How music shapes the learning process

Learning involves developing a student’s attitudes and personality through various stages and experiences. To achieve these goals, educators need methods and media that explain subjects clearly while shaping character. The chosen approach must align with the material being taught, and teachers can combine different methods or supplement them with certain media such as music.

Using music as a learning medium makes the educational process enjoyable and less tedious. Music can balance intellectual and emotional intelligence, yielding positive outcomes for students. It also affects physiological conditions: a relaxed physiological state encourages students to follow the learning process. Relaxation paired with music keeps the mind alert and able to focus more effectively on receiving lessons.

Baroque music is especially beneficial for learning. Its distinctive beats and rhythm patterns automatically synchronize a student’s body and mind. Classical music is also said to balance the right brain with the left brain — in other words, to harmonize intellectual intelligence with emotional intelligence. Students exposed to music education from an early age tend to become adults with logical thinking, creativity, intelligence, decision-making skills, and empathy.

The role of music education around the world

Developed nations — including Germany, the United States, Japan, England, Australia, and European countries in general — are musical peoples. Being “musical” here has two meanings: first, being able to play an instrument or sing well; second, not necessarily playing or singing well, but appreciating music. Students in grades 1 through 4 in the United States receive 75 minutes of music lessons each week; from grade 5 onward, they receive 80 minutes. As a result, they can construct chords with difficult three-voice arrangements and play several instruments. By junior high, they deepen their chosen musical studies and hold performances.

At senior high school, the emphasis increases toward concerts. Students can compose advanced music programs, creating one or two joint choruses. Most schools in the U.S. and Australia have dedicated music rooms. In the United Kingdom, kindergarten children who are below-average readers can catch up with their peers after additional music lessons. They learn to sing in groups through punctual and rhythmic training, combined with sensitivity training and emotion awareness — a highly structured program that children enjoy.

Many Japanese universities maintain symphony orchestras, continuing the music instruction students receive from elementary through senior high school. All excellent schools include music as compulsory intracurricular material and enrich it through extracurricular activities. Music lessons cover both universal and traditional music, and the learning outcomes for students in these excellent schools are very good on average.

In Indonesia, however, the 1994 curriculum reportedly failed to achieve a balance between intellectual and emotional development. The formal curriculum there emphasized intellectual growth while neglecting emotional intelligence.

The aims of essential music education

Essential music education is part of an integral education that helps learners balance left-brain and right-brain functions — a humanist education. It also seeks solutions to correct the moral crisis seen in some school students, such as brawls. Furthermore, music education provides input for curriculum policymakers to incorporate music into Indonesia’s national primary education curriculum.

The theoretical foundation

Research shows that music offers rich stimuli for cognitive development and emotional intelligence (EQ). Roger Sperry (1992), cited by Siegel (1999), developed neuron theory: new neurons form circuits when musical stimulation is present, causing disconnected neurons to interlock and integrate within brain circuitry. This triggers connections between the right and left brain neurons. Siegel (1999) states that classical music produces soothing alpha waves that stimulate the limbic system in brain neuron tissue. Campbell (2001), in what is called the Mozart Effect, notes that Baroque music (by composers such as Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi) creates an atmosphere that stimulates the mind during learning, while classical music (by Haydn and Mozart) improves concentration, memory, and spatial perception.

Many other musical genres — Jazz, New Age, Latin, Pop, Gregorian chants, and even gamelan — can sharpen the mind and boost creativity. Cognition encompasses all mental processes and products used to acquire knowledge, including remembering, symbolizing, categorizing, problem solving, and creating.

Referring to Piaget’s cognitive development theory (1969), learning based on motor development requires stimulation of movement skills. Through movement, children come to know the world concretely. Movement also enhances sensory sensitivity, which in turn improves spatial awareness, direction, and time perception. This structural development underpins efficiency in other areas. A child’s awareness of tempo can grow through activities that emphasize synchrony, rhythm, and movement sequences. Visual, auditory, and tactile abilities are strengthened through movement as well.

Gallahue (1998) argues that these abilities are further optimized when children are stimulated by classical music. The rhythm, melody, and harmony of classical music enhance children’s learning abilities. Through classical music, children more easily grasp relationships between time, distance, and sequence — skills essential for logical thinking, mathematics, and problem solving.

Herry Chunagi (1996), cited by Siegel (1999), expanded on neuron theory: neurons form circuits with musical stimulation. Stimuli in the form of movement, rhythm, and sound cause separated neurons to interlock and integrate within brain circuits. The more musical stimuli provided, the more complex the inter-neuronal connections. This forms the basis of mathematical, logical, language, musical, and emotional abilities in children.

Music as a learning approach

Different brain circuits develop at different times. Stimulating children at the right developmental stage can maximize their abilities. Mathematical and logical abilities reside in the brain’s cortex, adjacent to musical ability; both have formation periods between ages 0 and 4. For this reason, teachers can use simple counting activities paired with music — for example, counting plates, forks, and spoons during dinner — when teaching arithmetic to young children.

Music and emotional intelligence

Scientists often discuss the cortex (or neocortex) as the part of the brain used for thinking, distinguishing it from the limbic system, which handles emotion. But the two are connected. The interaction triggered by musical stimuli affects emotional intelligence. Sternberg and Salovey, cited in Shapiro (1997), define emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize one’s own emotions when they arise. Someone with high sensitivity to their true feelings can then make steady decisions — for example, when choosing a school, friends, profession, or spouse.

Preparing an ideal curriculum

Sprinthall and Sprinthall (1974) suggested that cognitive development does not happen on its own. To encourage growth, a curriculum based on the child’s developmental level should provide specific educational experiences — specifically, music education in schools. To balance the left and right hemispheres, music’s “magic” can nourish the soul, create enthusiasm, and serve as a learning approach for teaching arithmetic or politeness. Through music, students can channel their emotions positively, helping prevent problems such as brawls among students.

Music as a learning medium

Music stimulates the mind so that students can absorb learning materials effectively. Good music for learning media balances the right brain with the left brain, meaning it balances intellectual and emotional aspects. For subjects requiring high concentration, this balance is essential. Music can also stimulate intelligence in several ways:

1. Brain function stimulation. Music encourages growth in memory functions needed for learning, discussion, listening, speaking, analysis, intellect, and awareness. It also stimulates memory growth.
2. Physical brain stimulation. Music does not improve the physical condition of the brain per se, but a physically healthy brain enables better learning.
3. Improved cognitive functioning. Music facilitates thinking, remembering, analyzing, learning, and performing higher mental activities.
4. Associative process stimulation. Music can awaken students to recall emotional experiences from childhood.
5. Recognitive stimulation. Sound from music sends signals through the auditory nerve to the brain, enabling recognition. If a student has heard the music before, a familiar response results.
6. Extended memory repository. Music can arouse individuals to recall other data through an associative process. Music itself is data that also serves as a stimulator for retrieving other memories.
7. Language development. Music helps students become more capable of learning to speak.

When the left hemisphere is engaged in learning a new or unfamiliar situation, music generates an intuitive, creative right-brain reaction whose input combines with the overall process. The right brain tends to become distracted during meetings or lectures, which explains why people daydream or pay attention to the scenery when they intend to concentrate. Playing music is an effective way to engage the right brain while the left brain focuses on a task (DePorter & Hernacki, 2011: 74). Baroque music is considered highly suitable for learning media.

According to Dr. Georgi Lozanov’s research, the most helpful music for learning is Baroque music — works by composers such as Bach, Handel, Pachelbel, and Vivaldi. These compositions use very distinctive beats and patterns that automatically synchronize body and mind. For entering information, avoid music that contains words; use wordless instrumental music performed at 55–70 beats per minute. For brainstorming, discussions, or other output-oriented tasks, use more active music at 100–149 beats per minute.

Types of music helpful for learning

1. Classical music. The complexity of classical music stimulates complexity in the brain. It balances the right brain with the left brain, meaning it balances intellectual intelligence with emotional intelligence. Mozart’s music is a well-known example.
2. Nature sound music. This integrates classical music with nature sounds, such as Baroque compositions accompanied by ocean waves or splashing water.
3. Holy verses. Musical reading of sacred verses provides peace to listeners, helping them remain relaxed yet able to concentrate on lessons.

By using a specific type of music, people can do exhausting or heavy work more easily, remaining relaxed and focused throughout.

Benefits of using music in learning

1. Music helps students relax and reduces stress, which can otherwise hinder learning.
2. It stimulates creativity and thinking skills, leading to better results.
3. It aids creativity by bringing the brain into an appropriate brainwave state.
4. It stimulates interest in reading, motor skills, and vocabulary.
5. It is very effective for learning processes involving both the conscious and subconscious mind.

To create a supportive learning atmosphere, the brain needs appropriate stimulation so it can absorb, understand, and process information easily. The benefits of music depend on how, when, and what kind of music is used. Here are ways music can be integrated into the learning process:

1. Opening music. Music at the start of a lesson can significantly influence student attention early on.
2. Time constraint. Teachers can assign time limits for a task: students work until the music ends.
3. Background for discussion. Music played during group discussions creates a supportive atmosphere.
4. Energy booster. When the classroom atmosphere becomes drowsy or bored, playing up-tempo music while doing body movements or brain gym restores energy.
5. Closing music. Just as there is opening music, closing music played when students finish studying prepares them to leave with a sense of pleasure and joy.

The biological basis of music’s effect

The basic rhythm of classical music derives from the human pulse. This plays a major role in brain development, soul formation, and even the physical body. Research from multiple sources indicates that music contains compositions of tones that fluctuate between high pitch and low pitch. These tones stimulate alpha waves, which bring serenity and comfort, enabling better concentration (Muhammad, 2010).

Music in language learning

Features of songs support the development of all language skills and their components. In a presentation paper, Sari (2009: 180) writes that grammar can be taught with “entertainment” using songs. When students feel excited to learn, participation improves. Many Indonesian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) find it difficult to learn English structure, but they find a way out when learning is fun.

A classroom action research study was conducted in a grade 10 class of Computer Network Engineering 2 at Bina Teknologi Vocational School in Purwokerto, Central Java, Indonesia. The research used multiple sources of data: observation, questionnaires, and tests. Observation checklists recorded the teacher’s intervention implementation and the students’ behavior and participation. Before the first session, a test was administered to establish a baseline. The first session covered the Present Continuous Tense. The teacher began by asking “What is he doing?” while showing a picture on the screen. After administering another test, the teacher lesson began with a slide and followed by playing the song “Nothing to Lose”. A question-and-answer session and a brief discussion occurred. Material covered included “There is / There are”. Exercises with oral feedback were given until the end of the lesson.

Overall, students appeared active in completing tasks and exercises. Regarding the teacher’s performance during the intervention, research team members noted that of 13 indicators, only one — “answering student questions” — remained unaddressed, simply because no student asked questions. The teacher performance score reached 50 out of 65 (excellent). Observations thus showed improvement in student participation and teacher performance during the intervention.

Results of pre- and post-tests for the first session on the Present Continuous Tense reached average scores of 41.67 and 48.89 respectively.

Brain structures involved in musical learning

Studies indicate that the Planum Temporale is part of the brain that plays a role in verbal and hearing processes. The Corpus Callosum serves as a messenger between the left and right brain. The human brain has two major hemispheres. Although many researchers argue that musical ability is centered in the right hemisphere, developing ability spreads from the right side through the Corpus Callosum to the left hemisphere. This in turn influences linguistic development.

Dr. Lawrence Parsons of the University of Texas at San Antonio found that harmony, melody, and rhythm produce different patterns of brain activity. Melodies produce similar brainwaves in both hemispheres, while harmony and rhythm focus more on the left hemisphere alone. Overall, however, music involves almost all parts of the brain (Gilman & Newman, 1996).