“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” – Plato

India has an ancient and rich musical heritage, which we can build on and share as we collaborate with the world to influence our next generation. The benefits of music are immense. Music helps people to relax, come together, and to work better as teams. Music enhances higher brain function. It helps to develop higher intelligence and stirs our creative ability. Most important in these times, it is a great stress buster.

Ancient beliefs are returning to modern life and recent research has proven that learning music significantly improves memory, concentration, spatial thinking, and creativity. Music learnt the right way is an intellectual pursuit, which is fundamental to education. Just as a child learns math, he/she should have a basic understanding and appreciation of music.

Music education is important for the optimal development of the human mind. In early childhood, linguistic ability is developed by a child listening to sounds in the immediate environment. Later in life an individual can develop advanced learning skills and linguistic ability by listening to music. Moreover, written music is based upon the principles of mathematical progression. That is why most great scientists, mathematicians, astronomers and artists including Pythagoras, Claudius Ptolemy, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein and Galileo, among others actively participated in music.

Aubrey Aloysius

The great Indian scientist and Nobel Laureate, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, had a fascination for music. The son of a school teacher and a scholar in physics  and math, as a little boy Raman grew up surrounded by music, science  and Sanskrit. He collected many musical instruments and published two papers on the amazing sound qualities of ancient Indian instruments like the mridangam, tanpura, tabla and veena.

In China, during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), music and dance was an obligatory course in school and included a combination of ritual, entertainment, performance, gymnastics and military drill. The goal was, on the one hand, to train in military skills, on the other, to teach moral rules and discipline. Greek philosophers Plato (4th/5th Century BC) and Aristotle (4th Century BC) agreed that to produce the right kind of person, the two principal elements required are music and sports/ gymnastics.

The history of Western art and music begins with the Christian Church. However, all through the Middle Ages and even to the present time men have continually turned back to Greek and Roman civilization for instruction, correction, and inspiration in their several fields of work, especially in music.

Albert Einstein’s extremely poor performance in school caused his teachers to tell his parents to take him out of school because he was “too stupid to learn.” They said, it would be a waste of resources for the school to invest time and energy in his education, and suggested that Albert get an easy, manual labour job. Instead his parents bought him a violin at which Albert became proficient. Music was the key that helped Albert Einstein become one of the smartest men who has ever lived. He loved the music of Mozart and Bach the most. His close friend, G.J. Withrow, said that the way Einstein figured out his problems and equations was by improvising on the violin. Music helped bring out the genius in Albert Einstein.

And talking of music, how can one ever forget the bansuri orflute, revered as Lord Krishna’s divine instrument. It is said to be the oldest instrument known to mankind and was mentioned in the Vedas.

Music, is indeed, an intrinsic part of mankind; it is the soul of life.

Aubrey Aloysius, an entrepreneur and educationist based in Gurugram, is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Lorraine Music Academy.

www.LorraineMusicAcademy.com Email him at [email protected]