Music Study Benefits
Music is an important and powerful part of our universe, our culture and society — no matter what our ethnic group. It is a biological as well as an aesthetic part of human life.
The many benefits include:
The joy of music making
The opportunity for another form of personal expression (non verbal, etc)
Music can affect mood, state, (can change brain wave activity)
Music study can increase self-confidence
Music can make the learning process easier, aids the learning of language
A significant positive correlation has been shown between music study and increased math, science, reading, history and SAT scores
Music study can help to develop imagination, creative thinking, communication and teamwork skills
Music listening has been shown to increase spatial-temporal reasoning (the kind of reasoning used in higher levels of math and science)
Music training can affect brain growth and organization.
Music utilizes both sides of the brain.
Music gives 0pportunities to
Experience the benefit of hard work and responsibility
Develop perseverance and determination
Develop self-discipline
Experience the value of teamwork
Develop sensory acuity — especially auditory and motor skills
Music is a lifelong, intergenerational, and international language
Use of music can assist children with learning differences.
Music has such a pervasive influence on learning. The value has been proven. There is no educational justification for cutting music programs in schools.
Private lessons have many special benefits. One-to-one undivided attention for 1/2 to an hour every week is a precious experience — one reason why it is so important to select the teacher carefully. It is an opportunity for the child to be treated as a unique, valued person, to have someone who cares about them and can see their progress. Private lessons are also an opportunity to discover and develop one's own learning style. Learning disabilities missed in the school classroom are often more easily discovered in this setting.
Music helps in many different ways
1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. 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.
2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.
3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.
4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.
5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a "me first" attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.
6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student's own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.
7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.
8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.
9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.
10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.
11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.
12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable.
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