and subjects (Schoen 94). On the study, 205 college students were given the Minnesota
College Ability Test, all of the Seashore tests for musical talent, and were rated on a scale
for musical training (94). After the testing was complete, they separated out the top 25
and the bottom 25 to determine if there was a difference in musicality among them, but
found none (94). Next, they excluded the 25 students with the greatest and least amount
of musical training and found two interesting groups (94). Of the two groups left, the top
group’s average student had taken music theory, private piano lessons for two years,
voice and cello for four years while he/she had played in orchestras for four years, sung
in choir for six years, had three musicians in the family, could read music and supply
missing parts, and attended concerts regularly (94). The lower group’s average student
had never had any private lessons, didn’t play an instrument, had no musicians in his/her
family, and never attended operas or concerts (95). Music won’t turn anyone into a
genius, but it can have some substantial effects on bringing people above average at
least. One thing that music does that cannot be ignored is it stimulates the brain-
sometimes positively and sometimes negatively, but it effects the brain nonetheless.
Some positive effects on the brain can be seen from the study conducted by Rauscher,
Shaw and Ky where they found a temporary increase in spatial reasoning after listening to
a bit of Mozart. These findings are somewhat inconclusive, but cannot be ignored
altogether. It shows how there is much more studying that needs to be done in the future
on this subject. Music has been known to have a very direct effect on people’s moods. By
just listening to music, people’s moods are easily altered. Several studies were conducted
to test people’s mood changes after listening to certain kinds of music (Schoen 89-99).
One large study of 20,000 people showed music changes mood and the changes in mood
were very uniform (89). A large number of people listened to classical music by various
composers from various musical periods and were asked how the music made them feel.
Another study showed that the effects of mood varied from person to person depending
on their musicality. Non-musical people enjoy music rarely and when they do, the
enjoyment is slight, while semi-musical people enjoy music quite often and when they do,
it is enjoyable to them, while musical people enjoy music rarely, due to discriminating
tastes, but when they do, it is with the greatest intensity (90). These studies also showed
that certain types of moods/emotions are characteristic with music while certain
emotions are not such as anger, fear, jealousy, and envy (91). Certain emotions are more
characteristic with vocal music because of the words such as: love, longing, reverence,
devotion (91). Another study was done on 205 people testing the effects of major and
minor modes. Minor mode gave the feelings of “… melancholy, mournful, gloomy,
depressing…” while major mode most often gave the feelings of “… happy, sprightly,
cheerful, joyous, and bright …” (99).
Music is an important and extremely useful tool in the way we learn and to deny its
power is a waste of a truly wonderful resource. In recent years there have been concerns
about some types of music such as ?street? Rap having very negative effects on peoples
minds and moods. This type of music imprints an extremely violent image into people’s
minds and there has been growing concern about it and tying it in with violent crimes. In
cases like this, it only shows how much more we need to study music to fully understand
its full impact on the human mind. In these days where cutbacks are always eminent in
people’s local schools, people need to fight to keep the music and art intact. Music and
the arts are what make life worth living and without them, people lose hold of their
culture and diversity. The ideal way to learn in the future would be to fully incorporate
music into the curriculum of every school. If every school supported and encouraged their
students to freely pursue music with the culture of music in their everyday lives, people
would become much more efficient in their learning and would become much better
students on the whole. Music is a power too great for man to comprehend at this point
but through further study man can learn how to better harness its power and use it to
improve mankind.