The Importance Of Music Education

Oliver Bishop

10 December 2015

Importance Of  Music Education

    Music education a cornerstone to a well rounded education. Having the opportunity to access a music education is what keeps some students from dropping out and helps those students excel in other subjects.  This story is in no way unique, in fact thousands of other kids across the United States have the same story.  Unfortunately over the past decade the amount of money that school music programs are reviving has diminished.  More and more money is going into core classes such as english and math, however, the overall benefit when taking finances from one program to boost another is far less than the initial gain for both programs. Schools should prioritize music education and allocate state funding because it prevents students from dropping out and increases student success in other areas like academics and communication.

       Music education is being cut across the nation because schools are putting more funding into core academics and sports by taking money away from music programs. This is not beneficial, participating in musical ensemble or sports team both affect students in a positive way.  Rocco Landesman, a chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, strongly believes that “when a school delivers the complete education to which every child is entitled - an education that very much includes the arts - the whole child blossoms” (Judson 1). This idea is similar to those of the ancient athens, a well rounded education increases success in all areas.  Part of the reason music education is being cut yearly is to be able to put more funds into math, english and science.   Participating on a sports team like soccer or football is costly for each individual player thus creating an opportunity only for students belonging to wealthy families.  However, music programs are free to the participant more times than not, and most music programs have instruments that they loan out to students. This creates an equal opportunity for students regardless of the socioeconomic background.  The College Entrance Examination Board tracked more than 25,000 middle and high school students for 10 years and concluded that, “music-making students get higher marks on standardized tests than those who have little or no music involvement” on average, non musicians scored 63 points lower on the verbal and 44 points lower on the math sections of the SATs than students with music classes or private music lessons (Judson). Music, unlike many core classes, are beneficial for other subjects because of the effect it has on the student's brain.  The U.S. Department of Education did a study and the data showed that students involved in music grades 5-12 demonstrated significantly higher levels of math proficiency by grade 12 (Judson). The students that participated in this study were then discovered to be twice as likely to perform at the highest level of math than their peers.  The U.S.D.O.E. also did a study on second graders,  stating that the students “who received piano instruction for 25 minutes [a] week”  scored “27% higher on questions devoted to proportional math” and 15% higher overall in comparison to the students who did not receive music lessons (Judson).  Clearly the studies shown here prove that music education does not just aid individuals in the subject of music, but helps pupils excel in other subjects as well.  

      Being a musician is tied to other positive effects. Musicians have an advanced ability to critically think and recognize subtle changes in sound and written language. Timing, and the auditory system are used simultaneously with language development. Music is timing. Being aware of the amount space that any given time will need,  “the actual precision of timing in the auditory system determines what words we actually hear” the differences between the words acoustically helps students read and write these words better (“Music”).  With scalp electrodes it is possible to hear and see brain waves.  Using this technology, researchers decode these brainwaves into component parts, to better understand how kids process music and speech.  Researchers can use this technology to understand music and speech because the two are not that different. Music and speech have three common denominators, pitch, timing and timbre. The brain uses the same circuitry to make sense of all that information. Learning to play an instrument strengthens the brain's ability to capture the depth and richness of speech —consonants, tone and pitch— “consonants and vowels become cleaner, and the brain can make sense of them more quickly” (Turner). The pitch and timbre of the consonant “ha” varies from the consonant “ba”, when a child has been given music training the brain can micro analyzer these small changes faster and more efficiently than non-musicians. People who take music lesson do not just get better at whatever given instrument they are learning “it also helps their ear for speech” as they practice they learn to analyze the style they are play (Turner).  Similarly, when a student is practicing a speech they need to present in front of class they must learn be aware on how to emphasize certain words or phrases to come across the way they want to.

The  heat maps displayed above are a visual representation of brainwaves, showing how much music lessons improved kids' neurological distinction of consonants.  The more red there is in the graphic the the more active the neurons are in the brain (Turner).

    Music affects students behavior, more specifically music affects behavior in a classroom setting, how they learn and how their behavior affects their education. Mozart makes you smarter, “The ‘Mozart Effect’ was born, and diverse scholarly investigations about music” professional testimonials support the idea that music education affects students on every academic level(Carteral). In a classroom music stimulates the brain in ways  that helps establish

“a positive learning state, create a desired, atmosphere, build a sense of anticipation, energize learning activities, change brain wave states, focus concentration, increase attention, improve memory, facilitate a multisensory learning experience, release tension, enhance imagination, align groups, develop rapport, and... provide motivation". (Brewer)

this is the broad area of skills that music education helps advance and strengthen. When music changes the brain wave state it changes how focused a student can get, along with the type of focus they are able to achieve.  Music can also be used to help students remember learning experiences,  "the creation of music expresses inner thoughts and feelings and develops the musical intelligence through understanding of rhythm” (Brewer).  When students write songs related to social studies topics and ideas brought up in literature they express how they feel thus creating what is called a hook recall. Sometimes, students create “‘soundtracks’ with simple rhythm instruments that auditorily portrays a particular important scientific discovery, a poignant historical event, or the action within a novel” (Brewer).  Having a soundtrack associated with an event increases the interest and activates the information mentally and emotionally when the soundtrack is heard. Background music can create a hyper state of focus regardless of the materials being learned while listening to the music.  Teachers use background music to stimulate processing and facilitate creativity. students that listen to music have the ability to focus for longer periods of times in comparison to their peers who do not, this is known as classical conditioning. an example of classical conditioning is when

"music provides a positive environment that enhances student interaction and helps develop a sense of community and cooperation...Selecting and playing a classroom theme song, developing a classroom "ritual"---such as a good-bye or hello time that uses music, or other group activities with music are ways to build lasting community experiences".  (Brewer)

If a student is immediately greeted with a song that their body and mind associates with a positive connotation then it can instantly change their mood and make their brain ready to learn.  This can take a child that came from a good state and bring another child with a low emotional state to the same emotional level creating an equal opportunity learning environment. When children sing a goodbye song the brain now takes it as a relief and the brain has been given the que that it no longer has to work, this gives children the ability to work when they need to and have fun when it is time, without confusing the two.

    Standardized testing like the CASHE, SAT and the ACT  make students put a lot of pressure on themselves to spend time on studding for those test, “testing has required schools to spend more money and class time on core subjects, leaving less of both for band and other arts” (DeWitt).  These tests pressure teachers to make sure they prepare their students to do well, which pressures administration and the school board to allocate money to core classes. Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas published a study revealing 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".  (Brown)

if students get some form of music education they benefit academically. The better funded and more advanced music programs are, the better the students do in other areas.  The same logic applies when the programs do not receive as much funding. If the music program is not as good, the students do not do as well as their peers with superior programs, however, they still perform better than nonmusicians.  Colleges above a JC level requires students to take standardized tests in order to determine eligibility.  For some students getting a high enough score can come down to 10 or 20 points to get into a 4 year college, and a music education can make that difference. The SAT and other standardized tests put a lot of pressure on the students.  The ability to focusing under high levels of stress or with hand fulls of distractions is imperative to success. “Musicians can better detect meaningful, information-bearing elements in sounds, for example the emotional meaning in a baby’s cry. Students who practice music can have better auditory attention, and pick out predictable patterns from surrounding noise” (Nuss).  Because of the high level of critical thinking that musicians have, test taking skills rise in comparison to non musicians. Being able to hear subtle changes in words and syllables is also another skill that comes from a music education this can be applied to many aspects of life like learning a new language.  The earlier the student starts musical training the more they benefit, early training “will develop the areas of the brain related to language and reasoning” (Nuss). Music helps people with their memorization skills. For example, visually, audibly and with muscle memory. The earlier that a student starts with music the more time the brain has to build itself.  Kids who study the arts can take giant steps in exploration of the relationship between space and timing. “This kind of education can help them solve problems by thinking outside the box and realizing that there may be more than one right answer“ (Nuss). Music could help open the mind to these concepts by making problem solving easier, and handing people with a music background an extra edge that non musicians do not have.  

    Government cut backs in the United States have been felt by all walks of life and all occupations.  Unfortunately in schools the group that has felt this the most is the arts programs.  Sports and art programs are the very things that keep kids motivated to succeed in school and prevent them from dropping out.  many high school graduates can attest that sports or music is what kept them from dropping out of school “Band gives indifferent students a reason to stay in school” (DeWitt). Science and math start at an elementary school level and it is proven to be successful as the ages progress.  Land locked states often start music education at a younger age than coastal states.  These students are successful musically, thus are more successful in science and math. The two subjects all inter tie with each other. Programs that are most popular get more funding, “the amount of money bands receives also depends on the principals and whether they want to allocate more than the county distributes for music” football is almost always favored over marching band when it comes to funding (Crouch).  The better a student is at science and math the more likely they will be to be good at playing an instrument. As funding gets cut the less people join the program because they are not as fun to participate in.  This is comparable to playing soccer with a volleyball, it just is not the same.

“Statistics from around the region and state show no definite drop-off in band participation. In Hernando, on the other hand, enrollment in band classes dropped from 882 in 2010-11 school year, to a low of 767 two years later — figures that do not include the additional losses that came with cutting band at Nature Coast” (DeWitt).

 The number drop that Hernando has experienced is nation wide even if the state tries to say other wise. Neighboring school Sonora High School Went for a 300 person band in 2004 to a 80 person band in 2015. Summerville high has gone from 180 participants to 35 in 2015. People quit band for many reasons but a big factor in local bands here is broken equipment sometimes students do not have instruments to play so they quit. or people will quit because they have to start paying out of pocket.

       This information makes it clear how important music is in schools and how important it is to have the access to a musical program. School funding for music programs opens doors for students who are not interested in sports.  If schools do not have music programs more students would be acclimated to drop out because they would not have the motivation to stay. When schools do not have music programs students may not figure out the amount of potential that they have to be a successful adult. Clearly this is why music programs should always be a prominent part of education.

Sources

Brewer, Chris Boyd. "Music and Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom." N.p., n.d. Web.   

           15 Oct. 2015.

Brown, Laura Lewis. "The Benefits of Music Education." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Carterall, James. "The Consequences of Curtailing Music Education." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 08

         Oct. 2015.

Crouch, Lori. "Bands Battling For Money Budgets Are Same While Costs Escalate."

   Digital-sun sentinel. Sun Sentinel, 13 Apr. 1987. Web. 10 Sept. 2015.

DeWitt, Dan. "High School Band Programs in Hernando Struggle to Keep the Music Going."

         N.p., 6 Nov. 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

Judson, Ellen. "The Importance of Music." Music Empowers Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 01

         Oct. 2015.

“Music and the Brain.” Music and the brain. N.P., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

Nuss, Kristian Rencher. "20 Important Benefits of Music In Our Schools."National Association

          for Music Education NAfME 20 Important Benefits of Music In Our Schools Comments.

N.p.,  n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.

Turner, Corry. "This Is Your Brain. This Is Your Brain On Music." NPR. NPR, 10 Sept. 2014.        

          Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

Summerville Drumline

In 2014 I began building the Drumline at Summerville High school 

Calaveras Honor band

three summerville high school students participating in bi county honor band