Music, particularly classical compositions by Bach, relieves stress, says a University of Hawaii music professor.

"Of all the music we tested in medical school with patients, colleagues and others, Bach's music consistently made the brain work in a balanced way better than any other genre," said Arthur Harvey, who is also an internationally known neuromusicologist.

Loudness, speed or tempo of music, the degree of dissonance and tone quality are primary elements of music that can affect health, behavior and emotions, Harvey said.

He created a recording called "Bach for the Morning," intended for nursing home and hospital patients who "didn't wake up very nicely. ... Each piece gets a teeny bit faster, so it is a very helpful way to wake people up."

He also has created a "Handel for Sleeping" recording and softly played Handel's music during a recent interview in his office at Calvary-by-the-Sea Lutheran Church, where he is musical director.

Harvey has taught for 45 years and studied music as a force in education, religion and health. For the past 20 years, he has been interested in learning more about "why and what happens" when music is played.

Therapeutically, he said, music "can be a tremendous intervention." It can relieve pain and stress, calm the heart rate and blood pressure, affect physical responses for healing and growth, and stimulate creative thinking, he said.

Hawaiian music, for example, has orderly and predictable patterns that tend to be calming, he said. "Someone like brother Iz (the late Israel Kamakawiwo'ole), besides the emotional content of singing and beauty of his voice, the majority of his songs are near resting heart rate (62 beats a minute), in the lower frequency."

Harvey created a recording of Hawaiian songs with a heartbeat tempo, "Island Sounds Healing Heart," to help care for senior Hawaiians with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. It was done for Alu Like's Kumu Kahi Department.

Cadences in the recording stimulate "feel-good chemicals" and physical systems that reduce effects of stress, he said. "If we utilize music that slows down the stress hormone, we then can help with things such as development of ulcers, diarrhea, even Crohn's (chronic inflammatory) disease and irritable bowel syndrome."

Last year, Harvey tested the effects of Hawaiian, Japanese and Chinese music with a heartbeat on 37 volunteer patients, 50 and older, of cardiologist Dr. Pon-Sang Chan. He compared cardiac responses to recordings with heartbeat only, with heartbeat and keyboard performance, with heartbeat and vocal performance and heartbeat with both keyboard and vocal performances.

The object was to see if music could be used as a relatively inexpensive technique to regulate the heart rate of cardiac patients, who tend to be highly stressed, Harvey said.

All recordings helped, he said, but selections combining heartbeat, instrumental and vocal performances were most effective, calming and regulating the heart rate from 62 to 72 beats a minute.

Joseph Ruszkowski, UH-Manoa music professor; Michelle Wong, of the Integrative Health Care Consortium; and Kathleen Cramer Baker assisted with the project.

Harvey presented the results in June at a symposium of the International Society on Music in Medicine, founded by two anesthesiologists in Hamburg, Germany.

He annually discusses how music can enhance health and learning at the Hawaii Medical Service Association's Akamai Living program, scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to noon May 22 at the Hawaii Prince Hotel.

Harvey sings and plays 35 instruments, develops recordings and videos for therapeutic use and is a popular speaker at workshops and seminars. He is also a prolific author, writing about "Music and the Brain" and related topics.

"He is so multitalented," Ruszkowski said. "He has a wealth of knowledge in so many areas and is an unbelievably good piano player. A lot of people around here (at UH) say he was a musical prodigy."

Harvey said UH-Manoa offers music courses and workshops but not music therapy and training, which he would like to see integrated into the medical school's complementary and alternative medicine department.

He was involved in establishing Sounding Joy Music Therapy Inc., a nonprofit organization, to educate the public about music therapy, provide clinical services and encourage research in therapeutic music.

Among his new projects, the neuromusicologist is creating a recording of spirituals with a heartbeat for hospice patients and caregivers and a recording of Japanese lullabies with a heartbeat.

Although he makes all kinds of music, he said he probably likes classical the best. "Sacred is second and I love old-time music, the '20s and '30s. I play it in hospitals regularly."

But some music should be avoided, he said, pointing out excessively dissonant, loud and repetitive music can affect thinking, behavior and hearing. "And if you're impacted by emotional pulses, you tend to behave in a way that's not always rational."

Music has been his "passport to the world," Harvey said, taking him to every state and 36 countries and places like the White House and Morocco's palace.

Source: http://starbulletin.com/2004/04/29/news/story10.html

SUMMARY:

- Music helps regulate brain activity and the function of body systems. The music of J.S. Bach is especially effective for helping the brain function in a balanced way.

- Listening to music can relieve pain and stress, calm the heart rate and blood pressure, affect physical responses for healing and growth, and stimulate creative thinking. Calming music should have pleasant cadences, and the tempo should be between 62 and 72 beats per minute.

- Says neuromusicologist Arthur Harvey, "If we utilize music that slows down the stress hormone, we then can help with things such as development of ulcers, diarrhea, even Crohn's (chronic inflammatory) disease and irritable bowel syndrome."

It's hard for some to imagine how a math lesson could translate to an art class.

But not for Vancouver School District art teachers, and it doesn't just stop with math. Students practice literacy in dance class, math in music class and science in visual art class.

"The kid who couldn't understand fractions on paper could go into a music class and totally get it," said Meg Martynowicz, a Vancouver dance teacher.

In Vancouver School District elementary schools, teachers in dance, visual art and music come together to combine lessons that reflect classroom curriculum. And through times of budget reductions and tougher mandates, educators say reliance on community support and local levy dollars are the key to keep such programs alive.

The goal is to teach students that an artistic process or skill can be translated to any subject from reading to history. Along the way, teachers hope that students also develop an appreciation for a creative process.

"It's really much more about the well-rounded-citizen thing than we're trying to put out little Picassos or ballerinas," said Rie Gilsdorf, the district's arts curriculum specialist.

All Vancouver students in first through fifth grades attend 40 minutes of music, visual art, dance and physical education a week. The programs, funded equally, are supported by maintenance and operation levy money.

Money is one key to offering the programs. Time is another. As federal and state testing mandates place more academic demands on students and teachers, arts teachers look for more ways to integrate their classes with the more traditional school lessons.

This year the Vancouver district has placed an emphasis on literacy -- the combination of reading, writing and understanding the written word.

With that in mind, art teachers at Franklin Elementary devised a lesson based on Japanese poetry.

The lesson started with students writing haiku and ended with them performing dances and songs and creating artwork based on their poetry.

Through the help of guest artist Wendy Thompson, Martynowicz, visual art teacher Sheila Hutchison and music teacher Margaret Green combined their lessons. Thompson explained how she helped the students and teachers transition the students' ideas to words, the words to poems and eventually the poems to songs, dances and paintings.

"It's all symbols," she said. "Writing is symbols, and art is symbols, it's the personal interpretation of those symbols."

Dance teacher Anne Averre uses books and literature as a regular teaching tool in her classes at Minnehaha and Martin Luther King elementary schools.

"Dance and reading share a couple of things," she said. "There are segments that go in an order and create meaning. That's exactly what happens in a word or a sentence or a paragraph or a story."

Averre shows young students how to make the shapes of letters with their bodies. As the students mimic letters, they create words and talk about the sounds letters make. With older students, she often reads a story and then asks students to identify the action words, or verbs. Then, the students put movements with those words.

In a recent assignment, fifth-graders learned about African-American poet Langston Hughes. Averre asked the students to act out or create dance motions to his poetry.

The exercise was good for some of Averre's students who struggled to read his work. "I had several Russian students who didn't understand the excerpt just after reading it, but after acting it out they understood it better," she said. "It gives them another way to demonstrate their understanding."

AN ARTS TRADITION

The Vancouver district was recognized nationally in 1999 for its arts program. A national study of arts education in public schools cited the district as one of two in the country with exemplary programs.

The district still is a leader. Vancouver is the only Clark County district, and one of few in the nation, that offers a dance program at all elementary schools, something its done for 13 years. It is also one of few districts in the state, and the only one in Clark County, to have a magnet school dedicated to arts. The Vancouver School of Arts and Academics was founded in 1997.

"We're a lighthouse for the arts movement in the nation," said Hutchison. Local arts educators hope the district keeps arts as a priority.

Ron Porterfield, the district's chief for elementary education, said during the last legislative session, lawmakers reduced the amount of money district will get to help out with such programs.

"Even though it's going to get a little squeakier, we're going to be able to keep the programs going," he said. "We are so cognizant of the fact that education is not just about being able to read, write and do mathematic skills."

ANOTHER KIND OF LEARNING

Arts advocates say there's another good reason to keep arts alive in public schools: Students with disabilities, those whose native language is one other than English and those who are hands-on learners flourish in arts classes.

"There's something about dance, that we can take the kids who are pretty seriously handicapped and they can be pretty successful," Gilsdorf said.

Success in arts classes can give students a boost in self esteem. Gilsdorf said an example of that is found in dance classes, where kids often don't have any preconceived ideas about what dance is.

"A kid by the third grade, can tell if they are good at drawing or not," Gilsdorf said. "Because nobody really knows what dance looks like on a second-grader, there is a wide range of kids being successful."

Source: http://www.columbian.com/04012004/front_pa/131445.html

SUMMARY:

-Students in Vancouver, Washington elementary schools receive 40 minutes of music, visual art, dance, and physical education each week. These programs are funded by local tax dollars.

- Arts teachers try to integrate the content of their lessons with other school subjects to help students succeed on standardized tests.

- Students who struggle with certain academic subjects due to language differences or learning disabilities often reach fuller understanding of all subject matter through the arts.

A 13-year-old boy performed in his first piano recital this week, playing When the Saints Come Marching In flawlessly, first in one key then another.

His parents weren't there to see him play. He has been in foster care for as long as anyone can remember.

But the small music room at Devereux Arizona, a Scottsdale non-profit that includes three group homes and a residential treatment center for abused and neglected children, was packed, mostly with people who work there.

"Nailed it!" Chris Tulumello cheered under his breath, trying to keep with piano recital etiquette. As development director, it's his job to raise enough money to keep Devereux's fledgling piano program going.

He beamed at the boy, one of four children who performed Tuesday, showing off what they have learned in just 10 weeks of piano lessons.

It's rare that kids in foster care get a chance to take piano lessons. Money is tight, so they often go without things other children take for granted: music lessons, soccer, Girl Scouts.

But while playing tennis in Scottsdale one day, pianist and singer Penny Keen overheard two women talking about the children at Devereux and their need for a piano teacher.

She offered to help, enlisting Julian Leviton, a former piano instructor in Chicago and professor emeritus at DePaul University, who had once taught children with disabilities.

On a donated piano, they taught the four children once a week.

They hoped the music would help the children's emotional and physical well-being, Keen said, as well as their schoolwork.

Learning to play the piano is thought to enhance the brain's hard wiring for spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to visualize and transform objects in space and time, Keen said.

Research routinely shows that children who take music do better in math.

Anita Fry, principal at the school at Devereux, said the children's teachers have noticed a positive change in their schoolwork and their behavior. Maybe even more important, she said, the children are proud of their newfound skill, delighted to have a special talent.

"It's healing their hearts," Fry said.

The boy who played When the Saints Come Marching In used to get into fights. To be allowed to continue taking lessons, he has to be on his best behavior.

None of the children had ever played before, but this boy knew instinctively how to hold his hands over the keys.

"Playing the piano makes me happy," he said simply.

Another 13-year-old boy learning to play the piano said his favorite piece is Hush-a-Bye: "I feel peaceful and quiet when I play it."

The only girl, also 13, introduced herself and the three pieces she would be playing: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, My First Dance and Happy Dance.

She sat at the piano and crossed her feet beneath her long, black flowered skirt.

The girl suffers hand tremors, but her hands were steady on the piano keys. She lives in a foster home and attends the special-education school at Devereux.

When she first started playing, her hands shook so badly that she couldn't land her fingers on the correct keys. Trying to make the girl feel better, Keen said her hands used to shake, too, but from nervousness. "We'll fix that," Keen told her.

Now the girl takes less medication to control her tremors. At the recital, she smiled shyly when the audience burst into applause. "Bravo!" someone yelled.

Another of the boys, 11, who lives in the residential treatment center, used to come for his lesson slumped over and dressed sloppily. A few weeks later, he arrived standing tall, in clean clothes and with his hair slicked back.

At the recital he started, then stalled while playing My First Waltz, but Leviton gently placed his hands over the right keys.

"Right there?" the boy asked.

"Right there," Leviton said, and the boy played perfectly.

Leviton and Keen are donating their time until Devereux officials can raise enough money to hire a piano teacher. Tulumello said they also need a second piano, four keyboards, recording equipment and teaching materials.

About 60 children live at Devereux. They are begging to play, too.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0220piano20.html#

SUMMARY:

- Piano lessons are now being offered to selected students at a center for abused and neglected children in Arizona.

- Students participating in these lessons have demonstrated significant gains in good behavior and quality of schoolwork.

- Says principal Anita Fry, "It's healing their hearts."

by Swanee Hunt
from the Naples Daily News, March 1, 2004

"When Ezekiel found music, he found himself."

Madeleine first met Ezekiel when he was a scruffy 8-year-old. That summer, the young professional had organized a free music festival in the center of East Boston's Latino community. Banners and streamers announcing the event graced old lampposts. The graying brick and concrete, familiar to residents who waited for buses that stopped there, took on a new look.

Ezekiel had initially been attracted by the novelty of it all - no one had ever decorated that part of town, far as he could remember. Salsa, jazz and blues soon transformed the horns, sirens and airplane roar into an urban orchestra. The neighborhood changed for just six weeks, but Ezekiel was changed forever.

The annual music festival is one of several programs of ZUMIX, a nonprofit arts organization co-founded by Madeleine Steczynski in 1991. ZUMIX works with about 150 inner-city kids each week, teaching pop music, rap and reggae. "We're empowering young people through music so they can achieve whatever they want," says Madeleine. And what does she want? To inspire them.

Ezekiel lives in nearby public housing with his grandparents and two siblings. He barely knows his father and was taken away from his mother by the Department of Social Services when he was a few months old. Now 15, he's been enrolled in a school for children with emotional, behavioral and learning problems. It's been tough. Ezekiel has struggled.

Over the years, Madeleine has coaxed him into becoming more involved in ZUMIX. After several summers of odd jobs at the festival, Ezekiel took music lessons at the center. Nothing clicked until he enrolled in "StreetWise," a program where young people record their own songs. When Ezekiel started composing, he started caring. "It all happened when I wrote my first song," he says. "It made me feel like I had something to say, and other people would actually listen."

Last summer, a beaming Ezekiel pulled Madeleine aside. He presented her with two report cards, one with all F's, from before he joined "StreetWise," and one with B's and C's, from after he enrolled. Songwriting helped Ezekiel take a hard look at his own life.

His lyrics: "I think it's about time we start looking at things different/Filling up the pieces of our own life that we're missing/If you notice nobody try to give us a chance/So it's time we stand up and let the world know we can make our own stance."

This year Ezekiel has been accepted into a mainstream public school. Despite stories like his, music and other arts programs are in jeopardy. High-stakes testing in public schools, mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, are pushing arts programs to the margin. The Bush administration's past budget proposals have zeroed out arts from the Department of Education. The 2005 budget tells the same story, leaving state and local governments to pick up the tab. But they're hurting, too.

Madeleine and ZUMIX are grappling with the realities of running a small arts organization in this tough fiscal climate. Funding is down; need is up. "Youth projects just around the corner have closed down. There are so many more kids we need to reach. We decided to increase our programming to serve these kids, even though we have even less money this year."

Let's face it: the nationwide slump in arts dollars hurts the poorest students. My daughter's voice lessons aren't threatened.

Hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged students like Ezekiel have learned to believe in themselves through a passion for music. Harvard professor Howard Gardner speaks of "multiple intelligences" and how "students think and learn in many different ways." Not every child will thrive when schools focus only on math, science, English and history. Some need arts to help them deal with their past, survive their present and think about their future.

"Songwriting is the only thing that ever worked for me," Ezekiel explains of his turnaround. "I've been in special-education programs. I've seen counselors. But none of that worked. Songwriting got me to care about myself."

"I figure, in order to change the way I live/It's myself I have to forgive/Grab the mike and beats/And about my life I start to speak/To keep my mind occupated [sic]/And myself off the streets."

Source: http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/pe_columnists/article/0,2071,NPDN_14960_2692938,00.html

SUMMARY:

- Participation in arts programs can be the key to unlocking the potential of many children, especially disadvantaged children like Ezekiel.

- Standardized testing and the No Child Left Behind Act have caused many school districts to take instructional time away from arts.

- The 2005 federal budget proposed by the Bush administration almost completely eliminates federal arts funding.

- It is the schools that rely most on state and federal aid that will bear the brunt of arts education cuts. Government arts funding cuts also impact youth outreach programs, such as the one that had a great impact on Ezekiel.

From the Salem, Oregon Statesman Journal, February 10, 2004

Each week seems to bring a new story: A student who discovered a reason to stay in school. A kid who found friendship and a worthwhile escape from a troubled home. A child who unleashed the motivation and ability to read.

These stories, and thousands like them, show why Salem-Keizer's school music program is so successful - at building good students and confident individuals, at bridging generations and cultures, at keeping kids in school and out of trouble.

This human equation is the true indicator of a successful music program, not the trophies and accolades that rank Salem-Keizer's among the nation 's best.

But today, an audacious proposal threatens to fundamentally alter the program.

The Salem-Keizer budget advisory team wants to separate music classes from out-of-school rehearsals and performances. Music students no longer would be required to participate in those outside activities - and they would have to pay a fee if they did.

The goal of increasing revenue sounds laudable until you consider the human cost. The district, and the community, cannot afford this proposal.

If you hang out around youths, you know that they often follow the path of least resistance. Hey, why attend extra rehearsals or get fancied up for a concert, especially if it costs me money? Why not watch the tube or play video games instead? Maybe cruise the mall with friends?

At a time when civic leaders seek to bolster after-school activities, it is stunning that the BAT would suggest undermining one of the most valuable programs - music instruction and performance.

The extra hours in rehearsals and concerts are the glue that holds the music program together, that builds students' confidence in one another - and in themselves. There are no benchwarmers. Every kid in the choir, orchestra or band is important to the group's success.

The intense concentration required during these long hours may partially explain music's well-documented link to improved reading, writing, math and science. For example, the Winter 2004 issue of Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society, says research suggests that "musical training can influence brain organization and ability."

Given these correlations and the widespread public support for Salem-Keizer music, the question facing the district should be: How do we involve more kids in music, especially at-risk youths?

The BAT recommendation, if adopted, would unintentionally weed out students, especially those from lower-income families. The proposal follows the theory that athletes pay to play sports, so shouldn't everyone involved in co- and extra-curricular activities pay?

That concept overlooks the fact that many courses - from Peer Mentors to the school yearbook- have a co-curricular component. Are we going to start charging Peer Mentors for "volunteering" at any number of community events?

Some Salem-Keizer board members have pushed districtwide music fees for years, despite the obvious flaws. As a result, the trust between the administration and music supporters has deteriorated to the point that some outraged parents favor a recall drive.

For the good of the district, this fee proposal should be shelved, immediately and permanently.

It's past time for the Salem-Keizer School Board to acknowledge that:
1) the music program is integral to the district's mission;
2) it belongs in the core curriculum; and
3) music students already cover a huge share of their costs through their own internal program fees and fund-raising.

For their part, music parents must seek ways to help the district survive its budget shortfall, whether through additional fund-raising or accepting a proportional share of program cuts. They also must find ways for the music program to reach more families, especially in low-income areas, as a way to build student achievement and retention.

In the words of a Beatles song, this is a time to "come together": Capitalize on an outstanding music program in the name of student excellence.

Source: http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=75136

SUMMARY:

- The budget advisory team of the Salem-Keizer School Board has recommended that after-school music rehearsals and performances become optional with a participation fee charged to students.

- The winter 2004 issue of the journal "Chemistry" says research suggests that "musical training can influence brain organization and ability."

- The budgetary issues that are currently affecting music programs are also affecting other "co-curricular" and "extra-curricular" classes and activities. Music can and should be defined as a core subject.

- The investment students and parents make in instruments and internal fundraising show their support for the music program, and an additional participation fee would add to the burden already placed on music participants in many districts. Effort should be made to ensure the music program is accessible to all students regardless of family income.

- Parents in support of music and arts education are sometimes very much at odds with members of the board of education. Care must be taken to work toward solutions and away from personal disagreements.