NIE, 2 weeks ago

Music and the Mind

It’s April and already it is impossible to sit without ceiling fans and air-conditioners. Most of us are busy figuring out the lull that this time of the year usually brings in. The ubiquitous summer camp advertisements are here. One particular flyer caught my attention. A camp is being organized to learn classical music in two weeks leaves me wondering if there is a miracle worker in our midst that I am yet to meet!

Funnily enough, I was part of a panel on music education two weeks ago that brought up a related query. Can classical music be taught in smaller chunks? I wonder. As a musician, classical music has always been a passion I took seriously, and I am yet to lay claim on “having learnt it”. Clearly, the need that my esteemed panellists voiced was for music appreciation. And a fundamental understanding of principles, concepts and ideas in music. Now why is this suddenly becoming important and is there any functional “utility” related to it?

A friend of mine who is an educationist recently told me a very moving story. She was working with a well-known charitable organization that rehabilitates and retools abused children. Being a pragmatist, my friend was plagued with questions on what “retooling” could mean, especially since the children in question were reluctant to rejoin the mainstream for reasons most of us appreciate and understand. It was then that she came across 8 year old Smita*, a victim of severe physical abuse who was rescued a year ago from Delhi. A cheerful child otherwise, Smita was showing anxiety and reluctance in sitting down with the tutor, a lady who was known for her patience and empathy with these beautiful children. On probing, it became clear that the child was dyslexic and in combination with her psychological trauma, a sort of exaggerated learning disability pattern emerged. Running out of methods to help Smita, my friend casually put on a cassette with classical music in it, playing only the raga alapana section (or free-style improvisation on a chosen raga). Smita and two of her friends became instantly hooked, out of a combination of curiosity and wonder. Emboldened, my friend began vocal exercises in simple five-tone ragas which the children not only enjoyed, but started looking forward to. My friend then drew the notes on the floor of the classroom as a giant piano keyboard, and started devising games of skipping notes and combining them. In less than three weeks, the change in the attitudes of these children towards learning, and towards establishing higher abilities to discern patterns and understand counting started bearing fruit. Further, music was having a positive effect on mood, morale and concentration, something we all already experience even as adults.

Therefore, is music the only solution to an ailing planet? It would be easy for me to reply in the affirmative. From Oliver Sacks in the neuroscientific realm to Howard Gardner, the effect of music on cognitive processing and learning is a much-discussed topic. Music and its effects on decision making and ability to judge visual-spatial distances are being studied and experimented with. And yet, most of us are happy deleting music from higher education, preferring to award the more popular sciences and mathematics first place.

Which brings me to the notion of “functional utility” that I expressed earlier in this article. In a world obsessed with “subjects that are linked to better job prospects”, I believe the arts suffer a lot. Not only do we make the crucial mistake of expecting all disciplines to have direct correlations with careers, but we completely discount the purpose of schooling or all education, for that matter. We are no longer interested in having a child develop at his/her pace. Instead, we want job assurances by the time the child arrives in the ninth grade, rushing to secure admissions in schools that have “better IIT placement track records”. Whither music?

Until we start considering the effect music has on a child like Smita. On not only helping her overcome learning disabilities but enhancing her outlook towards life. Or on a more everyday note, start considering the lives of the great men and women of our time. From CEOs to doctors and corporate lawyers, look at a success story the next time you read about it. You will find that these individuals also lay claim to artistic talent, or at least, a proclivity for the arts. Many of them become leading art and music patrons, or well-known artists themselves. A favourite piece of music or a favourite musician always finds mention. In effect, it is an integral, all-important part of the “success code” that we all seem to define on some rather stringent parameters for no apparent reason.



No wonder then that discussions related to music education are finding more takers in corporate boardrooms. Functional utility aside, the need for a child to enhance his/her decision and learning abilities and aesthetic sensibilities with some exposure to classical music is now finally being understood. But far from shouting my hurrahs, I wait for this understanding to reach the stampede outside the admissions offices of our elite schools. This is not an argument to replace the sciences or mathematics with music and the visual arts. It is merely a suggestion not to ignore that vital aspect of a child’s intelligence.



For now, temper down the scorching heat by playing some music that you like on your stereo. You will find it much easier to breathe. And think about all that I said. This summer might well be a time for transition.



ANIL SRINIVASAN