ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief summary of the impact of music making on intellectual skills synthesising the findings from these different research traditions. Early research tended to explore the relationships between music abilities and other intellectual skills, for instance, music and mathematics. Comparisons have also been made between those identified as musicians and non-musicians. Musicians of all ages process pitch and rhythmic information and emotions in the voice more effectively than non-musicians. One explanation for the impact of musical activities on intellectual skills draws on the mediating role of executive functioning and self-regulation. Playing a musical instrument or singing, particularly in an ensemble, requires many sub-skills associated with executive functioning including sustained attention, goal-directed behaviour and cognitive flexibility. Musical training can enhance auditory memory, not only for musical sounds and patterns but for prose passages, strings of digits, lists of words or non-words and short excerpts of speech.
