More Brain Points

The Benefits of Music Education

Although I do not consider myself a musician, music has always been an integral part of my life. From sing-along performances put on by my preschool and kindergarten classes, to playing in the school band and attending music class throughout elementary school and junior high, to singing in my high school choir, I have consistently been involved in music in some shape or form.

I have never thought twice about growing up immersed in music or the effect it may have had on me. Music is simply something that I have always enjoyed. Dr. Raymond Dye’s presentation, Musical Experience and Auditory Selective Attention, provided me with insight regarding the benefits of music experience that I had not previously been aware of. He explained how musicians must manipulate instruments to produce sequences of notes of proper pitch and temporal pattern and how this involves the use of both working memory and selective attention. Previous work has shown that music engagement enhances language processing. Musicians have also demonstrated a more robust brainstem-evoked response than non-musicians when listening to recordings of vowel sounds. In order to study selective attention, the researchers used a MUSE survey to assess musical engagement styles, which allowed for interpretation of the Synthetic Analytic Listening Procedure in individuals with varying degrees of musical experience. Musicians regularly involved in active performance scored the highest on the selective attention task. Interestingly, individuals with musical training that do not actively perform did not perform as well on the task.

            This topic relates to a study carried out by Nina Kraus of Northwestern University. She explored the connection between rhythm and reading skills in adolescents. She found that good beat-keepers respond to speech more consistently than people who fail to tap in time. She explains that music teaches you to pay attention to the important sounds in speech. Practicing music has also shown to improve reading ability, due to the fact that reading involves recognizing associations between text symbols and the sounds of specific letters.

            With the benefits of musical experience becoming increasingly clear, recent legislation concerning music education comes as no surprise. On December 10, 2015, President Obama ratified the Every Child Achieves Act, which increased federal funding of the arts and added the arts and music to the definition of a “well-rounded education.” Integration of music education and performance into the nation-wide curriculum creates the potential to develop a generation of individuals with a unique and diverse skillset that extends beyond basic musical ability.

Works Cited

"ESEA Reauthorization Is Finalized as Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)." Art Educators. National Art Education Association, Dec. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.

Laidman, Jenni. "Music Helps Kids Read." Scientific American. Nature America, 1 May 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.

Swaminathan, Jayaganesh, Christine R. Mason, Timothy M. Streeter, Virginia Best, Gerald Kidd, Jr., and Aniruddh D. Patel. "Musical Training, Individual Differences and the Cocktail Party Problem." Scientific Reports 5 (2015): n. pag. Nature. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.