Study finds Carnatic music can increase Maths ability in children

Science and music

Music may soothe the savage heart but science shows that it can also trigger an enhancement of mathematical ability in young children.

In a year-long study conducted at a private school in New Delhi, researchers from Delhi University examined the influence of Carnatic Vocal music on children aged five-and-a-half years old to 8 years old. They found that the children exhibited a “statistically significant improvement in mathematical ability,” afterwards.

“The children involved in the study were subject to a standardised international psychometric test to assess their mathematical ability before and after the Carnatic music intervention was executed,” Dr Vidya Raja, the corresponding author of the study, said.

“Care was ensured that the children involved in the research were controlled for influencing factors such as private music lessons etc,” she added, explaining that many of the children largely hailed from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The children were assessed for their mathematical ability using the standardised psychometric tests at the end of the music intervention, researchers said. The psychometric tests included age-level mathematical activities such as addition, division and other arithmetic tasks.

“Results from the study revealed a statistically significant improvement in mathematical ability for the students in the experimental group in comparison to the control group,” Dr Vidya said.

The study was published in the international journal of Taylor and Francis, Early Child Development and Care.

Dr Vidya added that learning music activates high brain processes with the brain carrying out complex tasks in the background while the child performs.

The well-known Carnatic musician R K Padmanabha, who is not connected with the study, said that the ability of the classical music form to engender mathematical ability is well known because the rhythmic spans and frequencies of the music exercise an inherent mathematical ability among performers. “But this mathematics is aesthetic in nature. It is known to increase the retention power of the brain owing to many notes that are required to be memorized, plus it enhances lyrical awareness and concentration,” he said.

Dr Vidya added, “There are a lot of mathematical concepts embedded in the learning of Carnatic music. The child is subconsciously processing these mathematical concepts.”

She specified that most of the children involved in the Delhi study hailed from South Indian families.

She was subsequently awarded a senior research fellowship by the Ministry of Culture to conduct a second study programme at the Swami Vivekananda Rural Higher Secondary School in Chandapura. The study, with 200 children, most of from working-class families, have led to similar findings being made, she said.