Studying Music - Luxury or Necessity?

It still amazes me that music is considered “a luxury” in our society. In times of economic recession, the first program to be considered for deletion or is usually deleted from schools is music. If there is a choice between sports and music, music is usually the runner-up because a sport is viewed as more important. A child, who chooses to play the violin or flute, especially if it’s a boy, is called a sissy or worse. Heaven help us if they choose to sing in a choir!

Parents often see music as a solitary study, whereas sports are the team builder. Just recently I was listening to some parents discussing the reasons for taking their children out of a music program and transferring them to a sport because the benefits were greater and the cost lower. Why this misconception? Why do we allow it to happen? Do we not read the research as to the benefits of music; do we not see the impacts on our children and youth? Research study after study shows that participation in music helps our children grow in many more ways than just learning the musical scale or the ability to play notes on an instrument.

Early music training has been acknowledged to help develop the brain areas that are involved in language and reasoning. Most research shows that the development of the brain continues for many years after birth. It also shows there is a direct correlation between the development of the left side of the brain which is involved with the processing language and musical training. Musical training physically develops this part of the brain and can almost be said to hard wire the brain’s circuits. If you think about it, the easiest way for us to teach young children the alphabet is to link it to that well know “ABC song.” How many of us ever say the alphabet, we usually sing it even when we are adults? Many teachers are finding that linking math and other challenging studies with music has a direct impact on how quickly the children learn and how well they retain that information.
In the study conducted by Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., Levine, L.J., Wright E.L., Dennis, W.R. and Newcomb, R. (1997) Music Training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial temporal reasoning; Neurological Research, pg. 1-8, it was found that children given piano lessons significantly improved their spatial-temporal IQ scores compared to children who received computer lessons, sang for fun or received no lessons. Spatial-temporal reasoning is important for mathematical reasoning. Other studies have shown that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed almost 46% boost in their spatial reasoning. Research is also showing through the use of brain scans that musicians develop larger parts of the brain region related to reading skills than non-musicians. This is especially true for those who began their musical study before the age of seven.

What about older children – are there benefits? It goes without saying that there are myriad benefits. For example, recent studies show that students who were involved in music performance or appreciation scored much higher on the verbal and math components of SAT exams than students who were not involved in music. The Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances including alcohol, tobacco and other illicit drugs for secondary students who participated in band or orchestra. Many of the best engineers and technical designers in Silicon Valley are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians. Musicians are always making decisions about tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing etc. i.e. training the brain to become extremely good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Most businesses and employers today require their employees to be exceptional at multi-tasking. Music students have a great head start on this type of organizational skill.

So are all the benefits physical (intelligence) or school related? Not at all! What about success in life skills? Each of us as parents wants our children to succeed in life. Studying music:
· encourages self-discipline and application
· develops effective study habits
· promotes self-expression
· builds teamwork and disciplinary skills
· helps one conquer fear and learn how to take risks
· encourages the person to value good craftsmanship and to seek within themselves for available resources
· think creatively and problem solve
· learn to respect other cultures and people of those cultures
· communicate effectively with people of the world
· understand that there is not always just one answer to any problem
· and so much more than I can articulate here

Perhaps the most basic reason that every child should, no, must have a musical education is that music is part of the very fabric of our society. Without doubt, music is an intrinsic part of every culture of the world. Music is one of the most basic ways that a culture uses to communicate its ideas and ideals. Bill Clinton, former U.S. President states: “Music is about communication, creativity, and cooperation, and by studying in school, students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives, and experience the world from a new perspective.”

I think Michael Greene, Recording Academy President and CEO sums up the necessity most admirably in this quote from his speech at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in February 2000: “Music is a magical gift we must nourish and cultivate in our children, especially now as scientific evidence proves that an education in the arts makes better math and science students, enhances spatial intelligence in newborns, and let's not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not cause of it!”

For those parents who were discussing taking their children out of a music program, think again, music is not a luxury, it is a necessity!