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Benefits

Music is fun and entertaining, but music education has some well-known, and far reaching benefits such as improved posture, eye hand co-ordination, memory, confidence and self esteem.

Research has also found a 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. These skills come into play in solving multistep problems one would encounter in architecture, engineering, math, art, gaming, and especially working with computers.

The Musical Brain

Researchers studying the brain development of musicians showed larger planum temporale, the area of the brain associated with reading, than those of non-musicians. (Schlaug, G., Jancke, L., Huang, Y., and Steinmetz, H. (1994). In vivo morphometry of interhem ispheric assymetry and connectivity in musicians.)

Musicians had more developed corpus callosum which connects the left and right sides of the brain. This was especially noticable when music training began at an earlier age. (In I. Deliege (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music perception and cognition. Liege, Belgium.)

Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed in his 2007 study of elementary students in music education programs that the children achieved marks in English and Math that were, on average, 20 percent higher compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic differences between the schools or their districts.

Young musicians are simply better at concentration-based tasks and have generally better memory recall even into late adulthood.

But don't believe us!

Look at what else is being said about the impact of music and art:

"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, "Music learning supports all learning. Not that Mozart makes you smarter, but it's a very integrating, stimulating pastime or activity," -Kenneth Guilmartin, cofounder of Music Together

"The arts create jobs, increase the local tax base, boost tourism, spur growth in related businesses (hotels, restaurants, printing, etc.) and improve the overall quality of life for our cities and towns. On a national level, nonprofit arts institutions and organizations generate an estimated $37 billion in economic activity and return $3.4 billion in federal income taxes to the U.S. Treasury each year." -American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet, October 1996

"The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling--training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for life-long attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression."-Ratey John J., MD. A User's Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.

"Music making makes the elderly healthier.... There were significant decreases in anxiety, depression, and loneliness following keyboard lessons. These are factors that are critical in coping with stress, stimulating the immune system, and in improved health. Results also show significant increases in human growth hormones following the same group keyboard lessons. (Human growth hormone is implicated in aches and pains.)"-Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2, 1999

"Music is about communication, creativity, and cooperation, and, by studying music in school, students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives, and experience the world from a newperspective." -Bill Clinton, former President, United States of America

"Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent." -Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry Yale School of Medicine

"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," -Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University