PLN Resource 4 (Music Matters: A Blog On Music Cognition)

Music Matters: A Blog On Music Cognition
URL: http://www.musiccognition.nl/blog/

As I was going through my PLN resources, I discovered some interesting information on the site Music Matters: A Blog On Music Cognition (http://www.musiccognition.nl/blog/). Music Matters is a blog about music cognition. The author is an associate professor in music cognition at the University of Amsterdam. He provides information in his blogs that discuss how music impacts the brain and thinking. This is an interesting blog because it provides information about the effect that music has on the human brain and how people respond to music, showing the importance of music. The blog takes a scientific approach to providing this information, which could ultimately help music educators develop a better understanding of how music impacts people and how it could impact how people teach music. As I was reading through the blog, there were two posts in particular that caught my attention. The first post was about why music sticks in peoples heads. I thought it was interesting to discover that although there is no answer to this question at this point in time, it is the songs with simple harmonic structure and a striking moment that seem to catch people’s attention. The second post that I found interesting was a video posting from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which included an interview with Oliver Sacks. I found the second post fascinating because it showed the impacts of music on the brain in a comical manner that people can relate to, enjoy, and even better understand. I think the blog can touch on intriguing information through its posts that will provide topics that can relate music to thinking, as well as provide a scientific link to the information.

As an educator, it is important to be able to understand how your content area impacts people and how they think. I believe through this blog ideas are given to help people think about how music impacts people and how they think. These topics can provide valuable material for the reader to consider. However, it can also help educators understand how music impacts thoughts; therefore, helping educators realize what material is important to teach and why it is important to teach music. The topics in the blog could help music educator’s use the blog to learn what about music stimulates thinking and brain activity, which could help an educator realize what might have the best impact on student learning.