The Benefits of Music Education
It might seem like the holiday concert at your local elementary school is the goal of music education. Friends and family, undoubtedly, enjoy listening to the chorus and band play the festive holiday tunes. However, there are many benefits of music education that go beyond the public school music education shows and help make individual children better students.
The Impact on Languages
Many people find it easier to remember words and sound when they are set to a tune. Many music students will find that they can easily remember words even if they are in a foreign language. For example, many choruses sing songs in both ancient and modern language such as Italian, Latin and Hebrew during the annual holiday concert.
Of course, a few songs in a foreign language will not make the student fluent in the foreign language. However, it will make them more aware of similarities between the languages and make it easier for them to pick up the different sounds made in different languages.
The Impact on Math and Science
While many students look forward to music class for the pure enjoyment of it, they remain unaware that their music teachers have developed music education lesson plans that actually help students improve their math and science skills.
As early as elementary school, many music educators teach students how to read music. The ability to read music is not only helpful in music class but also in math class. Students learn to count and to multiply and divide when they learn about half notes, full notes, quarter notes and musical times. Instruction in different tempos also helps students learn about rhythm.
Similarly, science skills are developed when students begin to learn about why different instruments make different sounds. They also learn to hypothesize about what notes or instruments might sound good together and this will help them learn to make educated hypotheses in later science experiments.
The math and science skills remain important beyond early childhood music education. High school students continue to develop their math and science skills by enrolling in music classes.
The Impact on History
Music has played an important part in almost every society for as far back as history has been recorded. Music students may learn about the style of church music in medieval times. They may learn traditional hymns or nursery rhymes from other countries. They may learn the music from plays or movies. All of these things teach students about the history of the time and place when the music was popular. They may learn about the culture of the time through popular dance moves and operas. Music has proven to be a very productive way for many students to learn about different cultures and historical events.
Socialization
In addition to the many academic benefits of music education, students learn very important social skills in music class. Students need to learn to work together and to follow each others cues as they learn to sing a song for chorus or play a song in the band. They also need to learn to watch and interpret the music teachers nonverbal cues about when to stop, start, slow down or speed up the music. These social skills will help them ready other peoples important nonverbal body language as they get older.
Music Therapy
Music therapy has proven to be very successful for students with disabilities. Music can help children work on physical, emotional or social needs. It gives many children with disabilities a way to communicate and to express their thoughts that might otherwise go unexpressed. It proves to be a stress reliever and a way to manage emotions for children with emotional disabilities who may tend to lose control and need to refocus themselves.
For all children, music education is an important part of their overall education. Whether students join in a mandatory music class or take part in extracurricular activities such as chorus, band or performing arts, they are learning to work together and to develop skills that will help them both academically and socially as they complete their education and move into the work force. For these reasons, many public schools understand the benefits of music education and keep music education as a part of their core curriculum.
