Thoughts on Music Education

Brown stated in her article many benefits to learning about miusic. What are your thoughts? You can provide written thoughts, a music clip, a video, etc...

The Benefits of Music Education
By Laura Lewis Brown
Whether your child is the next Beyonce or more likely to sing her solos in the shower, she is bound to benefit from some form of music education. Research shows that learning the do-re-mis can help children excel in ways beyond the basic ABCs.

More Than Just Music
Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit association that promotes the benefits of making music.

Making music involves more than the voice or fingers playing an instrument; a child learning about music has to tap into multiple skill sets, often simultaneously. For instance, people use their ears and eyes, as well as large and small muscles, says Kenneth Guilmartin, cofounder of Music Together, an early childhood music development program for infants through kindergarteners that involves parents or caregivers in the classes.

“Music learning supports all learning. Not that Mozart makes you smarter, but it’s a very integrating, stimulating pastime or activity,” Guilmartin says.

Language Development
“When you look at children ages two to nine, one of the breakthroughs in that area is music’s benefit for language development, which is so important at that stage,” says Luehrisen. While children come into the world ready to decode sounds and words, music education helps enhance those natural abilities. “Growing up in a musically rich environment is often advantageous for children’s language development,” she says. But Luehrisen adds that those inborn capacities need to be “reinforced, practiced, celebrated,” which can be done at home or in a more formal music education setting.

According to the Children’s Music Workshop, the effect of music education on language development can be seen in the brain. “Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds,” the group claims.

This relationship between music and language development is also socially advantageous to young children. “The development of language over time tends to enhance parts of the brain that help process music,” says Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a practicing musician. “Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.”

Increased IQ
A study by E. Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, as published in a 2004 issue of Psychological Science, found a small increase in the IQs of six-year-olds who were given weekly voice and piano lessons. Schellenberg provided nine months of piano and voice lessons to a dozen six-year-olds, drama lessons (to see if exposure to arts in general versus just music had an effect) to a second group of six-year-olds, and no lessons to a third group. The children’s IQs were tested before entering the first grade, then again before entering the second grade.

Surprisingly, the children who were given music lessons over the school year tested on average three IQ points higher than the other groups. The drama group didn’t have the same increase in IQ, but did experience increased social behavior benefits not seen in the music-only group.

The Brain Works Harder
Research indicates the brain of a musician, even a young one, works differently than that of a nonmusician. “There’s some good neuroscience research that children involved in music have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. When you’re a musician and you’re playing an instrument, you have to be using more of your brain,” says Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches a specialized music curriculum for children aged two months to nine years.

In fact, a study led by Ellen Winner, professor of psychology at Boston College, and Gottfried Schlaug, professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, found changes in the brain images of children who underwent 15 months of weekly music instruction and practice. The students in the study who received music instruction had improved sound discrimination and fine motor tasks, and brain imaging showed changes to the networks in the brain associated with those abilities, according to the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports brain research.

Spatial-Temporal Skills
Research has also found a causal link between music and spatial intelligence, which means that understanding music can help children visualize various elements that should go together, like they would do when solving a math problem.

“We have some pretty good data that music instruction does reliably improve spatial-temporal skills in children over time,” explains Pruett, who helped found the Performing Arts Medicine Association. These skills come into play in solving multistep problems one would encounter in architecture, engineering, math, art, gaming, and especially working with computers.

Improved Test Scores
A study published in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts. Johnson compares the concentration that music training requires to the focus needed to perform well on a standardized test.

Aside from test score results, Johnson’s study highlights the positive effects that a quality music education can have on a young child’s success. Luehrisen explains this psychological phenomenon in two sentences: “Schools that have rigorous programs and high-quality music and arts teachers probably have high-quality teachers in other areas. If you have an environment where there are a lot of people doing creative, smart, great things, joyful things, even people who aren’t doing that have a tendency to go up and do better.”

And it doesn’t end there: along with better performance results on concentration-based tasks, music training can help with basic memory recall. “Formal training in music is also associated with other cognitive strengths such as verbal recall proficiency,” Pruett says. “People who have had formal musical training tend to be pretty good at remembering verbal information stored in memory.”

Being Musical
Music can improve your child’ abilities in learning and other nonmusic tasks, but it’s important to understand that music does not make one smarter. As Pruett explains, the many intrinsic benefits to music education include being disciplined, learning a skill, being part of the music world, managing performance, being part of something you can be proud of, and even struggling with a less than perfect teacher.

“It’s important not to oversell how smart music can make you,” Pruett says. “Music makes your kid interesting and happy, and smart will come later. It enriches his or her appetite for things that bring you pleasure and for the friends you meet.”
While parents may hope that enrolling their child in a music program will make her a better student, the primary reasons to provide your child with a musical education should be to help them become more musical, to appreciate all aspects of music, and to respect the process of learning an instrument or learning to sing, which is valuable on its own merit.

“There is a massive benefit from being musical that we don’t understand, but it’s individual. Music is for music’s sake,” Rasmussen says. “The benefit of music education for me is about being musical. It gives you have a better understanding of yourself. The horizons are higher when you are involved in music,” he adds. “Your understanding of art and the world, and how you can think and express yourself, are enhanced.”

Artist: Bob Tozier
School: North Allegheny

Notes:
I encourage each of you to share why music is important.

Comments

Bob Tozier from: North Allegheny - posted: September 1, 2015

something..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpnIrE7_1YA

Jenn Foster from: North Allegheny - posted: September 1, 2015
I'm learning instruments because I want to be a music educator. I want to be able to share my love of music with children so they can grow as musicians and people. Music enhances the quality of life, and I want a better life. Also, it's cool to know that people can do this- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pI9EQB6WzE

Liam Beaber from: North Allegheny - posted: September 3, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbK_lAIevs4

Katelyn Dauer from: North Allegheny - posted: September 3, 2015
I believe that music is a great way to express your feelings when you are stressed. Music can eally change how students do in school in academic classes. I think it is just amazing how music changes and inspires people in life.

Kristofer Robinson from: North Allegheny - posted: September 3, 2015
Even to this day I have friends who believe that all of the "music stuff" is just a complete waste of time. i can understand where they are coming from. It is an elective with seemingly little acedemic benefit and takes up a whole credit you could use elsewhere. This proves otherwise. Yay.

Amanda McGurgan from: North Allegheny - posted: September 3, 2015
I think music is not just learning to play an instrument. Its an important part of our life. Not only does it brightens our day, it helps us learn better. It helps us become more focused and understand information better. Also, life without music would be boring!!!!!!

Lexie Mertz from: North Allegheny - posted: September 3, 2015

This article mainly talks about the benefits of music to improve your brain functions; however, it is more than just a way to increase your child’s intelligence. I feel like learning about music is beneficial largely because it is so universal. Language barriers often separate us from people in other countries. It is frustrating to think that words are what are keeping us at a distance. An example of this being that it is hard to truly appreciate a novel that was originally written in another language because many key phrases may have been lost in translation. However, when it comes to music we can all appreciate the same piece in the same way. Music is something that words are not needed to describe, as the music speaks for itself. This eliminates the issue of language barriers, and the beauty of the work is not lost in translation because even though everyone may have a different opinion and interpretation of a song, we all are hearing the same music. This universal aspect of music is what makes it such an important topic to be knowledgeable about.

Caitlin Kelly from: North Allegheny - posted: September 8, 2015
Music is important to me because not only does listening to it helps block out ambient noises that can distract me when I need to focus, but playing instruments serves as an outlet for any stress that I've accumulated.

Matt Hickly from: North Allegheny - posted: September 8, 2015
I believe learning music is important because it is something that a person can maintain. Some atheletes stop playing their sport at 40. Music is something that a person can have with them for their entire life. Music has many different timbres and themes which makes it very enjoyable.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoUJgy3gf98

Grace Traynor from: North Allegheny - posted: September 8, 2015

"I like this because it is good. Thank you. It makes me think about the deep things. It is also important for a reason" - Cheyenne Cenk

In all seriousness, music education is crucial for social development. Music is a huge part of our cultural identity; without music education, children will not have the tools to appreciate our culture, thus raising a generation of cavemen. Besides this, I definitely agree that discipline is learnedd through music. I can remember even the unruliest kids in my music class would settle down when the flutophones came out. All in all, Laura Brown knows what's up. There is so much children can learn from taking music classes.

Sophia Lee from: North Allegheny - posted: September 11, 2015
I was lucky enough to have parents that really enouraged music education even when I was very young. I began to learn piano and violin at 5 and also participated in dance classes. At my piano prepatory school, one of my favorite classes was eurythmics. During this class, we would learn rhythms and pitches and learn to represent this with body movements from clapping to marching around the classroom. Now, as a senior in high school, this background I have in music has helped me to be a better person, student, and friend as music teaches responsibility, creativity, and discipline. Although I do not think I will pursue music as a career, I know that music will be a part of my life forever and I am forever grateful to my parents for giving me the opportunity to make it such a large part of my life.

Weston Waite from: North Allegheny - posted: September 14, 2015
Learning music can create new friendships, and give one more confidence

Stephen Baime from: North Allegheny - posted: September 14, 2015

Music has helped me to develop as a person. To me, music is more than entertainment, it is a way of life. Even if I don't pursue music as a career, I will always keep it as a part of my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaCjPdtDBxo

Eric Dunbar from: North Allegheny - posted: September 14, 2015
Music education is beneficial because it helps out to develop students creativity. It is also useful because it allws student to have a break from the normal school day and relax and appreciate the arts.

Kyle O'Brien from: North Allegheny - posted: September 14, 2015
Music is important to me because not only do i want to make a carrer out of it, it allows you to express feelings not just through words or lyrics. but through tone and note choice. Even in movies it is so important to the over all feel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5z2ECXo33s just a funny interpretation but it shows how important music truly is

Delaney Martin from: North Allegheny - posted: September 17, 2015

Music is as universal as language. Everyone uses it, but it's unique everywhere you go. Music is an important part of history and changes with the times. It can even be therapeutic for people in times of need.

Rebekah Funk from: North Allegheny - posted: October 27, 2015

Being the daughter of two music teachers, the importance of music education is heavily stressed in my family. I started piano around age 5, followed by the violin, followed by my membership in Children's Festival Chorus. Through CFC I was able to experience music through my body movements in eurhythmics class. CFC not only improved my musical abilities, I learned what it meant to be a performer: the discipline needed to sing at Carnegie Hall, the patience needed when the symphony is rehearsing behind you. Today, I continue to develop my musicianship and character through Jr. Mendelssohn of Pittsburgh. Over the years of my music education, I have been granted so many incredible performance opportunities, met world- renowned musicians, and have become a better person. Although I do not plan to pursue a musical career, music will forever be in my life, and I am most grateful for all music has provided me thus far.

Rani Pietrzyk from: North Allegheny - posted: October 29, 2015
Not only is music awesome and fun to listen to, but it helps to make a person a well rounded individual.

Margot Jezerc from: North Allegheny - posted: October 30, 2015
I've never taken a serious music ed class, this is my first one. I wish I had taken one sooner, because I've never wanted to actually do the work for an elective before thsi. It's great.

Regina Munsch from: North Allegheny - posted: October 30, 2015

For well over half of each school day, I constantly utilize the left side of my brain. Equations and problem solving and programming is great, but I could never give up those precious minutes each morning that I get to spend with my instrument. I want music to remain as my stress reliever and emotion feeder, forever.

Julie Choe from: North Allegheny - posted: October 30, 2015
I think that this article really speaks for me. Through my musical journey, I have become the person I am today and have learned so many life lessons from all of my musical experiences.

Casey Hoel from: North Allegheny - posted: November 4, 2015
Music education for me was a way to sit down everyday and develop my creativity and explore all types of music. Without it I wouldn't be making the music I do today.