The Mozart Effect for Children: Awakening Your Child's Mind, Health, and Creativity with Music - Softcover

Campbell, Don

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380807440 ISBN 13: 9780380807444

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2002

Synopsis

In his groundbreaking book, The Mozart Effect®, Don Campbell revealed the enormous healing powers of classical music. Now he shows you how to help the children in your life experience the same benefits.

You don't have to be an expert on classical music to use this wise and compassionate book. Focusing each chapter on a particular age -- from prenatal through age ten -- Don Campbell explains how music is the perfect tool to improve children's language, movement, and social skills at home, school, and play. He presents dynamic, inventive ways to invigorate a child's imagination, and supplies simple exercises, musical menus, and entertaining games that will improve your child's memory. At once practical and profound, The Mozart Effect® for Children is an invaluable resource for all parents and educators who want to help their children imagine, achieve, and grow in every aspect of their lives.

About this title

Review:

Don Campbell's reputation runs the gamut from serious educator bent on improving the health and intelligence of his audience to clever marketer, making a fast buck from specially trademarked pseudoscience. In The Mozart Effect for Children, Campbell explains early on why Mozart's music is thought to have such amazing powers, and while he cites no statistics or studies, his lyrical explanations of Mozart's simplicity and elegance will have many reader's heads nodding in agreement--it's difficult to disagree with "his music is at once deeply mysterious and accessible, and above all, without guile". A few pages are devoted to descriptions of studies done by French specialist Dr. Alfred Tomatis, and "Spotlight on Specialist" pages throughout the book are an attempt to add a more clearly scientific feel. Still, most of what passes for science in this book is anecdotal and will not make a satisfying read for those looking for original research.

Each chapter is devoted to a particular age, from prenatal to mid-elementary school, and parents and educators can find excellent musical menus, practical suggestions, and entertaining games to play at the end of every chapter. The menus include suggestions for appropriate times to play the various pieces, as well as a brief description of the type of music, helpful in case you're not immediately familiar with "Adagio from the Divertimento" or "Concertante from the Serenade No. 9". Games range from simple variations on pat-a-cake to rhythmic chanting designed to improve memory skills, and parents will enjoy playing at least as much as their children will. Perhaps you child's IQ will magically improve from listening to Mozart, perhaps it won't. At worst, Campbell opens up a world of music-related learning for your family that can be both enriching and entertaining. --Jill Lightner

About the Author:

Listen to Don Campbell's credentials.

A Texas native, Don Campbell studied with Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau Conservatory of Music in France and has worked with Jean Houston, Leonard Bernstein and other musicians, healers and mind/body researchers.

Over the years, his quest to harness the healing and creative powers of sound and music has taken him to 40 countries, including Haiti, Russia, Israel, Greece, Tibet, Indonesia and Thailand, where he has studied indigenous culture, taught and worked with children and young adults, and given his own performances. He has taught and performed in most of the capitals of Europe and lived in Japan for several years, serving as music critic for a Tokyo newspaper.

He founded the Institute of Music, Health and Education in 1988, and is known to the public through frequent television and radio appearances and international lecture tours. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0380807440
• ISBN 13: 9780380807444
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288