Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

  1. #1
    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Connecticut, USA
    Posts
    3,379

    Default Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Or so says this article. Thought I'd toss it out there.


    https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/w...moR08AAg4TWgb8
    --------------------------------
    1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
    1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
    1952 Strad-o-lin
    1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
    2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
    2011 Eastman MD305

  2. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Randi Gormley For This Useful Post:


  3. #2
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Location
    New Hampshire
    Posts
    1,985

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Still waiting for Grandchildren to give Mandolins to
    (So that they can be smarter)

  4. #3

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Now it's just a matter of teaching the culture that intelligence, aesthetics, humanities . . . matters.

  5. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to catmandu2 For This Useful Post:


  6. #4
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Location
    New Hampshire
    Posts
    1,985

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    Now it's just a matter of teaching the culture that intelligence, aesthetics, humanities . . . matters.
    My education is in the sciences, and I worked for a number of years in manufacturing. I agree 100%.

    When I was in grad school (biology) my advisor told me that I needed to stay focused and there was no room or need for me to be taking darkroom photography or other "artistic" courses. That was the beginning of the end of my desire to move into scientific academia.

  7. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    126

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    They aren't that far off! Both have their roots in math, and I know a pretty large amount of musician friends that have started coding over the years.

  8. #6
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Location
    New Hampshire
    Posts
    1,985

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Kids/people need them both. Art and Science, Music and Math. Holistic thinking for well rounded humans.

  9. The following members say thank you to Sue Rieter for this post:


  10. #7
    === High Strung === gfury's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Maryland, USA
    Posts
    95

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    I write code and play music (I'm sure there are plenty of others). I can loose myself in pursuit of either one.

    The two are similar in many ways: patterns, structure, organization, creativity, communication. Not much demand for improvisation in coding though

    I do wish I had started music earlier. I figured I could never understand it. When I wrote my first lines of working code, I was hooked.

  11. #8
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Location
    Lewiston NY
    Posts
    269

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    I'm from the other end of the spectrum. As a senior (67 years old, a senior what? Think Walter and Jeff Dunham. By the way tomorrow is National Grumpy Old Gray Hair Man Day. But I digress). I have been told that playing music keeps the neurons in my brain connected and functioning. Maybe even creating new brain function. Different mandolins stimulate different neurons and therefore I have more than one. Perhaps someone in academia could start a study to show how providing me with more instruments (payed for through this academic endeavor) would thus prove the point that mandolin playing maintains superior senior brain function. A worthy cause if ever there was one! And if not, I get to keep the mandolins. Sounds good to my senior brain!
    Ratliff R5 2007, Capek A5 2003, Washburn M5S-SB Jethro Burns 1982, Mid-Mo M-2, Epiphone MM 30 Bk mandolins, Harmony Batwing 1970's, George Bauer bowlback early 1900's Philadelphia.


    "Don't cloud the issue with facts!" Groucho Marx

  12. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Bob Gnann For This Useful Post:


  13. #9
    Registered User Kevin Stueve's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Kansas
    Posts
    475

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Quote Originally Posted by gfury View Post
    I write code and play music (I'm sure there are plenty of others). I can loose myself in pursuit of either one.

    The two are similar in many ways: patterns, structure, organization, creativity, communication. Not much demand for improvisation in coding though

    I do wish I had started music earlier. I figured I could never understand it. When I wrote my first lines of working code, I was hooked.
    I also am a programmer and a musician. I often look to see if applicants have a musical background. Standard Notation is an abstract language if you can understand it odds are your mind is the kind that can understand programming languages
    2012 Weber Bitterroot F5.

  14. #10
    Gummy Bears and Scotch BrianWilliam's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Summit County Colorado
    Posts
    1,306

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Me too

    My software team may be an anomaly, but 60% of us play an instrument.

  15. #11
    Gummy Bears and Scotch BrianWilliam's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Summit County Colorado
    Posts
    1,306

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    The referenced MIT study may be legit, but the linked article reads like an opinion piece.

    > Furthermore, the basic coding skills taught in K-12 bears no resemblance to how professional programmers produce code.

    The coding apps my kids use teach conditionals and loops which *does* resemble my work.

    They all play instruments too because it’s important to us. If it makes them smarter, that’s a nice bonus.

  16. #12
    Registered User Hammerless's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Location
    Penobscot County, Maine
    Posts
    14

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    The musical group also showed stronger connections from the auditory cortices to other brain areas …

    Does this article mean that music learning will help develop BOTH left and right sides of a child's brain .. simultaneously?
    After ten years of working with my hands as a carpenter I went back to school to become a land surveyor, primarily taking engineering (i.e. left brain) type classes. The general attitude in that culture was that the arts majors (right brain) do not really contribute very much value to society - certainly not like engineering does. All forms of art can express feelings and emotions that simple words cannot and our world can certainly use the opportunity for one to be exposed to other cultures that the arts afford.

  17. #13
    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Connecticut, USA
    Posts
    3,379

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    i think there's been discussion in the cafe (and other places) about the place of arts in society as a whole, especially linked to COVID-19 and how that's affected public performances and people's leisure time, but I wonder if the "who's more important to society" left brain/right brain argument is a straw man kind of thing. Why is it being framed as either/or? Or that can be an argument for another string!
    --------------------------------
    1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
    1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
    1952 Strad-o-lin
    1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
    2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
    2011 Eastman MD305

  18. The following members say thank you to Randi Gormley for this post:

    Tony S 

  19. #14

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Quote Originally Posted by Hammerless View Post
    The musical group also showed stronger connections from the auditory cortices to other brain areas …

    Does this article mean that music learning will help develop BOTH left and right sides of a child's brain .. simultaneously?
    The Results and Discussion sections of the study speak to this (it reported volumetric structural changes in multiple areas of the brain, including bilateral hemispheres).

    The Right/Left lateralization conception is a rudimentary model that has evolved disproportionally in popular culture. More recent models involve bilateral and multi-regional plasticity, such as reported in this study.

    Still at the heart of this remains the question: innate disposition vs practice (nature/nurture) as mentioned in the report several times. My particular interest, as this has been broached many times over the years here, is the dialectic around innate disposition for it's the arts and humanities who've had the most to say about it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hammerless View Post
    “[I] general attitude in that culture was that the arts majors (right brain) do not really contribute very much value to society - certainly not like engineering does. All forms of art can express feelings and emotions that simple words cannot and our world can certainly use the opportunity for one to be exposed to other cultures that the arts afford.
    "You are going to be condemned to live out the consequences of your taste" T.M.
    Last edited by catmandu2; Feb-04-2021 at 5:30pm.

  20. #15

    Default Re: Music, not coding, makes for smarter kids

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Stueve View Post
    I also am a programmer and a musician. I often look to see if applicants have a musical background. Standard Notation is an abstract language if you can understand it odds are your mind is the kind that can understand programming languages
    I am also a programmer and a musician, and I have used the example of standard notation vs tabs to explain varying levels of abstraction before! Now if I could get my fingers to move as fluidly on the mandolin as I do on the keyboard.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •