Educational institutions strive to prepare their students for their careers, helping them gain all the skills that are deemed necessary to claim job opportunities in the future. In this day and age, with more importance being given to the curriculum, creative activities like art and music are often left behind.
This is perhaps because many are unaware of the countless benefits of teaching music to children in schools. Music classes are by far the most exciting and enriching classes that many children look forward to in their daily school schedule.
Furthermore, music positively impacts children’s academic performance by helping them build social skills, providing an opportunity to show creativity, and keeping them engaged in developing a skill. All these factors directly or indirectly impact the growth of the children.
Additionally, music is an emotionally stimulating and universal subject that every child can connect to. This is the reason why music is the base of arts as education. The creative skills obtained by music prove to be useful for learning other subjects as well.
Even though music has many advantages, many schools are still reluctant to add it to the curriculum. This can be a huge mistake because schools not only miss out on a good way to keep the students engaged and improve their creativity as well as social skills, but also miss a chance to make an impact on students’ lives.
Read on to know more about the importance of music in schools and why every school should include it as a subject in their curriculum.
Benefits Of Music In Schools And Education
A recent study showed that clapping to the music and imitating the rhythms of music stimulates and engages the same part of the brain which is needed to learn a new language. While learning music on the side, children can easily learn complex words and register their meaning more effectively. This whole process can help them learn a new language.
There are eight benefits of music that make it crucial to educate the students about tones and rhythms as early as possible. These include:
Improves Memory Skills
Music helps to memorize things in a better way. Because the core job of music entails memorizing tunes and lyrics, it will help enhance the memorizing skills of children, making their curriculum easy to understand and learn. Children are naturally sharper and can memorize concepts easily. But with learning music, grasping new concepts can become easier and more convenient. The tones, words, and rhythms of music are also easier to memorize and retain by the human mind. This can help children gain confidence in learning and memorizing other subjects in a similar fashion.
The process of learning an instrument needs skills, dedication, and craftsmanship, which will help the students to use the same formula when they learn a new skill.
Brings More Discipline To Life
A great deal of discipline is needed when it comes to practicing a concept again and again and mastering it. This whole process demands a lot from the children in emotional and mental terms at such a young age. At times, they may get frustrated with the complicated concepts that might take away their desire to learn. Music is one element that can help them learn patience, perseverance, and how to hold onto something long term to get desired results.
Additionally, music requires children to develop a schedule and stick to it if they truly want to master the skill. This allows them to practice balance in their everyday schedules as they try to include curriculum, co-curriculum, and social activities in their routine.
With the help of this, children slowly grasp the art of time management and discipline, the two concepts that even several adults fail to achieve throughout their professional life.
Enhances Social Skills
Music helps create bonds when people of all ages sit, listen to, and learn more about music. Music can help instill skills such as being a good listener, collaborating with other singers, and teamwork.
While playing musical instruments, children develop listening skills. They have to gauge the volume levels and understand the dynamics of music implementation which can make them a better listener in the future.
Collaboration is needed while playing the instruments and singing in a group. As a part of the chorus, students learn how to align their timing with others in the group. What does this mean for their curriculum part of academic life? Students will start valuing the ideas and opinions of others and find a way to complete the task together.
Apart from teamwork and collaboration, music education helps children to build good relationships with their classmates. Through group learning or involvement in a music band, children can get along with each other and at the same time learn the skill they love. They develop a special connection with each other because of the relationships made when they are in such a happy state of mind.
Connects Children With Their Culture
Children can also learn about their own language and culture through music in a better way. They say songs are a reflection of a particular culture and society. It provides an insight into different nations, lifestyles, and heritage among other factors. Children can learn about the diversity of different cultures along with their own by getting complete exposure to music from other languages and countries. Thus, music facilitates a great exchange of culture.
Improves Hand-Eye Coordination
Learning an instrument and mastering it is not all an easy task. It requires hard work, passion, skill, dedication, and most importantly, effective hand-eye coordination.
Playing any musical instrument requires proper hand motions to be able to play the correct notes, be it while hitting the black and white keys of a keyboard or strumming the different strings of a guitar. To add to that, the musicians are also expected to follow the notes on the sheets or if they are in the chorus, they are expected to follow the conductor. This also improves coordination from a young age.
Relieves Stress
What stress do children have? This might be the first question that popped up in your head. But, like every human being, children also feel pressured and stressed with exams around the corner or after getting poor results. This is the time they need an experience that helps them relax and calm down.
And what’s better than a good musical session amidst the pressure of exams. According to Stanford University, music relieves stress. At 60 beats per minute, music can cause our brain to synchronize and cause alpha brainwaves, which help us relax. For around a period of 45 minutes, it can help you sleep too. After a hard day of toiling with studies and assignments, a musical session can help children feel relaxed and rejuvenated.
Makes Them Feel Content When They Grow Up
“I wish I had learned music when I was a child”. How many times have you heard this from your friends or family members?
Learning music early on in life gives people the satisfaction that their childhood was complete and productive, making them feel happy when they grow up. Give the children a chance to learn this beautiful skill early on in life so they can look back and truly appreciate the positivity this art brought to their lives. It is also important to include music education in your curriculum as every child is entitled to learn their favorite subjects.
Helps Children Find Their Passion
The most common complaint we hear of the schools in contemporary day and age is that their curriculum is restricted to only a few subjects. There is very little scope for sports, arts, and communication skills. With musical education, children can find their passion and make careers in different fields.
Academic Entertainment Virtual Music Technology
For instance, if a child isn’t scoring well in other subjects and scores well in music, they will gain confidence that they can do something in life. This confidence is very important in the initial phases of life.
Music can also improve communication skills. Music can be a great way to show their creativity and skills. Who knows, these skills may help them gain confidence to learn other subjects as well.
Kids who were exposed to music early on in life can eventually use those skills later in college to excel academically in this field and gain a more practical, real-world exposure.
Along with this, music can help the children foster creativity, develop teamwork, engage, and stimulate their minds. All in all, music is a great way to build positive habits in children as they are most likely to enjoy the whole learning process.
Related Questions
What are the five reasons why music education in school is important?
There are many reasons that show that music education in school is important, keep reading to know more.
Inspires creativity: Learning music can help a child to improve his/her creative skills. If they learn an instrument, they can build unique tunes and give their creativity skills a boost.
Improved study habits: Music is a great way to enhance the study habits of children. As kids grow, they are exposed to more complex study material, and to achieve success in life, retaining this material is essential. Learning music is an art of patience and practice that children can also use in their curriculum.
Boosts problem-solving: One of the most beneficial yet overlooked benefits of music is its impact on the problem-solving abilities of young minds. Music requires the learners to assess situations and find solutions accordingly.
Builds relationships: Music is a great way to create and enhance bonds. Musicians are provided with training that helps them learn the art of listening to others, sense their emotions, and in return, react with a great depth of understanding that helps them form/improve their relationships.
Instills confidence: When your child learns a skill like playing a musical instrument, they get incredible satisfaction. Performing in front of friends and family helps them gain confidence and get rid of stage fear. In a way, music can help the children develop their overall personality.
Why does music matter in education?
Music education has proven to not only improve the academic achievement of children but it is also known to help them build good communication skills, which are quite important to achieve success in life.
Apart from that, music is art. It helps foster creativity among young minds that can further improve the development of their brain.
Furthermore, it helps improve a child’s memorizing power because they need to learn lyrics and the language of music. It helps them relieve stress during exams time because most children feel lots of stress during exams.
Lastly, music education does not only improve a child’s musical skills, but also impacts their ability to develop skills in other subjects including mathematics, history, science, and essay writing.
