U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley once said in a speech to the The National Association for Music Education, “Studying music and the arts elevates children’s education, expands students’ horizons, and teaches them to appreciate the wonder of life”. The benefits of music education can be broken down into three categories of development. First is intelligence, which involves creative thinking, reasoning skills and overall increases in acquisition and retention of knowledge. Students are more developed emotionally, gaining lifelong experience with empathy towards other cultures, higher self esteem and coping with anxiety. The social benefits are also high, learning concepts of teamwork, commitment and leadership. Music education builds lifelong skills and carries many rewards for the future development of students.
Students that begin studying music at an early age have been found to be more developed in the area of intelligence. Intelligence can include many different factors that comprise it as a whole, however music education tends to target very specific areas. Notably is the area of language and reasoning. It has been found that in students who study music in or outside of school, “…an area on the left side of the brain known to be involved in processing language tended to be much larger than the comparable area on the right”. (Stipp). This would suggest that music education produces definite and noticeable growth and enhancements to the language and reasoning areas of the brain. The ability to reason and comprehend language is key to communication and problem solving. Strong skills in creative thinking are very useful to problem solving. A person is able to devise more imaginative solutions and ideas to accomplish this. In artistic and musical self expression, a person has unlimited options and possibilities. There is no right or wrong way of doing things. Learning in this manner can easily carry over into everyday life situations, allowing for “thinking outside the box”. Closely related to creative thinking is the use and implementation of spatial intelligence. Spatial intelligence involves mental visualization and manipulation of images of the world around. The ability to creatively solve problems or visualize the world around are extremely useful life skills. It has also been widely noted that students of music on average do better in school and on standardized tests. Information from the National Center for Educational Statistics presented by Morrison reported that “on a sample size of 13,327 high school sophomores those who participated in music reported higher grades in English, math, history, and science than those who did not participate in music” (qtd. in Hodges pg. 1). Based on this statistic it is easy to see the correlation between music education and increased intelligence. As well as the benefits to intelligence, music education can have positive effects on emotional development. Musical education and performance can help to build confidence and self esteem. According to a study by Dr. Brian D. Ebie of the University of Arizona, “Subjects reported that playing a sport or performing in an ensemble helped them experience positive feelings about themselves, and provided them with achievable goals—musical or athletic—that also contributed to feelings of personal satisfaction and wellbeing“ (Ebie) It can be inferred from these results that the act of self expression and performance before an audience helps to foster higher self esteem in music students. Another benefit from the act of performance as well as participation in a group is the learned ability to overcome anxiety. In the world of music this type of anxiety is known as performance anxiety or more commonly stage fright. The article, Twelve Benefits of Music Education from The Children’s Music Workshop says that there is an element of risk involved with performing and musical expression. It claims that this risk can be beneficial to future developmental potential by learning to cope with and overcome the anxiety associated with risk taking.
A third idea of emotional development posited by the same article from The Children’s Music Workshop is that of gained empathy towards other cultures. Music is a universal concept found around the world. Every culture has its own forms and styles unique to it. A serious study in music includes exposure to music and instruments from many different cultures. This diverse exposure helps to create an understanding and compassion for other cultures. The article claims that one develops opposition to, “greed and a “me first” attitude, [which] provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age”. This essentially says that a person who is able to look at the world beyond themselves and embrace it in all its diversity will achieve greater things in life. According to the evidence here, music study can be beneficial to this sort of development.
As well as intellectual and emotional developmental gains from the study of music, strong skills in social interactions and situations can also be developed. Social skills would include the concepts of teamwork and commitment. Musical performance is often a team or group effort, whether it be participation in an orchestra or band. Each member has a unique and specific role within the group that they are responsible to perform. The member must be committed to his or her group. Paul McCartney was quoted as saying, “I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity… to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that”.
Music study also helps to teach a person leadership skills that will benefit them in all aspects of adult life, for example, in the workplace. Students of music learn by focusing on “doing” rather than sitting back and observing. This creates “multi-dimensional workers” who possess “flexible and supple intellects” (Twelve Benefits of Music Education). House defines leadership as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members” (qtd. in Wikipedia). This definition clearly defines what leadership in a musical group or workplace scenario entails.
Twelve Benefits of Music Education speaks of the concepts of “craftsmanship” and practice makes perfect. Craftsmanship is described as learning to put things together in a way that reflects good work, as opposed to “mediocre” work. Students learn this idea by evaluating their own work and setting standards in excellence for themselves. This idea of craftsmanship can be very useful as a life skill and especially when applied in the workplace or personal endeavors. Learning to set the standards of achievement high for oneself and then accomplishing those standards can be very beneficial.
Practice makes perfect is a similar idea to craftsmanship in that it teaches a student to set the standards for themselves higher. Through practice a music student gains experience and abilities to perform at a more skillful level. There are very obvious and noticeable rewards to strong disciplines of practice; “students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence” (Twelve Benefits of Music Education). This teaches a student to work hard to achieve his or her goals in life.
Through music education, students learn very useful and necessary skills and traits beneficial to the rest of their lives. There is solid, concrete evidence that the study of music increases a students intelligence. It strengthens them emotionally and socially as well. Strong developments in these areas will inevitably have positive advancements on a students entire life.
References:
Ebie, Brian D. AN INVESTIGATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SELF-REPORTED REASONS FOR PARTICIPATION IN EXTRACURRICULAR MUSICAL AND ATHLETIC ACTIVITIES Research and Issues in Music Education Volume 3, No. 1 September 2005
Hodges, Donald A. and O’Connell, Debra S. THE IMPACT OF MUSIC EDUCATION ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
House, R. J. Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2004
McCartney, Paul qtd. at HeartQuotes.net
Morrison, S. J. Music students and academic growth. Music Educators Journal, 1994 81(2), 33-36.
Stipp, David Parents take note: Musical Training may Stimulate Mind Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Feb 3, 1995. pg. B10
Twelve Benefits of Music Education 2006
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