The Neuroscience of Reading Music: Optimal Brain Development in Children Using Standard Music Notation

Moir M. ED., Barbara A. (Author)

ISBN 10: 1620239515 / ISBN 13: 9781620239513

Published by Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 2025

About this Item

252 pages. 6.00x0.57x9.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-1620239515

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Neuroscience of Reading Music: Optimal Brain Development in Children Using Standard Music Notation
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1620239515
• ISBN 13: 9781620239513
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.34 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

This new, easy-to-read book is packed with information from cover to cover for general music teachers, homeschool parents, and classroom teachers interested in learning how every child can benefit cognitively and academically from a year-by-year note-reading music program in the early grades. Learn about the Three Modes of Music Cognition. Based on many years of teaching music and recent neural studies, author and educator Barbara A. Moir, M. Ed. shares her theory that the brain has three separate neural structures for music: Aural Mode (short neurons), Notational Mode (very long neurons), and Linking Mode (the neural network that brings decoding and musical expression together). Moir shows how teachers can tailor music classroom methods specifically to maximize growth in each of these diverse music modes. It is generally accepted in music education that the primary difficulty in early lessons in standard notation is the fact that young children's brains are not yet mature enough to grasp abstractions. However, Moir has solved this problem with her Companion Words Method for introducing basic elements of the musical staff. This method addresses the abstraction issue by using imaginative language to bridge the gap between concrete and abstract reasoning, a solution supported by neural research. Best of all, Moir enables any adult to use Companion Words by providing a lesson-by-lesson script for the teacher and visual-aid posters for each lesson. Topics that apply to older music students include Alphabetic Logic, Chronic Mistakes Syndrome, Hierarchy in Notational Reading, Eye-Motion Techniques, Two Types of Spatial Intelligence in Reading Notation, Comparing Notation to Reading Words, The Relationship between Whole Body Coordination and Steady Beat, and Suggestions for Music Research. Because of the scope, depth, and pedagogical descriptions of subjects discussed, this book might qualify as “necessary reading” for anyone teaching music in the lower grades.