ART'S PART OF SMART : EARLY EXPOSURE TO MUSIC HELPS KIDS DEVELOP OTHER SKILLS, RESEARCHERS SAY.

Byline: Janet Weeks Daily News Staff Writer

Six children sit poised on the edge of chairs arranged in a semicircle around a piano - backs straight, feet firmly planted on the floor, hands folded neatly in laps.

As vocal instructor Debbie Moore plays ``Consider Yourself'' from the musical ``Oliver!'' the children begin to sing.

``Show me your eyeballs,'' shouts Moore. ``Open your mouths. Let me hear your voices.''

Six-year-old Alexandra Hornbrook takes the advice quite seriously. As she belts out the line ``the drinks are on the house!'' her eyes virtually pop, and her mouth forms round O's.

To some, the Kid Krooners class at Vibe Vocal Studios in Newhall may seem a frivolous extracurricular activity, something stage mothers push on young children.

But a growing body of research shows that learning music may be just as important to a child's development as reading, writing and arithmetic.

According to ongoing studies by University of California, Irvine, physicist Gordon Shaw, preschoolers given daily keyboard instruction perform substantially better on spatial tests - a type of puzzle - than their counterparts. And spatial-skill development leads to math skills later in life.

Shaw and psychologist Frances Rauscher studied four groups of 3-year-olds. One group was given, in addition to regular preschool activities, a half-hour of keyboard instruction and group singing. Another was given a half-hour of just group singing. The third spent the 30 minutes training with a computer. And the fourth group was given no extra activity.

The result: The children taught to play a keyboard and to sing scored an average of 13 on a standardized spatial-skill test - three points higher than their test results before the extra instruction.

The rest of the kids showed no improvement, scoring an average of 10.

The higher test scores moved the group of keyboard-trained kids from average students to exceptional, placing them in the 85th percentile of children who take the spatial test, says Shaw.

``The amount of increase was very large, and of large statistical significance,'' says Shaw, adding that he was surprised by the difference.

Shaw has concluded that musical instruction at a very young age creates a more highly structured brain by re-forming the connections between neural pathways. Also, music stimulates an area of the brain close to the area needed for complex mathematics.

``As a new grandparent, I'm encouraging my daughter to get my grandson in piano lessons. He's 9 months old,'' says Shaw. ``There's no bad side effects to this. You can't lose.''

Shaw's preliminary results were reported to the American Psychological Association in 1994. The final results will be published some time this year.

There are other benefits to music exposure, too.

Frank Heuser, an associate professor of music at the University of California, Los Angeles, says musical training bolsters a child's self-esteem and teaches him or her to work in a cooperative environment.

In a chorus or orchestra, where everyone plays a part to support the whole, kids learn responsibility and collaboration, Heuser says.

Rosy Sachstein, a Santa Clarita piano and flute instructor, shares that belief. ``When I teach music, I'm developing the whole individual, the whole child,'' she says. ``Besides the emotional development, they learn problem-solving skills, reasoning, mental and physical coordination, and self-discipline.''

Alexandra Hornbrook's mother had less lofty goals in mind when she enrolled her daughter in singing lessons.

Alexandra had been a shy preschooler who had trouble making friends. Vocal classes have helped draw her out of her shell.

``In preschool, when her class sang Christmas carols, she sat on the side and cried,'' says Susan Hornbrook. ``Now she loves performing.''

Bouquet Canyon Elementary School, which Alexandra attends, had trouble finding a qualified candidate to teach music when a previous instructor left. Eventually, a regular teacher took over the school's music program. But Hornbrook says she felt Alexandra could benefit from private lessons.

The hit movie ``Mr. Holland's Opus'' explores the importance of music programs in schools through the fictional tale of a high school music teacher whose job is lost to budget cuts after 30 years.

The movie helped raise awareness of the importance of keeping arts in schools, says Don Dustin, director of performing arts for Los Angeles Unified School District.

In the 1970s before Proposition 13, LAUSD had more than 200 elementary school music teachers. Now, there are 72. Of the district's 74 middle schools, three have no music programs, he says.

One of the reasons that schools seem to de-emphasize music these days, Dustin says, is that administrators prefer to emphasize other subjects. Middle school and high school counselors, for example, are not likely to advise a student to take music, in part because the elective does nothing to help a young person get into college.

``It's not that we're de-emphasizing, but we're saying that other subjects are more important - classes that are required,'' he says. ``What's tested is taught. And art isn't tested. What you need to get into college is what counselors are going to tell kids to take.

``If a kid is the finest oboe player in California, playing in the orchestra isn't going to help him if he doesn't have the required math.''

But even kids who aren't necessarily on the college fast-track benefit from music instruction, according Joan Boyett, vice president of education for the Music Center Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides arts education to 1,000 LAUSD teachers and students a year.

Boyett remembers working with a fifth-grade boy who could not read. Teachers tried reading stories to the youth, but his comprehension remained low. Then, after a professional choreographer encouraged the boy to make up dance steps to correspond with the story, he correctly answered all reading-comprehension questions.

``Kids don't have much opportunity in paper and pencil to develop critical thinking. But when you're involved in the creative process, you're continually coming up with new ideas,'' she says.

Boyett says she is frustrated by parents who demand ``back-to-basics'' in schools at the expense of arts education, which she believes is necessary to nurture well-rounded adults.

``They need to give kids dance and theater and music as a subject. They need geography and language to live in our society. We need to broaden education, not narrow it to three subjects.''

And Shaw's research shows that a child may not excel in the required math or reading without music training, which enhances a child's ability to recognize patterns.

Indeed, his advice to parents is that they insist their child study some kind of instrument - and the younger the better.

But how do you teach a toddler with a short attention span something as complex as music?

Sachstein, who teaches children as young as 4, says she approaches learning music like learning a language.

``You learn to speak by imitation, and you learn music the same way,'' she says. ``So I'll start with songs they know by ear. I pretty much give them the keyboard. They get a feel and a sense of the sounds, of distinguishing highs and lows and picking out songs. Then I'll sing, and we sing together.''

There is also computer software designed for children as young as 4 that teaches music theory, history and basic keyboard skills. MusicStar by Woodland Hills-based Reveal comes with software and a keyboard that connects to a computer soundcard. It sells for $59.99 at CompUSA.

This rather recent trend in thinking - that preschool and younger children can benefit from musical training - is spreading to the public schools.

This month, the Music Center is starting a program for preschoolers enrolled in the Head Start program.

Called Art Start, the program has two goals: To bring professional performers into class and to give teachers the skills needed to continue working with kids after the performers leave.

Of course, some music fans say waiting until preschool is waiting too long. Symphony conductor George Daugherty, creator and director of the Emmy-nominated ABC children's special ``Rhythm & Jam,'' says parents should start introducing children to music with ``headphones around the pregnant belly.

``A 4-year-old isn't ready for an opera from the `Ring' cycle. But there are free concerts everywhere you can take kids to. Or play them CDs. Or buy them little toy instruments. It's wonderful.''

And, despite his love of classical, Daugherty says children can benefit from any music that isn't violent or obscene.

``Kids need to realize that Bach and Beethoven are made up of the same notes as Brandi and Barney. It becomes so much less scary when they realize it's all the same thing.''

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) Alina Roitstein of Santa Clarit a practices the piano.

(2) ``When I teach music, I'm developing the whole individual, the whole child,'' says Santa Clarita music teacher Rosy Sachstein, at the piano with daughter Alina Roitstein.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News

(3) Shannon Bouknight, 8, and Lauren Moore, 6, practice breathing from their diaphragms at the Vibe Vocal Studios in Newhall.

(4) Alina Cenal, a storyteller with the Music Center Inc., plays a name game with students at Lankershim Elementary School.

(5) Students at Vibe Vocal Studios drop their jaws, practicing proper mouth position and vocal placement.

(6) Debbie Moore, an instructor at Vibe Vocal Studios, returns students' homework assignments.

David Sprague/Daily News