OVERCOMING MUSICAL HURDLES

THE PROBLEM WITH LOUD MUSIC

Loud music can hurt your ears at times. Hearing loss means someone can't hear as well as other people do. For some people, that means not being able to hear at all.

If the noise around you is so loud that you have to shout to be heard, there is a chance that the mechanism inside your ear can be injured. Temporary hearing loss can happen after you've been exposed to loud noise for any duration. If you have temporary hearing loss, you won't be able to hear as well as you normally do for a while.

You also could have tinnitus which is a medical term for ringing in the ears. Your ears can feel "full," too. Although your hearing frequently returns to normal, the dangerous part is that you can lose it permanently if you listen to loud noise or music over and over again.

If someone is exposed to loud noise over a long period of time, like every day, permanent hearing loss can occur. This means the person's hearing won't ever be as good as it once was. That's why construction workers and factory workers need to wear ear protection. Lawn mowers and power tools, like chainsaws, also can be loud enough to affect someone's ability to hear high-pitched noises. This kind of noise also can cause a person to have tinnitus all the time.

Listening to loud music a lot can cause the same kind of damage, especially if headphones are used. Some famous musicians have suffered hearing loss and developed tinnitus — a real problem for someone who needs to hear to make and enjoy music. That's why now you might notice that some of your favorite musicians wear hearing protection while they're playing.

HOW TO OVERCOME HEARING PROBLEMS?

You can help keep your hearing in tip-top shape.Protect your ears by wearing ear protection when you're using machinery, like in metal shop at school. Also remember to turn down the volume, especially when you're wearing headphones or in the car. You also might want to give your ears a rest once in a while if you like wearing headphones.
And if you're going to a concert, consider wearing earplugs to protect your ears from the boom, boom, boom! In fact, special earplugs can be made for you if you're going to concerts a lot or if you're a musician yourself.

DOES MUSIC AFFECT LEARNING OF STUDENTS?

Yes music greatly affects the learning of all people. Without getting too technical the predisposition of the brain for learning depends heavily on the brain wave patterns, Alpha and Beta waves. Music is believed to be a stimulant for the production of Alpha waves which are activated when the brain is in a non stressed state. Alpha wave activity in the brain permits the chemical encoding of information to occur in a context that the brain recognizes as beneficial. This is in direct opposition to Beta wave activity that is generally stress based where the brain acts on the limited information or stimuli it receives to react to the stimuli.

OVERCOMING MUSICAL PROBLEMS WHICH AFFECT STUDIES

The optimal choice for music in a learning environment is wordless music with a non-descript melody performed at 60 beats per minute.

• A set of research results that indicate that listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as "spatial-temporal reasoning;

• Popularized versions of the theory, which suggest that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter," or that early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development;

• A US trademark for a set of commercial recordings and related materials, which are claimed to harness the effect for a variety of purposes. The trademark owner, Don Campbell, Inc., claims benefits far beyond improving spatio-temporal reasoning or raising intelligence, defining the mark as "an inclusive term signifying the transformational powers of music in health, education, and well-being."