The Beats Bus - Benefits

The Benefits of Music

It has long been said that music is the universal language. It is the one form of communication that we share with every other culture and human being that has ever lived on Earth. Music was born in the human brain and the human voice was the first manifestation of that thought. Percussion instruments were created thousands of years ago, at the dawn of human civilization, when humans discovered that hitting two objects together caused an exciting sound. First one sound, then a succession of sounds organised in a certain way...and rhythm was born! This phenomenon happened independently on all continents of the world!

Rhythm is inherent in all of us. The first sound that every human being hears and feels from conception is the rhythm of their mother's heart beat in the womb. Yet, in our western society, it is not uncommon to hear adults profess that they have no rhythm. This is simply not true! We have just forgotten a skill which we all intuitively have from birth.

In many African, Asian, Mediterranean and Latin American countries and throughout most Indigenous cultures, percussion instruments are used (in conjunction with singing and dancing) during all celebrations, feasts, funeral ceremonies and other such events. The children are exposed to these musical experiences from the day they are born and therefore continue to develop their rhythmical voice. Most of us in Australia love listening to music, but not so many of us take the time to actually create it ourselves. With a few simple percussion instruments and the confidence to use the voice we have, we could be creating music together with our children, friends and families...in the home, at parks, BBQ's... everywhere! Not only can music be relaxing and therapeutic, it is also a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment which is very social and a lot of FUN!

The Beats Bus program has been created by a qualified team of Australian educators to specifically enhance and support the child's total development – physical, emotional, social and cognitive. The interactive nature of the program is designed to:

Develop gross and fine motor skills
Strengthen self confidence
Enhance concentration and focused listening skills
Inspire creativity
Support the bonding between a parent/carer & child
Promote teamwork
Assist language and vocal development
Enhance spatial-temporal intelligence* - the abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning maths and science

* Recent global research discoveries into music and brain development have supported the finding that active participation in music directly contributes to brain development by dramatically increasing the interconnections between brain cells.

Now that has been said and done,
let's gear up to have some fun!

We'll start up a groovy beat...
all aboard for a musical treat!!

Sources & Further Information:

The Music Council of Australia   www.mca.org.au
Australian Music Association   www.australianmusic.asn.au
Children's Music Workshop    www.childrensmusicworkshop.com
MENC - The National Association for Music Education   www.menc.org
International Society for Music Education   www.isme.org
AMC - American Music Conference   www.amc-music.org