For a lot of schools, music classes are the last to be added, and the first to be cut. Music and the arts have always been placed on the back burner compared to traditional academic classes and athletics; but music education should be a requirement in all schools because of the academic, social and personal benefits that come from it.

The skills that children learn in their music classes can be applied to their academics, resulting in greater achievement and understanding in all areas, which includes: their Math and Spatial Reasoning skills, Reading and Verbal skills, and social skills, and many more. Students who study music improve the development of their spatial intelligence, which allows them to perceive the world accurately and makes it easier for them to form mental pictures. Spatial intelligence is helpful for advanced mathematics and more. According to a report published by Americans for the Arts, “young people who participate regularly in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement than children who do not.” This means that they are four times more likely to receive an award, to be at the top of their class, or to participate in a math or science fair.

The Music Empowers Foundation conducted a ten-year study, which tracked over 25,000 middle and high school students, showed that students in music classes receive higher scores on standardized tests than students with little or no musical involvement. For example, the music students scored, on average, sixty-three points higher on the verbal section and forty-four points higher on the math sections of the SATs than non-music students.1

Clearly, there is a very strong correlation between “individuals who participated in school art and music experiences and who achieved higher academic success as demonstrated by grade point averages, and scores on the math and verbal portions of the SAT exam.”2

Students that participate in music classes also have the benefit of collaborating, and in turn, making new friends. Bands, choirs, orchestras and theatre productions require kids to work together. Not only do they share the same responsibility and accountability to achieve their common goal, but they also learn that each of them has a role integral to the groups success, all the while, meeting people with the same interests and passions that they have. Participating in these groups also further increases their self-confidence and communications skills.

Music Education has plenty of physical benefits as well. When a child plays a music instrument, they are developing key brain function. According to the Save the Music Foundation, “music education nourishes the process of learning, which includes: sensory integration, attention, critical thinking, emotional maturity and motor capacities.”

A Journal of Neuroscience, A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood, claims: “adults who receive formal music instruction as children have more robust brainstem responses to sound than peers who never participate in music lessons… These results suggest that neural changes accompanying musical training during childhoods are retain in adulthood.”3

All of these things occur as a result of engaging in musical activities, because when doing so, the left and right brain are engaged the entire time. This builds and strengthens connections between brain cells and improves memory and the ability to differentiate sounds and speech.

It is clear that the arts help to create young adults who have better academic outcomes, are more civically engaged and exhibit higher career goals, so it is time to re-think the casting aside of Music Education. The benefits are evident and every child should have the ability to participate in order to reap these benefits.

1 Judson, Ellen. “The Importance of Music.” Music Empowers Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

2 Kelly, S. N. (2012). Fine Arts-Related Instruction’s Influence on Academic Success.

3 Skoe, E. & Kraus, N. (2012). A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood, Journal of Neuroscience, 32 (34) 11510. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1949-12.2012