Music to Motivate, Accelerate and Support Learning

“I myself am still very much a student, a pilgrim on a quest to learn all that I can about the ways that different tones, vibrations and sounds can affect the body and attune with the emotions and the spiritual. It is a wonderful journey, and one that I intend to share with as many people as I can.” -Daniel Kobialka

“I have recommended so many people to Daniel’s music over the years. Daniel’s music is divine and should be spread to the whole world.” -Yung Chia, NJ, United States

We’re rapidly approaching the end of August, can you believe it? Already! Where did our summer go - it’s already more than half over! Some students will be starting school very soon.

To honor all hard-working students, teachers, administrators and parents (who never get a vacation from their vocation!), I’ll be spending some time thinking and writing about how music can motivate and accelerate learning.

One concept that keeps popping up in articles and books about the subject, is how music can strengthen emotional intelligence. Daniel Goleman wrote a book on the subject in 1995, and since then there’s been quite a buzz around the ideas. In fact, when the Harvard Business Review published an article on emotional intelligence two years ago, it attracted more readers than any other article published in HBR in the last 40 years! Now that’s buzz!

Although, like other “pop concepts” there has been considerable misalignment, the idea has firm roots in science. Basically, there is scientific acceptance that there are cognitive (relating to thinking and the brain) and non-cognitive (everything else) intelligences.

Examples help us understand: we all know that IQ is not the only factor in success at the workplace. If we define success as a person’s ability to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with his environment, then we immediately realize that how he, his coworkers, and his boss feel also impact the results he is able to achieve.

Qualities such as openness, receptivity, creativity, imagination, and amiability affect people’s ability to learn, cope, perform, and relate. Neither cognitive or non-cognitive intelligence can operate to full capacity without the other.

There’s so much more to it than this, but you can see how music that stimulates attention, calms anxiety, tempers over-exuberance, and creates happiness would also motivate, support and accelerate learning.