The Mozart Myth for Increasing your child's Intelligence

At one time in the recent past people were out buying up classical cds believing in so-called studies that claimed that exposing their child to this kind of music increased their intelligence.

Looks like their backtracking on this claim now. Interesting how many people bought into this conspiracy to increase sales of classical cds.

family.msn.com...

In my experience it makes you stupid.

Maybe they figured if a child listened to it as a baby they would grow up and by classical records. I love the piece- Jesu The Joy of Mans desiring-J.S. bach. Thats as close to heaven as I have been in this life.

Yeah, it's sad. There are far too many people out there that believe everything they hear on NBC and CBS, every stupid story that comes along. I remember the reports coming out about this, then they interviewed a bunch of minivan-driving moms, who all said they were going to buy their children some classical music, to increase their intelligence. (maybe I coulda' used some, looking back at my rambling paragraph.)

No offence to anyone that watches CBS or NBC.




...Or to any minivan driving moms...

I was forced to listen to it as a infant, and as a result im the dumbest of my siblings. Im also the least musically inclined though, so maybe you have to match the stimulus to the baby.

of course im just one example and thats hardly conclusive.

I go to a play group with my daughter on Fridays.

I was chatting to one of the mothers who has a daughter the same age as my own.She takes her daughter to a music group every Tuesday.

However,she is pregnant again and the music teacher has told her that she will have to pay for two as the class is for unborn babies as well.

I'll tell ya I laughed out loud when she told me.

There have been studies that show that Mozart in classrooms can calm children but personally I don't think there is much to be gained by whale noises or classical music for unborn children.

Don't believe it would increase intelligence, but, my SO is a neonatal nurse, they play "kiddie tunes" (Old McDonald etc etc) all the time, she says it does make a big difference in how calm the premies are.

As a professional musician, I don't buy any of that BS for a second.

But the again.....I am no doctor or psychologist, I just make the sounds.

I think that classical music will make you smarter.....as a musician.

I love Mozart. I don't know if listening to his compositions made me any smarter though.

I dont see how it could make you smarter when your in the womb, what does it increase how much your brain can store or something? Does it suddenly fill your head with a whole encyclopedia when your a fetus?

Classical music is supposed to make you calmer and focus more. They used to play it over the intercoms at my school, (this lasted for about a month). Needless to say, I wanted to karate-chop mozart in the head after a month of that ***.

The idea that some music makes you "smarter" than other kinds is ridiculous. Mostly cultural baloney. The best thing would be to expose your kids to as many different kinds of music as possible. Not in an forceful or imposing manner of course. Just let them listen.....without prejudice.

"There are only two kinds of music, good and bad." ~Duke Ellington

My 5th grade teacher made us listen to classical music almost continuously everyday while we were in class. In my experience it made me more violent. I always thought about taking a baseball bat and smashing something, mostly the radio. To this day (I'm in 11th grade now) I get a headache just listening to classical music.

ya but remember they thought the tooth fairy was fake and now hes head of the fbi(joke post)

Why does it have to be mozart?

Could not some ambient chill out music have the same affect?

I think it makes you appear snobbish lol

Look at me, I am listening to muzak and increasing my smartness maw!

I just listened to 'Dies Irae' and suddenly I knew the meaning of life. I've forgotten it now though - pity Mozart can't improve memory

Maybe versus hearing nothing at all or a constant hum. It might make you smarter... if you were left alone in a blank room w/out any other external stimulus where your mind would atrophy. But that's not really smarter, it's just preventing stupidity through brain exercise.

What about if you get an orchestra to play some Pantera or Charlie Daniels w/out the words? All their good stuff is considered "classic" by now anyways.

Were Mozart and Beethoven geniuses? No, they only contributed music. Why weren't they smarter if they "possess" the ability to make everyone else smarter.

Originally posted by icelid
Maybe versus hearing nothing at all or a constant hum. It might make you smarter... if you were left alone in a blank room w/out any other external stimulus where your mind would atrophy. But that's not really smarter, it's just preventing stupidity through brain exercise.

What about if you get an orchestra to play some Pantera or Charlie Daniels w/out the words? All their good stuff is considered "classic" by now anyways.

Were Mozart and Beethoven geniuses? No, they only contributed music. Why weren't they smarter if they "possess" the ability to make everyone else smarter.

They were geniuses. When it comes to music, that is. If you analyze their works, you can see that it took someone with talent and the ability to hear music in their head to write like they did.

Originally posted by icelid
Were Mozart and Beethoven geniuses? No, they only contributed music. Why weren't they smarter if they "possess" the ability to make everyone else smarter.

I think music and other artistic idioms have the ability to inspire people to greater heights of achievement. For good or bad. (Hitler loved Wagner!) I would not say that music is making someone smarter...but perhaps inspiring them to creatively think or try harder.

But never read into that cultural BS about some music making you smarter than others. It is absolute garbage.

HEY!!! I may listen to classical music but I certainly don't do it because some major news corporation said it's good, I like to listen to classical music CDs because they help me relax and it also since I found the best classical music station www.1035.com, it made it much more enjoyable to listen to classical. Right now I CANT STAND LISTENING TO ROCK MUSIC after listening to classical music for months end on.