Music may set our toes a-tapping, cause us to burst into song, send us into deep reverie, initiate recall of a specific experience, induce a deep emotional state, or produce an almost infinite number of mental and behavioral effects. Music and its role in the fields of learning and memory is of widespread interest, from the normal development and education of the young, through maturity, into problems of learning and memory in the aged. However, little attention has been devoted to how the brain learns and remembers musical material and concepts. Music and the way it affects people fascinates me. Because the study of music's affects on the activity in the brain could lead to breakthroughs in our educational and health programs, I would love to study music and psychology in college in order to pave the path for someday earning a degree in music therapy. .
I first became aware of music therapy when I was a freshman in high school. Because I had always been interested in psychology, music therapy was appealing because it incorporated something I have a true passion for, music, with psychology. My passion for music was sparked when I began playing the trumpet in fourth grade. I continued playing up into high school at which point I started singing and also playing the trombone. I became actively involved in our school's music department, participating in the two school choirs and three school bands. I entered our high school's music department at a time of growth. As a department, we were fighting to make a name for ourselves in the community and to earn more support from our school. We made presentations around the community emphasizing the importance of music in education. This spurred my desire to research music's affects in education, which in turn led to my discovery of music therapy.
Music therapy allows children to explore personal feelings and make positive changes in mood and emotional states.
