Every child deserves access to a high quality arts education, one that includes the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument.  Your child's desire to learn an instrument by joining the band or orchestra should by and large be the primary reason that he or she decides to take lessons at school.  There is, however, a plethora of benefits to studying a musical instrument that exist across a wide spectrum.  

Playing an instrument is fun - many students derive an intrinsic enjoyment from playing an instrument.  The sheer joy of learning new music and making beautiful sounds is enough for students to return to their lessons week after week.

Playing an instrument builds confidence - every student will encounter challenging concepts when learning how to play.  Overcoming those challenges can boost a student's confidence and self-esteem, which can then carry over to other areas such as academics and sports.

​Playing an instrument opens a door to history and culture - Music is often called the 'universal language', and for good reason.  Every year, students from around the world from are given the chance to learn to play the same kinds of band and orchestra instruments and read the same method of music notation as the students right here in Appoquinimink.  As early as their first year, our students will be exposed to the folk music of different cultures, and the opportunities to explore the music of other times and places only increases as our students continue to develop their skill sets.  

All of the band and string instruments from which students may choose are each part of a long musical lineage.  The violin, for example, was an instrument of choice for the famous classical composers Mozart and Beethoven.  The marimba, a mallet percussion instrument, can be traced back to West Africa.  The flute is arguably the oldest instrument known with ancient instruments being identified at 40,000 years old or more.  

Music and the Brain

Among the best reasons to study a musical instrument, especially at a young age, is the positive impact it has on brain development. An extensive and ever-growing body of research continues to affirm that studying instrumental music is one of the best ways to grow the brain, both figuratively and literally.  Here are but a handful of the many studies linking the study of music to brain development:

• A 2014 study by the Boston Children's hospital reinforced "the working hypothesis that musical training may promote the development and maintenance of certain EF (executive functioning) skills, which could mediate the previously reported links between musical training and enhanced cognitive skills and academic achievement."

• ​A 2005 study by the New York Academy of Sciences found a "significant improvement in fine motor skills" in students who took two years of piano lessons versus those who did not.  

• A 2014 study by Northwestern University found increased ability to process speech and sounds among at-risk children in Log Angeles and Chicago who participated in band or choir classes, citing " that after music training, musically-trained students increased or held steady in measures of language such as hearing sentences in noise and reading."