SAN DIEGO Students in Chula Vista and San Diego are finding out that there’s more to learning how to play a musical instrument than just developing a skill and having fun. It plays a role in their brain development and overall well being.
“Five minutes of playing music reduces your stress level, lowers your blood pressure and opens up cancer fighting cells in your brain,” said Sundiata Kata, a San Diego-based music program director.
Kata and more than 40 elementary school kids took the stage last week at Lincoln High School at an event called Music and the Mind. The event featured performances by the Chula Vista Community Opus Project, the Oak Park Elementary Percussion ensemble and the International Youth Symphony. It also included a discussion with Kata and Aniruddh Patel, a neurobiologist at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, in which they spoke about the connection between music and the brain.
Patel said a recent study involving 7-year-olds who learned an instrument for 15 months and kids who weren’t taking lessons showed a difference in brain development. He said the brains of those who played an instrument developed a bit more in areas that have to do with processing sounds and controlling complex movements.
Music also touches on fundamental brain functions, including memory and emotion, and helps us with multi-tasking, he said.
“You just saw how those children were able to listen to each other, while also watching the conductor, waiting for their cue and listening to themselves,” Patel told the audience after the performances.
Kata said playing music is a therapeutic tool that helps kids express themselves.
“A lot of the kids I work with have suffered a lot of different traumas in their life and seen a lot of things and a lot of them have never felt successful with anything,” Kata said. “And by introducing music into their lives they’re able to start to feel good about themselves and feel a sense of accomplishment.”
The Chula Vista Community Opus Project and the Oak Park Elementary Percussion ensemble are part a project called the Community Opus Project. The project was launched by the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory last October at two elementary schools to serve 65 third graders. During this school year the program will expand to six schools and serve 250 children.
Dalouge Smith, president and CEO of the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory, said the goal is to make music education accessible to all children in San Diego County. He said the most important thing people can do to make music programs available is to ask for them.
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