Studies from the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC show that as little as two years of music instruction has multiple benefits. Music training can change both the structure of the brain's white matter, which carries signals through the brain, and gray matter, which contains most of the brain's neurons that are active in processing information. Music instruction also boosts engagement of brain networks that are responsible for decision making and the ability to focus attention and inhibit impulses. (Gersema, 2017)
Music education also improves and develops language skills. It stimulates the brain, and with its varied sounds and lyrics, students are exposed to a large amount of vocabulary in a short amount of time. Music also provides exposure to other languages, which creates a foundation for the person’s ability to understand and communicate in a different language.
A 2016 study at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute found that musical experiences in childhood can actually accelerate brain development, particularly in the areas of language acquisition and reading skills. According to the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation (NAMM Foundation, 2014), learning to play an instrument can improve mathematical learning and even increase SAT scores.
According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 7 million disabled students in the U.S. make up 14 percent of national public school enrollment. This group has grown 11 percent between 2000-01 (when there were 6.3 million students) and 2017-18, the most recent year for which data is available. The most common type of disability for students in prekindergarten through 12th grade involves “specific learning disabilities,” such as dyslexia or a brain injury and that autistic students made up 10 percent of the nation’s disabled schoolchildren in 2017-18, compared with 1.5 percent nearly two decades earlier (Pew Research Center, 2020).
No child, or person, learns exactly the same, and the most straightforward solution to meeting student goals and objectives is to provide customized instruction. They can get clarification on assignments, or they can work in-depth on their writing or math concepts as bouncing ideas off of one person is much less stressful for some students. They can also expand their thinking and reasoning abilities. General education students can ask those questions that they may not have had the chance to inquire in class. There is a wide variety of learning challenges and disabilities that may affect students, and an exceptional educator can break down lesson goals into smaller objectives, or manageable chunks that students can process more efficiently.
The Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics investigated whether musical engagement is an effective strategy for socio-emotional coping during lockdown as part of an international research project. And it is found that more than half of respondents reported using music to cope with emotional and social stressors. People who experienced increased negative emotions due to the pandemic were found to engage with music primarily as a way to control depression, fear, and stress, especially via music listening. People who reported more positive emotions overall were found to use music largely as a replacement for social interaction. Not just music listening, but also music making gave them a sense of belonging to a community. Making music, likewise, served as a method for self-reflection.
The mental benefits of music education are extremely beneficial to people of all ages, and the social benefits are just as delightful. Music education requires teamwork and collaboration. While playing instruments together, students develop listening skills. They listen to others to better gauge volume levels, the implementation of dynamics, and so much more. Teamwork and collaboration is also required when completing simple musical tasks such as rhythmic and melodic notation. Students quickly learn to value the opinions and ideas of others and how to efficiently combine those thoughts to complete the task at hand.
In addition to teamwork, music education creates long lasting friendships and relationships. People involved in band or choir bond over their love and enjoyment of music - sharing exciting moments together through music, helping develop one another’s abilities, and becoming a support system for each other. In the youth, the special bond increases student engagement in school.