Music Education Facts

The benefits of music education are well documented. Take a look at a few facts:

Music enhances the process of learning. The systems they nourish, which include our integrated sensory, attention, cognitive, emotional and motor capacities, are shown to be the driving forces behind all other learning.

~ Konrad, R.R., Empathy, Arts and Social Studies, 2000

 

Children who have received music instruction scored higher marks on tests of their spatial and arithmetic skills.

~ Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., Levine, L.J., Wright, E.L., Dennis, W.R., and Newcomb, R.,

 

Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial temporal reasoning, 1997

The foremost technical designers and engineers in Silicon Valley are almost all practicing musicians.

~ Dee Dickinson, Music and the Mind, 1993

 

The world’s top academic countries place a high value on music education. Hungary, Netherlands and Japan have required music training at the elementary and middle school levels, both instrumental and vocal, for several decades.

~ 1988 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA) Test

 

Music enhances the process of learning. The systems they nourish, which include our integrated sensory, attention, cognitive, emotional and motor capacities, are shown to be the driving forces behind all other learning.

~ Konrad, R.R., Empathy, Arts and Social Studies, 2000

 

Teaching through the arts motivates children and increases their aptitude for learning.

~ Eric Jensen, Arts With the Brain in Mind, 2001

 

During moments of musical euphoria, blood travels through the brain to areas where other stimuli can produce feelings of contentment and joy-and travels away from brain cell areas associated with depression and fear.

~ Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2, 1999

 

Students who were exposed to music-based lessons scored a full 100% higher on fractions tests than those who learned in the conventional manner.

~ Neurological Research, March 15, 1999

 

A study of 7,500 university students revealed that music majors scored the highest reading scores among all majors including English, biology, chemistry and math.

~ The Case for Music in the Schools, Phi Delta Kappa, 1994

 

Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school.

~Lewis Thomas, Case for Music in the Schools, Phi Delta Kappa, 1994

 

Students who participate in school band or orchestra have the lowest levels of current and lifelong use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs among any group in our society.

~ H. Con. Res. 266, United States Senate, June 13, 2000

 

High school music students have been shown to hold higher grade point averages (GPA) than non-musicians in the same school.

~ National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988

 

78% of Americans feel learning a musical instrument helps students perform better in other subjects.

~ Gallup Poll, “American Attitudes Toward Music,” 2003

 

Nine out of ten adults and teenagers who play instruments agree that music making brings the family closer together.

~ Music Making and Our Schools, American Music Conference, 2000

 

With music in schools, students connect to each other better-greater camaraderie, fewer fights, less racism and reduced use of hurtful sarcasm.

~ Eric Jensen, Arts With the Brain in Mind, 2001