The Kids are Alive with the sound of Music

 By Beth Strout

Published in Austin Family, January 2006

The evidence is overwhelming: music education contributes significantly to children's success. From boosting academic performance to correlations with lower percentages of risky adolescent behavior, statistics on this phenomenon abound.

• Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs). - Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report. Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998

• 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

• Students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation. - College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001.

• 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 Causal Relationship," University of California, Irvine, 1994

• 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 the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. - N.H. Barry, Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students through the arts, Auburn University, 1992

Margaret Perry, Director of Education at Austin's Armstrong School of Music, is not surprised by these findings. She notes that for the students in their school ages ten through high school, "it is easy for us to observe that their studies are not only increasing their musical skills, but it is allowing them to express their ideas and feelings in a positive environment, improve their social interaction, expand their awareness of diverse cultures through world music, and polish their ability to listen and memorize."

Leah Lewis is a professional opera singer and founder of Leah's Music Class. She offers an explanation of why music improves learning potential: "Music is a fantastic platform for offering young children opportunities to cross their midline, which makes them smarter. The midline of our body runs between the nose and belly button. Doing activities that cross over it cause the hemispheres [of the brain] to work concurrently, building ridges of neural activity between them. By crossing over, a synchronization of eyes and ears takes place and whole body movement occurs. This makes the brain open to learning and allows children to retain new material and enjoy a more integrated use of their eyes, ears and body for improved reading, writing and spelling. There's no better way to accomplish this than hand clapping during songs!"

So, while the statistics are certainly persuasive, parents shouldn't panic if they have not enrolled their infants in the local conservatory. Exposure to music does not have to be strictly academic to produce benefits.

Carey Youngblood, owner and director of Austin's Heartsong Music, makes are convincing case for simply creating the opportunity for your child to make music. Heartsong Music teaches a music and movement program called Music Together to children newborn through age 5 and the grown-ups who love them.  It is a research-based program in which children participate in many playful activities at their own level and when they are ready.  Performance is not required.  The teacher acts as a guide and helps facilitate musical growth as opposed to instructing and setting goals to be attained as in formal music lessons.

Ms Youngblood's teaching philosophies are informed by her training as an AMI certified Montessori teacher.

"Maria Montessori used the scientific method to study children's natural learning processes," Youngblood explains.  "She found that the child absorbs the culture they are in effortlessly and without fatigue between the ages of 0 - 6.  Whatever the child is exposed to is internalized by the child and accepted into the child's own being, imprinted on his soul.  If a child is surrounded with music, the child will be a musical person.  If a child hears their parents singing, the child will sing."

So, while formal music lessons are a wonderful gift for a child, simply "bringing music making back into the home," as Youngblood describes it, creates the environing culture of music that children absorb. Parents and children of any level of musical competency can enjoy singing together in the car, clapping or dancing along with music, or making music with instruments.

You don't have to be a professional music educator to give your children the gift of music. Youngblood refers to Maria Montessori's comment, "Education is not something that the teacher does. It is a natural process which develops spontaneously." That kind of education sounds like fun.