When it comes to education, music and the arts are known to be subjects that people are fighting for. They are the outliers and not the necessary subjects in school curriculum. For that reason, finding studies and articles that explain the benefits of music are easy to find—if you’re looking for them. Although it would be nice not to have to point to studies to justify the necessity of music education, it also helps us educators and advocates communicate our cause, and also to see our progress.
Here are some great studies that articulate why we need music education turned into a short list on why everyone should learn music.
1. They’re better at Multitasking
Studying music can be proven to train your brain into task switching. As a trained musician you have the ability to switch between two mental tasks at once. When studying music you have to practice patience as well as memory skills. Learning notes, melody, pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the emotional tone of a musical piece can all strengthen task switching, which musicians have gained.
2. It can help you learn mathematics
Math can be a difficult subject for one to comprehend. Music and math both link to the same set of brain activity. This activity is called the spatial-temporal reasoning. Both of these subjects work closely with critical thinking and dealing with complex problems. If children study or learn music they will find fields when their older such as architecture, engineering, science, and mathematics.
3. It can help close the achievement gap
There is an achievement gap in America. The achievement gap stems from the fact that children from lower incomes are not learning as much as their peers in affluent and middle class families. Many researchers believe that music education is an effective strategy in order to close this age gap.
These studies keep coming, and they keep telling us the same things: that music education is extremely valuable and worth fighting for.
