Research studies from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and around the world have proven what we know from anecdotal experience – music makes kids smarter. Watch these short videos about the long-term benefits of music education.
Why Music Education is Important to Parents
Bandology asked parents why music education is important. Check us out at: https://bandology.ca https://www.facebook.com/BandologyCA https://www.instagram.com/bandologyca/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/bandologyca https://twitter.com/BandologyCA
Benefits of Music Education - Research from Bandology
Every week, Bandology provides the latest in music education research on our social media pages, research which proves that music makes kids smarter. In this video, staff member Jasmin Anthonypillai shares an overview of some research statistics. For more research information, go to bandology.ca/research.
Why Music Matters to Kids
Kids at our Band Camps discuss why music and music education matters to them.
The more kids play and perform, the more they are able to absorb the myriad of benefits, including transferable skills like self-confidence, focus, collaboration, leadership, time management, organization and more; more likely to get good grades, be on the honour roll, get accepted to university, be offered scholarships; be more well-rounded and attractive to employers both now and in the future.
Fine more information on the benefits of music education below.
Higher academic performance is correlated with music education. Better scores being reached, letter grades increasing and entire school performance results jumping when music education programming is implemented. Music education is also correlated with postsecondary success, and improved reading skills.
Academic Success
Average final exam grades across Grade 11/12 English, Grade 10 Math and Science were 4% higher for music students compared to non music student scores. Standardized test scores of students enrolled in a music program were an average 10.7 points higher compared to those not enrolled. Students in grades 4-8 enrolled in the program showed ‘differences that correspond with approximately one-quarter and one third of a letter grade respectively’ (English Language Arts and math). School’s with music programs deemed ‘excellent’ had 22% better English scores and 20% math scores compared with schools with less quality programming.
Post-Secondary Success
Music education is correlated with higher chances to apply, attend, and earn a 4 year degree at a young age are associated with participating in music education. For attending college and earning a degree at a young age, every additional year increased these chances. Arts students were 29% more likely to apply for college than non arts students. Music students were 55% more likely to attend any postsecondary school and each extra year of music education went with an 18% increase of attendance. Music students were also 29% more likely to earn a 4 year degree between 24-32 and each extra year of music education went with a 12% increase of earning one.
Reading Skills
Stronger reading and prereading skills have been found to correlate with music education. Vocabulary scores increased by almost 15% more for students taking piano lessons than non music students. Word identification scores of kindergarten age children increased on average 4 times more after regular music sessions compared to the control group of children not taking regular music lessons. The average reading comprehension scores of 6-9 year old’s with 2.7 years of music training were 5% higher than the highest average score (90-110) on formal reading comprehension tests. Correlation exists between music education and improved reading skills.
Correlation exists between music education and higher emotional intelligence and empathy, both indications of enhanced social skills.
Sympathy: For initially low scoring students, those who received 10 months of group music education scored 10% higher on tests of sympathy and 12% higher on tests of general prosocial skills compared to non-music students.
Emotional intelligence: Students enrolled in a music specialized school scored on average 4% higher than students enrolled in general education on tests of general emotional intelligence and 9% higher than non-music students on tests of empathy.
Better mental wellbeing is correlated with music education. Greater feelings of optimism and self confidence are associated with being involved in music education, lower stress levels are associated with listening to music, and lower depression and anxiety scores are associated with the implementation of music therapy treatments alongside pharmacological treatment. Stress levels were 46% percent lower during tests for students listening to ‘pleasant music’ compared to those listening to ‘unpleasant’ or indifferent music. Pleasant music listening was found to be correlated with lower stress levels and improved academic performance. Heart rates (representing stress and anxiety) decreased by 5% while listening to classical music. Lower stress levels and listening to classical music are correlated. After music therapy sessions alongside pharmacological treatment, anxiety scores lowered significantly by almost 67% and depression scores lowered by 57%.
Stronger verbal skills are correlated with music education. Better motor skills are correlated with music education.
Verbal Skills
When music education is implemented and prolonged in life, there are higher increases in verbal retention and verbal IQ scores for music students compared to non music students, and significant jumps in verbal sequencing ability. Research shows a 22% increase in verbal sequencing skills after 3 years of piano, an 11% increase in verbal retention compared to discontinued music students after 1 year of continued musical training and a 9% increase in verbal IQ for music students enrolled in school music programming compared to non music students following 2 and a half years.
Motor Skills
More music kids are high performing in bimanual dexterity and coordination tests compared to both kids with sports training and no training. For college students, pianists have higher bimanual reaction times than those with no musical training, 12% more kids were high performing in bimanual and dexterity tests with music training compared to sports training and 20% more kids were high performing in bimanual and dexterity tests with music training compared to no training. In addition to this, bimanual reaction time was 8% faster in music students compared to non music students.
Transferable Skills
The development of important transferable skills in a child is correlated with music education. Better social and communication skills, self-confidence, as well as teamwork and cooperation all have been shown to be associated with increased music education.
In a self reporting study, 55% of music students reported social skill development and 26% of music students reported teamwork development. In addition to this, 32% of music students reported an increase in self confidence and 14% reported increased cooperation skills.
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