Classical Music’s Effects Essay, Research Paper

Classical Music and its effects on the Neonate

In Today s society music is very diverse. It produces feelings and emotions sensed by all walks of life. Different styles of music tend to give different ideas and impressions to people. It affects everyone it comes in contact with, and it is more powerful than we are willing to understand.

Classical music is known as being a form of music that is thought to help the cognitive (right) side of the brain develop. It has been said that music making, itself, has the ability to increase one s brain capacity and resources by strengthening the connections between the neurons. And it has been proven that even the neonate will react to music. Classical music especially has a positive effect on neonatal development.

In the Irish Journal of Psychology, (1991, 12, pp. 95-107) Petter G. Hepper studied music and its effects on the neonate. He found that the neonate, two to four day old, remembered a tune that was played to him as a fetus (Still in the womb, un-birthed). Upon hearing the song the neonate s movements and heart rate would change. Another astounding fact discovered was that the fetus twenty-nine to thirty weeks old showed certain behavioral responses to songs played to him in his earlier stages of development. In both of these cases there were specific behavioral responses to certain tunes the baby was previously exposed to. Therefore, his results suggest that the learning and remembering of a melody can take place as early as the third trimester of pregnancy.

Studies have also been done to show that children who as neonates were…

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