Our schools continue to be under pressure to make budget cuts, and the first to feel those cuts are often the music and arts departments. We’ve known for a long time that students who include those subjects in their school schedule will most likely do better and score higher in their other subjects. A brand new study, done by the University of British Columbia in Canada looked at a widely inclusive set of factors over a period of three years, collecting data from over 100,000 students, confirming this in a most definitive and impactful way. Parents and schools need to take note (no pun intended!) and make better budgeting decisions that will benefit our children.
"Comparing the test scores of students who took music classes with those of their peers, the musicians got higher grades in a range of different school subjects. Research like this has been done before, but the current study is much larger, and took into account other factors that may have affected the results. For example, perhaps students who took music classes were encouraged to do so because they already had good grades. Or perhaps students were more or less inclined to study music depending on their socioeconomic background, which could also affect academic scores. The research team corrected for these factors in their data analysis, and they still found a clear effect of music lessons on academic performance."
Furthermore, students who played an instrument in the music program did even better than those who sang, perhaps because playing an instrument is very demanding. The student has to learn to read music notation, develop hand-eye-mind coordination, develop keen listening skills, be willing to engage in team skills while playing in an ensemble, and needs to develop good discipline to practice. That is not to say that those who chose to join a choral group didn’t fare better than their non-music participating classmates, but playing an instrument requires even more involvement than choral studies alone.
What we don’t see in this study, is an explanation for why music makes these students perform better, but the research paper mentions a few possible reasons. Several previous studies link music practice with neurological changes that improves certain brain functions. This could explain how studying music affects memory or planning skills, for example. But the researchers also consider that motivation may also play a role: students who take music lessons see a very tangible result from their practice - they get better - and they likely will apply that to their other work as well. Additionally, the non-competitive team aspect of making music together could strengthen students’ social development, which would also help them in other areas as well.
Whatever the reasons may be, it seems like this is an important factor when making budgeting decisions, and to continue to provide music education in our high schools.
