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Benefit of music education
Disclaimer: This page is pure personal opinion. There was no scientific study to support such claims. The ideas made sense to me, but they may be nonsense for others. If you don't believe my theories, simply click elsewhere.Many parents who send their children to music lesson don't realize the full benefits of the training process towards the development of the children. Even if the child does not end up as a musician, the impacts are extremely valuable for the rest of the lifetime.
Some benefits of learning a musical instrument:
Music Skill Life Time Benefit Ability to entertain Music is a great form of self entertainment for the players. Friends and family benefit too. Discipline Practicing hours after hours, weeks after weeks, years after years requires great self discipline. Hand-eye coordination The hands move according to what the eyes read from the score. The skill is useful in sports and other activities. Dexterity This is obvious perhaps with the exception for bugle players. Timing and pacing Following closely to the tempo is an important training that becomes useful in project management and other work related situations. Recovery from mistakes Like a jazz musician recovering from a slip of the fingers, the fast reaction to recover from mistakes is useful in facing the unexpected in life. Mathematics All the musical notes are in fraction. Though it may not help in calculus, the math skill is useful at least in arithmetics and build good foundation to learning math. Self confidence Recital for all music students establishes one's self confidence in front of an audience. It is a great skill to have for politians and leadership positions in management. Pursue of perfection Every music player aims for a smooth and flawless delivery of music through practice. Such habbit and pursue can last a life time elsewhere. Team work Playing in orchestra requires team work. Working with others in harmony is a skill essential to any workplace. A child with long-term music lessons gains all of above skills without knowing it. All these skills can be instrumental to the child future careers including non-musical ones.
Feedback from a long time reader:
[ Elynn N. is a 17 year old accomplished piano player in Vancouver, BC, Canada who earned an ARCT in Piano Performance (Toronto) last August [2005] as well as a DipABRSM (England) ]I am not a music teacher, although I have (casually) taught some younger students flute, violin, and piano over the past 5 years. It is nice to have the option, though.
I have looked over that [this] webpage many times ever since I first discovered it and I was amazed by the truth of everything on there [here]. Music education can be extremely beneficial, although it is best when a student begins before the age of 8. After that age, it becomes increasingly more difficult to grasp some of the concepts of music.
When playing piano, a student is faced with a piece of music that their eyes must read at a relatively fast pace. Their brain is working so hard to translate that piece of music into something that the hands can recognize to perform it. Often, the brain is translating it so quickly that it happens almost simultaneously.
Music Education allows a student to learn the fundamental skills of:
- multi-tasking (your eyes are reading the score, your left hand is pounding away the bass, your right hand is flying over the keys, your right foot is working the sustaining pedal, and perhaps your left foot is working the soft pedal)
- learning to cope with what you know you can do and knowing what you need to do to improve
Students with a music background tend to do better in school as well. I've read many news reports and studies proving it and from personal experience, it is true. For example, out of my 10 closest friends, the 9 who regularly participate in musical activities are all honour roll students (majority are 90%+ students, actually) and the 1 who quit piano at an early age struggles to make it onto the honour roll. I know that this isn't true for all students who learn music but from personal experience, it proves to be true.
Something you can add to your page is that when students are involved with music (or dance or sports), they tend to shy away from the rougher crowds at school. When they're serious about something, there's a lesser chance of them falling to the temptations of drugs and/or smoking because they have something they can strive for in life. They form friendships with others who are like them and as a result, they generally turn out to be more successful in life.
I think that your webpage is an amazing source of information for parents looking for reasons as to why they should enroll their child(ren) in music lessons. Although the cost of lessons can be steep (I paid $24/half hour for Grades 3 and 5, then $48/45 minutes for Grades 7 and 8, $50/hour for Grades 9 and 10, and $60/hour for ARCT/DipABRSM - theory cost another $60/hour; I usually had 1 lesson a week until 2 weeks before the exam, then I had 2 - 3 lessons a week), the rewards are very beneficial and can even count for school marks (I omitted all fine arts credits at school because I had a certificate for Grade 9 piano to prove that I reached the level.
And you know, even if the music lessons are taken casually, they are something that will stay with them forever, even if it's just plucking out a few notes on the piano. Music will always be around and with the benefits of the lessons, teaching is a good way to make money if you're short on cash.WOW, too lonfiltered=) Hope you're not too bored. It's nice to hear from you!
Elynn N. (July 25, 2006)
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