The first level is the training of intelligence and psychological quality. For the convenience of narration, let's start with "practicing the piano".

1. Concentration and distribution of attention. Everyone knows that the process of playing musical instruments is bound to focus, so you can get the exercise of concentration. However, when playing musical instruments, attention should be paid not only to concentration, but also to distribution. Simple music also has different musical components such as melody, bass and texture, as well as different factors such as pitch, rhythm, volume, timbre and playing method, not to mention polyphonic multi-part music. As long as you play a piece of music completely, you must have been trained in the psychological quality of concentration and distribution of attention. We know that whether we can allocate attention reasonably and effectively is a very important quality and ability, and it is very useful whether we are engaged in academic, career, management or leadership work.

2. cooperation and coordination between perception and action. Playing music is not a combination of mechanical rhythm, pitch and strength. Playing music depends on feeling, with musical hearing, feeling of fingers, arms and even the whole body movements, as well as inner sense of rhythm, position, and higher-level emotions, artistic conception, etc. Good music performance is the ingenious and seamless coordination and harmony of these different perceptions and movements. This is not pure "intelligence", nor pure "physical strength" or "agility". You can't get such exercise in simple reading or calculation, and you can't get such exercise in simple sports activities. Apart from music, there is probably only dance-but dance can't be separated from music first, and the process of dance is the process of music first.

3. Expanding the concept of space and time. Music is the art of time, and time is one of the basic measures to measure music. No other art attaches more importance to the delicate coordination of time than music. Sculpture and architecture are three-dimensional art in real space, while music is three-dimensional art in virtual space (imaginary space of sound): the rhythm movement of sound is the abscissa, and the pitch change of sound is the ordinate. In real (non-spectral) music, especially in ensemble and chorus of musical instruments and voices, the effect caused by the "distance" of sound constitutes the third-depth coordinate. People who are often exposed to music, that is, people who are often exposed to exquisite music time "flow" and music three-dimensional space, the concept of space and time is naturally strengthened. The concept of space and time is an indispensable basic quality in the advanced research of physics, mathematics, chemistry and astronomy.

4. Exercise perseverance and endurance. As we all know, in the process of practicing the piano, it is very common to practice dozens or even hundreds of times for a technical detail. In order to increase the speed of a piece of music from 12 beats per minute to 124 beats, I don't know how many hours and days it will take. Besides gymnastics and ballet, I really can't think of anything that can make people get such good perseverance and endurance exercise. It is particularly worth mentioning that music needs perseverance and endurance when practicing (sowing), and it needs perseverance and endurance even more when playing (harvesting)-such a situation is not available in writing and painting. Does music give people more harsh training or deeper happiness? Who can tell? But perseverance and endurance-if they are said to be the most basic qualities for a person to survive and develop in the world, I think it is not too much.

5. Training of discrimination and memory. Discrimination and memory can be said to be the "cells" of human intelligence development-basic ability, which can be recognized on the basis of discrimination and compared, analyzed and thought on the basis of memory. Various elements of music (pitch, sound intensity, timbre, rhythm, speed, etc.) present a dynamic and endless variety in the process of music, which far exceeds the descriptive ability of language and directly affects people's minds through hearing. The conductor can hear the instantaneous mistakes in performance, the pianist can feel the subtle differences between fingers, the violinist can grasp the accurate control of timbre, and the composer can observe the little novelty in harmony: music can mobilize people's reactions at any time and temper people's ability to distinguish and remember. The basis of music perception ability is sound discrimination and memory; Basic music courses-listening, singing, dictation, etc.-are direct training for discrimination and memory.

6. Harmony and development of thinking in images and logical thinking. To give a simple example, at least four kinds of memories should be used at the same time to realize the recitation with confidence. The first is the memory of music (sound) and the movement of music "flow" in hearing; The second is the memory of music scores (images), and the transformation of graphics with internal relations; The third is the memory of finger movements (movements), and the movements of muscles and joints enter the subconscious memory, so that the performance can still continue in the moment of "distraction"; The fourth is the memory of music structure (logic), the repetition and change of melody, the regularity and stylization of harmony function, the development and reproduction of musical forms, and so on. These four kinds of memories have both visual thinking and logical thinking, and music makes these two kinds of thinking have you and me, which are in perfect harmony. This way of thinking is exactly the way of thinking that newcomers in the 21st century need most, and it is also the way of thinking that many great scientists, politicians and people with great comprehensive achievements have in the past. In today's world, no matter what kind of work you are engaged in, whether it is technical work or research work, concrete work or leadership work, you must have such a way of thinking if you want to make great achievements and stand out from the crowd. With broad thinking, rich imagination, unconventional knowledge and courage, you can break away from the shackles of logical thinking in necessary links and replace duplicative thinking with creative thinking. Music can play a role in this respect, and no other art form or learning method can replace it.

the first level mentioned above is the most basic level, and it is also the level that naturally comes into play.

The second level of music's role in people's quality growth is to acquire music knowledge and skills, and improve music cultivation and general cultural and historical cultivation. This function of music has been praised by people since ancient times. Ancient China literati regarded "Qin, chess, calligraphy and painting" as their basic accomplishment, and "Qin" was music, which was placed in the first place, showing the lofty position. In history, western intellectuals generally attached importance to music learning, mainly because of this level of understanding.

At this level, we should pay attention to two points:

1. Music plays an important role in improving aesthetic ability and cultivating sentiment. The purification and sublimation of people's mind and wisdom by music must be and can only be a subtle process. Music can play a very important role in people's life, and it is irreplaceable, but it is a long-term benefit, a lifelong benefit, a process of "sneaking into the night with the wind, moistening things silently" and a process of "and the silk-worms of spring will weave until they die".

2. The function of music to people can only be realized by music hearing acting on people's hearts according to its unique characteristics of "pointing directly at people's hearts". Lyrics are not music, the author's brief introduction is not music, background pictures and celebrity quotations are all not music, and we must never apply literary appreciation methods, and we must never replace music itself with these auxiliary means of learning music.

The third level of music's effect on people's quality growth is deeper and involves people's creativity and sociality, which can be divided into three aspects.

the first aspect: about enhancing imagination and creativity.

The function of this aspect of music is entirely due to the nature of music: because of the non-concreteness of music (music is sound, which can't be seen or touched), the non-ideality (music itself doesn't convey conceptual information that can make people "understand") and the uncertainty (no matter whether people appreciate or play, no matter different people or the same person, they will never be as accurate and unique as mathematics. As well as the characteristics of "pointing directly at people's hearts" (without any intermediary and translation), people can have the broadest and freest imagination and creative space in the process of enjoying, performing and learning music, and promote the widest and freest development of imagination and creativity.

the second aspect is about enriching people's emotions.

The essential difference between human beings and animals lies not in standing upright, not in IQ, but in emotion. Only people have their emotions-"where petals have been shed like tears, and lonely birds have sung their grief" is unique to human beings. In the era of industrial revolution, some people put forward that "man is a machine", which reflected the limitations of that era and deviated from human nature. With the advent of the new century, the role of human emotions in a complete and healthy person and in a normal and sustainable society is increasingly recognized by scholars, officials and the public. Music is an emotional art, and the emotional factors contained in music can never be repeated by language and can never be replaced by other art forms. The unique and original role of music in people's emotional needs and emotional development is mainly rooted in the nature of music "pointing directly at people's hearts". Therefore, ancient philosophers have always attached importance to the influence of music on human nature.

the third aspect is about social organization ability and adaptability.

1. Cooperation of music-There are many collective cooperation projects in music forms, such as duet, chorus, ensemble and ensemble. Except for a few musical instruments such as piano, which are truly "solo" (performed by one person), solos of other musical instruments often need to be accompanied by one or more other musical instruments. We can easily understand the cooperation of music as long as we compare it with art and literature. People's participation in cooperative music activities not only trains their social organization ability and adaptability in the process of organization, but more importantly, it enables people to experience the harmonious and balanced feeling of individual and whole, individual and individual in the process of playing and singing music, which is a very unique and precious experience and has a positive effect on the growth of personality.

2. Communication of music-Music performance is a communication activity between people. Even in the "one-on-one" teaching mode, students have to face the teacher to return to class, to communicate with the teacher, to participate in competitions and performances. The direct target is people, and the goal is to communicate with people through music. For example, whether it is good to "improvise" when playing is essentially a question of psychological quality and the ability of coordination, adaptation and communication between people. This communication of music is very different from art and literature, and it plays an irreplaceable role in the growth of people's quality.

3. Sociality of music-Since its birth, music has a strong social function and strong communication, both at home and abroad. People's birth, growth and death, study, marriage, war and celebration, almost all important social activities are accompanied by music. Therefore, when people take part in music activities, they will often be exposed to a certain social environment and participate in certain social exchanges, so as to develop interpersonal and social relations in many aspects and enhance their ability of unity, cooperation and social activities.

This is the third level of the role of music in people's quality growth, and it should be said that this is the most important level. If the function of the first level can be "naturally", whether the second and third levels can play a good role is closely related to our understanding of music and music education, and the ideas, concepts, contents and methods of music education. At present, there are many problems in music education in China, which largely restrict the role of music in the growth of people's quality. The reform of music education has a long way to go.