The Neuroscience of Reading Music

The Neuroscience of Reading Music: Optimal Brain Development in Children Using Standard Music Notation
 
HOW DOES READING MUSIC IMPROVE THE BRAIN?
 
In her definitive exploratory work, author and lifetime educator, Barbara A. Moir, M. Ed., uses neurological studies as well as her own classroom observations to consider how those who read music develop keen visual perception, eye-motion skills for speed reading, two types of spatial intelligence, multi-tasking ability, higher order reasoning, and disciplined study habits. Moir’s five-year plan for note reading in early grades would ensure that all children gain a working knowledge of the music staff by the end of third grade—making it possible for them to compose, read, and perform in notation as they utilize the same components to excel in every area of the academic curriculum. 
 
In the past, it was believed best to wait until children’s brains had matured in the area of abstract reasoning at around the age of seven or eight to learn notation. But Moir shows us neurological evidence that her age-appropriate, classroom-tested strategies serve as effective cognitive bridges to bring children as young as four and five years old into abstract reasoning. 
 
“The Neuroscience Of Reading Music: Optimal Brain Development in Children Using Standard Music Notation” explores numerous topics including:
 
What are the differences in the brain between “playing by ear” and “playing from notation”?
Why is it neurologically improbable that learning notation early harms or lessens music intelligence, as many educators currently believe? 
What is the real role of music intelligence in reading music notation? 
What is alphabetic logic and how can it speed up the note reading process? 
Is simple-to-complex hierarchy neurologically necessary or just optional in learning notation? 
How does whole body coordination affect learning abilities?
What is the similarity between reading notation and general classroom subjects? 
 
Moir shared her ideas and concerns with Howard Gardner, the eminent Harvard professor and widely accepted authority on the intelligences, who wrote the book Frames of Mind, the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983).  
 “You raise an interesting set of issues. Best wishes for the success of your book.”             
–Howard Gardner