Musicians undergo sensory training for quite a number of years, often starting in their early childhood. With this training, they can become experts in the instruments they play or become the masters of their voice. A research study indicates that Educación musical can cause a number of changes in the auditory system. This eventually prepares musicians to be able to process challenges that are not just limited to music processing. This means that musical training, just like physical exercise, has an impact on the body’s physical fitness. Music has the ability to tone the brain for auditory fitness. It is therefore important to understand the role that music plays in shaping individual development. Playing musical instruments requires the person playing to possess a keen sense of timing. This is acquired after a number of years of training, indicating that musical training can cause changes in the brain.
Transfer effects
It has been documented that musical training impacts the neural processing of music. After spending numerous years doing musical training, the end result is not just fine-grained auditory skills, and these benefits are not exclusive to just musicians. Research indicates that through the years of training, other aspects like speech, language, and even auditory processing are impacted positively. This implies that musical training has the ability to enhance auditory skills not related to music. While music and speech can be different, they have many things in common, especially at the acoustic and cognitive capacities. They both require the same memory and attention skills. This means that if you undergo years of active training in music, you will be able to enhance your speech and language-processing domains.
Practical implications
Musical training not only enhances your ability to extract sound regularities, but it also comes with selective auditory processing. Research shows that musicians have had more success than non-musicians when it comes to putting sound patterns of a new language into words. This is because of functional brain changes in musicians resulting from years of musical training. Further research shows that musical training for children improves their vocabulary and also their reading ability when compared to children who have not undergone any musical training. This is an indicator that musicians will always have an advantage when it comes to speech and language tasks.
Implications for education
There are a number of determinants in musical training that are equated to brain plasticity. They include the age at which you begin training, the number of years you train continuously, the amount of time you practice, and your aptitude. Brain plasticity will be affected to the extent by which an individual does active musical training in their early life. For instance, studies show that if you begin musical training from the age of 7, your sensory-motor integration will be superior to that of anyone else who starts musical training after 7 years of age. The amount of practice will affect your neuroplasticity, regardless of the age in which you begin your training. Aptitude also plays a role, but it has never been the only determinant of neuroplasticity.
