By Iqbal Manna Team Mangalorean

Doha February 6, 2010: It was a musical tryst of a different kind for the students of Birla Public School here on Thursday as they met up with Michael Griffin, Australian music educator, who was on a short, but immensely valuable visit to BPS. On his arrival he was welcomed by the Finance Director, Ms.Aarti Oberoi and other school officials in traditional way.

The interaction with Mr. Griffin, which took place in the presence of Principal, Mr.A.K.Shrivastava, Vice-principal, Mrs. Shirly Rappai and music teacher Mr.Dennesen, brought out many aspects of music that were hitherto unknown to most of the students.

Mr. Griffin, a music educator and musician for over 25 years, started  off by pointing out that though academics was important, it was not the only thing that decided whether a person was smart or not. And being smart did not include just being intelligent, but was an amalgamation of various factors. In fact, a person could be smart in different ways. It could be in linguistic affairs, in logic, or musical, sometimes physical; or a person could also be sound smart. A person could also be smart inter-personally or intra-personally, he said.

Music, he said, stimulated the mind. Most parts of the brain would be active while listening to music, helping the inter-personal intelligence of a person, which was crucial since this, would help a person to conquer emotions and be satisfied with what he or she had, without being greedy.

Mr. Griffin also advised students that repetition was the mother of learning, stressing on the importance of practicing. Breaking it into chunks would make learning easier. He also cautioned students against passive leisure activities like watching TV, or spending time on internet-based social networks. These, instead of relaxing the mind and body, would only depress a person. Sports or music were several times better options.

Whether music would be helpful, or turn into an interference with studies, would depend on the characteristics of the selected music, on the student’s personality and also on the task undertaken at that point of time.

He played a number of pieces from Beethoven, Handle and other top musicians to bring forth his point.

In the end, the interaction with Mr. Griffin turned out to be a meaningful event for the students. Mr. Griffin, a recipient of many awards primarily for his work with school choirs and jazz ensembles, has given musical performances and workshops in Thailand,U.S.A, China, Italy, England, Australia, the Middle East and Central Europe. The invaluable experience was there to see for the students on Thursday.