by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Colors in Music Education

Research shows that use of colors has a significant effect on memory. In the article The impact of colors on human memory in learning English collocations: evidence from south Asian tertiary ESL students (2020), J. Khan and C. Liu got their hypothesis confirmed. They wanted to test if students remember words better when they are written on colorful paper. The participants were parted in two different groups and thereafter tested in English collocations. The first group read the glossary on yellow paper sheets, while the second group practiced with normal black and white paper. According to the article, the first group outperformed the second. 

Colors are used as tools all over the world. Personally, I have used color-coding to structure my notes and remember glossary for tests in school. In my head, different words and numbers are still connected to specific colors, and I believe it is a result of the use of colors in my notebooks. I associate several sociological glossaries with the color yellow, and picture some religious terms as red. Using colors as a memorizing technique has been helpful throughout my education. 

How could this technique be used in music education?

One of my best friends used to have stickers on her piano as a child. Small pieces of masking tape with written letters were placed on the different keys (C-B). I always thought it was sort of stupid. For some reason, I considered it cheating, and thought she would never really learn the placement of the tones when she always relayed on the stickers. I might have had a point, but I now have an easier time also seeing the advantages. 

I started playing the piano when I was 10 years old. Because I had been playing the trumpet for 3 years, I already knew how to read sheet music by that time. This made it easier for me to understand the placement of the tones and how they were connected. In retrospect, I truly understand that this part would be a lot more difficult for younger people without any musical knowledge. Especially children with developmental disabilities or learning disorders such as ADHD and dyslexia could struggle to read, understand and remember musical notation. I believe that stickers and the use of colors could help this group getting musical knowledge and motivation for further learning. 

Children xylophones are often covered in 7 different colors. Each bar has its own color, all the way up to the second C (that shares color with the first C). When researching this topic, I quickly discovered that the color pallet is somewhat universal. The C is red, D is orange, E is yellow, F is green, G is blue, A is purple, and the B is pink. Just like the colors of the rainbow. The colors could also contribute to a better understanding of “half steps”, if the black keys were given a shade between the colors on each side.  

Colors stimulate brain activity and provoke creativity. According to the Psychology of Color, all colors have different meanings and activates different parts of the brain. When implementing colors in education and connecting different tones with colors, it is important to choose the colors wisely. Certain colors contribute to improved mood, health, motivation and concentration, while other are not good for us in the long run. For instance, use of the color white in public spaces and schools has been linked to increased stress levels and reduced concentration (Grube, K.J. 2014). If colors are too intense, they can also be irritating and exhausting to look at. However, with the right wavelength, colors help us memorize and recognize differences. It also has the potential to positively address the growing issue of attention span among today’s youth. 

References

Grube, K.J. (2014). Detrimental Effect of White Valued Walls in Classrooms. Educational Planning, v21 n2 p69-82. 

Khan, J. & Liu, C. (2020). The impact of colors on human memory in learning English collocations: evidence from south Asian tertiary ESL students. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40862-020-00098-8

Koltuska-Haskin, B. (2023). How Colors Affect Brain Functioning. Psychology today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/how-my-brain-works/202301/how-colors-affect-brain-functioning

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

The Impact of Colors and Symbols

Throughout my first weeks of research, I found a couple of interesting articles. In this blog post, I will present one of these. 

Spring 2023, the student So Young Jun wrote a master’s thesis on Northwestern College in Iowa. Key words connected to her article: autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, color, symbol, orchestra and music. 

She followed a wind orchestra of 20 people with developmental disabilities for five weeks. Orchestral performance requires dozens of individuals to listen to each other and communicate with eye contact and body language. It is important to pay attention to the conductor and always be alert, which can be hard for children and people with developmental disabilities. Jun wanted to explore different methods to make it easier for the orchestra members to create a single piece of music together. The research questions were:

  • For students with special needs, specifically autism spectrum, were there any differences observed when using the visual support and when not using the support?
  • Has visual support for members with special needs, specifically those with autism helped improve orchestra performance?

Together with the conductor, Jun implemented a set of different symbols in their music sheets to see if it could improve the orchestra performance. The conductor used some time to teach them to the members in the very beginning of the project. The members also practiced at home together with their parents throughout the five weeks. 

One of the symbols were red glasses (picture above). They mark when the members should look specifically at the conductor. For the action research, the conductor stopped conducting at the point where the glasses mark appeared, and it was checked and recorded whether the members continued playing the instrument or stopped playing the instrument after seeing the hand signal. 

Results

Quoted directly from the article (p. 27-28): 

The process of having many teachers explaining and understanding a single instruction to the members with different words and phrases consumed a lot of time. However, by providing consistent education with symbols, all instructors have shortened the training time for the content and made it possible to conduct efficient rehearsals. 

The implementation was time consuming, but the results were positive. Most of the orchestra members were more alert and got better at paying attention to the conductor during the research period. 

I find these results very interesting, and will use it both as an inspiration and motivation for my further work. 

Reference

Jun, S. Y. (2023). Autism Spectrum: The Impact of Colors and Symbols Have on Students Outcome. Northwestern College, Orange City Florida, USA. Retrieved from https://nwcommons.nwciowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1477&context=education_masters