The Mozart Effect on Event Planners IQ

Can  the “Mozart effect”  help wedding and event planners develop more creativity.

 From Wikipedia: The Mozart effect can refer to:

▪    A set of research results that indicate that listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as "spatial-temporal reasoning;"[1]

▪    Popularized versions of the theory, which suggest that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter," or that early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development;

▪    A US trademark for a set of commercial recordings and related materials, which are claimed to harness the effect for a variety of purposes. The trademark owner, Don Campbell, Inc.,[2] claims benefits far beyond improving spatio-temporal reasoning or raising intelligence, defining the mark as "an inclusive term signifying the transformational powers of music in health, education, and well-being."  

The term was first coined by Alfred A. Tomatis who used Mozart's music as the listening stimulus in his work attempting to cure a variety of disorders. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in Nature suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted scores on one portion of the IQ test.[3] As a result, the Governor of Georgia, Zell Miller, proposed a budget to provide every child born in Georgia with a CD of classical music.

 irst we will de bunk these notions, and then do some “re bunking.”

 The quick answer is no.  Just playing Mozart at your event will not make you  or the attendees smarter. 

 1.  I spent many years of my life, playing, listening to, teaching and conducting Mozart et al.  As my friends and family will attest, if exposure to this music made an individual smarter   - it did not work in my case!  2.  Do we necessarily want our clients to be more creative?  Clients are hiring event planners for their creativity.   “Give a man a fish and he is fed for a day, teach a man to fish… and if you make your living as a fishing teacher you are soon out of a job.”

 Later studies disproved the self serving, and enriching, theories of Campbell, the baby Einstein materials, etc.  There is a cottage industry in NYC that offers early childhood music programs.  The presumption is that toddlers will benefit by exposure to “real” music.  While I certainly support anything that provides paying gigs for musicians, most of these programs are more accurately described as “expensive day care that keeps the nanny happy.”

 It is analogous to having a math teacher read complex math formulas to toddlers in the hopes that some how they benefit from the “exposure.”

 Now to re bunk

1.  The issue is not aptitude or intelligence, but creative use of aptitude.   Businesses want events that will inspire and motivate their employees.  They want their employees to make more use of the aptitude they already have.  How many times have you heard the phrase  “thinking outside the box?”  Success in business is often a function of combining pre existent ideas, and then pursuing that vision with passion and commitment. 

 There are ways that event planners can use the creative arts to encourage attendees to make better and more frequent use of their inherent creativity.  Creativity is similar to the Greek concept of “agape.”   The more you use, the more you have.  Events that include somebody doing something with creativity, whether it be the performing arts   - including theater/trust games, the visual arts – including some attendee participation, or live music  - again involving the audience as active participants, can encourage attendees to manifest their creativity.

 Here is a sports analogy: I do a lot more in an aerobic or yoga class  because there is this impossibly fit person in front exhorting us to do  “one more,  stretch a little longer.”    Living rooms all across America are filled with unused stationary bikes and portable gyms. The residents of these living rooms were convinced to part with their money because an impossibly fit person demonstrated the benefits on television. 

But those individuals weren’t required to do anything besides send  money. 

This is how it works with the creative, performing arts as well.  There is no benefit if the listener isn’t actively engaged.   

 There isn’t space in this article to provide all the ideas on how to use the creative arts at your event to inspire.  Don’t hesitate to call or email for specific ideas for your event.

2.   Events should captivate, inspire the whole person.  Live music can do this. 

An immodest anecdote from an earlier point in my career: 

 I was charged with starting, building music programs in a few different systems.  In one middle school, the year I started there was no band program, no students studying any instruments, no band, none.  Two years later the band included 150 students, 80% of the school population was learning a band instrument and playing in the band.  Full disclosure - the school?  Sidwell Friends in Washington D.C. Cost per year for elementary, middle school?  about  $15,000.    These people were the 1%.   They could easily afford the cost of renting or purchasing an instrument, and were used to enrolling their children in all types of enrichment programs.

 My experience teaching in inner city schools was very different.  The classes were bigger, parents had limited resources, but the similarities in my classes were striking.

 The other teachers were a little surprised that one teacher could handle a class of 150 middle school students   - each holding a noisemaker.   How was this possible?

Think of the physical, intellectual requirements of playing a wind instrument, especially for a younger person.  It requires control of the breath, fingers, and mouth while paying some attention to a written score. I could control them by controlled hyper - ventilation.  I found that once students were a little winded, and physically challenged, they would pay better attention to the occasional verbal instruction, or information.  The experience of playing in the band embraced the whole person   - physical, emotional, intellectual.

The wisdom  of ancient Greece survives  - mind, body, spirit.

Successful events appeal to all the senses, and require that whole person to actively engage.

This is the real “Mozart Effect:”  How event planners can make attendees smarter and more creative.