Listening is also a part of learning and it has its own positive effects on a child’s personality. Children learn a lot about melody & rhythm by just listening to music. Music listening played a major role in my own initial training. My father used to play all different kinds of music and that’s how I developed a special bond with music early in my childhood. When you listen different kinds of music, you learn to connect with different things. You learn to connect with your own emotions and others’ emotions as well. When my father played ‘morning & evening ragas’ or ‘wind’ by Hari Prasad Chaurasia , I learned to connect with the nature and its beauty. When I first listened albums by western artists I found that they wrote mostly about social and political issues that time. It helped me develop a good understanding about the world around me. I tried to find out where my favorite artists came from and why they wrote songs on particular issues. Billy Joel wrote a brill...

I don’t know whether music training ‘magically’ affects a child’s personality and intellect, I can confirm that there are some practical aspects that actually make them smarter 1. Better co-ordination : According to scientific studies, best exercises for a human being are those which involve co-ordination between hands, eyes, and brain. Playing a musical instrument involves co-ordination of both the hands (sometimes all four limbs, like playing a drumkit), eyes and brain. 2. Better concentration: While performing music, a child has to fully concentrate on different aspects of a song, like note pitches, rhythm and lyrics. 3.   Better Task orientation: I think the best skill a child can learn from music is ‘task orientation’. In music, even an average performance takes 100% preparation. As a performer, you are not allowed to make a single mistake. While preparing a song, children always have a very clear task- to prepare the song to its full length, without any mist...

For the last ten years, having taught music to thousands of students at my  institute , I have seen that those who attended regular sessions for a prolonged period eventually ended up securing much better careers & opportunities than those who didn’t. Based on my personal experience, I can confirm that many of them were not focused and their concentration was poor when they started taking music lessons. Later, as they progressed to higher grades, they became more focused and started showing excellent results. Surprisingly they started showing equally good results in academics and sports too. I saw their personality being totally transformed. The effect that training (or skill acquisition) in one domain might have on skills and cognitive performances in other domains is commonly referred to as ‘transfer’ or ‘near transfer’. I  specially remember one kid, Rishabh from my 2004 batch. He was initially an introvert child, who was average in studies. When he started...

From the core of Musicology www.musicology.co.in You can train your child to become a genius –  Manisha Dixit Most of us think that genius is a born trait but scientists in the modern era don’t seem to agree.  One of them is John Medina. I am an admirer of Medina’s work and I would like to share it with you. Through his studies, Medina has proved that genius is a trait that can be developed. Here are the top 5 habits which can be developed in children: 1.  Desire to explore:  The idea is very simple we can  encourage the children to explore .  When an apple falls off a tree, don’t eat it. Ask why? At Musicology, we encourage our students and instructors to  use 4 Ws – What, Why, When, Where? 2.  Self-control:  This is  ‘focus’ and time management . These days many kids are wasting too much time on Whatsapp, facebook or phones. During our class conversations, we often tell them how to use the gadgets wisely and take advantage ...