There is a direct correlation between improved SAT scores and the length of time spent studying the arts. College-bound seniors who have had school music experience scored 52 points higher on the verbal portion of their SATs and 37 points higher in math (89 points combined) than those without arts instruction. –Profiles of SAR and Achievement Test Takers, The College Board, 1998
Studies have linked active music making with better language and math ability, improved school grades, better adjusted social behavior and improvements in “spatial-temporal reasoning.†–American Music Conference, 2001
“The offerings in music history, music theory and arts history seem to be a rich and enviable component for a secondary school.†–Stanford University Admissions Officer
“As a chief executive of a technology company that thrives on creativity, I want to work with people whose imaginations have been unleashed and who tackle problems as challenges rather than see them as obstacles. An education enriched by the creative arts should be considered essential for everyone.†–John Sculley, former Chairman/CEO, Apple Computers, Inc
Because music is a basic expression of human culture, every student should have access to a balanced, comprehensive and sequential program of study in music. –National Standards for Art Education, 1994 by Music Educators National Conference (MENC)
“Every student in the nation should have an education in the arts.†Theis is the opening statement of “The Value and Quality of Arts Education: A Statement of Principles,†a document from the nation’s ten most important educational organizations, including the American Association of School Administrators, the National Education Association, the National Parent Teacher Association, the National School Boards Association.
Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs). –Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report. Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998
“Music is a magical gift we must nourish and cultivate in our children, especially now as scientific evidence proves that an education in the arts makes better math and science students, enhances spatial intelligence in newborns, and let’s not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not the cause of it!†–Michael Green, Recording Academy President and CEO at the 42 nd Annual Grammy Awards, February 2000
“The U.S. Department of Education lists the arts as subjects the college-bound middle and junior high school students should take, stating “Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students’ understanding and appreciation of the world around them. IT is also well known and widely recognized that the arts contribute significantly to children’s intellectual development.†In addition, on year of Visual and Performing Arts in recommended for college-bound high school students. –Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Dept of education, 1997
The College Board identified the arts as one of the six basic academic subject areas students should study in order to succeed in college. –Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need to Know and Be Able to Do, 1983 (still in use), The CollegeBoard, New York
The arts create jobs, increase the local tax base, boost tourism, spur growth in related businesses (hotel, restaurants, printing, etc.) a and improve the overall quality of life for our cities and town. On a national level, nonprofit arts institutions and organizations generate an estimated $37 billion in the economic activity and return $3.4 billion in federal income taxes to the U.S. Treasury each year. –American Arts Alliance Fact Sheet, October 1996.
The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians. –Grant Venerable, “The Paradox of the Silicon Savior,†as reported in “The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools,†The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989.
A study of 237 second grade children used piano keyboard training and newly designed math software to demonstrate improvement in math skills. The group scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children that used only the math score. –Graziano, Amy, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw “Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training.†Neurological Research 21 (March 1999).
In an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school students (NELS:88, National Education Longitudinal Survey), researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show “significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12.†This observation holds regardless of students’ socio-economic status, and difference in those who are involved with instrumental music vs. those who are not is more significant over time. –Catterall, James S. Richard Chapleau, and John Iwanaga. “Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theatre Arts.†Los Angeles, Ca: The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 1999.
According to statistics compiled by the National Data Resource Center, students who can be classified as “disruptive†(based on factors such as frequent skipping of classes, times in trouble, in-school suspensions, disciplinary reasons given, arrests, and drop-outs) total 12.14 percent of the total school population. In contrast, only 8.08 percent of students involved in music classes meet the same criteria as “disruptive.†–Based on data from the NELS:88 (National Education Longitudinal Study), second follow-up, 1992
Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 showed that music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non-participants receiving those grades.—NELS:88 First Follow-up, 1990, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC.
Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66% of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group 44% of biochemistry majors were admitted. –As reported in “The Case of Music in the Schools,†Phi Delta Kappan, February, 1994
A study of 811 high school students indicated that the proportion of minority students with a music teacher role-model was significantly larger than for any other discipline. 36% of these students identified music teachers as their role models, as opposed to 28% English teachers, 11% elementary teachers, 7% physical education/sports teachers, 1% principals.—D.L. Hamann and L.M. Walker, “Music teachers as role models for African-American students,†Journal of Research in Music Education, 41, 1993
Students who participated in arts programs in selected elementary and middle schools in New York City showed significant increases in self-esteem and thinking skills. – National Arts Education Research Center, New York University, 1990
In a study conducted by Dr. Timo Krings, pianists and non-musicians of the same age and sex were required to perform complex sequences of finger movements. Their brains were scanned using a technique called “functional magnetic resource imaging (fMRI) which detects the activity levels of brain cells. The non-musicians were able to make the movements as correctly as the pianists but less activity was detected in the pianist’s brains. Thus, compared to non-musicians, the brains of pianists are more efficient at making skilled movements. These finding show that musical training can enhance brain function. –Weinberger, Norm. “The impact of Arts on Learning.†MuSIC a Research Notes 7, no. 2 (Spring, 2000). Reporting on Krings, Timo et al. :Cortical Activation Patterns during Complex Motor Tasks in Piano Players and Control Subjects. A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.†Neuroscience Letters 278, no. 3 (2000): 189-93
“The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling—training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills, intelligence, and an ability of self-knowledge and expression.†–Ratey John J.,MD. A User’s Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.
A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science. –Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb, “Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial-temporal reasoning.†Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February 1997
Students in two Rhode Island elementary schools who were given an enriched, sequential, skill-building music program showed marked improvement in reading and math skills. Students in the enriched 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, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996.
Researchers at the University of Montreal used various brain imaging techniques to investigate brain activity during musical tasks and found that sight-reading musical scores and playing music both activate regions in all four of the cortex’s lobes; and that parts of the cerebellum are also activated during those tasks. –Sergent, J. Zuck, E. Tenial, S., and MacDonall, B. (1992). Distributed neural network underlying musical sight reading and keyboard performance. Science, 257, 106-109.
Researchers in Leipzip found that brain scans of musicians showed larger planum temporale (a brain region related to some reading skills) than those of non-musicians. They also found that the musicians had a thicker corpus callosum (the bundle of nerve fibers that connects the two halves of the brain) than those of non-musicians, especially for those who had begun their training before the age of seven. –Schlaug, G., Jancke, L., Huang, Y., and Steinmetz, H. (1994). In vivo morphometry of interhm ispheric asymmetry and connectivity in musicians. In I. Seliege (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3d international conference for music perception and cognition (pp. 417-418). Liege, Belgium.
A University of California ( Irvine) study showed that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ. –Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky and Wright, “Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Casual Relationship,†University of California, Irvine, 1994.
Researchers found that children given piano lessons significantly improved in their spatial-temporal IQ scores (important for some types of mathematical reasoning) compared to children who received computer lessons, casual singing, or not lessons. –Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L., Levine, L.J., Wright, E.L., Dennis, W.R., and Newcomb, R. (1997) Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children’s spatial temporal reasoning. Neurological Research, 19, 1-8.
A McGill University study 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 the students given piano instruction. –Contra-Giomi, E. (1998, April). The McGill Piano Project: Effects of three years of piano instruction on children’s cognitive abilities, academic achievement, and self-esteem. Paper presented at the meeting of the Music Educators National Conference, Phoenix, AZ.
Researchers found that lessons on song bells (a standard classroom instrument) led to significant improvement of spatial-temporal scores for three and four-year-olds. –Gromko, J.E., and Poorman, A.S., (1998) the effect of music training on preschoolers spatial-temporal task performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46, 173-181
In the Kindergarten classes of the school district of Kettle Moraine, Wisconsin, children who were given music instruction scored 48 percent higher on spatial-temporal skill tests than those who did not receive music training. –Rauscher, F.H., and Zupan, M.A. (1999). Classroom keyboard instruction improves kindergarten children’s spatial-temporal performance: A field study. Manuscript in press, Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
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 Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Sale. –N.H. Barry, Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students through the arts, Auburn University, 1992.
“Studying music encourages self-discipline and diligence, traits that carry over into intellectual pursuits and that lead to effective study and work habits. An association of music and math has, in fact, long been noted. Creating and performing music promotes self-expression and provides self-gratification while giving pleasure to others. In medicine, increasing published reports demonstrate that music has a healing effect on patients. For all these reasons, it deserves strong support t in our educational system, along with the other arts, the sciences and athletics. “ –Michael E. DeBakey, MD Leading Heart Surgeon, Baylor College of Music.
“Music has a great power for bringing people together. With so many forces in this world acting to drive wedges between people, it’s important to preserve those things that help us experience our common humanity.†–Ted Turner, Turner Broadcasting System
“Music is one way for young people to connect with themselves, but it is also a bridge for connecting with others. Throught music, we can introduce children to the richness and diversity of the human family and to the myriad rhythms of life.†–Daniel A. Carp., Eastman Kodak Company Chairman and CEO.
“Casals says music fills him with the wonder of life and the “incredible marvel’ of being a human. Ives says it expands his mind and challenges him to be a true individual. Bernstein says it is enriching and ennobling. To me, that sounds like a good cause for making music and the arts an integral part of every child’s education. Studying music and the arts elevates children’s education, expands student’ horizon and teaches them to appreciate the wonder of life.†–U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, July, 1999.
“The nation’s top business executives agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American education and better prepare workers for the 21 st century.†–“The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of Education.†Business Week, October 1996.
“Making music makes the elderly healthier…There were significant in anxiety, depression, and loneliness following keyboard lessons. These are factors that are critical in coping with stress, stimulating the immune system, and in improved health. Results also show significant increases in human growth hormones following the same group keyboard lessons. (Human growth hormone is implicated in aches and pains.)†–Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2, 1999.
“Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them—a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.†–Gerald Ford, former President, United States of America
“During the Gulf War, the few opportunities I had for relaxation I always listened to music, and it brought to me great peace of mind. I have shared my love of music with people throughout this world, while listening to the drums and special instruments of the Far East, Middle East, Africa, The Caribbean, and the Far North__and all of this started with the music appreciation course that I was taught in the third –grade elementary class in Princeton, New Jersey. What a tragedy it would be if we lived in a world where music was not taught to children.†–H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General, US Army, retired.
“Music is about communication, creativity, and cooperation, and, by studying music in school, students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives, and experience the world from a new perspective.†–Bill Clinton, former President, United States of America
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