Music and math and Ragazzi

Did you think Ragazzi was just about music? Guess again. Music study trains all kinds of skills and the benefits are many. Plato knew the benefit of music as an academic discipline when he advised in the Republic, "Study gymnastics for the body and music for the mind."  Here is an example:

Scientist Sophie Bushwick published this comment on her blog:

Stuck on a tricky math problem? Start clapping. Grade school kids who learned about fractions through a rhythm-and-music-based curriculum outperformed their peers in traditional math classes. The work is in Educational Studies in Mathematics. [Susan Joan Courey et al., "Academic music: music instruction to engage third-grade students in learning basic fraction concepts"]

Fractions let you divide up a measure of music into notes of varying length. For example, one four-beat measure could contain a single whole note held for all four beats, two half notes of two beats apiece, four quarter notes of a beat each, and so on. In the Academic Music program, based on the Kodaly method of musical education, students clap, drum and chant to memorize the lengths of musical notes—then solve problems in which fractional notes must add up to a full measure of music.

Sixty-seven students participated in the study. Half did math problems using the Academic Music system. And after six weeks, the students in the music program averaged 50 percent higher on tests than did the kids in regular math class. Fractions create a solid foundation for further math education—so mastering them is music to educators’ ears.

Ragazzi's theory program is essential to music literacy and our boys, when they complete the program, have learned college level theory. Music is fun, it connects the two sides of our brains integrating our emotions and intuition with our analytical and critical skills. Good for you for choosing Ragazzi.