Kenyans Troop to Music Schools for the Allure of ‘Mozart Effect’
Sundown at the Kenya Conservatoire of Music is not the usual fatigue that escorts a day to rest. It begins with fast inflowing traffic, bringing music students into the space for music classes.
Gradually, there is a blend of harmonic sounds permeating the air in what sounds like a Mozart’s ensemble.
In 2002, the number of students learning music at the school was only 180. Since then, the number has increased to 320.
“Kenyans are slowly beginning to appreciate the value of formal training in music,” says Atigala Luvai, who is the director of Kenya Conservatoire of Music.
Though it has been in existence for 60 years, the organisation has not attracted as much attention. This was especially after music was struck off the syllabus as an examinable subject in the country.
“Most parents who bring children here do not do so in the hope that their children will be musicians. They are looking at a bigger picture: music has a big impact on character and intellectual development of the child.”
Within academic circles, the effect of music in the development of the brain of a child is what is called the Mozart effect.
First coined by Alfred A Tomatis, the term has been used widely to refer to the alleged increase in brain development that occurs in children under three years when they listen to the music.
The Mozart effect was first mooted at the University of California, Irvine, by physicist Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher, a former concert cellist and an expert on cognitive development.
In the ground breaking study, whose results have been contested by other scholars, the scholars studied effects of listening to the first 10 minutes of the Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major on college students. They found a temporary enhancement of reasoning as measured by the Stanford-Binet IQ test.
Though the idea has been taken seriously and even used to market music lessons around the world, many attempts to replicate results of the original experiments have been unsuccessful.
But other scholars have come to their rescue. In a paper titled The Mozart Effect: A Small Part of the Big Picture, by Norman M Weinberger and the Regents of the University of California, music education and music-making have positive effects on many mental and behavioural factors that are themselves not part of music.
“Educational psychologists have linked the discipline of learning a musical instrument as being of great benefit to learning other subjects like math.
When I started learning to play the fiddle it gave me an interest in music that turned out to be a gift for life,” argues Charlie Maynes, of Heads in Instrumental Teaching Scotland.
At the Wynton House of Music, based at Yaya Centre, just like the other music schools, most of the students are in school.
According to Mr Anthony Mwangi, who is the school’s director, the numbers at the school are parent driven.
When the school was set up two years ago, it had only 10 students. Two years later, the school has 30 students and expects to grow fast in coming years.
“While some CEO’s will prefer teeing, there are others who come here to drive away their stress by learning how to play a music instrument,” says Mr Mwangi. Currently, there are a few CEO’s learning music and several expatriates going for music lessons at the college.
“The market for music lessons in the country has been very difficult,” says John Karuma, who has been running the Music Land School of music since the 90s.
“Things look brighter now as more parents are encouraging their children to come for lessons.”
Though competing against several other schools that have emerged in recent years to offer music lessons in Nairobi, Music Land has between 40 and 60 students to keep the institution running.
As music lessons attract more numbers, businesses are growing around the art. Along Moktar Daddah Street, opposite Jevanjee Gardens, is Shopper’s Shop that has emerged from a small shop on Nairobi’s River Road. Though still struggling to make a name, the shop has enough to sustain its operations.
“Instruments used in Jazz music are moving better than before,” says Jay Jamal, the shop’s proprietor.
Recordez, based at the Yaya Centre, operated from a house until recently when demand dictated the move.
Currently, the shop sells guitars, saxophones and other specialised music instruments.
“The business is not complaining especially in the last month when children were going back for lessons,” says Charity Githae, who is a Recordez sales representative.
Interestingly, demand for music lessons is getting higher at a digital time when many critics have predicted the death of live performances.
[Via Business Daily]
