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MUSIC IN THE CLASSROOM
Interview with Education Pioneer Chris Brewer

By Christopher M. Wright
  © 2006 Christopher M. Wright
  All Rights Reserved

It's been called 'the Mozart Effect' but the author of the original 1993 study showing that listening to Mozart could raise college test scores under certain circumstances later disavowed the exaggerated claims others made for the research results. The hype spawned 'Baroque for Baby' CDs promising to make Junior smarter in the crib. Not true, alas, but educators have continued to work in the vineyards finding other ways music can support learning environments.

Chris Brewer has been a pioneer in the use of music in education since the 1980s. Her books include Soundtracks for Learning (2006) and Rhythms of Learning (co-authored with Don Campbell,1991). [Amazon Links Below] Her Memory Beat CD with composer Daniel Kobialka is a compilation of music to learn by. [available on Brewer's website]

Brewer plays the flute and has a master's degree in therapeutic uses of music. Among her other credentials: board member of the International Alliance for Learning (IAL) and the Association for Music and Imagery, as well as a Level III Accelerated Learning (AL) trainer.

Brewer offers a certificate program, Music for Academic Advancement, for students, teachers, and corporate trainers through the Heritage Institute in Washington State, USA. Participants earn continuing education credits or credit hours through Antioch University Seattle.

In this interview, Brewer talks about how people the world over can benefit from the use of music in education and for other purposes beyond simple listening enjoyment.

AIM: What is accelerated learning (AL) and how did the field get started? 

Brewer: AL is a brain-based learning method that was developed years before we had the research on how the brain learns. It was designed by a medical doctor, Georgi Lozanov in Bulgaria, who was amazed at how super-memory worked in a few individuals and decided it could be possible for all people. Today, this method has been refined and adapted for schools and corporate training.

In AL, we move people through a cycle that's very different from traditional educational models: preparing them for learning, giving them the content, allowing them to practice the learning with frequent non-threatening feedback, and celebrating the learning. There are ways to prepare the learner so they have the optimal attention, energy, and motivation, and music can play a part in that. Practice is the step missing from most schools today. Accelerated learning trainers recognize that it's essential to process information and have kids work with it using their bodies, using music, making art, and working in groups.

AIM: How is music used in the classroom? 

Brewer: Music can support learning in several different ways. It's important not to focus on one use and overlook the others.

Music can be playing as the students enter the room to create a positive, motivating learning environment. Sometimes we want to set a specific mood - have fun, or play mysterious music when we are going to solve the mystery of algebraic formulas, chemical bonding, the internal combustion engine, or even how to close a sale. We use reflective music to slow students down in preparation for journalling or other focused work.

The teacher moves into a 'concert' where the content is introduced then presented. In the background, there's energizing music that keeps the brain alert and holds your interest, like a soundtrack will in a movie. The music may be content-related if you're studying a culture or a topic where specific music might create an appropriate association.

Then you spend quite a bit of time practicing, to demonstrate knowledge through performance. The teacher might ask you to explain the material or play a game with it. There might be a song that is sung. You might be asked to create songs, or role-play or draw. Rhythms and chants can be used as memory aids. Using all the different senses, you take the information and work with it, going from a basic understanding to being able to use the information independently.

Then there's review and processing, where you go back through all the information. There's a music soundtrack for this step as well, but it’s very reflective. The final step is testing and celebrating that you learned.

AIM: Tell us a story from your personal experience where a great result was obtained through the use of music in learning. 

Brewer: Somebody I know teaches auto mechanics and he always had trouble getting his students to remember how oil flows through the engine. After he heard of some of these techniques, he decided to make a guided learning journey set to music. He played slow music and had his students close their eyes. He asked them to imagine they were the oil. Then he took them through the engine, describing in a very sensory way what was happening at each step - was it cold or warm? were they moving slow or fast? The students didn't have any trouble at all remembering the flow after that and they all passed their exam. All from a very brief musical interlude that took two or three minutes.

AIM: That's a great story. Has the effect of music on learning been documented beyond the study mentioned above? 

Brewer: The research around spatial reasoning [a skill used in sports, visual design, etc.] at [the University of California at] Irvine is great and it's not just one study. There are dozens of studies in Gordon Shaw's book Keeping Mozart in Mind [Amazon link below] that build on one another showing the correlation between spatial reasoning and music. Hearing the movement of a melody up and down the scale helps people in an abstract way learn pattern recognition. On a piano, you can see the spatial movement up and down the keyboard and how patterns repeat in octaves.

Michael Thaut and Shannon de l'Etoile did a couple of studies related to positive moods in learning. It's so simple, but it's so important to know that we can actually shift moods using music. We already knew that people don't learn as well if they're in a bad mood or depressed. The researchers found that they could shift 85 percent of students into a positive mood with music. If music was used as students were learning or before a test, grades improved. If music was used for both, it was best. So we know that using music just to improve mood works - simply playing music in transition times or during breaks or setting up for a test can improve learning.

AIM: Do these techniques work for everyone? 

Brewer: I don't think you can ever say something always works for everyone.

AIM: Do they work equally well for every field of study? Are there any distinctions between verbal content and technically very demanding subjects like math, science, statistics, or finance? 

Brewer: Yes, equally well but, again, you have to keep in mind there are different ways we use music. We use music to set attention, attitude, and atmosphere and that is usable in any form of learning. Especially with those challenging subjects, you want people to be free from stress, in a positive mood, and ready to pay attention. There's an instructor in Florida who uses accelerated learning to teach statistics and he's gotten so well known for it, he teaches in London. He uses music and his classes are successful. Carla Hannaford, who's well know for her work with the brain, started out using accelerated learning to teach neurophysiology, which is very complicated, to nursing students in Colorado. She was voted 'teacher of the year' her first year there.

AIM: There were a lot of people from Mexico at the conference where I met you. Does music support learning equally well in different cultures around the globe? 

Brewer: Absolutely. In fact, we had a really high percentage of people at the U.S. conference from Mexico and South American countries. We have large groups in England and Germany. We have groups in Australia and New Zealand. We have a lot of corporate trainers in the Middle East teaching foreign languages. Language teaching is the way accelerated learning started - it's great for learning vocabulary. There's a large number of trainers using music and other accelerated learning techniques to teach languages to people from all countries.

AIM: Has there been any research done on music and learning disabilities such as attention deficit disorder [ADD] or Down Syndrome? 

Brewer: With learning disabilities, there has been some research that indicates that the relaxation effect helps, that music can be used to stabilize rhythms which is helpful for ADD/ADHD.

AIM: Rhythms? 

Brewer: A slow steady beat can create a congruency between body and brain rhythms that helps students to focus. For those types of disabilities, music can be quite helpful. And music's a wonderful tool for autism. There have been some studies related to the use of music to draw autistic students out, to do something they can relate to and, again, to synchronize rhythms. I helped set up some uses of music in learning at the Center for Discovery in New York state, which is a wonderful very large facility for people with autism. They have eight music therapists on staff. Music is a staple item there, it's just essential because it helps in so many ways.

AIM: How does music in learning work? 

Brewer: It's very complex. We do know that our learning is affected and directed by chemicals (such as neurotransmitters) that establish our mood, attention and energy levels. Music can affect some of the neurotransmitters and other chemicals that dictate brain and body states. It can, for instance, keep someone from releasing too much cortisol because they're stressed. Cortisol can cause depression, it can cause shrinking of the hippocampus in our brain. If music can keep people from being stressed and anxious, we can control this problem.

We know that our learning is different in various brain wave states. Music can shift brain wave states and slow down body rhythms. We can use music to facilitate a reflective state and allow the brain to process and consolidate what has been learned.

AIM: What kind of music works best? 

Brewer: Depends on the purpose. I use contemporary music with words frequently for welcoming, for transitions, as theme songs for specific topics.

To create a positive mood, upbeat pieces by Mozart in a major key are often used. For this purpose, I find that you can use a variety of cultural styles, even rock music with a positive message. Heavy metal's just not gonna work, but there's a lot of other commercial entertainment music that will. Music for positive mood management is played between learning activities, when students are entering or leaving, or taking a break, or getting their pencils or books. You'll see kids begin to move and smile and react to the music positively. It helps shift their mood and the instructor hasn't taken away at all from the time needed to focus on teaching.

Then there's music to help students focus. This is often instrumental music between 50 and 80 beats per minute that comes from the baroque era, about 1650 to 1720, but other classical era music - like Mozart’s - can be used. It's harmonious and tends to be calming. There's a range here, from a relaxed focus to more of an energized focus you get with some of the more upbeat Mozart pieces. It just depends on where you are in your daily circadian rhythm. If it's in the morning and you want kids to be calm and focused, or after recess and the kids are kind of wild, you might use the slower baroque music. But if it's 2:30 in the afternoon and nap time, you probably want the faster Mozart to help raise their energy a little bit. Accelerated learners use a lot of classical music, that's traditional, but again, I encourage them to use a variety of styles.

Drums and faster Mozart pieces work equally well for increasing energy. Strings are rich in high frequencies which Dr. [Alfred] Tomatis said can stimulate our neurological system and increase attention. But who wouldn’t be energized by a Sousa march? or African drums? Which is best?

AIM: What types of music don't work and why? 

Brewer: Some say to avoid 3/4 time, but a Strauss waltz or an upbeat 6/8 Celtic tune can energize and encourage attention as well. These are great for movement-related activities, too.

Music with words doesn't help in focused work because you tie into the words. Anything with negative terminology cannot work.

You have to watch the reaction. If you see the music's not doing what you intended, you just turn it off and play something else the next time.

So sometimes, the results are not what you expect. I was teaching a group of school teachers how to use music in the classroom. I had given them five CDs and some specific recommendations. I was about to leave when the principal got a phone call from one of the teachers saying, 'You've got to come see this, I put on the wrong music.' It was a fifth grade class reading at their desks. The teacher had put on this wonderful drum music I love to use for energizing and activities. The kids were all reading but four of them had their elbows on the desk and the rest of their bodies were wiggling and jiggling to the music. It was the funniest sight you've ever seen. I looked at that and said, 'What's wrong with that?' Those four kids were really focused on the reading and the other kids didn't seem to be bothered. Everybody was happy and quiet and reading. I asked the teacher, 'Are those four kids the ones who usually can't sit still?' and she said 'yes'. She had discovered something. Something you may think won't work might work, so you have to be a little bit brave and understand the needs of different learners.

AIM: Can you comment on other uses of music beyond pure listening pleasure? 

Brewer: Falling asleep, meditation, relaxation - these all relate to slowing down. But music's also good for waking up in the morning. And it's a great pain management tool, where it's used as a distraction. I've worked with that quite a bit and there's some wonderful research on it. I re-ran a study by the [U.S.] National Institutes of Health [NIH]. Both of us got over 50 percent reduction of pain and symptoms in medical settings using vibroacoustic music that you feel as well as hear. The speakers are built into equipment that you sit on or lay on, so you actually feel the vibrations as well as hear what's playing.

Music for bonding and bringing people together is another use. It works between individuals and certainly in community groups.

AIM: "I'd like to teach the world to sing, In perfect harmony...." 

Brewer: We Are the World and all those wonderful songs about how we work together and how we all have the same experience. If you use those in your classroom, it creates a bigger picture than those little problems we have.

AIM: You have lots of recommendations on your website [link below] for specific pieces of music to enhance learning, but can you mention two or three?

Brewer: I've always liked the Relax with the Classics series created by the LIND Institute. [Amazon link below] They've taken the slow movements of baroque era music at 50 to 80 beats a minute - which are usually the middle movement of a three-movement work - taken them out and put them all together. So it's 45 minutes of slow music which is great.

I like the music of Richard Searles. I use his Dance of the Renaissance and Emerald Castles for mid-level energy music. [Amazon links below] It's great for hitting a happy medium between those who are over-energized and those who are falling asleep. You bring their energy levels into the middle and you can work as a group on whatever you need to do.

Daniel Kobialka and I created a CD called Memory Beat [available on Brewer's website] which is an all-in-one CD for a complete lesson cycle - Mozart, Pachelbel, Celtic, and other upbeat positive music for presentation and Dan's own reflective music for processing. He's a violinist with the San Francisco Symphony and a composer. Any of Dan's calming music is wonderful for being in a slow, relaxing mode. And it works for pain management and other things as well.

AIM: Thank you for being my guest.

Resources

Chris Brewer's website - www.musicandlearning.com

Chris Brewer's recommendations for music to enhance learning

Music to Deliver Learning - Chapter 9 in The Accelerated Learning Fieldbook by Lou Russell (1999) [Amazon link below]

International Alliance for Learning (IAL) - www.ialearn.org

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© 2006 Christopher M. Wright
All Rights Reserved - This material may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten, redistributed, resold, or manipulated in any form.

Chris Brewer Shares Her Personal Listening Favorites

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