Ten Benefits of Music Education

1. Early musical  training helps develop brain areas involved in
language and reasoning. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with  processing language, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. The right brain is stimulated to create new songs, visualizations, and thought. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things).

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school. Making Music Makes Us Smarter!

5. A study of the arts provides
children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development is also a look back in history and a stimulant to other academic areas.

6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how “small steps” of a musical form are can be constructed to build a song. The student learns to be the best judge of his/her musical performance.

7. Music study enhances homework and discipline. In order for an ensemble to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and
home practice.

8. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

9. An arts education exposes children to something unique and inventive.

10. Its  fun!