Parents: Why Your Child Should
Study Music

By Remus Badea, Executive Director, American Music Institute

Music teaches your child to express his/herself while at the same time it enhances their learning abilities. Although there are a wide number of activities to develop the overall personality of your child at the same time it is important to understand that music has its own benefits. To begin, here are two:

-Children who study music tend to have larger vocabularies and more advanced reading skills than their peers who do not participate in music lessons.

-Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education.

Here we will discuss some of the important benefits that would help you take a decision why your child should study music.

It’s not just music

It has been proven with research that music is more than just expression. It helps your child to increase his or her concentration level. The music lessons that your child goes to will help him to concentrate equally on more than one task at the same time.

While singing or playing any musical instrument, a child does many things at one go, like tapping the instrument, matching the breath, remembering what comes next and focusing on their performance. In the studies conducted over years, it has been shown that a child who attends music classes has a better level of concentration as compared to other students.

-A Stanford study shows that music engages areas of the brain which are involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating events in our memory.

Music helps in language enhancement

Many experts agree that sound, in the form of music, is the first language a child can understand. Music education could help your child to have enhanced vocabulary or language abilities as learning through music comes naturally to a child. Let us take an example, do you remember how you started learning the alphabets? It was in the form of a poem or rhyme which has musicality built in. This learning method has been validatedby research. It also helps your child to learn to add, plus self-correct their speech intonation, giving a boost to their speech abilities.

-Regardless of socioeconomic status or school district, students (3rd graders) who participate in high-quality music programs score higher on reading and spelling tests.

-Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training.

Music exercises the brain

Another reason why your child should go for music lessons is seen in the findings of research on a group of music learning and non- music learning children. Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training.

-Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to a greater understanding of language components.

-Children with learning disabilities or dyslexia who tend to lose focus with more noise could benefit greatly from music lessons.

Most musical instruments training has a systematic logic behind their methods. In order to use these instruments properly the same is taught to the child. This directly or indirectly helps a child’s brain start thinking logically. As a result the brain of a child studying music will function more effectively and efficiently than that of a child who doesn’t study music.

Controlled expression

Music is an ancient way to explore human emotion. This is one of the reasons you feel connected to a song or instrumental music. If you let your child’s take music lessons, he or she will develop better control of their emotional expression.

In today’s world, where it doesn’t take long for things to go out of hand, music lessons can help your child maintain composure and stay calm. Most music schools teach impart the knowledge of how to maintain control over expression. It is one of the most valuable behavioral qualities among today’s kids.

-Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education.

-In the past, secondary students who participated in a music group at school reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs).

Music teaches patience and discipline

If your child is receiving a musical education, then he or she should show a greater level of patience and discipline. These two are considered the foundation of learning any style of music, be it song or instrumental music.

Music is takes weeks, months, sometimes even years to gain the required level of perfection. Almost all music schools make sure that their students are aware of this fact and are ready to face any challenges that can come in their way.

As a music student you need to practice daily. It cultivates the habit of discipline in your child, as in setting and following schedules, meeting deadlines, and consistently practicing for better results. All these traits will help your child to be successful in his or her life.

-Schools with music programs have an estimated 90.2% graduation rate and 93.9% attendance rate compared to schools without music education, which average 72.9% graduation and 84.9% attendance.

-Schools that have music programs have an attendance rate of 93.3% compared to 84.9% in schools without music programs.

Self evaluation

While your child is taking music lessons, he or she will develop the self critical skills. This will not only benefit your child to perform better in music, it will also help him or her to improve in other fields of life.

Your child will become open to take any type of criticism or appreciation in a more positive and constructive manner. Another quality that your child will develop is in presentation skills. It is one of the most important qualities required in today’s world to be successful.

Openness to learning

Music is not limited to a country or region, so when your child is opting to take music education he or she is also opening the doors of learning more about the world.

Most music schools also teach their students about the history and origin of the music they are about to learn. This exposes your child’s brain to learning about the other societies and cultures that prevail in the world.

It would not be wrong to say that music not only makes your child’s life more beautiful, but at the same time makes him or her more competent to face the world’s tough challenges. Help your child believe in the power of music and how it could bring a positive and constructive change in his life.

Sign them up for music lessons today!

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Remus Badea is Concertmaster of Southwest Symphony Orchestra, adjunct professor at Elmhurst College, and Executive Director of American Music Institute. He teaches violin, viola, cello, and piano.