Music May Make Us Smarter -by Joe Kenney

She told the group that the goal of the Nashua Community Music School to provide southern NH with a broad spectrum of learning, performing and listening opportunities in music and to provide vocal and instrumental lessons with the finest teachers available.  After giving some of her background, which included teaching music in Keene, she took over NCMS in 2004.  She said that music is of the utmost importance to her.  She believes that music is very important on a cultural level, both academically and physically.  She is concerned about recent budget cuts which have down-played the importance of music.

Gillian congratulated the club on integrating music into our meetings.  She pointed out that music is all around us; on the radio, in the malls, on our cellphones and even at our funerals.

She told the club that a lot of research has been done on the importance of music in the development of the mind, especially in the area of mathematics.   She stated that a neuroscientist at Northwestern has shown that music strengthens the organization of brain waves.  She then discussed her personal concern that schools are using a method of teaching called spiral learning where ideas are presented as circles of information given in bits with the hope that if a student doesn't understand something, hopefully they will the next time the topic "comes around".   Music, on the other hand, is linear by definition.  Learning music progresses only after earlier lessons are learned.  Gillian believes that the linear nature of learning music can complement the spiral learning method in more fully developing the minds of students.

Gillian finished her presentation with a history of the NCMS.  The school was started as an outreach project of the Nashua Symphony Association.  Professional musicians would come to Nashua prior to their rehearsals as the NSA and teach music to students.   Scheduling difficulties led to the hiring of local musicians, many of whom are professionals, to teach the students.  Many of the teachers also teach at other community schools in New Hampshire.  Gillian pointed out that Nashua has the least expensive classes in the area.

Gillian told the club that major funding cuts have had a devastating effect on the study of music.  The recent economic crisis had caused enrollment at the BU School of Music to drop 60%.  Gillian is hopeful that an economic recovery will revitalize NCMS and she believes that they are poised to grow with the recovery.