CCSD93 Band Program

Research

Music Education and Brain Development

• Music training in childhood “fundamentally alters the nervous system such that neural changes persist in adulthood after auditory training has ceased.” (2012)

Music Education and Math/Spatial Reasoning

• The combined results of 12 experimental studies indicate a positive relationship between voluntary music study and math achievement. (2000)

• Multiple studies (2000) (1999) (1999) (1998) indicate that early music instruction is linked to significant improvements in students’ spatial reasoning abilities.

Music Education and Reading/Verbal Skills

• The combined results of 30 studies indicate that music instruction is linked to significantly improved reading skills. (2008)

• Researchers have found a correlation between three or more years of instrumental music training and enhanced auditory discrimination, fine motor skills, vocabulary, and nonverbal reasoning.( 2008)

• Playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem’s sensitivity to speech sounds.  This relates to encoding skills involved with both music and language  (2007).

• Children with music training had significantly better verbal memory than those without such training, and the longer the training, the better the verbal memory (2003)

• Adults who had trained on a Western musical instrument for at least six years before age 12 had significantly better verbal memories, as demonstrated by a word recall list, than those without any musical training. (1998)

Music Education and Academic Achievement

• On the 2012 SAT, students who participated in music scored an average of 31 points above average in reading, 23 points above average in math, and 31 points above average in writing. (2012) (See table 18.)

• Students in high-quality school music programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the school or school district. (2007)

• After assigning 144 children to keyboard lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, or no lessons, researchers found that children in the music groups exhibited greater increases on an IQ test than students in the drama lessons or those without lessons. (2004)

• An analysis of data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 demonstrated a significant correlation between participation in school music groups and achievement in math and English. (2002)

Music Education and Social and Emotional Development (2021)

• Self-Awareness

• Compared to other students, those with high arts engagement, including music, exhibit higher levels of self-concept in how they value themselves, their abilities, and their achievements. Specifically, active music education experiences seem to be correlated with measures of efficacy.

• Self-Management

• Success in music depends on exercising perseverance, as evidenced by the ability to self-monitor one’s progress and delay gratification in the pursuit of mastery. Regular and sustained practice leads to increased abilities in performance skills and self-evaluation. These become impetus for further practice.

• Social Awareness

• Cooperative music making experiences which occur in group settings can positively impact participating students’ proclivity for empathetic thinking and behavior

• Relationship Skills

• Music classes incorporate community-advancing activities which provide students with “opportunities to express themselves, interact in novel ways, and work collectively, practicing and developing interpersonal skills such as collaboration, communication, and conflict resolution.

• Self-Esteem (2004)

• Costa-Giomi (2004) investigated the effects of three years of piano instruction on children’s self-esteem. Children in the study were divided into two groups: piano instruction weekly for three years, and no music instruction. Both groups had similar levels of self-esteem at the beginning of the study. The researcher found that the children who completed three years of piano instruction had a significant increase in self-esteem while the children who did not participate in piano instruction or dropped out of piano instruction did not.

• Social Capital (2002)

• Students who participate in music groups score significantly higher than their peers on measures of social capital including talking more with parents and teachers.