22 Feb 5 Ways Music Education Can Help Your Child Succeed Academically

At the Rochester Conservatory of Music, we strongly believe in the power of music education. Music and culture are important facets of society, so it makes sense that people should study music just for the sake of music. However, the benefits of music education go far beyond becoming proficient in an instrument. Studying music can help students develop and improve their skills in other areas. Here are five ways that music education can help students achieve more academically.

Study and Memorization Skills

One of the ways music helps students is by helping them hone the talents needed to perform well in other areas. Certain skills are essentials in every subject matter and industry. Helping students improve these foundational skills can make them better overall students. Two examples of these skills can be seen in studying and memorization abilities. Learning how to play an instrument and practicing for a performance takes vigorous studying, training, memorization, and practice. Students who learn how to play an instrument will be better prepared to use these studying and memorization skills in other subjects at school or college.

Improved Spatial Awareness and Manual Dexterity

Music education can also help students develop skills that can be hard to improve in a classroom setting. Spatial awareness and manual dexterity are examples of skills that can be essential but hard to teach. Playing an instrument requires students to become adept at making fine movements to create a certain tone. Similarly, they have to develop strong spatial awareness to play their instruments without constantly looking at their hands. Spatial awareness and manual dexterity are important skills for builders, surgeons, artists and more. Music education from places like the Rochester Conservatory of Music can help students develop these important talents.

Hone Math and Pattern Recognition Abilities

Learning how to play an instrument can have benefits in subjects that aren’t apparent, like math. Music education rarely involves solving complex formulas, but there is still math at play. For example, music education can improve a student’s ability to recognize patterns. The patterns in music can be simplistic or extremely complex, which music education a good place to sharpen a student’s abilities. Music education also depends on students understanding concepts, such as fractions and ratios, that are also important for mathematical achievement. This makes learning an instrument a useful way to reinforce the concepts the student is learning in math class.

Learning the Value of Self Improvement

Another hard-to-teach skill that can taught through music education is the value of self-improvement. As the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) described, “Learning music promotes craftsmanship, and students learn to want to create good work instead of mediocre work.” This is one of the most important things for students to learn. A project isn’t done the first time; you need to take time to refine your work to make it better. This is easy to see in music education because students can hear themselves getting better as the continue to practice. And because students know the difference between their first attempts and how good the music can sound, they are inspired to push themselves further.

Better Test Scores

There is also evidence that the benefits of music education can be seen in improved test scores for students. A study cited by the NAfME found that SAT scores were 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on math for students in music appreciation courses. PBS mentions a 2007 study from University of Kansas which “revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts.” These increases are the result of the multiple benefits of music education listed above.

Music education can be important part of your child’s cultural and academic education. Learning to play an instrument can help students develop the skills to learn and excel at other subject matters. If you’re interested in getting music lessons for child, visit the Rochester Conservatory of Music website or call us at 248-656-1925 to get started.