When the child was a child, It didn't know it was a child...

This topic has always interested me as I feel it personally relates to me. As someone that did not have any music tuition until the age of 16, I have never agreed with the statement “music has to be learnt as a young child” which I have heard many times from music teachers and also from people with no musical interest. This topic recently arose in a discussion I had with some teachers, that agreed with the statement. I however had a different opinion and have always believed anyone can learn an instrument at any age, although I have also always wondered if studying music earlier would have had an effect on me.

I was made aware of The Tillman/Swanwick spiral whilst doing uni research. From researching I have learnt that this is a Helix development model that describes and measures the musical development. According to the Swanwick/Tillman spiral 0-4 year olds are concerned with materials, 4-9 years olds are concerned with expressions, 10-15s with form and older children with value. I do think the Swanwick/Tillman spiral has a degree of scientific realism and the studies show the helix model is accurate. I also think the spiral is helpful when teaching children as it shows the tasks their brain will be more focused on.

However, I believe that this purely shows the ways in which certain ages may learn best. Therefore I believe this doesn't show that being a certain age holds a person back, but merely means they may need to learn in a different way to a child, in the similar way a 0-4 year old child learns differently to a 10-15 year old child.

            The Psychology of Music; Second Edition states “During their second year, children begin to recognise certain melodies as stable entities in their environment and can identify them even after a considerable delay”  It also states “Children begin to sing spontaneously somewhere around the age of 9 months or a year.”

It seems that children develop musical skills naturally. I couldn’t initially decide whether “spontaneous singing” qualifies as musicality, but I definitely decided it was relevant. However, The Psychology Of Music; Second Edition also says “When a child sings it is readily distinguishable from speech in terms of its patterns of pitch and rhythm.”

Music development during the early years of childhood has been researched since World War II. (Pillsbury studies 1937-1958) It was believed that learning music would enhance a child’s ability to learn and even their ability to speak. For example, musical ability starts off as simple phrases or chords. These then develop into intricate melodies and in song writing simple chords can turn into complicated songs. These methods are similar to language in the fact that simple words are learnt, which turn into sentences, which turn into paragraphs and so on.

            Alvaro Pascual-leane at Harvard says:

“Playing a musical instrument demands extensive procedural and motor learning that results in plastic reorganization of the human brain. These plastic changes seem to include the rapid unmasking of existing connections and the establishment of new ones. Therefore, both functional and structural changes take place in the brain of instrumentalists as they learn to cope with the demands of their activity.”

It’s obvious that learning an instrument takes more than just knowledge of ‘what to do’. Although an obvious statement, practice is essential and I believe ‘willingness’ to practice cannot be taught, but is something that comes from an individual. People such as Alvaro Pascual-leane suggest that when an instrument is practiced, the ‘musical brain’ is developed. Alvaro says “Learning to play the piano changes your brain”.

Alvaro Pascual-Leane’s experiment reveals that use of the motor skills to play the piano correctly is associated with reorganization in the cortical motor outputs to the muscles involved in the task. When learning to play the piano, new connections are made in the brain and previously existing connections are unmasked.

            If the studies are correct and learning music at a young age does develop some kind of ‘musical brain’ would this be an advantage or a hindrance?  Musicophilia, tales of music and the brain’states: “Musicality, like other gifts, can create its own problems”. Musicophilia talks about a young boy who started to play the piano and compose at the age of four and who, by the age of seven, “could reproduce long and elaborate pieces of music”. This little boy was told he was going to be a musician, and this was accepted at a young age. This little boy as an adult said he felt “his musicality controlled him, rather than the other way round”.

            From experience I have had of teaching music to children, I have generally found that unless the child wants to learn, they wont. I believe this is because music is something that can’t necessarily just be learnt, but comes from someone’s willingness to express themselves. So surely you can find a new way to express yourself at any age?

            Although there is a lot of corresponding evidence that shows the relationship between brain development and age, being older could also be an advantage as an adult may have more willingness and a more structured way of practice.

            I do believe learning music at a young age is extremely beneficial. However I do think it is completely possible for an adult to learn an instrument, but it would realistically take longer than it would have if they had learnt whilst their brain was developing. Despite my own personal opinion, I do believe there are solid arguments both for and against the beginning statement.

The book I read was in your eyes...

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain


I'm not normally into book reviews, but this book is an exception. I originally read Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks for a university module.... I soon grew to love this book as it is devoted to the cognitive miracles of music.
I never thought about it before reading this book, but it's amazing that if I merely type "the Mission: Impossible theme tune" or "Beethoven's Fifth", you will probably start humming these tunes to yourself.


It's something we all take for granted, but how is it possible? What is going on in our brains? Oliver sacks says "It really is a very odd business that all of us, to varying degrees, have music in our heads."


Oliver Sacks's interesting and sympathetic study is about the pathologies of musical response and what they might teach us about the "normal" faculty of music. It reports that a musician's brain is easily distinguishable on a scan from those of others; and the passage from ear to brain is not a one-way conduit, but works both ways. Mostly Musicophilia is about the more mysterious, and currently inexplicable ways in which music affects the brain, for good or worse. 


Musicophilia outlines some very remarkable stories about those with profound Amnesia, or Alzheimer's disease, for whom music can "restore them to themselves". Also, People with aphasia can be taught to speak again through singing. On the other hand, previously healthy people begin to have "musical hallucinations" and others have seizures in response to music. As a musician, the thought of developing any kind of "musicogenic epilepsy" both scares and intrigues me.


There is, of course, a continuum between the pathological states that Musicophilia discusses and everyday experiences of music. The phenomenon of irritating tunes and jingles that get lodged in our heads is only one step away from a full-blown musical hallucination and Oliver Sacks also compares it to the obsessive ticcing of Tourette's syndrome. It is intriguing, too, to wonder where on the continuum certain historical figures could be placed. Here, for example, is Tchaikovsky as a child: "This music! It is here in my head. Save me from it!" Was he suffering from vivid musical hallucinations, which he learned to manage by writing them down?


At the other end of the continuum are those Sacks describes as "amusic", who do not seem to understand or feel music at all, this is a condition that is completely alien to me. He considers with pity the case of Vladimir Nabokov, who famously said he experienced music merely as "an arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds". Another lady also described her experience of listening to music as "knives and forks falling to the ground".


Another part of the book which caught my attention were the stories of people who were awakened to profound musical powers after some kind of brain injury. For example, a 42-year-old man struck by lightning suddenly experiences an unquenchable thirst for music, learns to play the piano, and becomes a composer.


I recommend this book to anyone, It has really got my brain going!