Twelve Benefits of Music Education
Music education helps children develop language, reasoning, creativity, discipline, confidence, teamwork, and many other abilities that can benefit them throughout their lives.
Learning music offers children much more than the ability to sing or play an instrument. Musical study supports intellectual, emotional, creative, and social development.
Here are twelve important ways music education can benefit young people.
Language and Reasoning
Early exposure to music education helps develop areas of the brain involved in language and reasoning. Brain development continues for many years after birth, and musical training can help develop the part of the brain involved in processing language.
Connecting familiar songs with new information can also help children understand and remember what they are learning.
Spatial Intelligence
Music education has been associated with spatial intelligence—the ability to perceive the world accurately and form mental pictures of objects and relationships.
This kind of thinking is important for activities ranging from solving advanced mathematics problems to organizing everything needed for the school day.
Creative Thinking
Students who study the arts learn to think creatively and solve problems by imagining different possibilities. They learn to question outdated assumptions and understand that many problems may have more than one correct solution.
Academic Success
Studies have shown that students who participate in the arts are often more successful on standardized tests and achieve higher grades in school.
Cultural Understanding
Studying music gives children an opportunity to experience different cultures and develop empathy for the people within those cultures.
This appreciation can help bridge cultural differences and encourage respect for people of different backgrounds from an early age.
Craftsmanship and High Standards
Music students learn how individual details must be carefully assembled to create an excellent performance. They discover the difference between mediocre work and work completed with care.
Applying these standards to their own work encourages students to reach for a higher level of achievement.
Sustained Effort
In music, an instrument is either in tune or it is not. Notes are played correctly or incorrectly, and an entrance is made at the proper time or it is missed.
Successful performances require practice and sustained effort. Through music study, students experience the concrete rewards that come from perseverance and hard work.
Teamwork and Discipline
For an orchestra, band, choir, or other ensemble to perform successfully, every musician must work cooperatively toward a shared goal.
Students must commit to learning their music, practicing, attending rehearsals, listening to one another, and following the director.
Self-Expression
Music gives children an important way to communicate their thoughts and feelings. This opportunity for self-expression can help children better understand themselves and develop confidence and self-esteem.
Workplace Skills
Music education focuses on active participation rather than passive observation. Students learn how to prepare, communicate, cooperate, meet deadlines, and perform under pressure.
These skills help prepare young people to become flexible, creative, and dependable adults in the workplace.
Conquering Fear and Taking Risks
Musical performances teach young people how to manage anxiety, take appropriate risks, and perform in front of others.
Experiencing and overcoming nervousness at an early age can help make similar challenges easier to manage later in life.
Exposure to the Incomparable
Music education gives children access to beauty, creativity, and meaningful experiences that cannot always be measured by test scores or academic results.
Music and the arts are not valuable only because they improve other skills. They are also an important and irreplaceable part of a complete education.
Music Education Belongs in Every School
Music helps children become more creative, confident, disciplined, and cooperative. It provides opportunities for personal expression while teaching students how to work toward a shared goal.
Every child deserves access to a balanced education that includes meaningful and sustained musical instruction.
About the author: Carolyn Phillips is the author of “Twelve Benefits of Music Education” and the former executive director of the Norwalk Youth Symphony in Connecticut.
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