The Importance

of Music
Education

Objectives
Benefits of Music
Education
Music Education
Advocacy
What Parents can
do to Encourage
their Children in
Music

How Music
Connects with
Core Subject
Areas-Research
and Ideas that
are used in the
Music Lessons
Elementary
Music Education

IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC EDUCATION

Music Education Helps Develop:
Hand-Eye Coordination
Memory Skills
Concentration
Problem Solving Skills
Teamwork
Self-Confidence/Self Esteem
Standards of Excellence
Time Management Skills

4 Categories of Benefits for Music

Education
1.
2.
3.
4.

Success in Society
Success in School
Success in Developing Intelligence
Success in Life

1. Success in Society
Every human culture uses
music to communicate
ideas and ideals
The arts are identified as
one of the six basic
academic subject areas
students should study to
succeed in college
Academic Preparation for
College: What Students
Need to Know and Be Able
to Do, 1983 [still in use],
The College Board, New
York

The arts create jobs,

increase local tax base,
spur growth in businesses
(hotels, restaurants), and
improve the quality of life
for our cities and towns
American Arts Alliance
Fact Sheet, October 1996

2. Success in School

Students with music performance

or appreciation experience scored
higher on the SAT than those not
involved. How much higher?
53 points higher on verbal and
39 points higher on math for
those involved in music
performance
61 points higher on the verbal
and 42 points higher on the
math for those involved in
music appreciation

1999 College-Bound Seniors

National Report: Profile of
SAT Program Test Takers,
The College Entrance
Examination Board, Princeton,
New Jersey

Students
participating in arts
programs in
selected elementary
and middle schools
in New York City
showed significant
increases in selfesteem and thinking
skills
National Arts
Education
Research
Center, New
York
University,
1990

3. Success in Developing
Intelligence-Research Results
Music training is
superior to computer
instruction in
enhancing childrens
abstract reasoning
skills, those necessary
for learning math and
science
Shaw, Rauscher,
Levine, Wright,
Dennis, and
Newcomb

Two Rhode Island schools

gave an enriched,
sequential, skill-building
music program which
showed marked
improvements in reading
and math skills. Students
in this program who had
started out behind the
control group caught up to
statistical equality in
reading, and pulled ahead in
math
Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey,
and Knowles

Success in Developing IntelligenceResearch Results Continued

A study at the University of
California (Irvine) showed
that after eight months of
keyboard lessons,
preschoolers showed a
46% boost in their spatial
reasoning IQ
Rauscher, Shaw,
Levine, Ky, and
Wright

Children given piano lessons

significantly improved in their
spatial-temporal IQ scores
(important for some types of
math reasoning) compared to
children who received computer
lessons, casual singing, or no
lessons
Rauscher, F.H., Shaw,
G.L., Levine, L.J., Wright,
E.L., Dennis, W.R., and
Newcomb, R.

Success in Developing IntelligenceResearch Results Continued

An Auburn University study

found significant increases in
overall self-concept of at-risk
children participating in an
arts program that included
music, movement, dramatics,
and art, as measured by the
Piers-Harris Childrens SelfConcept Scale
N.H. Barry,
Project ARISE:
Meeting the needs
of disadvantaged
students through
the arts

A study at McGill University

found that pattern recognition
and mental representation
scores improved significantly for
students given piano instruction
over a three-year period. They
also found that self-esteem and
musical skills measures improved
for those students
Costa-Giomi, E.

4. Success in Life
Opens doors that help
children transition
from school into the
world around themworld of work, culture,
intellectual activity,
and human involvement
Gerald Ford, former

President, United
States of America

By studying music in school,

students have the
opportunity to build on
skills such as
communication, creativity,
and cooperation. They
enrich their lives by
building on these skills and
seeing the world from
different perspectives
Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.,

Leading Heart Surgeon,

Baylor College of Music.

What Can Parents Do?

Listen to music with your child from little on up-nursery rhymes, folk
songs, childrens songs
Sing and play music with your child
Go to concerts or watch concerts on television
Encourage your child to participate in musical activities at school,
church, and home
Listen and show enthusiasm for your childs musical achievements
Attend your childs school/church music programs
Be active in your childs everyday life
Engage in musical activities with your child on the internet. There are
many interactive sites

How Music Connects to the

Core Subject Areas
Research & Ideas Used in
Music Lessons

Music and Math

Spatial/temporal relationships in music exist as
pitch and rhythm patterns
The cognitive skills used to process music are
used in math as well
When singing on pitch: Do is less than re,
and re is less than mi. As students develop
these skills, it can help students understand math
concepts such as number lines
Gardiner, 1996

Music and Math

2nd and 3rd graders were taught
fractions using concept of rhythmic
notation-relationships between
different note values
Peers received traditional fraction instruction
Students taught fractions using music concept
scored 100% higher on fractions tests than
those who learned using the traditional
method
Rauscher, 1999

Music and Math

Students use addition Musical notationand subtraction skills
notes and rhythmswhen working with
are sets of graphs
measures and beatsex: Creating and/or
completing measures
using quarter, half,
eighth notes and their
respective number of
counts.

Music and Science

Science and Sound
Experiments on sound waves and vibrations-using
a rubber band plucked between two fingers to
show vibration.
See salt move on a surface when sound is made:
Put plastic tightly over a coffee can and secure
with a rubber band. Place salt on the plastic. Tap
a smaller can with a ruler to see the salt move.
The salt moves because the plastic is vibrating due
to the sound waves hitting it!

Music and Science

Instruments and Science

Size and Pitch:

Large instruments have low sounds
Small instruments have high sounds
Using Boomwhackers (plastic tubes that
are pitched to certain notes), you can build
a pyramid to visually show the students
that to support the pyramid, the large tube
must be on the bottom (and it makes the
lowest sound). The smallest tube must be
on the top of the pyramid (it makes the
highest sound)

Music and Science

Other interesting ideas:
Glasses filled with different amounts of waterhave the students put them in order from the
lowest to the highest (the lowest will be the one
with the least amount of water; the highest will be
the one with the most water-the instrument is
actually the air column created by the space not
filled up with water: smaller air space = more
water = higher sound larger air space = less
water = lower sound
There are numerous songs and movement
activities that have a science focus to them.
The opportunities to connect music to science are
ENDLESS!!!

Music and..

Music and Social Studies

Happens often when
teaching/learning
songs about:

Countries
Continents
States
Game songs from
other cultures
Folk dances from
around the world

While learning these

songs, we also learn:
Games
Dances
Instruments-both
American and foreign
Rhythms
Songs in native
languages
History of American
music and world music

Music and..

Music and Reading

Both music and
reading rely on the
discrimination of
sounds from each
other
When learning to
read, we learn how to
relate letters to their
spoken sounds

Phonemic stage of
learning to read is
promoted by good
pitch discrimination
skills (learning
association between
visual parts of words
and their spoken
sounds)

Music and Reading Research

Experimental group received Kodaly training
five days per week for 40 minutes during a
seven-month period
Control group received no special music
training
Experimental groups reading scores were
significantly higher (88th percentile) than the
control groups (72nd percentile)
Hurwitz, Wolff, Bortnick, and Kokas

Endless Possibilities!!!
Music is constantly connected to the core
subjects of education
By its nature, music education naturally
addresses all subject areas!

Music Is
Science~it is exact, specific, and demands
acoustics. Music scores are graphs which indicate
frequencies, volume changes, melody, harmony,
and intensities all at once with exact control of
time
Mathematical~it is rhythmically based on
subdivisions of time into fractions
Foreign Language~terms are often in Italian,
German, or French. Notation is a set of
symbols used to represent ideas that everyone,
regardless of language can understand

Music Is..
History~ reflects the times, country, and
origin of its creation
Physical Education~ coordination of
eyes, hands, fingers, lips, voice, facial, and
diaphragm muscles in response to the
sounds heard and interpreted
Art~ Use all of the technical aspects of
music to create emotion and beauty

Resources
Arts Improve Reading and Math. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2002 from
http://www.bcmusiccoalition.org/resources/artsimprovereadmath.html
Campbell, D. (1996). Introduction to the Musical Brain. Saint Louis: MMB Music,
Inc.

Campbell, D. (2001). The Mozart Effect. New York: HarperCollins Publishers

Campbell, D. (2000). The Mozart Effect for Children. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers
Henriksson, L. Why Arts Education Matters. Retrieved February 2, 2002, from
http://www.bcmusiccoalition.org/resources/whyartsedmatters.html

Resources cont.
Hopkins, G. (1999, March 15). Making the Case for Music Education. Education
World. Retrieved December 1, 2001, from
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr123.shtml
Music and Your Child. (n.d.). Retrieved February 17, 2002 from
http://www.coalitionformusiced.ca/yourchild.htm
Music and Literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2002 from
http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/divdept/music/Literacy.htm
Music Education Facts and Figures. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2002 from
http://www.menc.org/information/advocate/facts.html

Resources cont.
Weinberger, N. (n.d.). Music and the Brain. Retrieved February 16, 2002 from
http://www.bcmusiccoalition.org/resources/musicbrain.html
Weinberger, N. (1994). Music and Cognitive Achievement in Children. MuSICA
Research Notes, V1, I2. Retrieved April 28, 2002 from MuSICA Research notes
database.
Why Music? (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2002 from
http://www.musiceducationonline.org/links/why.html

Why Music Matters (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2002 from

http://www.bcmusiccoalition.org/resources/why_mus_matters.html