Eight-year-old Brainolicious brain health advocate Shawn Letford helps families discover how music, culture and connection can be part of building a healthy brain!
What if one of the easiest ways to give your family’s brains a workout was simply to listen to something new?
A tabla rhythm you have never heard before. A musical scale from another part of the world. A dance with unfamiliar movements. A song that makes your child stop and ask, “What instrument is that?”
That was one of the big ideas explored when eight-year-old national speaker and brain health advocate Shawn “The Brain Capital Kid” Letford helped open the Sunder Foundation’s A Celebration of Cultural Collaboration: An Evening of Live Music & Dance at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center in California.
And for families, Shawn had a wonderfully simple message:
“Hearing music from around the world is really good for your brain because when you hear scales from other cultures, it makes your brain work really hard.”
Your Brain Loves a New Challenge
Think about what happens when your child hears a favorite song. Their brain already has a pretty good idea of what is coming next. It recognizes the melody, beat and patterns.
But what happens when we hear music that is completely unfamiliar?
Our brains have some investigating to do!
We begin listening for patterns. We notice differences. We anticipate what might come next. We compare the new sounds with sounds we already know.
That is one reason introducing children to music from different cultures can be such a rich family experience. It isn’t just an opportunity to learn about another culture. It can invite curiosity, attention, pattern recognition, flexible thinking and active listening.
In other words, your brain gets curious.
And at Brainolicious Adventures®, we LOVE a curious brain!
Shawn Takes the Stage for Brain Health
Shawn opened the celebration with a fireside chat with Dr. Keerthy Sunder, President of the Sunder Foundation.
Their conversation focused on music, culture, brain health and why children should be included in conversations about taking care of their brains.
Dr. Sunder explained why having a young brain health advocate begin the evening was so important.
“Having Shawn open the event was definitely in line with the Sunder Foundation’s mission, which is to encourage children and their families to focus on brain health.”
That idea is important.
We often think of brain health as something adults should worry about when they get older. But brain health is a lifespan conversation.
Children can begin learning right now that the choices and experiences they have every day matter. Moving their bodies, getting enough sleep, connecting with people, creating art, managing stress, eating nourishing foods and engaging with music can all be part of learning to care for their brains.
They Actually Watched a Brain Respond to Music!
Here is where things got especially Brainolicious.
The day before the celebration, Dr. Cameron Good listened as acclaimed tabla musician Anubrata Chatterjee played while the KARMA TMS Team monitored Dr. Good’s brain-wave activity.
As Dr. Good listened, the monitoring showed alpha-wave activity, which is commonly associated with relaxed wakefulness.
During Saturday’s event, the audience got to see images from Dr. Good’s brain-wave monitoring.
Imagine being a child and not only hearing someone tell you that music affects your brain, but actually getting to see a representation of brain activity while someone is listening to music!
Suddenly, something invisible becomes visible.
Music Passed From One Generation to Another
One of the most special moments of the evening beautifully captured another Brainolicious idea: brain health is generational.
Internationally renowned tabla master Pandit Anindo Chatterjee took the stage with his son, Anubrata Chatterjee, for a father-son tabla duet.
There was something powerful about watching two generations communicate through rhythm.
Music can be passed from grandparents to parents to children. Songs can hold family memories. Cultural traditions can help children understand where they come from. And making music together can create opportunities for connection between generations.
The celebration continued with musicians representing an incredible range of traditions, including George Brooks, Kamaljeet Ahluwalia, Aakash Pujara, Rajib Karmarkar, Suhail Khan, Arun Ramamurthi, Aditya Ganesh, Anirudh Venkatesh, Shahil Khan and Omar D. Brancato.
Families experienced the sounds of tabla, santoor, bansuri, sitar and sarangi alongside Carnatic music, American jazz and collaborative performances.
And then came the dancing!
Dr. Shobana Vankipuram opened the dance segment with a Tillana from the Bharatanatyam tradition. Labonee Mohanta brought the spins, intricate footwork and rhythms of Kathak to the stage through a Tarana, and the Svetlana Tulasi Dance Company helped close the celebration with classical and Bollywood-inspired dance.
It was a night of brains, bodies, cultures and generations learning together.
Try a Brainolicious Family Music Adventure
You don’t need to attend a concert to bring this idea into your own home.
This week, have each person in your family choose a piece of music from a culture or musical tradition your family doesn’t normally hear. Don’t just put it on in the background. Really listen.
Then talk about it together:
- What instruments do you hear?
- Can you find the beat?
- What sounds are unfamiliar?
- Can you predict what will happen next?
- How does the music make your body want to move?
- What would you like to learn about the people or culture that created this music?
Then get up and move to it!
Your goal isn’t to decide whether the music is “good” or “bad.” Your challenge is to get curious about something unfamiliar.
That is where the brain adventure begins.
Brain Health Is for the Whole Family
Shawn is a national youth speaker who advocates for children and families to incorporate brain health into everyday life. Through his books, speaking and teaching, he introduces families to brain capital: our brain health and the brain skills that help us learn, create, connect and thrive.
And perhaps the biggest takeaway from this extraordinary night of music wasn’t just about the amazing tabla, jazz, brain waves or even dance.
It was about recognizing the incredible brain sitting inside every one of us and the music that can connect us.
As Shawn reminds children and adults wherever he goes:
“All of our brains are unique, and all of our brains are beautiful.”
So turn on something new tonight. Or find the musicians from this amazing show.
Listen together. Dance together. Get curious together.
Your family just might grow some Brain Capital while you’re having fun. 🧠🎶🌎
-Shawn, Genein, Shayne and the Brainolicious Team
(check more pictures below)
