Head of Primary Blog - The Importance of Music

Why Music education is so important?

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, and life to everything… Without music, life would be an error. (Plato)

It is not difficult to see why music is so important in our school when we see the faces of the children light up when they are part of a wonderful creative process, but it is not only the joy we experience, various studies have found that engagement with music can lead to an improvement in brain development in children.

Research shows that singing can help with language learning (Ludke et al, 2014). Music increases IQ and Dance and Drama can improve social skills (Schellenberg, 2004). German research has shown a causal relationship between music and educational attainment (Yang, 2015).

In the British College of Brazil we have a program of study that not only allows children to listen to a wide range of music and to understand music notation but we actively promote playing a musical instrument. A study at New Northwestern University found better neural processing in students who played a musical instrument when they were compared with students who simply listened to music. The study was designed to test whether the level of engagement matters, researchers found that after two years children who regularly attended music classes and actively participated showed larger improvements in how the brain processes speech and reading than their less-involved peers.

Music education is also very important in making connections with other people, I am no opera singer but I have been a member of various community choirs, the sense of being part of a greater whole and the level of accomplishment achieved when we worked together was very moving. I have seen children physically and emotionally grow when they realise they have produced something amazing when working together- it is difficult to feel alone when you are part of a choir or a music ensemble.

Ref:

Ludke, K. M., Ferreira, F. and Overy, K., 2014. ‘Singing can facilitate foreign language learning.’ Memory & Cognition, 42(1), pp. 41–52. 

Schellenberg, E. G.. ‘Music lessons enhance IQ’ Psychological Science 2004, 15(8) pp.511–514 Yang, Philip. ‘The impact of music on educational attainment’ Journal of Cultural Economics 2015, 39(4) pp.369396 

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2014/12/how-music-class-can-spark-brain-development/