Study Music and Improve the “Seven C’s”

 

Studying music enriches students’ educational experiences. Not only is music an enjoyable subject to learn, but participating in music lessons benefits students’ lives.

The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) states in the article “20 Important Benefits of Music In Our Schools”, “Nearly everyone enjoys music, whether by listening to it, singing, or playing an instrument. But, despite this almost universal interest, many schools are having to do away with their music education programs.”

This is unfortunate for our children because losing music in our lives comes at a high cost. Fostering a relationship with music enhances positive life skills and a person’s overall well-being.

Although there are numerous benefits of studying music both in school and in private instruction, to break it down, here are the seven C’s for positive skill building learned through your child’s music instruction:

  1. Confidence: Students who perform songs after spending their time and effort learning notes, rhythms, and technique build their confidence. Students feel a sense of accomplishment as they reach their musical goals. Learning music takes dedication and discipline, so reaching a “performance-ready” status allows for your children to feel pride and fulfillment in sharing their work with others.
  1. Communication: Reading music requires interpreting, analyzing, and expressing symbols and text accurately, which improves one’s communication in the areas of language and mathematics. Sharing ideas through music offers the opportunity for people to emote personal thoughts and feelings through nonverbal means, often, feelings of raw emotion straight from the heart.
  1. Collaboration: When studying music in private lessons, students have the opportunity to work with their teachers and other musicians such as an accompanist in order to achieve a common goal.  All people yearn for a sense of belonging, and learning a musical instrument allows for the opportunity to participate in a musical ensemble. This collaboration requires teamwork and accountability. Musicians are individually responsible for their part of the greater whole, always listening and working together in order to produce the “big picture.”
  1. Creativity: Engaging with music is a chance for students to find inspiration and fulfill the need to have a creative outlet in their lives. Whether students are composing original music or interpreting a classic, they have to think about how to best portray both the composer’s and their intentions to an audience.
  1. Conceptualization: Being exposed to any art form including music, cultivates your child’s ability to analyze and see multiple perspectives on a given subject. This process of viewing musical works from varying perspectives improves both inductive and deductive reasoning. Children learn to identify and classify different styles of music. They also have to comprehend and evaluate both historical and cultural context for any given piece. Children who are challenged to acknowledge cultural differences within musical expression can make more informed decisions and uphold their values in other areas.
  1. Comprehension: Learning the foundation of musical language teaches your child how to perceive and obtain meaning from sounds and abstract concepts. Children who study music have to process sound (in some cases, multiple sounds simultaneously), correlate a given sound to written notation, and then make an assessment of the quality and delivery of a given sound.  This process impacts one’s ability to comprehend sound into meaning; musicians learn to hear and listen. Additionally, musical children become quick thinkers and problem-solvers. They frequently perform under pressure and adapt to their surroundings in order to give the most optimal performance.
  1. Coordination: Learning an instrument strengthens hand-eye coordination and body posture. Acute fine motor skills and muscle-memory are developed in children who study music, and these skills can transfer to other areas in life.

To start your musical journey and explore all the benefits music provides, contact us today at info@ismw.org or call 301-365-5888 to schedule your introductory class.