weekly musical lessons or received no extracurricular lessons had an average IQ increase of four point three points. Musical training requires kids to pay very close attention for long periods of time, to read notation, to memorize long passages and master fine motor skills. One musicologist said that background music helps students memorize negative facts, like the death toll of a war, but cheerful music helps students remember positive facts, such as when electricity was found. Preschoolers studying the keyboard achieve higher science and math...