Music has a far reaching and significant influence on human potential then what many people realize.

Today, scientists and neuromusicologist in many countries are conducting research on how music affects human development, our behavior, thinking, learning abilities and well being.

Dr Gordon Shaw and Dr Frances Rauscher, scientists at the University of California at Irvie and many others within the brain research community have shown that music has an extensive education and brain development value. Listening to classical music can increase memory and concentration, and studying a music instrument has shown to increase spatial reasoning.

When music form part of your home environment, it creates a positive and conducive atmosphere for learning and aids in the acquisition of early language. It was found that when music is taught comprehensively and sequentially in schools, it increases the children performance in math, science, reading, history and SAT score. In some cases, it also help children with learning disability to become more confidence and make their learning process much easier.

A person who study music and learn to play musical instrument tend to be more creative in their thinking, stronger in imagination, communication and team work skills. Incidentally, these are important attributes for a successful life, especially in the highly competitive twenty-first century.

Many government in the world such as Singapore and the US have recognized the importance of music education for the benefits of their citizens. They have invested a lot of financial and human resources at national level to promote music education in their countries. In these countries, collaborative efforts between schools, arts organizations and corporations are organized to make music and arts education a reality across the nation.

Recent studies show that music learning involve our bran at every level. One of the research done by Anne Blood at McGill University in Montreal found that music and the arts utilize both the cortex and limbic systems which are essential to helping us in learning that lasts. Music brings out our emotion such as joy, happiness, love, sorrow and tenderness. When we make music part of our learning process, our education becomes richer, more meaningful, long lasing and has greater impact in our lives.

Personally I discover that if you want to learn something and commit it to memory, the key is to set the information to music - majority of us learnt the alphabet by singing the ABC Song: 'ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRS-TUV-WXY-and-Z...', isn't it?

Article by Alvin Poh, founder of Learning Champ and Parenting Network - parenting wesbites that provides information and resources to parents and teachers, who want to help children develop the important skills and mind set for a brighter future -> http://www.alvinkh.per.sg