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If you are parent that likes to plan ahead for your student, then have we got some info for you! Even if you aren't thinking about life after high-school yet, that's okay, take a look at all the benefits taking music has to offer on top of just being a fun activity to be involved with.
Given all the fanfare students face when presented with choices on which courses to take in order to present themselves in the most favorable light for college admissions, music can be a pivotal contributor:
1. The College Board, the administrator of the SAT Test, identifies the arts (including music) as one of the 6 areas that students should study in order to succeed in college.
2. University admissions officers clearly state that students who participate in arts classes continually through high school have an advantage over students who do not when applying for high-end schools.
3. During the admissions process, colleges and universities look for students who “stand out” and who have something to offer to the campus. Music students who have played for at least 3 years in high school ensembles are automatically placed in this category (assuming they have met all other university entrance requirements).
4. Continuous enrollment in music is valued by colleges and universities much more highly than extra years of foreign language classes. Students having to choose between music and extra language classes at the Junior High level should ALWAYS choose music, according to admissions officers of several universities. Language requirements can be met in high school (or even through a local junior college) along with music classes.
5. Playing an instrument well can help a student get into a university if the student is willing to play in the university’s ensembles. The student does not have to be a music major to take advantage of this. All universities have to have enough musicians on each instrument to feature high-level performing groups. University band and orchestra directors will find a way for a talented student/musician to get into a school, and even get some scholarship money.
6. Having music on a student’s transcript all through high school shows that a student has developed skills in group work, multi-tasking, spatial reasoning, mathematics, leadership, community spirit, and many other areas. Universities seek students who do not "jump around" because they want you to stay enrolled at their university, not quit after a year or two. These types of skills cannot be found all together in any other class.
Sources: NAfME-National Association for Music Education “Why Music Education?” 2007 and School Music Matters
“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation’s purpose – and is a test to the quality of a nation’s civilization.”
“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation’s purpose – and is a test to the quality of a nation’s civilization.”
–John F. Kennedy
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
“Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them – a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.”
“Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them – a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.”
– Gerald Ford
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”
- Plato
"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."
"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."
"Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable."
"Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable."
-Leonard Bernstein
Why Music?
Music is a science,
Music is mathematical,
Music is a foreign language,
Music is history,
Music is physical education,
Music develops insight and demands research,
Music is all of these things, but most of all...
Music is Art.
That is why we teach music:
Not because we expect you to major in music,
Not because we expect you play all your life,
But so you will experience more humanity,
So you will learn to recognize and create beauty,
So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world,
So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good,
In short… more life.
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